As we hit a couple breweries the other day we wondered how one place taste so differently, and maybe even better, than another? Kind of a silly question, but when drinking two different company's same beers, say two brown ales, why is one so much better than the other?
There are a couple of obvious reasons and they boil down to one does it better. Or in other words they use the correct amount of the right flavours, time, and love. It's like why you can eat one chocolate cake and another chocolate cake and although they are identical, you like one better.
Maybe one person added an ingredient the other did not.
Or maybe it was you.
How much does your own personal likes and dislikes come into play? Let's use black liquorice as an example, some love it some do not so if it's my beer or cake, I'm not liking it, but someone will. I personally do not like winter porters with vanilla but they seem pretty popular. Anyway, there's that ingredient aspect of why one brown ale may taste better than another. The style may match, but that flavour they enhanced, I may not like.
Could timing come into it?
What if I was simply in the right mood for this brown versus the other? What if the ambience was set right that I was already predisposed to liking that one? How does that translate to other things I like?
What if my having a beer already primed my palate and mental space to like the second. Maybe that first one was never going to go well becasue I ate a samosa in the car right before and that ruined my taste for a brown ale. Maybe it was my fault and now I'm taking it out on the brewery.
What a tough business. You have a one shot deal to make me love that beer.
How do you set me up for success?
Should you have me rinse out my mouth somehow?
Should tell me what to look for, smell for and taste so it's already in my head before I even get it to my lips? Is that cheating?
At the very least should you ask what style I gravitate to so the one I pick is generally not off-putting?
Is all that my responsibility before I give you a try?
