Triangle test - for fun

[Kealia]

I recently ended up with a few bottles of Firestone's Pale 31 which is a Pale Ale that I really like. I've had bottles in the past that were marked as being 5 months old and I swear that I could taste the different between that and a fresh bottle. So...I had my wife set up a blind triangle test for me.
3 pours of the same amount, in identical cups, using 2 pours from one sample and 1 pour from the other. one sample was a bottle less than 3 weeks old and the second was a bottle from 5 months ago. Only she knew which glass contained which pour, and how many she poured of each.

I smelled them, looked at them and tasted them multiple times.
I started at one end working my way to the other and couldn't detect a difference.
I did the same thing in reverse order with no better luck.
I drank water in between samples - still nothing.

I thought I could identify at least by smell which was older - but I picked the wrong one.

In the end, I could tell no difference at all. Not by smell, appearance or taste.
Sometimes I know I get biased going into a beer based on what I *think* I know and this was a great way to reinforce that I don't know sh**

It was a lot of fun and I can see a few more tests in the future with what I think is my favorite IPA, session, etc. I wonder how I will react when I know nothing about what I am going to drink.

You guys ever do anything similar? Next time I will take pics, sorry.

[Beer-lord]

Never have but I'm surprised between three weeks and five months you didn't notice anything. But that's good right?

[BlackDuck]

That's a cool test. Nice never done that. It must be a little humbling to finally KNOW that you don't know sh**.


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[RickBeer]

I have always believed that people notice differences when they know they should and if they did not know they should they wouldn't.

"Do you taste the ____ in this"?

"Yes".

" Well I did not put any in".

[Kealia]

Never have but I'm surprised between three weeks and five months you didn't notice anything. But that's good right?

I think so. First off, it's a pale and not an IPA so it shouldn't be different. I think sometimes we get caught up in "if it's older than 3 days, it's too old to drink" mentality, too.

RickBeer actually nailed it. Test bias/previous knowledge comes into play more often than I think we realize. It's definitely something I'll do again - just to continue to show how little I know

[Brewbirds]

I set up a blind test for BB2 the first time we made a Ruthless Rye clone. His goal was to pick the commercial version NOT which one he liked best. He picked our clone. When I told him he got it wrong he smiled and said "well ours is better".

[RickBeer]

I did a taste test once on someone and told them there were three different things and asked them to rate them. They did. Then I told them that all 3 were identical...