FWIW, yes, I do believe my tastes/taste buds have changed a little over the years. It's not an easy thing to measure, and I wonder in my case how much influence my whisk[e]y drinking has over this phenomenon, but the bottomline is I don't consistently enjoy beer as much as I used to mainly because I don't pick up as much malt sweetness as I used to. I still love beer, still enjoy most if not all of the same wonderful flavors most of the time. But I started geeking out on whisk[e]y in 2018, and I could see how that has affected my ability to pick up flavors in beer by comparison — whisk[e]y flavors being so ramped up and often much sweeter.
It's getting closer: "Upcoming Markets: Expansion is planned for Wisconsin and Iowa in early 2026." Cheers!
Kinda ironic you should mention this. Yesterday I met a bunch of buddies for beers and lunch at a local craft beer bar/restaurant and my buddy Phil told me that beers were not tasting quite the same to him. He went on to ask if maybe things have changed since he drinks a lot (and he does mean a lot) of bourbon. I just shrugged my shoulder and said: I have never heard of this being an issue before. Now that you mentioned it.... Cheers!
Hey @LesDewitt4beer, do you ever travel to Milwaukee? You can pick up some Yuengling Traditional Lager* there now. And maybe some soda too!?! Cheers! * But watch out for those magic grits!
My 75 year old dad actually enjoys IPAs more now than he ever has. My wife, on the other hand, used to love hazies and now can’t drink them anymore. Her palate is leaning more West Coast-ish now.
I really can't say that my tastes have changed all that much over the years, as far as a palate shift related to aging goes. I still enjoy many of the beers/beer styles I liked 20-30 years ago. If anything, I have developed preferences for some styles over others.
Hah ... interesting. IMO bourbon is very sweet, much sweeter than most beer, so maybe it makes sense? I don't pretend to understand anything when it comes to taste. In fact, the more I think about it, the harder it is for me to make a definitive statement about my tastes changing or not changing as I've gotten older. The evidence honestly points to either no changes or changes so minute you could chalk them up to mood or a momentary perception vs. expectation imbalance. I'm going to go find a beer and not think about this.
I can't say that i have noticed the exact same things as the OP mentioned - metallic aftertastes and so on. However, I can say for sure that my tastes and other things have changed over the years. For one, I used to be able to drink a bomber of high test beer with no trouble - remember when Bourbon County used to come in 22-oz bottles? Nowadays, if it's more than maybe 8% or so, I can't handle that much. Not that bombers or even 750mls are as ubiquitous as they were 15 years ago or so. Also, my tastes in the beers themselves have changed - when I first got into craft, it was stouts all the time, the darker the better. Then I got in to hops, then a side-interest in sours. I still enjoy those styles (having a Heady Topper as we speak... ) but I've also developed an appreciation for the lighter styles - pilsners and the like.
I tend to drink less hoppy IPA than I used to. Just not something I love as much. I do like lagers and malty stuff more than I used to. I guess this is partly due to bodily changes and age and partly to other things I can’t put my hands on. Either way I still love beer, just different types. Enjoy
Here I am! Jack, this is a really interesting question and there is actually a fair amount of sensory science behind what you are describing. Modern research shows that what we perceive as flavor is driven far more by aroma than by the five basic tastes alone. Taste buds primarily register sweet, sour, salty, bitter, and umami, while the complexity of beer comes largely from volatile aromatic compounds detected through the olfactory system. Two different olfactory pathways are involved. Orthonasal olfaction occurs when you smell the beer from the glass. Retronasal olfaction occurs when aromatic compounds travel from the mouth to the nasal cavity while the beer is in your mouth. This retronasal pathway is responsible for a large portion of what we interpret as flavor. This is why many sensory programs demonstrate the role of aroma with simple exercises such as tasting flavored candy while holding your nose closed and then releasing it midway through chewing. With the nose closed you mainly perceive sweetness, but once aroma compounds reach the olfactory receptors the full flavor suddenly appears. The Cicerone program and other sensory training systems use similar demonstrations to illustrate how strongly aroma influences beer perception. Cicerone sensory training overview https://www.cicerone.org/us-en/blog/the-science-of-tasting-beer Scientific discussion of retronasal olfaction and flavor perception https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4989822/ Explanation of how aroma drives flavor perception https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/what-role-does-the-nose-play-in-taste/ As for whether taste buds themselves change over time, the research is a bit more nuanced than the common assumption that age automatically dulls perception. Some studies show modest declines in sensitivity for certain tastes, but many people maintain fairly stable taste bud function. What tends to change more often is olfactory sensitivity rather than taste bud count. Interestingly, trained tasters often retain very consistent sensory perception because repeated exposure builds strong sensory memory and calibration for specific flavor compounds. That may explain your Hop Devil example. If your sensory reference for that beer has remained stable over time, and the recipe has not changed dramatically, it makes sense that it would still register the same to you decades later. Cheers. Another piece of sensory training that I always found fascinating is how much personal memory plays into flavor perception. One of the first things we were taught when learning to run brewery sensory sessions was that when someone identifies an aroma or flavor, they should connect it to a memory they personally recognize. That reference point may not be the same for everyone in the room, but it is still valid because it comes from that person’s own sensory experience. In practice this means two people may detect the same compound in a beer but describe it differently depending on their background and experiences. One person might say banana, another banana bread, another a specific candy they remember from childhood. The chemistry in the beer is the same, but the sensory reference comes from each person’s memory. That is one reason structured sensory training can be so helpful, because it helps people build shared reference points for describing what they perceive.
Another aspect of sensory training is to 'build up' as many 'memories' as possible to expand sensory descriptions. An example I can provide here is from a wine tasting I attended at Jack's Firehouse (Fairmont section of Philly) several decades ago. I went with my buddy Mike and it was a tasting of Alsatian wines. The proctor of the tasting described one of the Gewurztraminer wines as having a flavor of lychee. I said to my buddy: what the hell is lychee? At week (or so) later he purchased some lychee at a Whole Foods market and he gave me one. I ate it and it exactly reminded me of the Gewurztraminer wine we drank. So, given the timing here I could have stated that lychee tastes like Gewurztraminer wine. Cheers!
I'm in my early 40s now and all of a sudden, I've gotten really into hazy IPAs. For most of my life, I wouldn't touch an IPA with a ten-foot pole (even though I had easy access to the greats like Pliny on the West Coast). Sometimes I'll be at work or walking somewhere and I'll get a whiff of something that reminds me of the hazy I drank the night before and I'm obsessed. I think my brain is working overtime slotting these flavors and aromas into my sense/memory genetic make-up. Although I have access to, and should, I have yet to try another West Coast IPA to see if my tastes really have changed, or if the ability to enjoy certain IPAs have always been there.
I seem to have become MUCH less tolerant of certain compounds over the years. Mostly ethyl phenols, which makes drinking smoked beer pretty difficult, and oxidative compounds like trans-2-nonenal, which makes a lot of barrel aged beers intolerable. I also get significant yeast bite in a LOT of hazy IPAs which hits me like aspirin. That said, I wouldn't say that my palate has changed or shifted, it's just gotten more sensitive, which is not an awesome thing as many beers that I once found to be wonderful are no longer drinkable.
I have the gene that makes cilantro taste like “soap.” In reality, it tastes more like plastic. I wonder how that sensitivity impacts my interpretation of certain other flavors. But somehow coriander seeds are fine.
