Factors that Influence Tasting

My brother read the review I had of his Almond Wheat and emailed me a correction. The beer he sent was an American Wheat, there was no almond in it at all. I felt rather embarrassed to say the least, but he would not take an apology, stating that I had planted the seed in his mind to do an almond flavored beer. However, all this got me thinking, what factors influence our sense of taste, especially when it comes to beer?

I have long been a believer that what a person says they taste is what they taste. Taste, along with smell and touch, are very hard to verbalize and put into words what we experience. It is more almost like a guided free association, where you try to describe what you taste using correlations with your own experiences. As such, people will likely not use the same words or "descriptors" to describe what they are tasting. I am a believer that what words a person uses to describe their sense of taste are right for that person. I tell this to people I taste beer with in our homebrewing club, and I tell it to my wife when she says "You know I am not very good at this sort of thing . . ."

All that being said, how much did my thinking there was almond in my brother's beer influence my taste in it. I guess I will never know, but I have a feeling that it influenced it to some degree. Perhaps I would have described a portion of the flavor profile with another word, other than almond. Perhaps not.

I am not sure where I am going with this post, other than to say I find it very interesting. I wonder if other people think about these sorts of things. Or, maybe it is just another sign of how much of a beer geek I really am.

Cheers.