Category: Biking

Another Monday

lpaulriddle
  • Beans: “Cold Brew Blend” medium roast (Guatemala/Colombia) from Local Coffee Roasting Co. in Roxana, DE
  • JX: 2 turns plus 6 clicks (Grind setting 22)
  • 90°C water
  • 13 grams coffee / 180 grams water (about 1:14)
  • One new paper filter (pre-moistened)
  • Recipe: 13g that makes you happy (inverted: add 30g water, stir 5x, top up to 180g at 0:30, stir 5x, flip at 1:30 and press very slowly, finishing at 2:30)

First stab at brewing a (hot) cup with these beans in the AeroPress. This is a recipe I’ve used quite a few times before, but recently, I’ve been using more coffee than the recipe calls for, in an effort to get richer-tasting cups. Based on my experience with pourover, I think there should be a way to achieve this without using so much coffee. Today, I went back to a 1:14 ratio, which is what the recipe calls for. According to my notes, I have previously used a JX grind setting of 24 or 25 (around 2.5 turns) every time I’ve brewed this recipe. For today’s cup, I went with 22, which is a lot finer, and similar to what I’ve been using for a lot of my pourovers. This cup was not bad overall — it still was not quite as rich as a pourover at the same ratio, but it wasn’t weak, either, and had no bitter or sour notes. One thing I have noticed with these inverted AeroPress recipes is that after steeping for a while and then flipping, a bunch of coffee grounds frequently end up stuck to the plunger. I could prevent this by briefly stirring right before flipping, or by flipping immediately after the initial stir and letting it steep in the “standard” orientation. I might try one or both of these next time, just to see if it makes any difference.

I had a fairly routine bike commute to the office this morning. I woke up at 5:30 to another pre-dawn deluge, but it cleared out of the area in time for me to get out of the house on time. I have found that 7:20 is the absolute latest I can get rolling if I don’t want to deal with foot and bus traffic for the nearby middle school. If it had rained much longer, I likely would have ended up telecommuting. The Patapsco River was running higher and faster than I had seen it all summer, and a lot of the little feeder streams were really raging. The areas to the west of us have gotten hammered with rain over the past few days, and this morning’s downpour hit those areas as well.

Update (9/12): I brewed the same AeroPress recipe again, slightly finer (grind setting 21) and I flipped right after filling to 180g and stirring. It made no discernible difference. If anything, it tasted slightly weaker — again, not unpleasant, just lacking in body. I did notice that, while the plunger started out clean, grounds started getting stuck to it as I was plunging. So, it appears that the issue isn’t that they get stuck there during steeping, but more so that they just accumulate there while plunging. Seems like this would be unavoidable, and given that the finished product wasn’t an improvement, there’s no need to use a different technique from the recipe. I may try one more AeroPress experiment with these beans (not sure exactly what yet) and then I’ll just switch back to pourover to use them up.

New Brew

lpaulriddle

I finally opened the last of the three half-pound bags of beans that I bought in Delaware in early July. These beans are from the same roaster, and the same countries of origin, as my recent bag of light roast. I’m wondering if they took the same blend of beans and just roasted them a little longer.

  • Beans: “Cold Brew Blend” medium roast (Guatemala/Colombia) from Local Coffee Roasting Co. in Roxana, DE
  • 18g coffee / 250g water (1:14)
  • JX: 2 rotations (20 on the grind chart / 60 total clicks)
    • 9/7: Grind setting 18 (54 total clicks) had better flavor
    • 9/8: Bitter today at 18. Will try 19 (57 clicks) tomorrow
    • 9/9: Still bitter at 19. What is going on? Maybe I am swirling too much…
  • Water at 95°C
  • Recipe: A Better 1 Cup V60 Technique (see below)
  1. 0:00: Pour 60g of water to bloom
  2. 0:10 – 0:15: Gently Swirl
  3. 0:45 – 1:00: Pour up to 100g total (40% total weight)
  4. 1:10 – 1:20: Pour up to 150g total (60% total weight)
  5. 1:30 – 1:40: Pour up to 200g total (80% total weight)
  6. 1:50 – 2:00: Pour up to 250g total (100% total weight)
  7. 2:00 – 2:05: Gently swirl
  8. Drawdown should finish around 3:00

This was a perfectly pleasant, if unspectacular, cup. It was a good strength, and well-balanced, with no bitter or sour notes, but not much in the way of complex flavors, compared to the beans that I just used up. I’ll probably try grinding the beans a little bit finer next time, just to see what happens. Also, I’d be remiss not to try using them for cold brew, so I’m going to do that soon (likely tomorrow afternoon). Could be there’s a reason they’re sold as a “cold brew blend”. 😀

Another ridiculously hot early September day on tap, but this morning’s ride to work felt like any other summer morning commute. In spite of dry conditions, I opted for the road bike, because I figured it’d be easier to avoid overheating during the ride home later this afternoon.

Update for 9/9: For some reason, the past two cups I’ve brewed using this recipe (setting 18 yesterday, 19 today) have been on the bitter side. Not sure what I’m doing differently, except to note that on 9/7, I’m pretty sure I forgot to “swirl” the V60 after the initial and final pours, and the cup turned out better. Could it be that the “swirling” is leading to overextraction? If that’s the case, I can try to either skip the swirling, or make the grind coarser. I may try door #1 first, and I may also try making a cup with the AeroPress, just for kicks.

Labor Day Ride

lpaulriddle

I left the house a little after 7 this morning for my sort-of-weekly biking and geocaching excursion. I usually do this on Sundays, but was slow-moving yesterday due to a late night on Saturday. While it’s really hot today, it was only 73 when I left the house, with a low-ish dewpoint, and even with the temperature rising, the ride was fairly tolerable as long as I kept moving. I rode through Ellicott City/Dunloggin out to West Friendship, southwest to Glenelg, and then home through Clarksville and Columbia. I had planned for 35 miles, but the actual distance ended up being close to 40, partly due to an attempted shortcut that didn’t work out. I took my geared commuter bike in lieu of my usual single speed, which was the right call, as it gets really hilly west of US 29! I found 2 geocaches along the way, both of which were close to pavement and easy to find, which is my preference when out for longer rides on hot days. I ran out of water around 3 miles from home, after draining 2 24-ounce water bottles. Next time it’s this hot, I’ll bring my Osprey waist pack, which has a 1.5-liter reservoir. Energy-wise, I felt pretty good most of the way, but was beginning to drag once I hit the final 5 miles or so. I think the heat was just starting to get to me. I’m glad I got out for a ride, though.

Threading the Needle

lpaulriddle

It’s the first day of school in Howard and Baltimore Counties. The past couple of years, I have telecommuted on the first day of school, but I decided to ride to work today to get an early start on fine-tuning my routine for the school year. There are certain times when it’s bad to leave the house due to school traffic, and certain routes that need to be avoided as well. My route passes through several school zones, so I have to take several bell schedules into account, and different schools affect me in the afternoon than in the morning. This year will require some adjustments to my routine, as HoCo has tweaked the start and end times for most of their schools, and also expanded the walk zones near where I live. This morning, I rolled out at 7:20, and it worked well. I think any later than 7:20-7:25 will cause issues with car and foot traffic heading to the nearby middle school. That should clear out by 7:45 to 7:50, but last year, when I left that late, I ran into issues with school traffic in Baltimore County. So, I think 7:10 to 7:20 might be the sweet spot this year.

I killed the last of my light roast coffee beans this morning. Next, I’ll work on using up my remaining half-pound bags I bought in Delaware, which are both medium roast. One bag is sourced from southern Mexico, and the other a is blend from Guatemala and Colombia. The light roast I just used up was from the same roaster and also from Guatemala and Colombia, so I suspect it might be the same blend of beans, just roasted differently. It is labeled a “cold brew blend”, and I’ll try it that way, but I suspect it’ll make good hot coffee as well. Since both bags are medium roasts from the same general region of the world, I’m hoping I can find a single recipe that works well for both, whether it’s pourover, AeroPress, or French press.

Ride Notes

lpaulriddle

I took advantage of the nice Sunday morning weather and got out for a roughly 35-mile bike ride. I found 6 geocaches along the way, which is the most I’ve found in a single outing this month. After last Sunday’s ride into Baltimore, I decided to head back to the familiar territory of Columbia, riding out towards the downtown area first, and then back across US 29 through Kings Contrivance and Huntington. I then crossed US 1 and headed home through Jessup and Hanover. This is a pretty good single-speed route. Columbia is generally pretty flat east of US 29, and the few steep hills are relatively short. Things don’t really start to get hilly until you get farther out west towards River Hill and Clarksville, or north into the Patapsco River Valley towards Ellicott City. Next weekend, I’m thinking about riding out to West Friendship, and I’ll definitely want a geared bike for that.

Morning Notes

lpaulriddle

After alluding to it yesterday, I brewed a cup of pourover coffee this morning using this recipe, with the same beans and a slightly finer grind. I went back and forth over whether to try it coarser or finer, eventually settling on finer just because of how my earlier pourover cups have tasted. I used a setting of 18 on the JX grind chart, which is two rotations minus 6 clicks (54 total clicks). I think this was the right call. The cup had a little bit more fruitiness than the cup I brewed with the AeroPress, with more body to balance out the fruity acidity than my previous pourover cups. Now I’m wondering how fine I can go before it starts to taste bitter.

The weather was quite pleasant this morning, and the past several days have been dry, so I hit the trails and commuted to work through PVSP on my mountain bike. It was my third bike ride in 4 days. On the HoCo side of the river, I rode Belmont Trail to Morning Choice to Lewis and Clark to Garrett’s Pass, which is a route I take frequently. It was a great ride, except something stung me on my arm at one point. I am wondering if maybe I ran over an underground hornet’s nest, and one of them got me. If that’s the case, I’m glad I was moving fast (and I’m not allergic)!! We’re still in heavy summer growth season, but with a few exceptions, the trails I rode were not overgrown. Upper Soapstone Trail, which is on my route home, may be another story, so I’ll see how that is doing later this afternoon.

Ride to work

lpaulriddle

I rode to work through Catonsville this morning, for the first time in two months. I went through Patapsco Valley State Park on the Grist Mill Trail, then out to Ellicott City via River and Frederick Rds., and into Catonsville via Oella Ave. and the #9 Trolley Trail. This route is roughly 15 miles, and back when I commuted by bike almost every day, I used to ride it about once a week. Lately, I haven’t done it much, mainly due to the recent long-term closure of the Grist Mill Trail (there are other ways to get to Catonsville by bike, but they’re not much fun to ride on weekday mornings). I’ve always liked the route as an alternative to my usual ride through Halethorpe/Arbutus, and it’s not bad to do even on school days, so it was kind of nice to ride it again for the first time since the trail reopened. Going forward, I’d like to get back to riding the route once or twice a month, so we’ll see how that goes.

Biking Report

lpaulriddle

I rode my bike into Baltimore today, for the first time since May 14 (according to my geocaching logs). My usual route into the city has me picking up the Gwynns Falls Trail at Wilkens Ave. about 0.6 mile east of Caton Ave. Then, I follow the GFT into the city and past Carroll Park, where I can go north towards the B&O Museum, or east past M&T Bank Stadium, towards Federal Hill and the Inner Harbor. To exit the city, I usually go south through Federal Hill, over the Hanover St. bridge, and through Brooklyn and Harmans to Linthicum. Both routes are roughly 14 miles one-way to or from home, so I’m guaranteed to get 28 miles plus wherever I go within the city. Today’s ride took me through downtown along Light and Pratt Sts., and along the waterfront promenade to Fell’s Point, one of my former stomping grounds which I hadn’t visited since probably before COVID, and never on a bike until today. I had mixed luck looking for a few geocaches along the way — I found a couple, but struck out on several others. That’s kind of the way it goes with me with urban caching.

Baltimore really gets a bad rap nowadays, even amongst people I know who grew up there. It’s kind of depressing. The city has its problems for sure, but there are parts of Baltimore that are still very nice. The city has added two-way protected bike paths in a lot of downtown areas, and when I was there, the whole harbor area was busy with walkers, joggers, and bikers. There were lots of folks out and about in Federal Hill and Fells Point, as well. I will grant that some areas along my routes in and out of Baltimore leave something to be desired. Parts of the GFT between Wilkens Ave. and Carroll Park are secluded and a little bit creepy, and Brooklyn is not a great neighborhood, in spite of being along the East Coast Greenway. It probably helps that I usually ride through these areas early on Sunday mornings, but I’ve never had a problem after 3 years and 15-20 rides. Once I’m in the city proper, I stick to nicer neighborhoods like Downtown/Inner Harbor, Federal Hill, Locust Point/Port Covington, and Fells Point, and I have always felt safe.

Late Run

lpaulriddle

I went to the Orioles game last night, and didn’t get back until after 11. As a result, I slept until 7:30, and didn’t get out for my run until almost 10, which is really late for this time of year. Luckily, while it was humid as ever, the thick cloud cover kept the temperatures cooler than they ordinarily would be by late morning in August. So, I could have picked a worse day to get a late start. I set out to run 10K. About 3.5 miles in, I started feeling a tiny bit under the weather, and thought I might have to cut it short. Luckily, it was just a brief abdominal issue that went away after a few minutes, and I was able to complete the full distance. It was not a bad run for mid August.

Coffee: I’m still using up the last of my “La Esparanza” medium/medium dark blend. I brewed this recipe twice today. I’d rate cup #1 a 3.5 out of 5, and cup #2 a 4.5 out of 5. The only difference was that in between the cups, I put a new water filter in our Brita pitcher, and I reused the same AeroPress filter for cup #2. I wonder if some of the taste variation between cups is because I’m brewing a blend of two different roasts, and with each cup, I’m getting a slightly different ratio of medium-roasted beans to dark-roasted beans. The way to test that theory would be to use single-origin beans and see if the results are any more consistent from cup to cup (assuming all other variables stay the same). This will be interesting to try.

Morning ride

lpaulriddle

Nice morning for a ride today, even if it was just a garden-variety commute to work. It’s my second day in the office this week, which has been the exception more so than the rule this summer, in spite of intentions. Weather, holidays, and vacations (mainly weather) have kept me home on a lot of Mondays. Weather once again threatened this past Monday, but held off until I got home, and I made it to the climbing gym in time to ride out the crazy storms. Different story today, with pleasant weather (for August) and no storms predicted. Both of my commutes this week have been on the road, as the trails have been a little too wet for mountain biking.

On the coffee front, I brewed yesterday’s recipe with the same beans this morning, and the cup was fine, but not quite as good as yesterday’s. I noticed some dripping while it was steeping, and when I flipped the AeroPress, I saw that it was because I had inserted the plunger a little bit crooked. Also, the filter paper was used once (for yesterday’s cup). I can’t really see where either of those things would affect the finished product. All the same, I’ll eliminate those variables the next time I brew this, which will be either late this afternoon, or tomorrow morning. I have enough of the beans left to make 4 more cups, and I’m hoping at least one of them is as good as yesterday’s.