Our local homebrew club has little "shootouts" now and then, basically mini-competitions. They specify a criteria, you have a couple of months to get a beer ready, and then we all get together and do a blind taste-test and a winner is decided.
The most recent one we did was a Rye shootout. You could brew anything you wanted, as long as it had at least 20% rye in the grain bill. The tasting was last night, there were 12 entries, and about 15 people showed up to judge/vote/whatever. We made an evening of it, and the host served perogies, chili, buckwheat, and of course homebrew.
Anyway, they also gave us glasses of water with which we (the tasters/judges) could cleanse our palettes.
The first time I picked up my water glass, without even thinking, I first gave it a good, deep sniff.