The importance of having a clean palate before a beer is hella underrated. We don’t think or talk about the setup to a beer, enough.
Case in point. Yesterday I had a “Coast Malone” Hazy IPA from Humble Sea Brewing. Great beer, great label.
I then went to a Modern Times “Orderville” Hazy Mosaic IPA. I love this beer, a solid go-to and…it did not taste good.
Was it old? Nope, canned four weeks prior. What the hell then?
Maybe I got a bad batch. Oh well. Not the first time.
The next day, my first beer of the day is another Orderville from the same four-pack; it was excellent. Just like I know it to be. (Isn’t the Mosaic hop magic?)
So what’s going on? It has to be the Coast Malone setup from yesterday. By the way, I like to refer to what you eat/drank/breathed before a beer as the “setup”.
I know this clean palate thing is not a revaluation. Cleansing your palate is something we know we should do. But we don’t do it that often and forget how it affects our beer judgments.
On the Perfect Pour, we have a constant stream of Krispy Crackers going. But many taprooms don’t have this option. So what do you do when you’re out and about?
One thing you can do is completely switch beer styles on your next selection. Then go back to your preferred.
Water. Having a water is something. Not great, but definitely better than nothing (and you should be hydrating anyway).
Many times I do the ‘lick your hand’ trick. It looks weird but I do it. I probably should insert a video here of me licking the side of my hang by I think WordPress has some sorta standards for hand licking porn.
Let me know if you have any palate resetting tips for me in the comments.
Cheers to a clean setup!
