Neal Wilson ✅ @neal@social.typica.us

The cat has been retrieved.

Got more stuff at the event today: Some money for teaching, some money for the software, a nice SanFransican Roaster mug, a couple big bags of coffee that didn't get brewed, a couple questions about getting me out to teach: one at a lab that's not too bad a drive to get to, another one that's half way around the world. Don't know if anything will come of that or not. Another company that would like to send me some stuff to do a deep dive on.

Lecture for the class I'm teaching tomorrow got moved to a bigger room. Apparently it's the most popular selection at the event. No pressure.

First day at CRG Retreat, got 2 new shirts.

@deshipu@mastodon.technology Does it get you high?

Removed my travel keyboard from the computer at the coffee roaster. The full sized keyboard that replaces that while I'm traveling is not as convenient in the space, but I don't want to lug around a big keyboard and I absolutely can't trust the one built into the laptop.

@Taweret Better idea: Night Court for fandom disputes.

Was also asked if I could bring some decaf coffee for cold brew cocktails for the event. Picked a Fair Trade Certified Swiss Water Process decaf from Timor-Leste that I think will work nicely for that.

@mhoye There's some similar stuff going on in the cold brew space.

My thought here was to use The Power of Incredible Violence. I know a trick by which it's possible to extend early browning to push up the sweetness, but then blast through first crack with more energy than is normally available, then it's backing off to get some stuff developed into 2nd before ending the roast. Highly unorthodox, not recommended for use in production, but my test batch was pretty good and the novelty of it might make such an approach a winner.

There are people who say their espresso tastes better when the coffee is significantly aged, weeks or months of rest. Personally, I've always advocated for using fresh coffee as espresso and think that if your espresso is better 3 months after roasting you need to fix your roast or come to terms with the idea that maybe you just don't really like espresso. But at a weekend competition, that kind of rest time is not available, so how do you roast the coffee so you don't need that?

The other odd roast that I did yesterday was based on the team competition at the event I'm teaching at. Normally I don't get put on a team so I don't know if I'd be able to try this at the event, but the competition involves roasting a coffee for drip and roasting the coffee a different way for espresso. I'm thinking that this is likely to be won or lost on the espresso side because drip brews are the bread and butter of the American industry, but espresso...

Brewed the custom darker roast of Yemeni coffee I roasted. It's not what I'd choose to sell as a Yemeni coffee, but it's got some nice bittersweet chocolate going on. Not bad for what's pretty much a guess.

For reference, the darkest thing that I do is a decaf French Roast that comes in around 25 on the Agtron Gourmet scale.

Did a custom roast for one of my station instructors. They wanted me to take a coffee that I normally roast to a 54.5 and get it down to a 40 (initially they asked for a 30 but then thought better of it). Didn't quite get there, landing at 41.7/43.3, but he says it's close enough.

Ate giant pretzels for dinner because that's a thing that adults can do.

There was a black cat in the driveway this morning. I guess we're coming up on cat season.

Had an idea that I'd like to try that's really only suitable for competition coffee roasting, but might just be useful for certain kinds of events. Might stay after work a bit to slam out a couple batches on the little machine to see if it works.

I'm out of milk, but I'm also going out of town soon. Do I buy a small quantity of milk and drink extra, go without milk for a couple days, or buy a normal quantity of milk and try to use it up extra fast when I get back from my trip? (I'm leaning toward just giving up milk for a few days)

Wall clock at the shop randomly decided that it needed to set itself 23 hours ahead. Once it stopped spinning I moved it forward another hour to get it back to the right time.