Your Tasting Brain: A Sensory Approach to Wine, Beer, and Other Pleasures, by Randy Mosher, is a deep dive into the science of how, what, and why the senses work the way they do when we taste something, with a smaller component covering the practical aspects tasting whether you are a casual drinker or an expert critic. The science portion covers the majority of this book and I feel that I am getting PhD level information on the components of taste.
Randy Mosher has been writing about beer and brewing since 1989 and is the author of three beer and brewing books: The Brewers Companion (Alephenalia Publications, 1991), Radical Brewing (Brewers Publications, 2004) and Tasting Beer (Storey Publications, 2009).
The Book
The longer, science section of this book covers:
- what is flavour (not a single sense but a complex synthesis of taste, smell, mouthfeel, and more)
- olfaction (or sense of smell)
- evolutionary purpose to like or dislike certain tastes
You will learn the difference between flavour and taste, how your tastebuds work, basic tastes and emerging tastes, the differences between tasting with your tastebuds vs through your olfactory system, and how these signals are combined and analyzed in different parts of your brain. It is quite comprehensive.
The shorter, practical aspects of tasting, of the book covers:
- the molecules that make flavours
- the main fermented beverages (wine, beer, sake, cider)
- distilled beverages (base materials and how the beverage is fermented and distilled)
- how, why, and how. The techniques of tasting, including things such as effects of glassware.
Yeast is an important component to producing flavours in wine, beer, and other fermented beverages. Randy gets into the details of different strains of yeasts and the types of flavour molecules they help to produce. He also covers how flavours in these beverages can evolve from the time of harvest, e.g. picking grapes, through to fermentation, storage (e.g. in wood barrels), distillation (e.g. for spirits), and when they interact with our mouth.
Randy also covers how flavours are created in non-fermented products, like coffee and chocolate, where heating the beans brings out particular flavours.
There are some flavours or aromas we do not like, like wet dog, which you may get from some tainted bottles of wine. Randy covers different types of taint chemicals that we may encounter in our fermented beverages.
On the practical side of tasting, he introduces us to shapes of glasses and how they can enhance the aromas and flavours of our fermented beverages. To round things out, he covers the differences in how experts vs casual drinkers taste these beverages, and how you can become a better taster. He outlines some biases that can be introduced when you are tasting a beverage, and how to minimize those biases.
To Summarize
This is a very comprehensive book. A book that you need to read carefully, chapter by chapter, to fully understand the complexity behind flavour creation and how our body identifies flavours. I recommend this book for serious drinkers, who want to know the scientific details behind tasting. As mentioned, food scientists would be a prime target for this book, but as well, wine makers, sommeliers, beer makers, and cicerones, would also benefit from reading this book. Lastly if you are a science enthusiast, this book is for you.
Where Can I Buy This Book?
This book will be published on May 15 2026 by the University of Chicago Press where it is also available for purchase. You can also pre-order the book on amazon.ca. It may be available through other major bookstores, but you will have to check.
