Fruddled Gruntbugglies

Author: lpaulriddle

  • Today’s (cold) brew notes

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    • Beans: German St Coffee & Candlery Private House Blend
    • Coarse grind (JX: 3 rotations + 4 clicks / 94 total clicks)
    • Recipe: https://www.acouplecooks.com/french-press-cold-brew
    • 140 grams coffee (roughly 2 cups ground), 840 grams water

    With summer upon us, I decided to try making some cold brew. The hardest part of this was grinding 140 grams of coffee with the JX. This job would be better suited to a higher capacity electric grinder. Other than that, there’s not much to it: just add the ingredients to the french press, stir, cover with plastic wrap, refrigerate for 24 hours, and strain into a glass jar or pitcher. The resulting brew is concentrated, and the recipe recommends diluting 50/50 with either water or milk. I tried it with milk, and it was pretty good. Now, I need to work on trying to get a good cup of regular hot brew with these beans, but that’s for another day…

    On an unrelated note, I just moved the back end database for this blog to a AWS RDS MariaDB instance. It had previously been running in a MariaDB Docker container on my old EC2 instance. This is the first step to getting my stuff off the EC2 instance and into (probably) EKS with Fargate. If you’re reading this, it means that it worked. 😀

  • Today’s Brew Notes

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    • Beans: Lost Dog Coffee “La Esparanza” Organic Medium/Medium Dark Roast (Nicaragua)
    • 17 grams coffee, 160 grams brew water
    • 90°C water
    • JX 1 full rotation + 6 clicks (36 total clicks, or 12 on the grind chart) (fine)
    • Recipe: V60 Style Aeropress (dark roast)
    • 40 grams bypass water for a 200-gram cup (roughly 1:12)

    This was the best cup I’ve gotten so far from these beans using the Aeropress. My previous tries all turned out under-extracted. I suspect I had been grinding the beans too coarse. This recipe seems to work best with a very fine grind. This was the exact same formula I used yesterday with a darker roast, except I increased the water temperature from 85°C to 90°C. Seems like I’ve found a go-to recipe for medium to darker roasts.

  • Today’s Ride Notes

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    I’m trying to start using my long-neglected blog kind of like a daily journal. We’ll see if I keep up with it.

    Ever since COVID hit back in 2020, I’ve been doing more weekend bike rides, combining them with geocaching. Prior to that, I used my bike almost exclusively to commute to work. I still commute by bike, but not nearly as much as I used to, so these weekend rides are a good way to get some more biking in.

    Today, I rode a 32 mile loop, which included some areas where I hadn’t previously biked: BWI Trail to B&A Trail, then back to Linthicum via Marley Neck Blvd., Fort Smallwood Rd., Hawkins Point Rd., Pennington Ave., and Ordnance Rd. Ordnance through Glen Burnie is not a route I would typically recommend, but it was doable early on a Sunday morning. The rest of the ride was great, and I found 5 caches along the way. I rode my Masi single speed for the first time in several months. The bike had been out of commission because the valve stem on the rear tube had broken, and I was out of tubes that fit the wheel. It took me a few months to get around to buying new tubes, putting one on, and reinstalling the wheel. Also, last year, the bike shop rebuilt the front wheel, because I had been breaking a lot of spokes. I wanted to take a few longer rides on the bike before I take it to the beach later this summer, just to put the wheel through its paces, although I’ve taken several rides on it already. So far, so good.

  • Brew Notes

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    • Beans: Lost Dog Coffee “Mocha Sidamo” Organic Dark Roast (Ethiopia)
    • 17 grams coffee, 160 grams brew water
    • 85°C water
    • JX 1.5 rotations minus 3 clicks (fine)
      • See comments — an even finer grind than this (1 rotation plus 6 clicks, or 36 total clicks), seems to work better
    • Recipe: V60 Style Aeropress (dark roast)
    • Cup #1: 80 grams bypass water (240 grams total; 1:14)
    • Cup #2: 40 grams bypass water (200 grams total; 1:12)

    I got pretty good results the first time I tried this recipe, but didn’t measure how much bypass water I added. The recipe calls for 100mg, but even 80 tasted weak to me. 40 grams (a 200g cup) seemed about the right strength, and was not a bad cup. Given that the recipe calls for so much more water, I’m wondering if I’m not getting enough extraction out of the beans. I don’t think I want to go up much on the water temperature, so I guess I could try grinding even finer and see what happens.

  • Today’s Brew Notes

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    • Beans: German St Coffee and Candlery Private House Blend
    • Attempt #1:
      • 13 grams coffee, 200 grams water (roughly 1:15)
      • 95°C water
      • 2 rotations (medium-fine)
    • Attempt #2:
      • 11 grams coffee, 200 grams water (1:18)
      • 99°C water
      • 1.5 rotations (fine)
    • James Hoffman’s Ultimate Aeropress Recipe

    I’m not sure exactly what kind of beans these are. It looks like a medium roast (darker than light, lighter than dark) but the bag doesn’t have any info on it. I remember getting OK but unspectacular results with it in the French Press. Previous attempts with the Aeropress were underwhelming, and today’s weren’t much better. This recipe assumes a light roast, so I started out by tweaking it with a slightly coarser grind, lower temperature and more coffee per volume (Attempt #1) and that turned out underextracted. Then I tried treating it like a light roast, following the recipe exactly, (Attempt #2) and that turned out weak and flavorless.

    Although neither of these cups was very good, Attempt #1 was slightly better. I might try Attempt #1 again with a finer grind, and see if I can get more extraction out of these beans. If not, maybe I’ll go back to French press with a really long steep time, or just use the beans to make cold brew.

  • Paddle Notes

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    Cathy and I headed to Middle River, MD today and checked out Dundee Creek, where we had not previously paddled before. The put-in is at Marshy Point Nature Center, just to the south of the nature center building, from a floating dock at the end of a several-hundred-foot-long pier. Definitely bring a set of wheels, or a partner to help carry. It’s an easy put-in once you get there, though.

    Dundee Creek runs on the north side of Marshy Point, and Saltpeter Creek is on the south side. The two converge and feed into the Gunpowder River, which in turn feeds into (of course) the Chesapeake Bay. All of these are tidal estuaries. We were there near low tide, but we mostly avoided the shallow side channels. Marshy Point has set up a nice paddle trail, which we followed using the provided GPS coordinates. The paddle trail would probably be about 2 miles if we had gone directly point-to-point, but we meandered around and stretched it out to 3 miles. Almost all of the shoreline here is lined with reeds, which we learned are invasive Phragmites australis. It is kind of scary how it has taken over almost every inch of real estate along the shore.

    For a Tuesday morning, there were a lot of people out on the water — a bunch of people kayak fishing, a ranger-led canoe tour, and several folks out in identical sit-on-top kayaks, who I figured must have been together, although I’m not sure where they launched (possibly from the nearby Dundee Creek Marina). Definitely plenty of room for everyone, as the creek is essentially a very large expanse of open water.

    This was a nice place to paddle, but given that it’s 35 to 40 minutes’ drive from home, I probably won’t be coming here all that often (although I do enjoy the hiking trails here). Nice to have checked it out, though, and I’m sure I’ll return one of these days.

  • Brew Notes

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    • Beans: Starbucks house blend medium roast
    • 18 grams coffee, 210 grams water (1:12)
    • 205° water
    • Medium-fine grind (JX: 2 rotations minus 6 clicks)
    • Our Favorite Aeropress Recipe

    Reused 2 paper filters (this was maybe their 4th or 5th cup). Started timer and pour at the same time. 20 seconds or so to pour. Steeped 40 more seconds (60 second total bloom per recipe), stirred 10 seconds. Flipped at 1:30 and pressed all the way through the hiss, ending at 2:00. I have had good results with these beans and this recipe in the past, but it turned out bitter today for some reason. Could be that I forgot to pre-wet the filters.Will use new, pre-moistened filters next time, and may stop pressing a little earlier, although that has not been an issue in the past.

    Just an update: I brewed another cup of this after dinner with the following changes: I poured slightly faster (about as fast as I could go with the gooseneck kettle without overshooting), I used 2 new paper filters pre-moistened with warm water, and I stopped pressing as soon as I heard air escaping. Same overall brew time (60 second bloom which includes pour time, 10 second stir, flip and press at 1:30, finish at 2:00). Turned out perfect! I doubt the pour speed made any difference, so maybe it was the dry filters? Who knows.

  • Brew Notes

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    • Beans: Lost Dog Coffee (Shepherdstown, WV) “La Esparanza” Organic Medium/Medium Dark (Nicaragua)
    • 0.75 oz coffee, 9.5 oz water (1:13 ratio)
    1. Preheat French press
    2. Heat brew water to 200°F
    3. Coarse grind (JX setting: 3 full rotations + 4 more clicks)
    4. Add all of the water at once, then start timer
    5. 30 second bloom
    6. Stir a few seconds until grounds settle
    7. Steep 6 minutes

    I was having a hard time getting a good cup of coffee with these beans with the Aeropress, so I decided to try the French press and this turned out pretty good. Started timer after fairly slow pour from gooseneck kettle. Made a pretty strong cup. Might cut back to an 8 oz cup or possibly try at 1:14 next time.

  • Today’s Paddle

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    Today, I got out on the kayak for my second paddle of 2023. My first time out was a week ago Tuesday, when I launched from Homeport Farm Park and spent an hour or two paddling on Church Creek. I am always on the lookout for places to launch that are 20 or fewer minutes’ drive from home. Today, I tried one I hadn’t used before: Baltimore Rowing & Water Resource Center in Middle Branch Park. They have a floating dock where you can drop in on the Patapsco Middle Branch just west of the Hanover Street Bridge. There is a driveway leading right up to the dock, but it was gated shut when I arrived at 8:30am (and still gated when I took out at around 11am), so I parked in the lot a short distance away and wheeled the kayak to the dock. It wasn’t a long carry (maybe 200-300′ or so). The put-in was easy, with the surface of the dock floating at about the same height as my kayak.

    I paddled just over 5 miles, starting out to the east, crossing under the Hanover Street Bridge, and hugging the shoreline past Harbor Hospital and then across towards Masonville Cove. Still sticking mostly to the shore, I continued past the dredging barge and crane, then around the MC “crab claw” and past the dock (still blanketed with goose poop, just like last year). I then headed over to visit Captain Trash Wheel, then along the western shore of MC, and back out across the water and back to the launch. It was a nice, pleasant paddle, with the temperatures in the 60s, calm winds, and smooth, glassy water. I saw one other kayaker out, as well as a couple of small fishing boats, and a whole bunch of folks fishing off the shoreline.

    When I returned to the launch, there were several canoes out. I know that Baltimore Rec & Parks runs programs here, so I wondered if this was one of them. I took out uneventfully at the dock, and the canoes started heading back in as I was packing my stuff up to take back to the car.

    This put-in worked pretty well, and seems like a nice alternative to putting in at Southwest Area Park (which has gotten a bit of a sketchy vibe to it over the past few years). I’ll probably launch here again. I noticed that there was another dock a few hundred feet to the east, that seemed to be popular with fishermen, and had what looked (from a distance) to be a dedicated kayak-specific put-in. I chose not to take out there, because there were more people there, and it looked like a longer carry to the car. However, I may investigate it further next time.

  • KB1488 SPRINGFIELD STATE CAPITOL DOME

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    PROGRAM = datasheet95, VERSION = 8.12.5.19
Starting Datasheet Retrieval...
1    National Geodetic Survey, Retrieval Date = MAY 10, 2025 13:39:18 EDT
 KB1488 ***********************************************************************
 KB1488  DESIGNATION -  SPRINGFIELD STATE CAPITOL DOME
 KB1488  PID         -  KB1488
 KB1488  STATE/COUNTY-  IL/SANGAMON
 KB1488  COUNTRY     -  US
 KB1488  USGS QUAD   -  SPRINGFIELD WEST (2018)
 KB1488
 KB1488                         *CURRENT SURVEY CONTROL
 KB1488  ______________________________________________________________________
 KB1488* NAD 83(1997) POSITION- 39 47 54.27650(N) 089 39 17.73204(W)   ADJUSTED
 KB1488  ______________________________________________________________________
 KB1488  GEOID HEIGHT    -        -32.548 (meters)                     GEOID18
 KB1488  LAPLACE CORR    -          1.07  (seconds)                    DEFLEC18
 KB1488  HORZ ORDER      -  THIRD
 KB1488
 KB1488.The horizontal coordinates were established by classical geodetic methods
 KB1488.and adjusted by the National Geodetic Survey in October 1999.
 KB1488
 KB1488.Significant digits in the geoid height do not necessarily reflect accuracy.
 KB1488.GEOID18 height accuracy estimate available here.
 KB1488
 KB1488.Click photographs - Photos may exist for this station.
 KB1488
 KB1488.The Laplace correction was computed from DEFLEC18 derived deflections.
 KB1488
 KB1488. The following values were computed from the NAD 83(1997) position.
 KB1488
 KB1488;                    North         East     Units Scale Factor Converg.
 KB1488;SPC IL W     -   347,731.325   743,825.309   MT  0.99996481   +0 19 39.2
 KB1488;SPC IL W     - 1,140,848.52  2,440,366.87   sFT  0.99996481   +0 19 39.2
 KB1488;UTM  16      - 4,408,755.331   272,696.481   MT  1.00023613   -1 42 00.4
 KB1488
 KB1488_U.S. NATIONAL GRID SPATIAL ADDRESS: 16SBK7269608755(NAD 83)
 KB1488
 KB1488                          SUPERSEDED SURVEY CONTROL
 KB1488
 KB1488  NAD 83(1986)-  39 47 54.28626(N)    089 39 17.72156(W) AD(       ) 3
 KB1488  NAD 27      -  39 47 54.09500(N)    089 39 17.35800(W) AD(       ) 3
 KB1488
 KB1488.Superseded values are not recommended for survey control.
 KB1488
 KB1488.NGS no longer adjusts projects to the NAD 27 or NGVD 29 datums.
 KB1488.See file dsdata.pdf to determine how the superseded data were derived.
 KB1488
 KB1488_MARKER: 87 = DOME
 KB1488_SATELLITE: THE SITE LOCATION WAS REPORTED AS SUITABLE FOR
 KB1488+SATELLITE: SATELLITE OBSERVATIONS - May 23, 2015
 KB1488
 KB1488  HISTORY     - Date     Condition        Report By
 KB1488  HISTORY     - 1934     FIRST OBSERVED   CGS
 KB1488  HISTORY     - 1957     GOOD             CGS
 KB1488  HISTORY     - 1958     GOOD             CGS
 KB1488  HISTORY     - 1959     GOOD             CGS
 KB1488  HISTORY     - 1962     GOOD             CGS
 KB1488  HISTORY     - 1976     GOOD             NGS
 KB1488  HISTORY     - 1976     GOOD             NGS
 KB1488  HISTORY     - 1980     GOOD             NGS
 KB1488  HISTORY     - 1989     GOOD             USPSQD
 KB1488  HISTORY     - 20090707 GOOD             GEOCAC
 KB1488  HISTORY     - 20120716 GOOD             GEOCAC
 KB1488  HISTORY     - 20120725 GOOD             GEOCAC
 KB1488  HISTORY     - 20150523 GOOD             GEOCAC
 KB1488
 KB1488                          STATION DESCRIPTION
 KB1488
 KB1488'DESCRIBED BY COAST AND GEODETIC SURVEY 1957 (JBW)
 KB1488'THE POSITION OF THIS STATION WAS ESTABLISHED IN 1934 BUT NO
 KB1488'DESCRIPTION WAS WRITTEN.
 KB1488'
 KB1488'THE STATION IS THE CENTER OF THE BASE OF THE FLAG POLE AT THE TOP OF
 KB1488'THE DOME OF THE ILLINOIS STATE CAPITOL BUILDING LOCATED IN THE
 KB1488'CENTRAL SECTION OF SPRINGFIELD WEST OF THE INTERSECTION OF SECOND
 KB1488'STREET AND CAPITOL AVENUE. IT IS A STONE AND STEEL STRUCTURE ON
 KB1488'TOP OF A STONE BUILDING. THE TOP OF THE DOME IS 361 FEET HIGH AND THE
 KB1488'TOP OF THE FLAG POLE IS 405 FEET HIGH.
 KB1488
 KB1488                          STATION RECOVERY (1958)
 KB1488
 KB1488'RECOVERY NOTE BY COAST AND GEODETIC SURVEY 1958 (GDB)
 KB1488'IT IS LOCATED ON TOP OF THE STATE CAPITOL BLDG. IN SPRINGFIELD,
 KB1488'ILLINOIS.
 KB1488
 KB1488                          STATION RECOVERY (1959)
 KB1488
 KB1488'RECOVERY NOTE BY COAST AND GEODETIC SURVEY 1959 (GWM)
 KB1488'THE STATION WAS FOUND TO BE IN GOOD CONDITION AT THIS TIME.
 KB1488
 KB1488                          STATION RECOVERY (1962)
 KB1488
 KB1488'RECOVERY NOTE BY COAST AND GEODETIC SURVEY 1962 (JVT)
 KB1488'THE STATION WAS RECOVERED AND FOUND TO BE IN GOOD CONDITION.
 KB1488
 KB1488                          STATION RECOVERY (1976)
 KB1488
 KB1488'RECOVERY NOTE BY NATIONAL GEODETIC SURVEY 1976 (LHW)
 KB1488'THE SPRINGFIELD STATE CAPITOL BUILDING DOME IS LOCATED IN THE
 KB1488'CENTRAL SECTION OF SPRINGFIELD, WEST OF THE INTERSECTION OF SECOND
 KB1488'STREET AND CAPITOL AVENUE.  THE TOP OF THE DOME IS 361 FEET HIGH,
 KB1488'CONSTRUCTED OF STONE AND STEEL.  THE STATION IS THE CENTER OF THE
 KB1488'BASE OF THE FLAGPOLE AT THE TOP OF THE DOME.
 KB1488
 KB1488                          STATION RECOVERY (1976)
 KB1488
 KB1488'RECOVERY NOTE BY NATIONAL GEODETIC SURVEY 1976 (AMS)
 KB1488'THE STATION WAS RECOVERED AND FOUND TO BE IN GOOD CONDITION.
 KB1488'
 KB1488'AIRLINE DISTANCE AND DIRECTION FROM NEAREST TOWN--LOCATED IN
 KB1488'SPRINGFILED, ILLINOIS.
 KB1488
 KB1488                          STATION RECOVERY (1980)
 KB1488
 KB1488'RECOVERY NOTE BY NATIONAL GEODETIC SURVEY 1980 (RMM)
 KB1488'RECOVERED AS DESCRIBED IN GOOD CONDITION.
 KB1488'
 KB1488'AIRLINE DISTANCE AND DIRECTION FROM NEAREST TOWN--IN SPRINGFIELD.
 KB1488
 KB1488                          STATION RECOVERY (1989)
 KB1488
 KB1488'RECOVERY NOTE BY US POWER SQUADRON 1989 (GMC)
 KB1488'RECOVERED IN GOOD CONDITION.
 KB1488
 KB1488                          STATION RECOVERY (2009)
 KB1488
 KB1488'RECOVERY NOTE BY GEOCACHING 2009 (LPC)
 KB1488'RECOVERED IN GOOD CONDITION.
 KB1488
 KB1488                          STATION RECOVERY (2012)
 KB1488
 KB1488'RECOVERY NOTE BY GEOCACHING 2012 (RFC)
 KB1488'RECOVERED IN GOOD CONDITION.
 KB1488
 KB1488                          STATION RECOVERY (2012)
 KB1488
 KB1488'RECOVERY NOTE BY GEOCACHING 2012 (LPC)
 KB1488'RECOVERED IN GOOD CONDITION.
 KB1488
 KB1488                          STATION RECOVERY (2015)
 KB1488
 KB1488'RECOVERY NOTE BY GEOCACHING 2015 (DSA)
 KB1488'MARK FOUND IN GOOD CONDITION

    Log: Recovered in good condition on 4/7/2023 while visiting Springfield. We visited the Lincoln museum and Oak Ridge Cemetery, and enjoyed good food and beer at Obed and Isaac’s before making the long drive to Midway to fly home. Not my first time visiting Springfield, and likely won’t be my last. The photo below was taken from several blocks away and cropped.

    This is my first stab at logging a benchmark recovery here. I am writing this on 5/10/2025, and will attempt to backdate the post to the actual recovery date.

    KB1488, "SPRINGFIELD STATE CAPITOL DOME"