Beers that have changed your palate?

One time a beer came with a bucket of paint and I changed my pallet from wood colored to spotted purple.

 

Unfortunately, I only ever get tannins and pine notes from my pallet. Not enough malt or hops.

 

Great divide yeti was like that for me. And also Kimmie Yink & Holy Gose. That was my first Gose and I tried it on a whim not thinking I'd like it. I loved it and I think it also helped to open me up to sours as well.

 

I'm pretty sure Cellarmaker's pales and IPAs made me prefer lower IBUs in hoppy beers.

 

Two Hearted turned me into a Hop Head.
Consecration made me like sours.

 

Red Hook ESB and Heineken Dark showed me that I enjoyed beer.
Celebrator changed everything.

 

DFH 90 told me I could like IPAs.
I had RuinTen. I now no longer ask "is *insert IPA* going to be too bitter for me?"

I had had a few stouts, but I distinctly remembering the moment I "understood" stouts. I was having an FBS that was about a year old and I started getting all that warm chocolate with a surprising amount of coffee flavor considering its age. It just floored me.

 

Yeti! One of the smoothest beers I have ever had. Probably going to pop a bomber of it tonight actually!

 

GLBC Edmund Fitzgerald changed me instantly from a guy who occasionally drank a Guinness or Smithwick's when feeling fancy into a malthead. Harviestoun Ola Dubh Special Reserve 30 and the 2011 Bourbon County Stout confirmed that.

By the same token, SNPA and GLBC Burning River confirmed that hop-forward is not at all my thing, at least for certain types of hops. A friend then had me try Three Floyds Arctic Panzer Wolf, and now if a beer so much as has the word "pale" anywhere in the name or description, I avoid the heck out of it.

 

BCBS was the first BA stout I ever had and it blew my entire perception of beer away. Truth be told, even after all the chasing and trading, it's still the best bourbon barrel stout I've ever had (without adjuncts), and frankly it's not close.

Golden Blend did the same thing for me with gueuzes/sours. It's still the funkiest beer I've ever had. Worth every penny if the outrageous $25/375ml asking price.

 

I think any beer has that potential if you are talking about a temporary effect. I have noticed this when switching from one beer to the other even with brews I know pretty well, especially if I don't leave some time in between. I'm not going to find a "normal" IPA very satisfying after having a Ruination or a Nugget Nectar (not an IPA) even with some "reset delay" in between. Heck, if I drank a Ruination, probably wouldn't be able to tastes anything clearly afterward anyway. I think this is a temporary effect whenever you visit a "mountaintop" beer. Not a huge hophead, but I did go through the "all I want is Nugget Nectar" phase this year. And guess what - that has to end because the supply runs dry. Might have suffered some withdrawal and momentary whining, but it passed. I don't feel I had to "settle" for a "lesser" brew - more like I enjoyed heck out of Nugget Nectar while it lasted, time to go drink and appreciate other beers. (And look forward to the next NN release).

If you are talking about a more permanent thing - learning to appreciate a style - I would say that happens too. You have that one beer that is the epitome of a particular style and develop the understanding of what it is all about. Or the one beer that creates the "a-ha" moment for a particular style. Then yes - I'd say there is the possibility that "lesser" beers won't "measure up" (at least in one's mind) if that one outstanding example sets the expectation.

I don't think it changes one's palate per se. I do think what it does change is the expectations and perceptions of what a beer "should be". It's the state of knowledge and understanding that changes (not like "lupulin shift"). I can't say it has totally ruined a beer I normally enjoy, though. For one thing, I'm not always going to be buying those best of the best brews - couldn't afford to even within my modest consumption habits. But I will say, having had some best in class brews, that I do find myself making the involuntary comparison. I've had <insert outstanding stout>, but I can still drink my home brewed stout or enjoy other stouts. Are they the same - not at all. But they aren't instantly drain pours simply because I've had an upper echelon stout, either. I can tell the difference and what one brew has that another lacks, but it hasn't made me not appreciate what I normally like.

 

(In the Mario Brothers theme music) Heady, Heady, Heady.

 

oh cantillion

 

First taste of Pseudosue last year caused me to swear off Zombie Dust forever. Going through at least 10 cases worth of Sue in that time and my opinion still remains the same. All TG beers have educated my palate on what particular hops are supposed to taste like, gives me a measuring stick for how effective other breweries use their hops.

 

Apparently it takes one to know one! But yes...always someone looking for a chuckle. Someday you might be the one..

 

Surly Abrasive...I'm still not sure I even fully taste other beers after five years because of the damage that alpha-acid baby did to my tongue. I _love_ the hops, but that one was uniquely, well, Abrasive!

 

That was my first troll actually. Was it good for you like it was for me?

 

I go through this at the beginning of every summer deciding if I like All Day IPA or Centennial better. Its always All Day IPA at the beginning of summer, but by the end it taste terrible and Centennial seems leaps and bounds better...