Favorite Sixpoint Brew

Consensus so far is that it is remarkably improved, but of course, everyone has their own opinion on these things. It is always difficult to compare "this year's to last" because you are doing it from memory, which is seriously flawed. It would be one thing if you are recalling facts or figures, but when recalling flavor and aroma sensations, you can't get more subjective than that...

Sweet Action still going strong after 10+ years...even though most people can't describe what it is!

We did Triple Sweet Action on draft for the very first Beer For Beasts. That was a blast - and it ended up tasting like a crazy creme bulee. Very interesting. No Double Bengali yet...

 

@Sixpoint

“It is always difficult to compare "this year's to last" because you are doing it from memory, which is seriously flawed.” Yes, beer memory can be a challenging thing. For some beers I have very good beer memory, for example Sierra Nevada Celebration Ale. That beer varies from year to year from a balance perspective (hop presence vs. malt backbone) due to the fact it is brewed with freshly picked hops and hop crops do indeed vary from year to year. I have also very much noted differences in different batches of Sixpoint beers of circa 2014; the ‘tweaking’ that has occurred from batch to batch is indeed perceptible (e.g., Crisp). For other beers I do sometimes struggle with differentiating from year to year (e.g., Nugget Nectar seems to taste pretty much the same to me from year to year; I have never had the misfortune of purchasing a ‘bad’ batch).

“Sweet Action still going strong after 10+ years...even though most people can't describe what it is!” In a past thread I opined that Sweet Action reminds me of an English Summer (Golden) Ale despite the fact that it is amber in color.

http://www.brewerydb.com/style/6

Cheers!

 

@DrStiffington @Ilovelampandbeer @gillagorilla @SammyJaxxxx @Kadonny

"I like this year's version better than last year's..."

"I used to like this beer, but I don't like it anymore..."

"I wish this brewery would go back to the old recipe..."

"When I first had this beer, I was blown away...now it seems pretty average to me."

We've all heard these comments before. Someone posts a thread like this or makes a comment like this almost every week on this site. What is important to note is that even if a brewery uses the exact same recipe from one year to the next, its actually your taste buds that are constantly changing. So if your own anatomy is actually changing, of course the beer is going to taste different!

Now, we all know that breweries may tweak a recipe, or are using the most recent hop harvest, or perhaps updated their equipment...but this just further adds to the myriad of variables of tasting a beer from one year to the next. But knowing that your taste actually changes all of the time, how could we ever as individuals be in a position to comment on a changing flavor? Its our perspective that is actually changing - not necessarily what we are drinking.

Please read this article. Here are some relevant takeaways:

1) "Though we may not all have worshiped so fervently at the altar of sugar, nearly all humans graduate from a childhood love of sweets to more complex flavors as adults, and then again to different palates as seniors. It’s a given: Our taste in food changes as we get older. But what few people understand is why"

2) "As we age, our taste buds stop regenerating, and our sense of smell dulls."

3) "we’re not going to increase our total allotment of taste buds, ever."

4) "“The big predictor of whether someone will like something like bitter melon or hoppy beer isn’t their sensitivity to bitterness,” Marcia Pelchat, a sensory psychologist at the Monell Chemical Senses Center. “It’s their exposure to it, their motivation, their interest. It’s all cultural stuff.”

5) "It all starts to go downhill around 40. That’s when our taste buds begin to stop growing back. Individually, each taste bud goes through a constant cycle of birth, death, and rebirth that lasts about two weeks. A healthy tongue sloughs off and regrows these taste buds constantly. Once we hit middle age, the buds continue to die and be shed, but a smaller number regenerate as the years go on."

6) "The weird thing is that the particular aromas that we lose sensitivity to vary wildly from person to person. While one person might not be able to smell vanilla well anymore, for example, her husband might smell vanilla like a teenager—but be smell-blind to roses."

and the most important takeaway, in my opinion:

"Brain scans of perfumers have found that the olfactory parts of their brains actually grew more developed as they got older, not the other way around, as with most people. That suggests that actively differentiating aromas and seeking out new ones may help reverse the normal effects of aging on the sense of smell. You may, in other words, be able to teach yourself to get more flavor from food as you get older."


So there you have it. This is a huge, emerging field in science and I'm excited to see what additional research and resources can reveal about these phenomena. And I hope it shows why a certain beer might taste different to you over time.

 

Shane,

The linked article is interesting. There is no doubt in my mind that individual palates change over time: childhood -> young adulthood -> middle age and onwards.

I do not accept that palates change much over a 1 year or so timeframe (e.g., 2013 seasonal beer to 2014 seasonal beer). I do accept that beer memory is imperfect though.

Sensory perception is a multidimensional process involving the taste buds on our tongues, olfaction (intranasal and direct sniffing), mouth cavity (mouthfeel), visual, etc. and most importantly the processing of this myriad of sensory inputs by the human brain.

I found the below quote to be intriguing:

"Brain scans of perfumers have found that the olfactory parts of their brains actually grew more developed as they got older, not the other way around, as with most people. That suggests that actively differentiating aromas and seeking out new ones may help reverse the normal effects of aging on the sense of smell. You may, in other words, be able to teach yourself to get more flavor from food as you get older."

Yup, sensory perception is indeed an interesting science.

Cheers!

 

@Kadonny @BeerVikingSailor @DrStiffington @Ilovelampandbeer @fmccormi

"I do not accept that palates change much over a 1 year or so timeframe (e.g., 2013 seasonal beer to 2014 seasonal beer). I do accept that beer memory is imperfect though."

Jack, how can you say this when the science clearly says otherwise?

"It all starts to go downhill around 40. That’s when our taste buds begin to stop growing back. Individually, each taste bud goes through a constant cycle of birth, death, and rebirth that lasts about two weeks. A healthy tongue sloughs off and regrows these taste buds constantly. Once we hit middle age, the buds continue to die and be shed, but a smaller number regenerate as the years go on."

If you're over 40, you taste buds die and grow back 25 times during the course of a year - but not all of them grow back! Therefore, its virtually guaranteed your taste has changed during the course of a year.

And what about context? What if the first time you drank that beer, you had it at 11am in the morning? What if the next time you had it, a year later, it was at 8pm at night, two hours after eating Indian food?

What about cultural context, as in the article? What if during the past year, you tried dozens of IPAs and sour beers for the first time, changing your palate forever?

Keep in mind that regardless of your age, in the article it says your taste buds regenerate every two weeks. So if you don't think your taste evolved much in a year or so, it actually evolved 25 times!

 

"It all starts to go downhill around 40. That’s when our taste buds begin to stop growing back. Individually, each taste bud goes through a constant cycle of birth, death, and rebirth that lasts about two weeks. A healthy tongue sloughs off and regrows these taste buds constantly. Once we hit middle age, the buds continue to die and be shed, but a smaller number regenerate as the years go on."

If you're over 40, you taste buds die and grow back 25 times during the course of a year - but not all of them grow back! Therefore, its virtually guaranteed your taste has changed during the course of a year.”

Shane, when it comes to sensory perception of beer I am of the opinion that taste (i.e., taste buds) is one of the least important aspects of flavor perception. IMO, the brain processing and olfaction process are much more critical. Our taste buds only register sweet, salty, bitter, sour and umami. I do not intend to belittle these 5 tastes but in the scope of smell and brain processing they are ‘short poles in the tent’.

“And what about context? What if the first time you drank that beer, you had it at 11am in the morning? What if the next time you had it, a year later, it was at 8pm at night, two hours after eating Indian food?” All that I can say about this illustration is that it is not indicative of how I approach beer appreciation.

“What about cultural context, as in the article? What if during the past year, you tried dozens of IPAs and sour beers for the first time, changing your palate forever?” I personally can’t relate to that. In my beer drinking experience no matter how many hoppy beer, sours, etc. I have consumed has made my palate unable to perceive and appreciate a beer of subtle beauty (e.g.. Kolsch, Mild Ale, etc.)

“Keep in mind that regardless of your age, in the article it says your taste buds regenerate every two weeks. So if you don't think your taste evolved much in a year or so, it actually evolved 25 times!” One more time, sensory perception (beer appreciation) is not solely a function of taste and as I have already discussed IMO taste is a minor contributor when compared to brain processing and olfaction.

As an exercise I would request that you try drinking a beer blindfolded and your nose pinched and describe the flavors of that beer.

Cheers!

Jack

 

@Sixpoint

A quick web search found the below write-up.

“Introduction

The main perceptions people have of beer are appearance and flavor. The appearance aspects of beer perception include color, clarity and foam. Several senses in combination contribute to beer flavor; these include olfaction (smell), taste and chemesthesis.


Appearance

Color results from light absorbance by dissolved substances. Almost all beer color comes from malt and to a large degree is maximal near 430 nm. ‘Red’ beers are actually orange hued and defining their appearance requires observing more than a single wavelength or band (e.g. tristimulus observations measure locations on blue-yellow, red-green and dark-light axes). With turbid samples, light that is scattered as well as that absorbed does not reach the detector (or the eye), causing overestimation of color intensity.

Suspended insoluble particles cause light to be scattered, resulting in a turbid or hazy appearance. Particles in the colloidal size range are indefinitely stable and do not settle out. The scattering intensity depends on the suspended particle size, shape, and concentration; the wavelength of light used, and the angle at which scattering is measured relative to the incident beam. Visual perceptions of scattering are also influenced by the illumination intensity and the viewing background.

Beer foam is particularly long lived. Various aspects of foam have been defined (foam volume, foam duration, cling, etc.) and tests that measure these have been developed. Foam is heavily influenced by particular water-soluble barley proteins, the hop bitter compounds (isoalpha acids) and carbonation levels. The package geometry influences foam formation on pouring into a glass.


Flavor

Odors are perceived when volatile substances pass by the olfactory epithelium in the nose. This can occur when inhaling (orthonasal olfaction) or when exhaling after ingestion (retronasal olfaction).

Tastes are perceived by five types of taste buds in the tongue (sweet, sour, salty, bitter and umami). Many beers provoke bitter sensations and some have elements of sweetness or saltiness. Acidic beers (e.g. lambic and gueuze styles) evoke sourness.

Chemesthesis results from tactile sensations perceived by the trigeminal nerve, which wraps around the throat and mouth. Perceptions include coolness, hotness, smoothness and astringency.

The brain essentially integrates all the flavor sensations into an overall impression of a few dominant aspects.”

https://courses.cit.cornell.edu/fdsc4300/kjs11sensory.html

Cheers!

 

Jack -

If I drink a beer blindfolded and my nose pinched, how is the beer going to get into my mouth? Perhaps I should ask a friend to pour it through a beer bong? :-)

cheers

 

Shane, as you have already proved out: where there is a will there is a way!

Cheers!

Jack

 

Hi-Res

 

curious to know what place you usually go to in order to get our beers?

please join our email list for updates on this issue...

that was a one-off on draft...brewed for the inaugural Beer For Beasts!

 

Usually Wegmans in Bridgewater or Supersaver in Somerville.

 

You have spoken, we have listened. It has been over a year since the start of this thread, and a lot of formulating has taken place, but we are proud to announce the "reintroduction" of the 3Beans....except its not the 3Beans this time, its the new evolution - the 4Beans. Care to guess what that 4th bean is?

look for it August 2015

 

Kidney? String? Human?

 

Vanilla Bean from Madagascar.

 

Lima? Cacao? Juju?

 

That was my next guess. either way I'm psyched for this one to come out.