Can appearance affect perceived taste?

Sure it can. It's called the placebo effect.

 

yes. often more so than ones tongue can.

 

Yes it can. If you pour your Heady Topper into a glass and all this residue is floating in the glass and you don't like floatie residue in your glass, the taste will probably be affected.

Look at St. Patty's day for example. People put green dye in beer. The green dye indicates that it's St. Patty's day, and it may hide the fact that someone is drinking crap beer. The shitty beer tastes as shitty as it always does, but people may think it's good because it's green.

Lastly, I expect to have a little bit of yeast floating around in my saisons. So if I pour 2 glasses of Saison Dupont and one have more yeast floating than the other I will probably automatically perceive that glass to taste more yeasty than the glass that has less.

 

I know for sure this is true. At the request of my then-5-year-old son, I once made pistachio ice cream (which is actually more almond-based than pistachio based in its usual incarnation) but he wanted it to be pink not green. So I obligingly used red food coloring rather than green (again, the pistachio ice cream most of us know is actually white in its natural state). The flavor was exactly as usual - you could have identified this stuff blindfolded no problem - but with the strange appearance, the flavor became cloying and unpleasant, emphasizing the almondy aspect of the ice cream.

I think this same effect can be what makes it so disconcerting when confronting an unfamiliar beer style - I found my first encounters with rauschbier, black lagers, and black IPAs awkward. It took some time for my eyes to come into sync with the expectations of my brain and palate before I could appreciate them correctly.

 

I believe so as one "eats with the eyes first". If you"re grossed out by the appearance then the beer or food may not taste as good.

 

You also drink with your eyes.

Explanation, a cloudy hazy beer when not appropriate, lack of a head or a head that collapses, floaty things all make me say, oh-oh!

 

Heady topper looks like shit, but it still taste pretty damn good to me

 

I think it's kind of cool to mess with expectations every now and then- or sometimes they do it to themselves. There have been a number of occasions where somebody came up to me as I was enjoying a Campari and soda: "ooh, that looks soooo refreshing. What is it?" The look on their faces when I allow them to try it is pretty much universally unpleasant. It's a drink that really is refreshing if you know what to expect; it's also pretty damn bitter, which is belied by the pretty pink color.

 

if it looked like shit, it was either old or spoiled in the back of a warm delivery truck...judging by some of the pictures here probably both

 

I've had some pretty fresh cans and they all looked the same. Float arent the most appealing thing to have in your beer, but it doesnt stop it from being delicious

 

My wife tried to stump me on a beer the other night so she put food coloring in it... Was not happy, although it tastes the exact same, something about it made it just a little worse to me and that something was the dye.

 

fresh as in 3000 miles away

It's like me and the San Diego beers. I'm sure they're good, but whenever I drink one I don't get the fuss.

 

Well said, my friend!

 

Yes canned 3 days before

 

and beamed to California like on Star Trek

it's an unfiltered beer that is supposed to stay cold from the brewery until it hits your mouth

 

Beemed to California like in USPS.

But I am curious about this, so there's no floaties when u drink it in Vermont?

 

I saw some six weeks ago in my glass. First time. Certainly nothing like most of the pictures here.I imagine there may be tiny bits but I can't see them.

This is how it looks if you get it from the brewery .

Clear and not hazy means warmed up (that's what one of their employees told me) - noticeable floaties means old(er).