Tasting advice

that just goes without saying

 

Water - perhaps sparkling to help cleanse the palate. I also second some kind of cracker - salted or otherwise. I also find pistachios work as well.

 

Just be weary (talking for experience) of something too sweet.

As with big stouts like that that might seem sweet in the realm of beer, but in comparison to chocolate covered pretzels, they are not. So you may then find that the beer tastes a little more bitter to you etc. because you just had something much sweeter.

 

I like to use seltzer and lightly salted snacks. I find that seltzer refreshes my palate more effectively than water, but that just might be a personal quirk.

 

You'll want water and bread. All of the bier tastings I've been to have had bowls of bread that have been cubed, works really well as a cleanser.

 

Cheese, crackers, salami and gallons of water

 

dry neutral tasteless cracker or bread, and time.

 

PIZZA

 

peanut butter

 

Definitely unsalted crackers, water, and light discussion of the beer you just had. That will pass the time between bottles.

 

Part of what is involved in that wait time is related to the recovery time of the neurons that are involved in taste and smell. Ever have a light flash in your eyes while looking towards it? Takes a while for that image to fade away. Or trye this. Spend some time staring fixedly at a bright red rectangle against the white background of a larger piece of paper. After a minute or so look away, blink, and then look at a completly white background. You should see an greenish afterimage about the shape of the red rectangle. It will eventually fade away as the neurons recover from being "over stimulated."

Among our sensory systems the senses of taste and smell are both amont the slowest to return to a neutral state after having been used, especially if it's a strong flavor they are working with.

 

Water and some sort of cracker/wafer. I find that water crackers are best (thin, crispy, and unsalted). Oyster crackers, unsalted saltines (yes, real) and unsalted breadsticks (crisp and unsalted) all work nearly as well. Otherwise a fresh baguette is also a solid choice but surprisingly has much more salt and sugar than any of the unsalted crackers

 

toast some wonderbread, cut the crust off like you are 5 years old and then cut into bite size pieces, water or carbonated water to help scrub even better.

 

You really can't. Horizontals don't work very well, which is why when I see so called "taste tests" I take them with a grain of salt. The boldest beer in the challenge always has the edge over the better crafted, more balanced offering in the lineup. Straight up, beers are palate wrecking.

 

Water for sure.

Cheers!

 

Exactly. I'm not sure yoiu can do a proper tasting of more than one beer at a time.
For my sins I have been a beer judge in competitions and even when dealing with session beers it is almost impossible to unravel the remnants of previous beers from the current one.When dealing with heavy hitters it will be totally impossible to do justice. Fun perhaps , analytical certainly not.