Coffee and canisters

Yesterday’s coffee roast. Couple 1/2 pound + batches. I love these stainless canisters. Found them in a lab years ago. They hold a perfect half pound. Added chalkboard labels for identification.

Coffee and some nonsense

It’s time for another episode of coffee talk, with your host…dB.

I think it’s gonna be a long day.  I woke up at 2:00am (bed at 11:30), and could not fall back to sleep no matter what I tried.  One of those times my mind was racing over several things;  from designing and fabricating a coffee roaster in my mind, to new workshop layout and fixtures, to room layouts and paint colors… oh boy.

So I finally got up at 3:30.  Worked on a spreadsheet and write up for a potential new business venture for a while.  Made an early breakfast of cheese, butter, cucumber, avocado and sesame salt on toast.  Finally made my first pot of coffee at about 5:00.  Got a chemex from my sister for Christmas.  Really enjoying it.  Guess its been over a week now.  I think I can taste the subtleties a bit more when compared to the french press I’ve used for about 12 years.  I sound like a coffee snob, truth is I’ll drink gas station coffee, and quite often do.  But I do like the roasting thing.  I’ve stove-top roasted so damn many beans for Xmas presents, I guess that’s why building a roaster has been on my mind more than usual, though I’ve been planning one for about a year now.  Had a friend who wanted to buy my coffee, but I can barely keep up with my own habit at this point.

Well, today will either bring a nap, or several more pots of coffee, maybe both.  Ok, off to work.

Now discuss…

Xmas gifts

Last minute Xmas stuff today…

Turned a rough pencil holder/thingy for my grandfather.  I think its locust.  Found it when I cut an old apple tree earlier this year.  It has some weird anomalies where the branches met the trunk.  Seems like there were a bunch of similar downed trees in that area.  This piece doesn’t have a noticeable anomaly, I just used a plain section.  Turned the top and bottom.  Wire brushed and sealed the rough part.  Drying overnight.  Just in time!  I made a piece from an abnormal section, which I’ll post later.  Its a gift for someone who looks at my tumblr page often.

Also roasted 6 batches of coffee on the stove top as last minute presents.  That’s enough to make me seriously consider starting my roaster build.

And I had time to work on a secondary bench for my new shop.  I’ll post a few pics of that later…

Happy holidays if you like that kind of thing!

Got to spend some time at a coffee roaster today. Helped with a couple 200 pound batches and talked coffee for an hour or so. I’ve started gathering parts to build a mini drum roaster. Seeing the big one in action helped nail down some of the construction details.

Hey, a non tool related post. Found a local place that sources, imports and sells green coffee beans. They sell them green but also roast a couple tons a week. I’m psyched to find a place so close with a decent variety and good prices. I’ve been stove top roasting my own coffee for about a year now. They have a demo on Saturday so I’m going so I can pick their brain about roasting and see their big Probat roaster in action. Here comes the tool type part- want to see how a commercial roaster works so I can build my own at some point. Oh and a new coffee roasted tonight, Papua New Guinea, we’ll see how it is in the morning.

Happy Coffee Day! It’s that magical time once again. Yet the spirit of Coffee Day lives in my mug all year long… Several times a day.