Can you tell ABV without reading it?

I tend to guess too low on homebrew and guess too high for commercial examples (especially hoppy ones).

 

Hey OP, I'd like to see you guess the ABV of Rochefort 10 without looking

"This is 6%...oh fuck I'm about to faint"

 

I'm horrible at guessing ABV. I go by "feel" more than taste. Many, many low ABV IPAs taste great. But they feel light as advertised. Lagunitas, to me, are the kings of sneaky ABV. All of their beers feel lighter than they are.

 

Not at all, there are beers with no alcohol perceptible that have high ABV, like belgian and trappists. They cheat on you until you have to stand up and walk, then you feel the ABV

 

I can't regardless of style.

 

Never really gave it too much thought, I don't think my palate is refined enough

 

Yeah I can tell , at least in the ballpark.

 

I don't really worry too much about the ABV. As long as it tastes good, I'll be happy.

 

I don't think it's truly possible.

 

I'm often fooled guessing higher and lower, I find it hard to tell.

 

If it's a well made beer.......no.

 

I try to do this with most beers I don't know. I tend to be off by 1 or 2 each time but still is interesting to do. The worst is an %11er that masked the booze. Too hard to detect.

 

This is truth. I drank a Malheur Dark Brut that registered at 12%. It tasted no where near 12%. I realized after I downed the 750 though.

 

Agree on Lagunitas, had the new Equinox today and thought exactly that, couldn't believe it was 8%. It is a "Pale Oat Ale", so the oatmeal probably has to do with that since Sucks is made with oatmeal as well and is pretty sneaky at 7.85%.

 

Well, you know, flavor doesn't always equal high ABV. Stouts are a good example. Lot's of flavor but not (necessarily) high alcohol content. Now you have Russian Imperials and the like with high ABVs, but as a rule, stouts are generally around 5%.

Good example! Rochefort 10 is a tad weighty, but no one would suspect the ABV without reading the bottle. A lot of Belgians are like that it seems.

 

After about 20 minutes maybe...

 

If you drink high quality beer, chances are that if the ABV is high, it's masked quite well.

The only way to really tell an ABV without looking is reflecting on your state of mind after a few

 

I could probably make a pretty good guess after I drank it all and could feel how much of an effect it had. If that counts... XD

Aside from that, probably not. The closest I'd probably be able to guess without drinking at least half of the glass would be "somewhere under 6-7%" for anything with no detectable alcohol and "somewhere above 6-7%" for anything that did have some that I could pick up on.