Brewing Blind

I woke this morning with the worst sinus occupying head cold. Today was marked down as a brew day, even though I didn’t feel like it I persevered. In addition to brewing a batch of best bitter I was intending to rack a batch of O.S.B. into a corny, it has struck me that carrying out this task with absolutely no sense of smell and little sense of taste is an extremely hard thing to do. Is the O.S.B. ready? I have no idea , diacetyl? Not sure, acetal aldehyde? God I hope not, I can tell it’s got a decent mouthfeel! How about the Berhampore Best I’m brewing today? astringency from the sparge? not sure, conversion? Well the hydrometer says so but I usually like to check with my palate. It all reinforces to me how important the human is in brewing at this end of the scale. I’m off for a port and brandy.