If you go out and drink beers with different alcohol by volume, you will have a much better time of it if you drink, as it were, from strength to strength, Beer and Health reported. The cause is probably to be found in the reaction of the taste buds, and in the electrical signals that they send to the brain. Incoming signals from beer with greater alcohol volume will, naturally, have greater impact. The brain constantly records and compares. It will measure the incoming signal against what it has previously had to contend with. If the comparison is unfavourable - for example, if the received signal is weaker due to a lower-than-expected alcohol volume - the brain will not be overly impressed. Positive comparison demands a higher alcohol volume. Which accounts for the fact that sinking a lager after savouring a full-bodied Trappist will give less pleasure than the other way around. “Suck it and see”.