Tasting Beer Again and Getting Totally Different Tastes

Or... go back to beers you've only had once and revisit them to see if you get a different impression.
With music, I used to think that the second time you listened to an album was the first time you heard the album.

 

In a typical nothing out of the ordinary evening, I may have from zero to 2 beers. It is not unusual for the two beers (when I have 2) to be different. I rinse the glass, but that is it; no formal "palate cleansing".

The taste of the 2nd beer, to me, is definitely influenced by the taste of the first, and both are influenced by what I may be eating at the time.

Also, I have found that my impression of a beer (from "yuk" all the way up to "wonderful") is frequently at least a little different the second time (on a different day) compared with the first. IDK if that difference is due to expectations changing or not. The most typical change is moving from the low end of the scale to higher. Rarely does a beer taste worse the 2nd time than the first, for me, anyway.

I don't know the explanation for this, really, but it is why I try to have at least two of a new beer, each on different days, before I will attempt to review it. I'll take notes on the first tasting, but they are provisional pending the second.

 

Try your favorite IPA after tasting a few other IPA's. The results are interesting.

 

I'd suggest that much if not all of the difference in your particular example was due to taste variance, but not variance in you pers se, but rather variance in what you'd had to eat and its carry over effects on your palate. The more subtle of these effects can carry over for several hours or even a day or two.

Expectation definitely has an influence on tasting results in that there are blind tasting studies that have shown that with wine, for example its possible to give folks participating a white wine and they reported the tastes associated with white wines. Take the same white wine and add some food coloring to cause it to look like a red wine and the tasters reported picking up flavors associated with red wines. What's not clear is the degree to which those expectations can dominate the sensory experience. But they do have an effect.

Question: Was this a pretty traditional Turkey dinner including cranberry sauce and all the other fixing?

 

In general its most likely an effect of other things eaten during the day but might also result from such things as tiredness, the beginnings of an illness, medication taken, etc.

Generally folks who think their palate is unchanging could not be more wrong....

 

This. Also, not just the beginnings of an illness, but the aftereffects, even several days' worth. I'm also pretty convinced that psychological factors affect changing tastes, even from day to day.

 

Most likely had to do with what you ate, unless you did a palate cleanse in between the meal and the beer. Like @drtth said above, "what you'd had to eat and its carry over effects on your palate."....for better or for worse, this is most likely what caused the variance in taste.

 

Pigged out on cranberry sauce? Well there's a pretty plausible reason why the beer that night tasted like a chocolate bomb,... :-)

 

so, so, so many variables impact perception of flavor, sound, sight, etc.

it's the same beer. you just perceived it differently that time.

 

Not just with beer...

That White Mug Makes Your Coffee Taste Bitter

 

Some of the people I hang out with in my professional life have pretty convincing evidence you're absolutely correct and that the only thing to be debated is how strongly those Psychological factors operate in a particular case or in one case compared to another. Basically the way it looks to me from what I've heard them say is that the more abiguity there is about what to expect the greater the role of the psychological effects leading sensory experience.

 

Case solved.

 

I applaud this. I get a little dumbfounded when I see a post that mentions opening a beer, trying it, reviewing it, and then finishing the bottle (in that order). Consumer-centric sites like this are wonderful but they can create a culture where people do funny things.

 

Yeah, these were my exact thoughts. I've had much different experiences when I have a beer with food than without.