OT: Share your hobbies beyond being an audiophile

[Guido Del Giudice]

[Blake]

Skiing and rock climbing (grateful to live in Utah for these activities).  Also, golf, private pilot, cycling...  oh and modern art, architecture and furniture.

 

[Bob Stern]

13 hours ago, firedog said:

My coffee rig and other equipment is a coffee parallel to high-end audio.  A serious ice cream maker, too (internal compressor/cooler) but not at the crazy level money wise.

 

We have a Breville ice cream maker that, like yours, has a compressor.  It's quick and easy for making sorbet from our Meyer lemons.  I highly recommend it.

 

Do you mostly make coffee or espresso?  Do you follow the home-barista forum?  I developed an interest in espresso 2 or 3 years ago without realizing that you need fairly expensive gadgets to make good espresso from beans that are not dark roasted.  Now I have a Breville "double boiler" espresso machine, hopefully to be replaced soon by a Decent Espresso machine, and three grinders: Baratza Vario, Orphan Espresso Pharos, and Kafatek Monolith Flat. 

[Bob Stern]

6 hours ago, PeterSt said:

What we're actually looking for is a machine which can control the brewing temperature, the brewing speed and in the end the warm-keeping temperature. It fails on the latter because all what we can find keeps warm in a thermos, which I find even more terrible than too hot (implying bitterness). Anyway, something of which I can a. control the quality of brewing and b. the keeping sufficiently warm and not too hot.

 

I doubt that (a) and (b) exist in the same machine because most people who are sufficiently perfectionist to worry about (a) have a possibly false belief that coffee rapidly loses freshness after it is brewed, so they would not need (b).

 

For (a), I highly recommend pour-over coffee rather than a machine.  Heat the water in a microwave oven and pour it over the ground coffee.   A wonderful and cheap pour-over device is the Clever Coffee Dripper.  It has a "door" on the bottom that retains the steeping coffee until you place it on a coffee mug.  This allows you to decide how long you want to steep the coffee, so that you need not rely on the fineness of the grind to control the steeping time as in conventional pour-over methods.

 

Bitterness is reduced by a coarser grind and reducing the steeping time.  Cheap grinders generate a lot of fine coffee dust that increases bitterness.

 

The Clever is made in Taiwan and sold all over the world:

http://coffeegeek.com/forums/coffee/machines/472321

[mordante]

10 hours ago, Bob Stern said:

 

New or used?  Either you're relatively young or you keep cars a long time.  If the latter, join the BMWCCA and then email Mike Miller to request his "old school" maintenance schedule.  BMW only cares if the car survives thru the warranty period, so their recommended maintenance is inadequate for the long term.

 

I´m still very young I just turned 43

 

It's a 325i tourer from 2009 manual. I'll look into the BMWCCA.

[Bob Stern]

1 hour ago, mordante said:

It's a 325i tourer from 2009 manual.

 

Since it's out of warranty, I'll add the caveat that these cars are sufficiently complex that you should find a mechanic who works on nothing but BMWs so that he'll know their failure modes and idiosyncrasies.  Bentley publishes a respected service manual (the official one is proprietary).  fwiw, I have a 1994 540 and a 2001 740 sport.

[monteverdi]

here is the list (order does not matter as it is constantly changing)

Skiing

Backpacking.

Flyfishing (tenkara)

Photography digital  and B&W large format, alternative printing like Pt/Pd

drawings and painting, going to art exhibits

designing and making: loudspeakers, furnitures, kitchen knifes

listening to music, going to concerts

and there are things I like to do but don't qualify as hobby like:

Designing and building houses

cooking

gardening

 

 

 

[AudioDoctor]

3 hours ago, Bob Stern said:

 

Since it's out of warranty, I'll add the caveat that these cars are sufficiently complex that you should find a mechanic who works on nothing but BMWs so that he'll know their failure modes and idiosyncrasies. 

 

I'll second that suggestion.  It will be invaluable in the long run.

[firedog]

11 hours ago, Bob Stern said:

 

I doubt that (a) and (b) exist in the same machine because most people who are sufficiently perfectionist to worry about (a) have a possibly false belief that coffee rapidly loses freshness after it is brewed, so they would not need (b).

 

For (a), I highly recommend pour-over coffee rather than a machine.  Heat the water in a microwave oven and pour it over the ground coffee.   A wonderful and cheap pour-over device is the Clever Coffee Dripper.  It has a "door" on the bottom that retains the steeping coffee until you place it on a coffee mug.  This allows you to decide how long you want to steep the coffee, so that you need not rely on the fineness of the grind to control the steeping time as in conventional pour-over methods.

 

Bitterness is reduced by a coarser grind and reducing the steeping time.  Cheap grinders generate a lot of fine coffee dust that increases bitterness.

 

The Clever is made in Taiwan and sold all over the world:

http://coffeegeek.com/forums/coffee/machines/472321

Pretty much agree with this. Most people like those ceramic caraffes that keep the coffee hot. Like many consumer items , when you have very clear and specific feature requests, it turns out no one makes exactly what you want. There are a lot of good pour over devices that are cheap. the one mentioned above is good. Many are one cup, some are multiple cup. 

Good multi cup machines would be Technivorm (expensive) and Bonavita ( more reasonable). 

A good burr grinder (doesn't have to be super expensive, you aren't running an espresso bar) will make a huge difference.

Lots of professional and amateur reviews online of this stuff if you care to look. 

[firedog]

12 hours ago, Bob Stern said:

 

We have a Breville ice cream maker that, like yours, has a compressor.  It's quick and easy for making sorbet from our Meyer lemons.  I highly recommend it.

 

Do you mostly make coffee or espresso?  Do you follow the home-barista forum?  I developed an interest in espresso 2 or 3 years ago without realizing that you need fairly expensive gadgets to make good espresso from beans that are not dark roasted.  Now I have a Breville "double boiler" espresso machine, hopefully to be replaced soon by a Decent Espresso machine, and three grinders: Baratza Vario, Orphan Espresso Pharos, and Kafatek Monolith Flat. 

 I make espresso every morning from a blend I've developed and that I roast myself. I use a medium roast btw, so don't agree with you that you need a dark roast, even for a moderate priced, decent espresso equipment.

Other times I use mostly an Aeropress which I like a lot. I sometimes use a Moka pot, but I think it tends to produce bitter coffee. I have a few other types of devices that I have mostly just for fun that I use occasionally. 

 

I have actually ordered this, on Kickstarter, which I'm going to put by my bed, even though I will probably only use it once a week  or so. I just liked the idea and couldn't resist....it' supposed to arrive in about 6 weeks. 

 

What's not good about your Breville machine that you are thinking of replacing it? It seems to have a good reputation as far as the quality of the coffee it makes. 

[Bob Stern]

1 hour ago, firedog said:

What's not good about your Breville machine that you are thinking of replacing it? It seems to have a good reputation as far as the quality of the coffee it makes.

 

Most espresso machines produce a constant pressure without user control.  This produces a rising flow rate during the extraction as the outflow of the finest grounds decreases the resistance of the coffee puck.

 

Many people are finding that flavor is improved by reducing the pressure during the extraction to achieve either a constant or even declining flow rate.  I'd like to experiment with that.

 

The Decent Espresso machine will have a flow rate sensor and a programmable flow rate vs. time curve. 

[Forehaven]

Another coffee roaster/pourover coffee hound   Hottop roaster and Green Coffee Buying Club keeps me real happy.

 

Woodworking and Bonsai are my other hobbies.  Below is a Rocky Mountain Juniper I styled last yr and just potted it up a week ago in OR.  The second is a Ponderosa Pine I just bought that I'll style this summer and pot up spring '19.  This hobby occupies the maj. of my summer time  

 

 

[rando]

On 1/22/2018 at 8:48 AM, PeterSt said:

 

Hey firedog, would you happen to know something which is really superb but does NOT grind the beans itself ? What we're actually looking for is a machine which can control the brewing temperature, the brewing speed and in the end the warm-keeping temperature. It fails on the latter because all what we can find keeps warm in a thermos, which I find even more terrible than too hot (implying bitterness). Anyway, something of which I can a. control the quality of brewing and b. the keeping sufficiently warm and not too hot.

 

@PeterSt You certainly seem handy enough to dig in and cobble together the parts needed to convert an old percolator urn.  Accurate temperature and ability to adjust it within a fairly small window gets you most of the way there with brewing and storing.  I don't get the sense you want to perform a daily bohemian homage to the Japanese tea ceremony in your kitchen.  You might find, or already know you don't like very well made percolator style coffee though.  These machines take a very different grind from Mr. Coffee style machines that influences flavor . What you would gain is long life in a bulletproof machine that is easy to clean and mechanically simple.  Push your cup against the spigot lever and out it comes now or 5 hours later at the same optimal temp.

 

The alternative, and again you might have a project here, is one of those executive monstrosities that attempt to replicate an assistant always at hand with a perfect cuppa.  The electronics overheat or something else goes wrong that renders it to the trash heap instead of repaying retail on parts.  

 

 

 

A good grinder is necessary.  What the more expensive ones do is not possible in lower cost machines with less grunt.  In other words they get hot which impacts the metal bits which in effect start grinding at one setting and bounce around willy nilly.  Out comes a mix of dust and large misshapen chunks that have had their roast reimagined.  You also get low maintenance long wearing parts that are easy to clean and semi-permantely adjust with the nicer machines.  You pick one grind and it wanders very little over time. The investment pays off in time spent and ease of use.  

[Shadders]

On 21/01/2018 at 11:37 PM, Ralf11 said:

My current Golden got a terrible bacterial infection a year ago.  Apparently, the moron who gave him a dog bath/trim was rough with the clippers, cutting him and when went he went thru a shallow mud puddle on a hike, his foot picked up the bacteria.

Nothing in the GI tract, only in blood samples.

 

The expense was the least of my worries.

Hi,

This reminds me of a friend whose cat was constipated. She took it to the vet, and he administered a form of lubricant/wash up its bumhole. And in her words "the vet/staff shoved it in a cardboard box, and rushed her out the surgery very quickly, and whilst driving home, with the cat in the back of the car, the explosion happened. God it stunk".

I still p!ss myself on what happened and how she told it.

Regards,

Shadders.

[PeterSt]

2 hours ago, rando said:

 

@PeterSt You certainly seem handy enough to dig in and cobble together the parts needed to convert an old percolator urn.  Accurate temperature and ability to adjust it within a fairly small window gets you most of the way there with brewing and storing

 

Oh, I am definitely thinking about this. But then the proofer (for making bread) comes first. 

 

Can I ask ... how much coffee do you guys drink ? over here in Holland we drink it about the whole day through. Make that 10 mugs at least. So not even (small) cups. The Americans I ran into, keep it at one. Maybe two. OK three. But not 10+. We are coffee country but sadly don't grow Blue Mountain. That's in that other hashis country nearby (you). Btw, IMO the best coffee is consistently made in Cuba (like Monte Rouge). There it's always poured. But I can't be pouring coffee for 90 minutes a day. No time for that (I know, I should ...).

[beancounter]

I drink about 10 cups per day (cup = 237ml); we have a 12 cup maker, wife drinks two, I drink the rest.

 

I know most of you coffee connoisseurs will probably recoil in horror at our set-up, but we make a pretty good cup of coffee on a consistent basis - we use an electric percolator (gasp!). 

 

A GOOD burr grinder, consistent and correct grind size, a simple Melitta filter in the basket, and cold water are the keys for us. And you can't cheap out on cleanup time, a quick rinse of the pot is insufficient.  We typically remove it from the heat, and keep it in a thermos. Trick there is to thoroughly warm the thermos with hot water before pouring in the coffee; hot coffee hitting cold thermos makes a surprisingly big difference in flavor, and the coffee stays hot longer.

 

Like so many things in life, it seems the prep is just as important as the execution. Maybe more so. 

[wwaldmanfan]

I drink coffee all day. We have a good roaster in our town. He gets beans from all over the world. My current favorite is his Hawaiian Kauai'i, which he dark roasts and sells for $14/lb. I am very familiar with Hawaiian coffee, and this is very good compared to the Kona and Maui coffees that sell for two to 3 times the price, even in the islands. He does mail order, so if anyone is interested, PM me.

 

The biggest improvement came with the Capresso Infinity burr grinder that I bought last year ($80 at Bed Bath & Beyond) It replaced the cheap Krups blade grinder that I've been using for 30 years. The Capresso is convenient and fast, and and yields much more flavorful, consistent, and less acidic beverage from my Cuisinart drip pot or French press.

[Ralf11]

you guys have been on a coffee jag for nearly an entire page now, but no one has mentioned civet "cats" ???

[mansr]

2 minutes ago, Ralf11 said:

you guys have been on a coffee jag for nearly an entire page now, but no one has mentioned civet "cats" ???

Guess there aren't any hipsters here.

[kumakuma]

14 minutes ago, wwaldmanfan said:

I drink coffee all day. We have a good roaster in our town. He gets beans from all over the world. My current favorite is his Hawaiian Kauai'i, which he dark roasts and sells for $14/lb. I am very familiar with Hawaiian coffee, and this is very good compared to the Kona and Maui coffees that sell for two to 3 times the price, even in the islands. He does mail order, so if anyone is interested, PM me.

 

The biggest improvement came with the Capresso Infinity burr grinder that I bought last year ($80 at Bed Bath & Beyond) It replaced the cheap Krups blade grinder that I've been using for 30 years. The Capresso is convenient and fast, and and yields much more flavorful, consistent, and less acidic beverage from my Cuisinart drip pot or French press.

 

+1 on the Capresso Infinity burr grinder. It does a good job at a reasonable price.

 

I usually do a pour over directly into a cup using a simple Melitta cone. Water comes from a Japanese water dispenser set to 194. 

 

Beans are weighed using one of these ($13 from Amazon) prior to grinding:

 

 

My current favorite coffee is an Ethiopia Yirgacheffe (Med-Dark Roast) from a local roaster.

 

 

 

[rando]

Sun came out so I nipped off to the woods for a couple hours of snowshoeing.  Can you call something nature provides the necessary conditions for once a year nowadays a hobby?  I severely miss fighting my way up steep slopes through drifts tall and deep enough to build a palatial snow cave in.    

 

Peter, are you aware that a decaffeinated coffee from Starbucks has more caffeine than multiple cups of the government mandated nutritional info on every package states for a single cup of caffeinated?  Following along from that, the 1-2 cups they referred to are probably halfway between a bucket and typical 20 oz/small sized drink cup everything is served in over here.  

 

$80 was missing a zero at minimum for the grinders I was talking about.  Grinding 12 cups per person per day would warrant something built for heavier use.  I'm going to tap out before I come off as a snob.    

[Shadders]

Hi,

Everyone knows that Tea, is the best drink of the day.

Loose leaf only, Assam, warm the pot, and brew for at least 5 minutes. Milk poured in the cup first - changes the texture.

Never use tea bags.

Regards,

Shadders.

[semente]

On 22/01/2018 at 9:28 AM, Teresa said:

I played guitar from age 12 until about 5 years ago when I lost interest. I blame my dementia. I actually started with the mandolin at about age 4 or 5. When I was in first grade I got mad at my mom and put my mandolin in my case and said I was running away from home to live with my aunt.  My mandolin was the only thing I took with me. I walked around the block and ended up back home as I was not allowed to cross the street by myself. (:-)

 

[semente]

13 minutes ago, Shadders said:

Hi,

Everyone knows that Tea, is the best drink of the day.

Loose leaf only, Assam, warm the pot, and brew for at least 5 minutes. Milk poured in the cup first - changes the texture.

Never use tea bags.

Regards,

Shadders.

 

I love tea Darjeeling being my favourite but why the milk? Not as bad as Tibetan tea, which is more like a soup, but still...

 

 

P.S. a bit o tea history

 

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tea_in_the_United_Kingdom

[Shadders]

55 minutes ago, semente said:

 

I love tea Darjeeling being my favourite but why the milk? Not as bad as Tibetan tea, which is more like a soup, but still...

 

 

P.S. a bit o tea history

 

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tea_in_the_United_Kingdom

Hi,

Always used milk - parents too, and grandparents also. If i have jasmine, then obviously no milk (lapsang souchong - no milk either). 

Regards,

Shadders.