nuxx.net
Making, baking, and (un-)breaking things in Southeast Michigan.

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Coffee / Java Stout?

February 2, 2006

[Cross posted to and …]

Hey everyone… I need a bit of an opinion if anyone is willing to give one.

A few months ago I made a rather successful vanilla stout which all of my friends rather liked. Black as one’s soul, wonderfully smooth, and just nicely carbonated.

Here is a photo of the beer with my dinner from a few nights ago.

I think I want to leverage that same recipe, but instead of adding vanilla, I’m going to add coffee. In particular, I’m thinking of adding half to one cup of strongly brewed coffee (basically espresso) in secondary. The way I’ll be brewing the coffee it’ll be strong, but not especially bitter.

The question I have is, how much coffee would you use? And how would you add it?

In my opinion, adding grounds or beans to the kettle will probably cause overextraction, leading to an especially bitter flavor from the coffee. Likewise with grounds in secondary…

But, what have you done? And what worked well for you?

Thanks!

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Tofu Hunan Style

January 30, 2006


Click for more photos of this meal…

This picture has been taunting everyone I’ve sent it to via AIM, so I figured I’d post it here.

That’s tonight’s dinner, menu item 705, Tofu Hunan Style’ from the wonderful China Gourmet at 21 Mile and Hayes. Actually, this is one of two Chinese restaurants that I’ll eat at… The other is Gourmet Garden, who’s amazing ‘bean curd skin with mixed vegetables’ was detailed in this LJ post which appears to have both disgusted and enthralled.

Anyway, it was really tasty, and I ended up having it with a fortune cookie and a pint of my Vanilla Stout. Quite a nice dinner.

Oh, and in other food-related things, tonight I cleaned my dishwasher using this stuff my mom gave me, called Dishwasher Magic. It’s a citric acid blend in a bottle, with a wax cap which melts to let it out. Well, my dishwasher is porcelain inside, so while it didn’t have a bunch of build-up, there were still mineral deposits on the metal parts and such.

Well, after using it, the trays roll a whole lot better. I can only imagine this is how it worked when brand new, back in 1991 or so. The washing mechanisms have always worked well, now it’s just cleaner and it rolls better.

Also, check out the Footie candy bar, as seen at Meijer. With a misogynistic message akin to it’s brother bar Yorkie, this bar exclaims NO WENCHES ON THE BENCHES.

Ahh… And to round out the evening, I finally put a IBM Model M in the car. This one was made in 1995 and should work just great… I just wonder how my coworkers will take it. Now, all I need is a Model M equivalent for my G5 here at home.

acquired thingsfoodmoved from livejournal

Hackjob Lighting

January 28, 2006


My workbench, all lit up…
(Click for more.)

Well, one of the other things I did today was get my hacked together lighting rig (photo gallery retired) put together and give it a try. Well, it seems to work. (The photo in my last post was taken using it.)

In the end, I have a setup which I metered (using the Photoshop Camera Raw plugin and a grey card) at 4900K, which is just great for my purposes.

The setup was made using four Sunwave 30W compact fluorescent bulbs which I’d ordered ordered from Cindy at Cloud Dome for a pretty reasonable price. The bulbs are fairly large and well made, and fit fairly nicely into the clip-on flood lights I purchased from Home Depot.

To diffuse the light, I took four sheets of Roscolux 116 ‘Tough White Diffusion’ gel, cut them down to 12″ x 12″ squares, and clip them in front of the lamps by the corners, forming a puffed out box. I found that if make marks 2″ in from the corners and clip along the line formed between these points, things work out rather well.

In the end I’ve got four rather workable lamps which seem to provide some pretty even lighting. I may want another four down the line, but at a total of about $100 for all the parts needed to make this (the lamps themselves are by far the most expensive and inaccessible parts) I’ll have to hold off on this for a bit.

The only other change I may make is in the size of the gels used. I think that I may be losing some light to the sides and rear of the fixture with the gels billowing out slightly as they do. I imagine if I used 10″ squares instead, I may get more light on the work surface… Oh, and then I’d also get all four pieces needed for a project like this out of one 20″ x 24″ sheet of gel.

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Aerobie AeroPress

January 28, 2006


Parts from the Aerobie AeroPress

Today I also finally opened and tried my new Aerobie AeroPress coffee maker. It came in a rather interesting hexagonal package (rear of package) and contains what appear to be really well made parts. The first cup I made, from a blend that I roasted sometime around NYE, came out quite well. It’s very smooth, almost like the very first pouring from a french press, but all the way through the cup. I think I’ll like this thing lots.

As stated on the site, the resulting coffee was extremely clear, and it had this amazingly soft flavor to it. The level of caffeine from it was also quite low. I think I’ll be using this to make the coffee for the Java Stout I’m hoping to make in a few weeks.

These makers cost right around US$30 and can be purchased from the places listed here. I’d highly recommend it to anyone who wants an interesting coffee maker, especially those who don’t already have a french press. I do, but it’s quite crappy (lots of coffee gets through to the drinkable part) so I figured this would be a good alternative. And I was right.

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Bean Curd Skin w/ Mixed Vegetables

January 27, 2006


Bean Curd Skin with Mixed Vegetables

That right there is today’s lunch from Gourmet Garden over at Walton and Adams in Rochester Hills. Yes, I know it looks like some sort of cross between umbilical cord and intestine, but it’s really, really incredible. It is very thin sheets of tofu wrapped around bunches of veggies, then tied with knots and steamed, served covered in a nice brown sauce. The veggies inside included mushrooms and a mix of tofu, bean sprouts, and a few other things.

It’s really, really good. Here is a photo of the inside of one of these dumpling-like items.

I keep becoming more and more impressed with this resturant. Lunch prices are reasonable, the food is excellent, and it seems to be actual, real Chinese-type food. Mmm.

foodmoved from livejournal

Honda Music Link iPod Adapter Review Update

January 27, 2006

Yeah, I know I post about this a lot, but I wanted to let you all know that I have added four pieces of email to my Honda Music Link iPod Adapter Review. These letters from from individuals who also had issues similar to mine, and also gave me permission to repost their correspondence.

So, if you’re interested, head on over there and give their notes a read. The links are at the top… If not, ignore this. :)

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qmail-pop3d Problems

January 26, 2006

Note to self:

My mom’s computer was unable to check her email with Mail.app. IMAP worked fine. When logging in by telnetting to port 110, the following error about being unable to read the home directory was received, yet the proper permissions was there:

-ERR this user has no $HOME/Maildir

My mom also reported that occasionally she was able to check her email just fine.

The problem ended up being that Mail.app was set to leave all mail on the server. By the time there were around 1400 messages in her inbox (stacked up over the past eight months or so) it seems that these messages were simply too much for qmail-pop3d to parse upon login, and the error was received.

It should be noted that the log for qmail-pop3d showed a successful login with an unsuccessful one immediately following.

The solution was to ensure that she had all her mail, then clear out the POP3 server. Now everything works fine.

computersmoved from livejournal

PICkit 2

January 26, 2006

Well, I just ordered a PICkit 2 Starter Kit. Hopefully using this I’ll be able to learn more about programming PICs, hopefully resulting in re-programming the PIC16F876A in the Honda Music Link Interface Box. With any luck, I’ll be able to build a proper interface between an iPod and the CD changer port on Honda head units and offer the firmware up for download for others to use. Maybe I could also charge $20 or $30 or so to re-flash other people’s Honda Music Link Interface Boxes as well, making the device work differently and better. That’s a goal, at least. :)

Oh, this morning there were also some especially nice things to look at on the way to work… As I left before sunrise, there was a wonderful sliver of brightly lit moon visible, with a whole bunch of earthshine on the dark part. Plenty of planets hanging out in the sky, as well, happily reflecting sunlight and looking pretty to everyone on Earth.

Also, as the sun started coming up, I was actually able to see a golden glow on the Chrysler building in Auburn Hills, visible from five or eight miles away. Quite impressive.

One other thing… The new iPod is so thin that with my headphones plugged in, it doesn’t set flat on my desk. I don’t know if this is good or not. :\ It’s also so thin that it’s a bit difficult to plug in the dock connector in the car. Maybe I just need to get used to it.

acquired thingselectronicsmoved from livejournal