Clever Coffee Dripper.. sort of a silly name, eh?

I couldn't help myself. When a new coffee brewer comes on the market, it gets my attention. When a new coffee brewer made specifically for single cup brews comes on the market, it *really* gets my attention, re: Aeropress, small vac pots, manual pour-overs.. etc. Now, when a new coffee brewer made for single cup extractions comes on the the market and it's DIRT CHEAP, and get's RAVE REVIEWS from the places I look for for coffee info comes on the market, I lose all control of my credit card. I took a second loks, and then a thirteenth look.. and then it happened. I ordered it. $13.50 for the Clever Coffee Dripper (yeah, I know.. but the product is so cool!) and I hope to have it here soon. Pictures when the thing comes in.. there's a million on the web right now, though. Go take a look.

In other news, while doing some poking around at this above-mentioned item, I came across a lot of good info for coffee brewers doing stuff with weights for coffee *and* water amounts, instead of X grams for Y liquid ounces of water. It's all, in my case, 14 grams for 255 grams of hot water. As it turns out, with the fact that water expands when you heat it, it's apparently easier to just weigh the stuff on a scale as you infuse it, instead of trying to eyeball the volumes. I'm interested in using this with my Aeropress in the future, because the only downside to the press is with fresh coffee, the bloom get's so outrageous, it's hard to tell where the actually water volume is inside the tube. If I use water weight after tare'ing out the scale, I'll be much more consistent. I dragged out the brewing scale this morning and tried it, and I'll be darned if it really wasn't so! The only issue now is, the Boss will have my head of I try to keep this other scale out in the easily accessible kitchen area.

Is it just me, or is single cup brewing getting an aweful lot of attention lately? Aeropress, this new Clever dripper, the famed Clover in the big shops.. 5 years ago, all of this would have gotten you laughed out of the coffee shop.. now, it's standard issue. Heck, I was reading just the other day where there's already coffee bars with manual pour-over stations, Clever drip stations, single serve Halogen heated vac pot lineups.. etc, etc. It's not just espresso for a single serve anymore.. I like it!

The final result on the Monterry..

So, I cracked open the Monterrey Jack last night, with the assistance of Don. We actually split it in half, then split one of those pieces in half again.. the remaining 3/4's was re-waxed and put back in the fridge for sampling with a bit more ageing on it. In any case, here's a couple pics:

As you can see here (below), the one quarter that we dug into is a sizable chunk. It's about 0.5 lbs worth right there, and there's still quite a bit left of this first 1/4 for anyone interested in coming up for a try.

 

Some little scrub that came into the kitchen when she heard there was cheese around.. and I quote "Daddy's cheese is good!"

 

Here's another scrub that was in the kitchen, too.. Don! Look at him pimping that SinCity pint glass, too! 

 

And here's a final view of the project after the slicing, dicing and re-waxing of the other pieces. Those are back in the fridge as I type.. and we'll try them out in another few weeks. Like I said, gimme a shout if you wanna try it.

 

The end result of all this being, good cheese! For a mildly aged Jack, it's got a nice creamy flavor, and a slight tang from the acidity to it. It's VERY edible.. I'm quite happy with the way it came out. I'm really excited now to try the Jalapeno cheese now, since I know I did that one better than this first one.

In other news, Don also showed up with hands full.. of beer! That funky Blonde beer I reviewed a while back with the apparent Brett infection? Got a few more of those in the fridge now.. we'll see how they've fared with a bit more time on them. Looking forward to that this afternoon, tell you what.

Bandaged the Derby..

Just finished bandaging the Derby cheese, like I mentioned in the last post. It was a bit more involved and grosser than I had imagined.. sorta messy. But, it went well, and that wheel is resting easy in the beer frige along with the other two wheels. Here's a rather unexciting shot of it, all wrapped up and covered in grease, although you can't actually see the grease..

I'll have to wait a month and a half or two to open this one up, as it's raw milk.. supposed to age for two months to sell 'em legally and they think that's the required time for the acids in the cheese to nuke the harmful bacteria inside, were there any actually in there. I could open it up earlier of course, cause, well, it's *mine*.. but flavor development would be hurt, I assume. We'll see.

Fortunately, the time required to age my first cheese has passed, and this weekend may mark the opening of the first 2 lb wheel of Monterrey Jack tat I made seemingly years ago. She's gonna be sliced and quartered, with the sections not being eaten resealed up and put back to do some aging tests on. The Jalapeno can be cracked open next week, too.. good times ahead!

Still no eggs from the chickens.. it'll be 20 weeks this Thursday.. two days from now. Two seem to be ready to lay any second now, they're very big and the combs and wattles on them are fully developed and bright red. But, alas.. no breakfast yet. :) We're thinking of making a temporary wire pen enclosure around the garden to have the chicks eat the last of the vegetable stuff gone to waste, and to till and fertilize the area as well. We'll see about that in a bit..

This beer:

..as you can see by my thumbs up, was *awesome*. Sour, highly recommended. Bring a friend to help. Thanks Timmay and Abby!

That's all for now, kids.. tune in next time. And keep clicking my Google Ad! Ya jerks..

A bear.. eating berries in the front yard.

So, Barbie the dog was barking and growling this morning. A quick look outside and this little guy (Black bear) was spotted across the street eating berries from a low hanging bush. He was tagged, I think you can see, by a yellow DEP tag in his right ear.

Here it is hanging out in the bushes. It ate a lot of berries, which are located just to the left of the bear in this picture...

Here, it's just dropped a poop on the lawn right there and has turned around to check out it's handiwork..

..and here it goes, up the driveway.

Eventually, it moved across three more neighbors lawns and wet up the hill to the west. See ya!

In cheese news, this here is a pic of the slabs of an English Derby style cheese I made yesterday, as they're draining on the board. The idea was that I cut them into slabs like this, turning them every 15 minutes and keeping them covered with a warm towel for about an hour. Later on, I broke them up into small pieces and packed them into the 2lb mold and they're in the press as I type this. It'll get unpacked tonight when I get home from work and dry for a couple days before I do the wrapping for aging time.

Derby cheese is supposed to have a hint of tangy, sharp flavor, sorta like Cheddar, without the drawn out process of the Cheddaring process itself. It should be more flavorful than my Jack cheese, and would have been similar to my Cheddar.. except that one should be plenty flavorful stuffed full of Jalapeno's as it currently is..

I was originally planning to stick with the American styles for a while and go around the bend with each of those for a while, but the call of the English cheese was to great, and I wanted to try out this old-fangled funky "bandaging" and oiling method that is traditionally English. It's similar to waxing, in that it's a protective coating for the cheese, but doesn't use wax. It's just muslin cloth and oil or lard slathered around the outside of that. It will supposedly mold up quite a bit, but won't get under the muslin to get into the cheese. Funky, I know.. should be disgusting and cool to see it happen.

Pretzels. No, really?

And yep, I'm makin' some pretzels now. Great American Beer Fest (GABF) and a side trip to The Cheeky Monk, a Belgian Beer bar in town, got me all screwed up on big, soft, chewy pretzels and good mustard. And cheese, too.. but it's already too late for me and cheese. We knew that. More on GABF and that adventure when I have some more time and some of the digital pics get sent my way from my compatriots for the trip.

So, with that said, I'm doing this recipe I stole from Alton Brown:

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups warm (110 to 115 degrees F) water
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 2 teaspoons kosher salt
• 1 package active dry yeast, or 2 1/4 teaspoons of active dry stuff..
  
• 22 ounces all-purpose flour, approximately 4 1/2 cups
• 2 ounces unsalted butter, melted
• Vegetable oil, for pan
• 10 cups water
• 2/3 cup baking soda
• 1 large egg yolk beaten with 1 tablespoon water

Directions

Combine the water, sugar and kosher salt in the bowl of a stand mixer and sprinkle the yeast on top. Allow to sit for 5 minutes or until the mixture begins to foam. Add the flour and butter and, using the dough hook attachment, mix on low speed until well combined. Change to medium speed and knead until the dough is smooth and pulls away from the side of the bowl, approximately 4 to 5 minutes. Remove the dough from the bowl, clean the bowl and then oil it well with vegetable oil. Return the dough to the bowl, cover and let sit in a warm place for approximately 50 to 55 minutes or until the dough has doubled in size.

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F. Line 2 half-sheet pans with parchment paper and lightly brush with the vegetable oil. Set aside.

Bring the 10 cups of water and the baking soda to a rolling boil in an 8-quart saucepan or roasting pan.

In the meantime, turn the dough out onto a slightly oiled work surface and divide into 8 equal pieces. Roll out each piece of dough into a 24-inch rope. Make a U-shape with the rope, holding the ends of the rope, cross them over each other and press onto the bottom of the U in order to form the shape of a pretzel. Place onto the parchment-lined half sheet pan.

Place the pretzels into the boiling water, 1 by 1, for 30 seconds. Remove them from the water using a large flat spatula. Return to the half sheet pan, brush the top of each pretzel with the beaten egg yolk and water mixture and sprinkle with the pretzel salt. Bake until dark golden brown in color, approximately 12 to 14 minutes. Transfer to a cooling rack for at least 5 minutes before serving.

And here's what I came up with:

First the quick boil..

Then onto the baking rack on parchment paper. Very helpful stuff for pretzels.. not so much for bagels.

Then out of the oven after 11 minutes, and...

..finally, onto a plate and into my belly!

Some cheap mustard was the best I had at the time, but the stout was fine.

I'll be baking some more up tomorrow, as I make my new raw milk cheese wheel, and I'll be adding some more Kosher salt and trying to remember to put the egg wash on before the salt topping. I'll also be trying to make the strands longer before tying them up as well. They're a bit fat as they turned out. Really delicious, though!

GABF week..

Just a quick note from the field... in Denver, CO in the hotel room posting to say I'm in town for the Great American Beer Fest.. Good time yesterday, and today is the last session for us. Should have some stories to tell and pics to post when I get back. Some really fabulous coffee was obtained while in town here as well.

GABF..

Great American Beer Fest.. ah, yes. Just a couple more days to go and we're there.. craft beer Valhalla!

Just put the nest box in the chicken coop yesterday. Noticed the girls were digging weird dugouts in the bedding the past couple days, so I put the box I made in there for them, just in case. I also am hopeful the chicks will survive the few days I'll be gone.. the wife doesn't seem really interested in their care taking during that time, it seems. A beer a day to whoever wants the feeding and watering job for Thurs-Sun this week! Payment at the door on completion of the job.

The IPA I made with Frank seems to have run it's course.. I'll probably dry hop it when I return from my trip.. or just before my trip, and keg it on return. Really cleared up in the fermenter.. looks nice.

Also, I flipped the cheeses in the fridge, too. Looks like the end of the month and I can open up the Jack cheese, and the Jalapeno can be pried open another week after that. I guess when I return from the trip, we might look into that. Pics and discussion to follow, of course. Still plotting my first raw milk cheese. Probably gonna be a peppercorn variety, I think.