Prologue. Or, M&W Brewing Begins

Last October a neighbour and fellow beer aficionado gave me a bottle of his homebrew'd West Coast IPA to sample.  I wasn't expecting much, as most of my homebrew memories involve plastic bottles of horrible tasting swill.  But I treated the beer with respect nonetheless; I properly chilled it, poured it off into a nice clean glass and rated it just the same as I have been rating all Maritime beer since moving to Halifax in Nov 2008.  The score?  A very respectable 8 out of 10.  With comments such as "sweet citrusy faint hoppy aroma" and "nice hoppy / grassy flavour".  To provide some perspective, most of the beers brewed by the local microbreweries (who brew excellent beer) rate (in my book) between 7 and 9.  So an 8 out of 10, for a homebrew, is a coup.  And given the cost of a bottle of homebrew is orders of magnitude cheaper than the commercial product, I cursed myself for not getting into brewing sooner.  And promptly incorporated Morris & Whistler Brewing Co.  Morris (that's me - my middle name) will be the brewer, with Whistler (the dog) providing the brains of the operation and spill control.  This blog will be a chronicle of our brewing journey.