General smelling question

[vitrael]

Simple question, but I'm looking for a doctor / biologist / neurologist's answer to this problem. Apologies if there is an exhaustive thread already but I could not find it.

Why is it that one can only smell a beer well for the first two or three sniffs?

I know and have read that this problem is essentially universal, and there are ways to combat it, but I'm more interested in the science of why. It's really frustrating to have an amazing smelling IPA or stout that you smell once or twice and then, suddenly, it doesn't smell like much of anything. Tasting, too, makes it more difficult to smell again.

Thoughts, hopes, aspirations? Solutions?

 

[Runyanka]

Could it be that the CO2 coming out of solution is ruining it for you? Taste I can tell you that hop bitterness plays a big part in that.

 

[woodstone]

Have you ever noticed a particular scent upon entering a room, and then not noticed it ten minutes later? This is due to olfactory fatigue. The olfactory sense is unique because it relies on mass, not energy to trigger action potentials. Your ears do not "stop" hearing a sound after a certain period of time, nor do your eyes stop seeing something you may be staring at. This is because both the ears and the eyes rely on energy to trigger them, not mass. In the nose, once a molecule has triggered a response, it must be disposed of and this takes time. If a molecule comes along too quickly, there is no place for it on the olfactory hairs, so it cannot be perceived. To avoid olfactory fatigue, rabbits have flaps of skin that open and close within the nostrils. This allows for short, quick sniffs and lets the rabbit "keep in close odor contact with its environment." When we wish to fully perceive a scent, we humans also smell in quick, short sniffs, often moving the source of the smell in front of one nostril then the other. This behavior also prevents odor fatigue. (Stoddard & Whitfield, 1984)

 

[ksbrain]

Yeah if you take a break from trying to smell it and then try again later, it comes back, at least for me. Just tested my theory on my current IPA.

Though I agree that the strongest aroma is at first pour as the bubbles release an abundance of aroma with each small *POP*

 

[matt415]

you can use coffee beans like they do in perfume stores.

 

[dcott]

When I teach wine appreciation classes, I call it the "Slightly Sniffing Dog," where you think about the quick, short, repeated sniffing action that a dog will do when they're tracking something. By doing that, we can perceive greater variation of volatility of aromas and we are less subject to olfactory fatigue.

 

[vitrael]

Thank you all for the very helpful responses. I shall try this different smelling method tonight.

Matt415, how do coffee beans factory into this? Are they used like crackers to cleanse the palate at a tasting?

I should probably know this because I drink a lot of coffee and live with a barista who has to take tasting classes, but neither of us have heard of it.

 

[tchuklobrau]

think about it they use coffee to hide drugs so the dogs cant smell it. so the coffe smell would be like a nose palet cleansing

 

[woodstone]

think about it they use coffee to hide drugs so the dogs cant smell it.

Got some experience, perhaps?!

 

[kanzimonson]

All of our senses experience some sort of fatigue. If you put a weight on your leg you can feel its pressure at first, but if you remain perfectly still you will notice it less and less.

Even our eyes experience this. Our eyes are constantly vibrating on a miniscule level... this makes it so the world we view is not a static image.

It's a strange thing to think that human perception seems to only be based on change. It's like we can never live instantaneously in the present moment - we're always seeing time. (freakin out man!)