Do you believe in palate wrecking?

As one who tastes in a professianly capacity, yes, though i prefer to call it palate fatigue. It's very real.

 

Mikkeller Hop Burn Low. Ruined my taste for about 45 minutes. Sad thing is it didn't taste that serious, but no amount of water or other beers would help. They started off tasting like water, then muted beer, then finally after a wait, the beers tasted like beers. Weird sensation. lol

 

My answer to this question depends on whether or not the OP believes in evolution.

 

As someone who arguably has done as much bitter hop beer drinking as anyone on Beer Advocate for the last 4 years, I can say with out fear of contradiction that hops temporarily overwhelm the taste receptors in tongue and mouth so that they are less able to finely judge subsequent flavors.

I have experienced multiple instances of LTS as well, and hops definitely can even overwhelm the ability to taste hops unless hoppy beers are given up temporarily.

 

Sometimes after a big tasting I find that hoppy beers taste old and faded. It goes away after a day or two.

 

It does exist and it is quantifiable.

 

Yes, high bitterness alone can impact the palate and cause it not to be able to taste subtler flavors in later beers.

 

Yes. But not in the sense that one style of beer is more numbing to your taste buds than another. If you get drunk enough, flavors will seem weaker to your taste buds , regardless of whether you got down on some Coors Light or Palate Wrecker earlier.

 

Yes.

 

How much and and long depend in part on the intensity, frequency and amount of the substance consumed.

 

I have wrecked my palate for the better part of a week from abusing awsome IPAs.