You Say Goodbye and I say Hello

Goodbye Montreal, and Hello Edmonton.

So as you may have guessed from the title of this post, the GMT class of 2011 is up and traveling again. From the East Coast to the West Coast, we have made our way to good ol’ Alberta. So what does the general person think when Edmonton comes to mind? Cold right? That is exactly what I though too, I even went out in Montreal before we left and bought a far too expensive parka jacket to buddle up in. Funny thing is, when we pulled in to YEG (yes that is the airport code… you know you have travelled too much when…) and stepped out of the plane it was a balmy 29 (29 and I have a parka.)  Good thing for me it has cooled down a little since… but alas still no need for the parka. I must say, I’m sure the airlines are loving the added luggage weight.

Side note: please be advised that now if you are over weight on your travel luggage, it is not a charge by the amount over, but a flat rate of $75. So as the airline has told me if you are going to be over the 55 lb limit you might as well be at the 71 lb max. Just some food for though.

Now, many people might have told you that Edmonton is a horrible place to be. This I feel I need to address. 1) Those individuals are probably from Calgary.  2) It is actually quite beautiful, we are right on Victoria park along the river and the view is absolutely breath taking. 3) Being the country music lover I am, the radio stations kick some serious ass – Am I allowed to swear on this? 4) Humidity is at a Zero. 5) PARKING IS FREE. This is amazing considering Montreal ate my money is parking fees. 6) liquor is unregulated… the store by us closed at 2am! ANNNNNNND 7) There is a shooting range in the Mall- and as you know from my last posts... I do love these!


Now there are some downsides 1) it does get darker sooner 2) there are far too many one way streets (First day of work it too us 52 minutes to go 16 minutes because iphone google maps does not count one way streets-  I say iphone because I have a blackberry and am quite loyal to it, so I will knock iphone every chance I get) and lastly, 3) most flights out require a connection.

Although I was sad to leave Montreal, The fact I am now located in a place with real trees and fields, makes me feel much more at home. The Brewery and everyone we have met so far are also fabulous. I understand I did not really wrap up Montreal for you so this time round I will try to give you a few more updates on my Brewery life in Edmonton. Right now I am working on 2 projects, one deal with our budgeting and finances for variable costs, and the other inventory control, staging, and downtime. Sorry I cannot go too much more in detail, I will let you know more when I can. A few key experiences I want to highlight include a flavour sensory test and UofA recruiting.

Working in a brewery, it is essential that you can identify off flavours and components in your beer. These include things like fatty acid, sulphides, DMS (dimethyl-sulphide), and a whole many more. Each come with a unique taste. Tastes range from “baby sick” to “onion” to “paper” to “buttery popcorn”, and are not what we want in our beer. Take a look online sometime and check them out, its crazy how much can go wrong. Light struck for instance is when a clear bottle is penetrated too much with UV rays, and as a result the beer turns and becomes “light struck” This produces a skunky taste. For all of you who enjoy imported Corona or Heiniken, the skunky taste they are famous for, is really just the beer starting to turn. Sorry that was a rant, but its also 100% true.

Back to the sensory test. So in order to keep tasters on their toes, sensory tests are preformed, where undesired traits are added to the beers and tasters are required to identify what components are present. This allows you to see what chemical compounds you can sense and what ones you need to work on. I personally cannot taste “baby sick” I’m not complaining on that one, I’m glad I can’t. I will tell you though, that I am extremely sensitive to musty flavours which are comparable to that damp cellar or wet soil smell/taste.

I ALSO WANT TO POINT OUT FOR THE GMT CLASS I HAD THE HIGHEST SENSORY SCORE- yes I am bragging, but its only because I thought I would bomb, and I still did, but I didn’t do half bad in the scheme of things.

Now I also mentioned recruiting at UofA. This was a very unique and fun experience, and let me tell you a lot less stressful than last year when I was recruiting. To all of the individuals and potential GMT’s I spoke to good luck, you all impressed me so much. I hope many of you reading this have taken the opportunity to go to one so far. Good Luck to You all!

Don’t want to ramble too much, I’ll leave that for another post!

Cheers!

Jnes