Trouble with tasting after beer number 3

If I'm drinking 8-16oz, then I don't drink more than 2-3 beers. At home, I usually pop open a bomber of the good stuff, not try to 2-3 at a sitting.

As far as beer festivals, I have found taking breaks (food, water, socialize) or standing in a long line helps with palate fatigue. I know going in that I won't be able to try everything that I want. That being said, by the last hour, it's kind of hit or miss.

 

I find when I drink one IPA/IIPA, I should just stick with one more of the same. If I grab another IPA, even one I've had before, the flavor is all off. Many times muted. If I drink a stout or imperial stout and switch to an IPA, flavor explosion. Weird what different styles do to my palate. Regardless, two (or three good beers), then cheap swill. Don't feel like wasting good beer when my taste/palate is shot.

 

This is why the best beer drinking strategy is to drink a couple good beers you like and then switch off to Bud/Keystone/PBR/etc. Saves you a lot of money and you won't know the difference.

 

Changing styles really helps, as long as you have lots of water in between. If my palate has acclimated to IPA hoppiness, I will go in another direction- like a doppelbock or a flanders red, etc. Then maybe a porter. You get the idea. Am I in perfect 'evaluating' form at the end of the night? Not really, so I won't do a review then, but I am still getting plenty of enjoyment out of those beers.

 

Funny you mentioned this thread...my wife said after 3-4 beers her sensory presence is gone as well and some how I become smarter, better looking and funny...so if that happens to her I can only imagine my sensory issues in being able to finely tune into the flavor offering in a beer.... lol

 

It doesn't have to be high ABV to cause confusion. A decent session ale will transform itself over a few pints.One of my life long favourites begins with a bitter and astringent bite but going down the glass it mellows. After a few pints the main sensation is of a great smack of malt beautifully balanced by this bitterness.And that's what it's brewed to do and when judging beers in this class just sipping a few ounces doesn't work.

 

Personally I never review more than 4 in a row, and I usually start with the lightest coloured (or ABV) beer and work my way up to the strongest.

I did taste more than 4 beers once at a beer festival however they give you tiny samples so there's less chance of palate fatigue there.

Stick with your gut (or tongue/nose for this matter) if 3-4 is the most you can accurately review in a sitting then why do more?

As I pointed out the other day in a thread to someone who was racing to get 1,000 beers ticked - it's not a race, there's no gold medals awarded for reviewing the most beers - take it easy and enjoy brother!

 

1000 ?
Ale lover samples 46,000 dfferent beers in three decades
Retired gardener Brian Moore could be Britain’s champion ‘beer tester’ after sampling 46,000 different real ales over 30 years.
A pint of ale: a familiar sight for Mr Moore
The 71-year-old has noted every ale he has tasted since the 1970s.

And he only drink British real ales - saying the last non-ale tipple he had was probably some whisky at a wedding in his twenties, but he 'can't even remember what that tasted like.'

‘At one stage I was drinking up to 100 half pints a week but the stamina’s gone,’ said Mr Moore from Sheffield.