I can't taste nuances

It took me a long time to start detecting more flavors. I still have a hard time describing mouthfeel.

 

I definitely don't know if what I taste and review is "right", but I post what I notice. I try to use the same terms for beers that are similar to me (in a particular aspect), whether my terms resonate with others is debatable, but at least it helps me. It will help anyone to start, and your palette (and descriptions) will hopefully grow from what you know.

Hopefully we can all taste beers multiple times and compare our tastea now versus our previous reviews.

 

How is your sense of smell? I'm very fortunate in that my sense of smell seems to be better than average. This ties in with one's sense of taste as well. For me, I can easily pick out ingredients used in complex meals. What helps in developing that sense is experience. I've been cooking since I was a kid.

Go to your spice cabinet (or nearest grocery store) and grab various herbs and spices (you won't need a lot of any of them). Then open them up and smell them. Getting to know the basic aroma of each helps in detecting the flavor of it in a dish. The same applies for beer.

If your sense of smell isn't that great, don't worry about it! You can still admire a beer for tasting good. Then you could be the person who, instead of dissecting the flavor scheme of a beer, goes deep into the color palate of it.

Your options are limitless. Have fun and enjoy the beer for what it is: BEER.

Cheers.

 

Of the posts I've read in this thread so far there is a wealth of great advice given. I'll just point out that blind or double blind tasting helps rule out the power of suggestion. So far of the 10 or 12 people I've shared Cacaonut with, BAs to craft newbies, some with great palates, only 1 has mentioned coconut when drinking the Cacaonut blind and probably because he new I might be serving it.

 

I gave a guy I work with a Kalamazoo Stout two years ago.

Last week, I gave him an Expedition Stout.

I picked up that note very quickly in it. Subtle. but I thought I was tasting ghosts of Kalamazoo past and dismissed it.

He has a great palate and brews his own stuff. Big stout fan. Brews other styles, like a westy clone, but mostly big stouts

He liked the Expy....then I said to him "hey, did you pick up brewers' licorice? like that Kalamazoo I gave you a few years ago?". He paused for a moment. His response was priceless. It was like "AHA! that is what it was!". It had grown subtle, but the whisper was there.

The point is that together, we can help each other draw our palates upward.

 

Nuance. I'm sipping on a nice Bourbon now, neat, sitting and a sniff I get a big caramel hit, swirl it I get caramel and it goes boozy as hell. Just a simple nuance based on something so simple as a few swirls of the glass. If fact drinking a nice whiskey might be the best way to pick out simple taste differences, vanilla, oak, booze, caramel, toffee.

 

I'm not gonna bother going through three pages to see if it's already been suggested, but here's the advice given at wine classes at my work: Go around smelling everything! The grocery store, the park, wherever. A big part of your olfactory abilities is based on memory. If you have smelled lemongrass a lot, you are far more likely to pick it out when it is there. Now, for me, this is more effort than I'm looking to put forth (atleast, at present), but if you really want to improve your senses of taste and smell, you have to exercise them; like many other things in life.

 

Astringent. Every time. You're lying if you don't taste them. LOL.

 

I stopped doing full reviews because I felt I was putting so much thought into analyzing the beer that I forgot to enjoy it. I know some folks here feel the opposite way - that the review heightens the appreciation of it, but it's not for me. I'm content to relax, enjoy, and spit out some pseudo-meaningless number that drives the review-police crazy.

 

I'm one of those where I tend to like a beer more when I'm diving in full boar, rather than drinking casually.

 

For all of you who think your senses aren't as good as someone else - please try the wine tasting technique for tasting beer. Take a slight mouthfull, and let it fall to the back of the throat and coat the sides of the tongue. Don't swallow yet. Hold it while you raise the tip of your tongue to the roof of your mouth and breathe in slightly through pursed lips. This lets air release all the aromas and flavors - and because the back palate is connected to the nasal cavity this links the taste and the smell. It looks funny, it sounds like a chore but try it!

 

Since your taste and smell sensors are missing, do you have other enhanced senses? Cat-like speed and reflexes, or X-ray vision perhaps?

 

sorry If I confused you we get bells, its just I did not click on the name of the beer being bells.
I frankly usually do not buy them as their prices are too high compared to the rest of the same stuff.

 

I read that some researchers are fairly sure Women in general have a better sense of smell than men do. That does not mean they can detect between smells better. Just that they are more sensitive. Things I think taste ok bitter wise, my wife hates...

 

Also- exhale through your nose with your lips closed right after swallowing. You pick up a lot of details that way.

As to the main issue here, I'd say that a lot of it also comes from experience; and experience in all things, too, not just with beer. The more foods and beverages you become familiar with, the better you will become at identifying flavor and aroma components. No need to rush things, and it's an ongoing process no matter how long you've been at it.

 

Most of what we taste in beer is driven by our sense of smell. Give it a big whiff or two before sipping. Even if you can't detect nuances, does it taste good you? Why?

 

Unicorn tears are very, very subtle. Not surprising you'd miss it the first time.

 

Stop eating dollar menu -

 

Please consider the possibility of something affecting your sense of smell. If the humidity is very low for a period of time, the linings of the sinuses become dry also, limiting the sense of smell. Also, many medications cause a drying affect on mucosal membranes and can severely reduce your sense of smell.

 

Having a poor sense of smell myself, I can understand where you are coming from. For me, it helps to drink a beer without having ate anything for a couple of hours. Generally, drinking a beer with dinner can kind of wash out the unique flavors for me.

That being said, I think beer was meant to be enjoyed with company and not behind the screen of a computer. Don't overthink it, just enjoy it. Sometimes the best beer is the beer you are having in the best moment.