Supertasters and why some people find hoppy beer far more bitter
People do not taste bitterness equally. Some find a 60 IBU IPA pleasant, others find it harsh. Part of that gap is training and habit. Part of it is biology. The term supertaster comes from that research.
Not everyone gets the same beer
Pour one IPA for a table of six and you will often hear six different verdicts on bitterness. Some of that is preference. Some of it is real: the same beer delivers a stronger bitter signal to some tongues than others.
Scientists noticed this decades ago with a bitter test compound. Some people found it intensely bitter, some mildly bitter and some could barely taste it at all. The intense group were named supertasters.
Supertasters react strongly to a bitter test strip
The usual test uses paper strips soaked in phenylthiocarbamide (PTC) or propylthiouracil (PROP). The ability to taste these compounds is strongly linked to a bitter taste receptor gene called TAS2R38. Researchers commonly describe roughly a quarter of people as non-tasters, half as medium tasters and a quarter as supertasters, although the split varies between populations.
Supertasters also tend to have more fungiform papillae, the small bumps on the tongue that hold taste buds. More taste buds generally means a stronger response to bitterness. It often brings a stronger response to sweetness, sourness and the burn of chilli too.
How this links to hop bitterness
The main bitter compounds in beer are iso-alpha acids, formed when hop alpha acids are boiled. They act on several bitter receptors, not mainly on TAS2R38. So the PROP test does not measure hop bitterness directly. What it does mark is a person who tends to rate many bitter and strong tastes as more intense, partly because of the extra taste buds.
The practical result is familiar. A supertaster may find an IPA at 60 IBU harsh and lingering, while a non-taster finds it pleasantly firm. A pale lager at around 15 IBU might seem balanced to the first and thin to the second. Neither is wrong. They are reporting different signals from the same glass.
Training and habit still matter
Biology is not the whole story. Regular drinkers of hoppy beer get used to bitterness and come to enjoy it, whatever their taster status. Brewers often prefer more bitterness than their customers for the same reason. Food culture plays a part too. Someone raised on bitter gourd, strong tea and mustard oil may approach a bitter beer differently from someone who rarely meets bitterness at the table.
Our guide to how bitterness is perceived covers the other factors: carbonation, temperature, sweetness and the type of hop compound.
Testing yourself at home
PROP and PTC strips are sold for classroom use. They give a quick, rough answer. Place one on the tongue for a few seconds. Supertasters often find it unpleasantly bitter at once, medium tasters taste it clearly but mildly and non-tasters taste little or nothing beyond paper.
You can also count papillae. Put a drop of blue food colouring on the tip of your tongue, press a paper reinforcement ring with a hole about 6 mm wide onto the coloured area and count the pink dots inside the ring with a magnifying glass. The dots stay pink because they take up less dye. More dots generally means more taste buds. It is a classroom method, not a lab test, but it makes a good talking point at a tasting.
Treat the results as a hint about your palate, not a label. What you have learned to enjoy matters as much as what you were born with.
Why it matters to brewers
If a brewery panel is made up entirely of hop lovers who barely register bitterness, its bitterness scores will drift away from what customers taste. A good panel includes a range of sensitivities, or at least knows where each taster sits. Screening tasters with simple bitter solutions, such as quinine or a measured dose of iso-alpha acid extract, shows who is sensitive and who is not.
For a taproom, it is a reason to describe bitterness honestly on the menu. A supertaster who orders a West Coast IPA blind and hates it is unlikely to try another. One who was warned it is firmly bitter might pick the hazy pale instead and come back for more.
Food, heat and the supertaster
Supertasters often also feel chilli heat and alcohol burn more strongly, because the same density of nerve endings carries those signals. Pairing a very bitter beer with a fiery vindaloo can feel like an assault to them. A malty, lower bitterness beer usually works better with heavy spice for sensitive tasters. Our guide on beer and spicy food goes into that pairing in more detail.
Your first step
Pour two beers side by side, a pale lager and an IPA. Ask everyone at the table to score bitterness from 1 to 10 without talking. Compare the scores. The spread will tell you more about your friends' tongues than any argument about which beer is better.
Common questions
What is a supertaster?
A person who tastes certain bitter test compounds such as PROP very strongly. Supertasters also tend to have more taste buds and often rate many bitter and spicy foods as more intense.
Are supertasters more sensitive to hop bitterness?
Often, though the PROP test does not measure hop bitterness directly. Supertasters tend to rate many bitter tastes as stronger, partly because they have more taste buds.
Can you learn to like bitter beer?
Many people do. Regular exposure makes bitterness more familiar and more enjoyable, whatever your taster status.
