April 2007 Archives

Yellow Bourbon - 480 50/50 Columbian/Indian Monsooned - 480 Yemen Mohka Sana'ani - 485 Peru Norte Especial - 475

All roasted for John and Jeanie. A bit darker overall this week.

Our 1/2 pig showed up last week. All 80lbs of it. Until today it just sat in the freezer.

Today I pulled a package of chops out of the freezer and got it thawed. When I ordered it I was asked how thick I wanted the chops cut. Henry recommended a good thick cut (1.5in). When I opened the package I saw he wasn't kidding. I've never had pork chops that thick.

A dusting of seasoned salt and about 15minutes on the grill and it was done.

The smell was unreal. The taste was even more amazing. This is seriously the best tasting pig I have ever had.

I HIGHLY recommend pork from Jupille Ranch.

I didn't have quite enough Sidamo for a whole batch the other day, and I figured that combined with the Las Ranas I might get some good results.

Roasted to City+

The first day it was all right. Nothing exciting, kind of bland. This morning it woke up. Turned out really really good.

Some roasts require more resting than others.

I found iGTD the other day. I've no idea where I found it, but I decided to download and try it out.

It took a bit to get used to (wasn't quite as simple to use as the GTD scripts for OmniOutliner), but once I got the swing of things it is damned nice.

One thing I really like is that it syncs with iCal - and does so without resorting to some whack AppleScript. It uses SyncServices just like it should, and seems to be quite reliable so far.

Unlike some of the other GTD apps I tried, this thing is NOT dog slow. Its quite snappy, and has a relatively simple UI. It seems like it is just complicated enough to get what it needs to do done, and no more.

I'm going to keep using this for more and more. If I find something interesting about it, I'll post that. Or if I switch off of it to something else.

Roasted last night to 450deg F (on my thermocouple) - just after the first crack completed.

Just had a cup from the french press. The brightness of the Tres Rios really livens up the Las Ranas. I think it could use a bit more though, next time I'll try 60/40 or maybe even 50/50.

Also a roast for Jeanie and John. Taken to 480deg (and hoping to not set off the smoke alarm!).

Roast for Jeanie and John stopped at 440deg.

Update: They really liked this one - probably the favorite of the lot. It has a nice sharp/bold flavor that was good for the mornings.

First up is a shot of the accusump mounted to the chassis. No plumbing has been attached yet.

Next is a close up of the top of the unit with plumbing attached. Note that the NPT->AN fitting at the top later leaked and I had to reseal it.

And finally a closer shot of the valve unit at the bottom.

I'd have loved to have got a good shot of the oil line that feeds the block. Unfortunately short of dropping the exhaust and/or the engine that wasn't going to happen. I barely got my hand in there to put the fittings in.

Just did another batch of this - decaf beans seem to exit first crack at a higher temp than high octane beans. Pulled the roast at 450deg.

Just roasted today - stopped the roast at 440 deg (FC).

Tom says its rustic butterscotch and light mollasses sweetness, effervescent acidity, and unique.

We'll see tomorrow (planning on having only a shot of this so far).

Update: This is one funky brew. Not bad, just way funky. So funky in fact, that I'm not sure how to describe it.

Curiously, this is an organic coffee in the UK, but not in the US. Weird.

I had issues with the thermocouple for this roast (actually a roasting chamber issue caused by a bad install of the thermocouple) so no final temp reading on this one. Judging by sound I took it to FC and stopped the roast there.

This is one kickass cup of coffee - very very well balanced but lively too. It would make an awesome kahlua. This was a caffeinated bean, so I was roasting for others. I did try a shotglass full from the french press - and then promptly drank a full cup. And another cup the next day too.

The lack of sleep was worth it.

I should also add that I needed a few more supplies from Sweet Marias, so I picked up 2lbs of this to have on hand.