Last week I was the lucky recipient of a sinus infection. Despite that I am a firm believer in the healing power of lupulins I refrained from drinking beer for several days. Thursday evening I was on the mend so I decided to break the fast and I went to Osgood Brewing in Grandville and ordered a delicious Journey IPA. I took one sip and…
I HATED IT!
I really hated it.
It took me a minute to figure out what was going on. The beer in my glass didn’t taste like the well-balanced American IPA I expected. It tasted like I was sucking on a handful of hop pellets. I have been known to do that from time to time but that wasn’t my goal that evening.
I realized that my illness had completely totaled my palate.
It was the drinker that was broken, not the beer.
This event reminded me to be careful when judging a beer for the first time. There are a lot of things that can affect your ability to taste and smell. Some of these are:
- Tasting other foods and drinks
- Cigarette smoke
- Illness
- Hormones
- Medicines
- Heavy salt
- Fatigue
I’m sure there are many others. The important thing to remember is that each of our senses is variable. Because of this I usually like to try a beer that I don’t think I like a couple of times. I’ve found that they grow on me sometimes. And sometimes it’s the drinker that is broken, not the beer.