On Sat, 30 Sep 2000 17:56:26 +1100, Christian Gerzner
<[log in to unmask]> wrote:

>Reef Fish wrote
>(big snips)
>
>> As a professional statistician, I conducted a "beer-tasting experiment"
>> in which you might say my colleagues were "paid to drink".  It was a
>> properly DESIGNED experiment in which each subject was subjected to a
>> "sip" or "drink" (with no quantitative restriction) SIX different beers,
>> in an order unknown to them (the labels of the cans were also covered
>> so that they couldn't tell what BRAND).
>
>Back in (probably) '71 I was pretty interested in wine to the extent of
>being a semi (very semi) professional. That was in the days when we
>w**k*d in the mornings and rather too often lunched for the rest of the
day.

< snip >

>Now Rudy never drank beer (to my knowledge) so the rules were that the
>bartender would draw a number of beers (from memory it was about twelve)
>and Rudy would be allowed to taste them, then they would be switched
>around and Rudy would need to choose which was which.
>
>This happened BUT ... Rudy correctly identified each beer by smell
>alone, he never actually tasted any one of them. Methinks that's called
>an "educated palate", or perhaps "educated nose" as they would say in
>the wine trade.

Ah, that is the difference between "hoss-piss" tasting and the more
snobbish "wine tasting".

Have you ever heard of the terms "aroma" and "bouquet" in bier-tasting? :-)

However, while a wine-expert can tell many wines apart by the "educated
nose", only the educated PALATE (as in actual TASTING) can tell the
VINTAGE apart. :-)  But or course I've never heard anyone citing a
vintage year for hoss-piss.  Have you?  <BWG>

A former colleague of mine at the U of Chicago offered me a bet that he
could tell the year (WITHIN ONE) of a bottle of any well-known French
Bordeaux wine by mere "tasting".  I didn't risk my money against that
offer.  :-)


>Ob Scuba:
>
>Christian

Look at the SUBJECT!  That's Off Topic!   <BG>

-- Bob.