I took over a coworkers work for about 2 weeks which involved visiting a steel foundry repeatedly.
look, sorry but im ahem sensitive about washing my hands and about odours. the smell was a complex mix of burning metal, gases, general pollution, dust etc. diverging from topic, having to wear several types of safety equipment, especially ear plugs is such a weird feeling and the environment of heat, noise, offensive smells gives this instinctive feeling of “you need to leave here now!” at first.
but, i seem to be at least temporarily super sensitive to sulfur and a variety of burned smells since doing this. drinking an imp stout now and i get notes that just make me think of industrial settings, which did not occur before i started this foundry thing.
now you: anyone had any weird or even unfortunate experiences that messed with your sense of smell?
my covid loss of smell ability years ago has cleared up of course
Anytime I go swimming in a chlorinated pool for any longer than say 10-15 minutes, any food or beverage that I consume for a few hours afterwards tastes bland or off. The chlorine can really harm your sense of smell, for a good while.
It happens for a few types of smells and I can’t remember all of them but I do know that clearing the horrible smelling black crud out of a clogged drain will do it. I’ll get that smell “stuck” in my nose, and I’ll be somewhere that I know there are no open drains, but some vague background smell will make me think that I’m smelling rotting, black drain crud again.
i was listening to this podcast while driving recently and i believe there are some relevant things related to associating aroma elements with X and all kinds of things like that. it was an entertaining one at least anyway
As much as I love a good cigar, it ruins my palate and sinuses for about 2 days afterwards. Everything tastes and smells like an ashtray. Strong flavors can overpower it, but something like a pale lager is kinda ruined for me. Those are the days I stick to rum, whiskey, cocktails, etc.
was listening to randy mosher on his kick of the science of tasting, and he mentioned that when a person is frequently in a certain environment the smell receptors in their nose will adapt to that environment, increasing the number involved in detecting relevant smells while i believe the relatively unused receptors are removed.
Age does it, too. My senseof taste and smell comes and goes. Since I never know when it’s gonna happen, I decided I should quit judging. It’s not asmuch of a problem assessing my own beers since I’m not under a time limit then.
