I've noticed when drinking beer with hop particulate in solution (usually with pellet hops in a keg) that a biting/tingling is noticed in the back of the throat. They also come across more bitter when starting the keg then after getting into it a gallon or so.
As far as checking for particulate, the hop particulate seems to settle out pretty quickly. If you pour a beer into a clear glass and just let it sit on the counter for 10 minutes, then pick it up and look up at the bottom you should be able to see hop particles settled out there.
Lastly, I've found the harshest (most green, grassy, tea-flavored, off-putting) hop qualities come out the quickest but are overshadowed by the better qualities in a short time. Specifically in a cold keg, I would say 1-4 days are the worst for the bad qualities, and that they improve over the next few days (4-14). I suspect this has something to do with the myrcene oils slowly volatilizing at any temperature and it just takes a few days for them to "go away".