Day: July 20, 2023

Brew Notes

lpaulriddle
  • Beans: Local Coffee Roasting Co. Breakfast Blend (light roast)
  • 20 grams coffee, 260 grams water (1:13 ratio)
  • French press
  • Gooseneck kettle
  1. Preheat French press
  2. Heat brew water to boil
  3. Coarse grind (JX setting: 3 rotations + 4 clicks or 94 total clicks)
  4. Start timer and pour at the same time
  5. 60 second bloom (including pour time)
  6. Stir a few seconds until grounds settle
  7. Steep 6 minutes

I’ve been getting a little bit frustrated with my AeroPress lately. I just seem to be unable to get consistently good results with it. One day I’ll brew something that is really good, and the next day I’ll brew the exact same beans with the exact same recipe, and it will be lackluster. I wish I could figure out what I’m doing when I get a good cup from it, and repeat it somehow.

On the flip side, we have the French press. It takes longer than the AeroPress, but I don’t think I’ve ever brewed a bad cup with it. For this one, I used the light roast beans I picked up last week in Bethany. I’ve used this exact French press recipe with lots of different beans. The only difference today was that because it’s a light roast, I used boiling water instead of 85-95°C water. The result was a rich, full-bodied, generally excellent cup. The only problem was that it was maybe a little too strong. I am feeling the caffeine more than I would like. The 1:13 ratio is stronger than the 1:18 I’ve been using with the AeroPress, but it may just be because it’s a 30% larger cup than what I usually make with the AP (260 vs 200 grams). I can see if I like it at 1:14 or 1:15, or just cut the volume down to 200 grams, which would call for about 15 grams of coffee to get a 1:13 ratio.

I may try out an AeroPress recipe like this one that uses a coarser grind which more closely mimics what I’ve been using with the French press, just to see what kind of results I get.

Run Notes

lpaulriddle

I left the house at 7:45 this morning and ran 7.5 miles. The temperature was 72 when I left and 77 when I returned, with the dewpoint hovering right around 70 — pretty typical conditions for mid July here on the humid East Coast. I ran pretty well, with good energy and reasonably good form until I started to tire a little bit around mile 6. My average pace was 11 minutes/mile, which is only 30-45 seconds slower than I typically run in cooler weather — not too bad, especially given the high dewpoint. I ate 3 pieces of egg bake and a peanut bar before heading out, and drank 16 ounces of water during the course of the run. I lost a lot of fluids while I was out. When I got home, my shirt was soaked through and heavy with sweat. As usual, my SweatHawg head band kept it out of my eyes. I’ve become a big fan of these. I re-hydrated with some Gatorade (which I drink very sparingly, and only this time of year) and am trying to drink plenty of water over the course of the day, something I’ve historically been better at doing when I’m at the office vs. at home.