Is beer tasting purely subjective?

“tastes are “pre-dialed” to prefer certain beers, even in blind tastings.” They most certainly are!! There have been numerous thread discussions where folks will post things like:

· I can’t stand Smoked beers (Rauchbiers)

· I am not a fan of Sour beers

· Etc.

“It seems to me that less intense well-made beers will usually “lose out” in this scenario, even if put up against a mediocre hop bomb.” That is a likely scenario in the BA community case. Permit me to ‘remind’ you that the vast majority of beer drinkers prefer AAL beers like Bud Light, Miller Lite, Coors Light, etc. Given that situation the vast majority of beer drinkers would actually prefer a “less intense well-made beer”, a Bud Light drinker would likely spit out a “hop bomb”.

Cheers!

 

Heck, even some BAs who aren't fans of AALs would spit out the hop bomb. Not terribly many, but some.

 

I sure can taste the hype of some of them.

 

I stand by what I said before about how we are influenced by biases, but ultimately this is a hobby we do for personal enjoyment and satisfaction, and our biases play a key role in that. It has been confirmed with neurological testing that when people believe they are drinking a rare, expensive, or superior product their brains "light up" with greater energy and they enjoy the product more in a quantifiable physiological way. So, if standing in lines, driving long distances, paying extra money, supporting a specific brewer, region, or cause, etc. makes one more enjoy the beer more, so be it... that's part of being human. If blind-tastings and striving to be a balanced judge bring you enjoyment that's great too, but I don't think we all have to strive to be beer tasting automatrons... personally, I think that takes a lot of fun of life. I only wish people would be a little more self-aware of their biases...No apologies are necessary; just be somewhat aware of them is all I ask.

 

“I only wish people would be a little more self-aware of their biases...No apologies are necessary; just be somewhat aware of them is all I ask.”

A BIG +1 to that!!!!!!

Randy, have there been any ‘opposite’ studies where folks are given ‘good’ product but told it was inferior in some sense? A beer example would be to give craft beer drinkers a ‘good’ beer but tell them the beer was brewed by a BMC brewery and then solicit their impressions of the beer.

Cheers!

Jack

 

Yes, they do that study annually now. It has an acronym like BCBS.

 

Nicely done.

 

The more intense, concentrated, strong, etc. (you know where I'm going...) flavored beers will always have an advantage in a limited or small sampling; the more elegant ones show themselves the more you have of them. It's a similar effect to the classic 'pepsi challenge'.

I recently experienced this myself during a blind tasting. The most powerful beer was my favorite after the initial sampling, but for the next hour or so, as I finished the beers, the subtler and more refined one started to become more appealing and eventually came out as my favorite.

 

Ah, there is so much hype associated with BCBS and a study needs to be more controlled than that shit storm.

Cheers!

 

I would think (i.e....hope) that most people, at least on this site, base their ratings on their own personal taste (which is really the only way to get a true rating). However, I'd be naive to think that other factors don't at least have a little...or maybe big...influence to their ratings, such as the current rating, price, rarity, word of mouth, etc (I know I find myself guilty of that a little). It would be interesting to see what some beer ratings on BA would be if you couldn't see the rating until after you rate it yourself.

 

Since one potential cure for bias is the knowledge that one has one and so takes steps make it plain, to deal with it or avoid it, the best we can hope for here is that they be aware that they even have biases in the first place.

 

Some mistakes haunt us for the rest of our lives....

 

Thanks Jack. I don't know if studies have done the experiment in reverse, but they might be out there. Bias works in two directions, so it's reasonable to expect our brains would respond negatively if it was pre-loaded with negative bias. The reviews for the variety of beers under the Shock Top and Blue Moon brands might be a line of evidence. I'm not saying they are actually all wonderful beers, but are they truly as bad as the scores here make them look? Or are we showing our community bias? I tend to think it's more the latter.

I think @yemenmocha has mentioned in previous threads that he sneaks Sam Adams into blind tastings with people who claim to not like all Sam Adams beers and gets some surprising results, but I doubt he's hooking up electrodes to the heads of people in his tasting group... I think he should though...

I'm wondering if this one is going to come back to me someday too....

automatron....what the hell is that? A motherly robot that drinks beer? *slaps forehead*
Darn typos.... I meant automatons!

 

Yes I have.

I've run things the other direction too, by placing an empty Sam Adams bottle visible on the counter but yet it wasn't in the mix. Some of my usual, uhm, suspects... tried and tried and tried to find one sample in the beer lineup for which they could make a nice, nasty list of critical comments. They were disappointed when they learned there was no Sam Adams in the lineup.

These shenanigans only work a few times on the same people so don't overdo it.

 

Of course it's subjective. Anything involving taste, sight, hearing exc. exc is subjective by definition. Everyone has their own take on everything.

 

If you ever want to have fun and test this with a batch of BAs organize a blind tasting. At the end of it tally the scores and reveal the winners.

Overall, taste is fairly subjective and everyone's palate is a little different. Some people may find a beer to be highly enjoyable while others may feel it is deeply flawed and just overall bad. BA works off of the majority opinion so while a few outliers may find a beer to be at one extreme or the other you can get a decent feeling for how well a beer appeals to the masses.

 

You're being slightly cautious, but I don't even know how one could argue against your point. The Budweiser reviews here are often an embarrassing playground without pretense of objectivity. When multiple people submit their post-Super Bowl reviews scoring it a 1 and claiming that a peach pumpkin beer would be better, there is little doubt that they aren't sitting down with the beer to review it, they are simply using their "review" space as a retaliation statement and nothing more.

 

But that's pretty subjective too.
Who dictates what a "style" should or shouldn't be? Of course, the BJCP attempts to do that, but their humorously overwrought guidelines are all over the place, and certainly not gospel (the guidelines were, after all, originally designed to facilitate judging of homebrew for competitions).

In the end, if you like a beer, it's good. And if it fits your own interpretation of what represents the "style" it is supposed to represent, that is legitimate as well.

 

Of course it's subjective. I doubt I'm the only poster here who has read a review and decided I would enjoy a beer for the very reasons the reviewer did not like it.

 

To me its an art form, more than a science