Stuster is there,
crackers, dry bread, that sort of thing. Its helpful if whatever it is that you are eating is a bit scratchy on the tongue... helps to scrape it clean with a few drinks of water to wash away the detritus.
Smelling you sleeve, or when I do it, the crook of your elbow - The idea is to reach your right hand around your head, past your left ear and grab the back of your neck, then stick your nose in the crook of your elbow and take a few good deep slow breaths through your nose. Your nose suffers odour "fatigue" really quite quickly and to "reset" its ability to smell certain smells, you need to smell something that your brain perceives as completely neutral, ie: your own body's smell... not the sweatiness of your armpit, just your own personal odour. Sticking your nose inside the neck of your shirt as though trying to avoid someones fart smells, also does a good job.
If you are having trouble with an picking an odour in a beer... wafting it can really help. Instead of shoving your beak inside the glass and breathing in lungsfull.... hold the glass out from your face a bit and just take a sniff as you wave the glass under your nose. Something about the quick burst of smell helps to stratify the smells and separate one from the other. Individual characteristics will stick out a little more and you have a better show of identifying them.
If you are having trouble with a whole "class" of smells ie: malty, fruity, hops etc etc then there is some evidence that a period of longer term exposure to the "type" of smell, will sharpen your ability to identify and differentiate smells that fall into that category - for up to 24hrs after. So if for instance you are having trouble with picking the difference between hop aromas and you have beers to judge/try that afternoon - you might sit at your PC or watching the telly, or whatever, with a bowlfull of hop pellets near you for 30-60mins. It doesn't really matter what type of pellets. This trains/activates your brain for that "sort" of smell, and after a couple of hours away from the hop smells to reset itself a bit, your nose will still (maybe/probably) be more able to detect hoppy smells and differentiate between different hoppy smells. Same with malty smells, fruity smells, spicy smells etc etc. I've not tried a combination, so I don't know if it works, but I have tried it with hops and malt, and I think it made a noticeable difference.
My taste routine is to...
-Reset palate and nose (see above)
-Have a quick look a the beer
-Smell it almost first thing.. some smells are really fleeting. Two "wafts" then nose into glass, short sharp sniff, then without breathing out, a long smell. Repeat. Swirl the beer and repeat as necessary, notice where in the process the smells hit you hardest and just do that bit again if you are stuck on something. If you are really stuck, reset your nose (via teh elbow thing) again, put your hand over the glass to trap odours, swirl the glass and then take a sniff just as you remove you hand, this will help to concentrate the smells a little.
-Now have a proper look. Head, colour, clarity etc etc
- take a mouthfull, look for malty/hoppy/ fruity etc in the first mouthfull, worry about carbonation mouthfeel etc later. Swirl it around in your mouth, let it warm up in there. Make chewing motions with your jaw... this sends signals to your brain telling it that food is on the way and lights up the nerves and bits of your brain that detect flavours. Swallow in a couple of little goes and breath in and out through your nose while you do. The warmth of your mouth and throat will evaporate volatile odour compounds and your nose will be able to detect them as you breath out. Thats why we often "taste" something only after we swallow it.. really its more that we are "smelling" it.
-take another mouthful, look for mothfeel, astringency, body, carbonation, finish etc etc this time around ... you might notice more of the other things as well, but probably not, your tastebuds and odour receptors will already be starting to go numb to this particular set of flavours.
-If there were off aromas when you first smelled the beer, there is a chance that they were temporary and might have dissipated, I have another smell just in case. A minute or two in the glass can completely clear up some sulphury matchstrike smells, and other ones as well, you might have marked a beer severely down for a fault that would never be noticed by the time a beer was poured by a barman and brought to a table... its still a fault, but maybe not as bad as you first thought. Remember the nose fatigue thing though, it may be just as strong and you just don't notice it so much any more.
Anyway, sorry, you probably know half of this already, I'm just babbling
Bread and water ... thats it. The answer to the question you actually asked.
Thirsty
