Is beer tasting purely subjective?

Should be required viewing.

 

Yes. All taste is.

 

Pretty much agree with what @Ranbot, @JackHorzempa and @drtth have said.

I would note that - regarding what @utopiajane said - there is variation in the amount of taste buds that people have which apparently has also has some influence on taste perception and particularly the sensitivity for certain tastes. Tim Hanni (a Finnish master of wine) actually did some research on this (in regards to wine preferences and wine pairings) which I unfortunately can't find right now. So I would assume that this may also play a role in whether you pick up certain flavors more than others.

 

I would say subjective. I know someone who doesn't like Urquell but is a very knowledgeable beer taster. I've had the beer with him in very fresh condition and he still doesn't like it. I don't get it, but there you go. I generally don't like sours, or the raisiny/banana signature many Belgian ales have. Others think they are world classics. Etc. Within the large consumer beer world including specialty forums as here, groupings form where preferences aggregate so to speak. You will probably find many who like many of the same kinds of beers but it will rarely be all. Perhaps one area where you get most agreement is beers with high adjunct content (except wits and that tradition). I doubt most BA-ers enjoy high adjunct, low-hopped American lagers. However even there I believe the taste is subjectively conditioned. At one time that was what was available and people drank them quite willingly, probably because the kick was primary for them. But I'm sure there are some here who do like them, and that's fine. Logically there is no reason to say a heavy, sweet-tasting beer is better than a very mild thin one.

 

Of course it's subjective, it's a food for lack of a better word, people's tastes go all over the place. Some vegetarians abhor a steak au poive I'd walk on coals for. So it goes with beer, I'm not a sour fan, I don't like like smoked beers, I don't understand a lot of the German styles of beers. Most guys and gals who like a cold tgif brew think a Coors light or Corona is just fine and who's to dispute that? And then there's the opposite, the Bud spoof on craft beers guys with a pinkie up with their nose buried into their glass. Drink what you like, but I also realize my drain pour might be some other guys nirvana, it's beer it's not that serious.

 

Good article. Taste (beer/ale) in my opinion comes in 2 forms. The "expected" taste and the reality after the fact. If its a craft brew, most are good and its enjoyed by the imbiber one way or the other. Don't try to subject beer/ale to the findings of the wine tasters. When wine is tasted and the taster detects graphite, scorched earth, pencil lead (another term for graphite), under brush and diesel (yes diesel believe it or not), me thinks that it is a drink I would send back. I either like the beer/ale or I don't. It's quite simple and by the way, "every year is a good year for beer"!

 

Beauty is in the eye of the beer holder!

 

Not as much as it should be....

 

Everyone look at this video post #28 to help find it.

The most important thing is we DO taste what we expect to taste. Our brains are just built that way. This video only used color to make the expectation. I have seen videos where labels are switched so the wines are actually different and the supposed lower quality had a known high quality label. Needless to say the results are similar, very few recognize the quality with the preconceived notion of which one is quality.

Of course my mind being what it is I wonder If I would pay a couple bucks more for a sixer that I thought was great as opposed to one that is exactly the same but cheaper with an average reputation. At BA you always hear drink what you like. In the light that you do actually enjoy it more whether it is actual taste or your brain is saying you enjoy it more ...yes I would.

 

I wonder whether the wine swapping experiment also works with completely different wines. I kinda doubt you could as easily switch a sweet or Grauschiefer Riesling lieblich for a dry one and no one would notice - the tasting experience might still be different but I just wonder to which degree you can distort things.

Or in the realm of beer: Switching something like a Bud for an SNPA or a PBR (which I honestly don't think is that bad) for a DIPA.

 

It's hard for me to imagine any situation where a persons' perception/experience of something is completely objective.

 

There are limits to the distortion that can occur, but no simple rule that lets us know in advance which and how much.

 

Characteristics are objective, Preferences are subjective.

 

Yeah, I'd assume that you can't distort the 'essential' taste parts (i.e. sweet, salty, umami etc.). At least not to a large degree. I would be very interested to see this being tested in some way, though.

I think I'll have to put some blind tastes on my to-do list.

 

If it is far enough off and our brain recognizes that we are drinking something it does not expect we usually spit it out in disgust. Kind of like the old college prank of giving someone a glass of whiskey and telling them it is beer.

 

Some libraries may have a copy of this:

http://www.amazon.com/Sensation-Perception-CourseMate-Printed-Access/dp/1133958494

 

Some very good points here...I too believe that blind tasting possibly favors the more "robustly unique",....hmmm, strange term... just look at what the more eloquent guy ( Maltanator ) said above me for an example...

 

I'd have to look whether our uni has a copy of this, although I wouldn't be too certain (it's hard to find an adequate stock of English scientific literature in libraries here sometimes). I could see what we've got on the topic, though. Maybe browse through some stuff after I'm done with my term paper.

Oh yeah, I wasn't necessarily going for that reponse though. I mean in that example you have two different beverages. I was aiming more for a comparison between different flavor profiles of the same type of beverage.

 

An interesting article on preconceived notions of what something should taste like.


http://www.news.wisc.edu/12202

Basically saying that the brain can actually change taste with expectations.