YGingras^.net

 It's been a little over a month since I left Montréal and a lot has happened since then. The search for a new home took some time but was not nearly as painful as I was expecting it to be. I got a lovely one bedroom apartment on the corner of the building, which gives me lots of natural light. There's a lot to do and see in San Francisco but this will all have to wait because the first thing that I did once I was sure that I would eventually have a bed to sleep on, was to brew a batch of beer.

I left most of my brewing equipment in Montréal. Most of the bulky stuff is simply too affordable to justify packing having it moved across the continent. I had a pretty good stash of hops that I ended up giving away because I was more interested in seeing used for brewing than going stale in a big unrefrigerated cardboard box somewhere between Montréal and San Francisco.

I did not buy everything that I had in Montréal but fortunately, brewing does not require much. I ordered a carboy, some malt, hops, a packet of yeast, and I was ready to go.

I got my co-workers to join me as brewing apprentices and we embarked on the of making a creamy oatmeal stout. Brewing is simple – I like to remind people that even Vikings were doing it. Therefore, I was not scared that we would not end up with a delicious beverage in the end, as long as we follow a few simple procedures.

The first thing that you do when you decide that you are going to brew a batch, and the one that is going to have the most impact on the final product is to design a recipe. New comers are always advised to stick to reputable sources when selecting a recipe and to wait until they master the basics before they design a beer from scratch. Not a problem for me since I have many recipe books somewhere in these boxes that I haven't opened yet and I've designed quite a few recipes by now. Yet, for the sake of keeping this first one simple and uneventful, I decided to get a pre-made recipe from More Beer, just like you should always start with a simple ride around the block when you meet your motorcycle again for the first time in Spring. The recipe kits at more beer are high quality fresh ingredients, milled right before shipping. This is a great deal for intermediate brewers, and price wise it's very competitive with assembling a grain bill from scratch from your inventory.

I opted for an oatmeal stout because this is a style that I always like and that I've brewed well many times. I was confident that with it, I would be able to identify flaws with my setup really fast as I know all of the subtle details that give you an award winning creamy and rich stout, with hints of coffee and vanilla. The More Beer kit arrived with a very straight forward hops bill, just the way I like it, but with no less than eight different malts, in addition to the malt extract that would serve me as a crutch until I assemble a new mash tun. Wow! That's complex. Doubt not that this one has the potential to be a very good beer but it's going to be hard to taste and adjust such a recipe because with so many different kinds of malts, it's hard to tell which one brings you which nuance and which dimension in your final product.

The brew session went off without any incident. I guess I can do simple partial mash brews with my eyes partially closed these days. By the time we finished drinking our third beer, we were all done and the beer was chilling in the bathtub. My new fridge with an ice maker greatly helped with this one but it still took too long for our taste so we left it to sit there peacefully while we went out to the City Beer Store to do some research and development on what the next batch would be.

Typical of the West coast, we've got our eyes on a citrusy IPA – all grain with a ridiculously simple malt bill. So many great citrusy pale ales for almost nothing around here but the guys rightfully pointed out that it's also a good way to calibrate your skills.

Now I only need to set myself up with a new kegerator. Stay tuned for the tasting notes.