My Aeropress Recipe

/ Pete Denison / 5 Comments

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My previous post linking to the Aeropress World Championship results generated further discussion from readers around what makes up my own recipe for the Aeropress method of brewing.

I have experimented on a number of different methods, and probably the one that suits me best at the current time is based (similar ratios, different exact measurements) around that published by Tim Wendleboe, who, amongst other things, was the 2004 World Barista Champion.

Firstly, my method has evolved from specifically measuring and weighing both the ground coffee and water added each and every time, to one based on consistent volumes measured by “eye” (grinding directly into the Aeropress scoop which gives me 12g by weight) and filling the brewing chamber to number 3 (thus adding 150g of water). I am a firm believer in using specific weights and measures to gain an understanding of what you are trying to achieve, and then, where possible, obtaining consistent results using more practical markers which avoid the need for excessive amounts of tinkering and effort. Particularly when all you want is the brew you have been yearning for since rising (perhaps weigh and measure for the second cup of the day, once your eyes are actually open!).

Many other variables will influence what ultimately ends up in your cup, the obvious one being the quality and roast level of beans you are using. I have found greater satisfaction with light to medium roasts, with some of the fruitier African origin beans more suited to my taste preferences. Other variables include water temperature (off the boil, 92–95 degrees celsius), coarseness of grind (coarse initially, but experiment yourself a bit here; definitely grind just prior to brewing), and stirring/steep time (refer below).

One thing you will most likely notice should you linger over the cup long enough, is the altering flavour profiles as the brew cools – certainly something I’d encourage experimenting with, as this can often lead to some surprising results.

So in summary, here we have it.

  • 12g coffee (coarse grind)
  • 150g water (92–95 degrees celsius; just pre or off the boil)
  • add just enough water to cover and wet all grounds to allow for bloom
  • after 10 seconds, add remaining water to number 3 on chamber
  • stir 3 times then seal chamber with plunger (don’t press)
  • press after 60 seconds
  • enjoy !!

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No doubt you will notice some differences between my exact process, and the one outlined by Tim on his site (particularly if you view the video, as I do not routinely use Barry White as background brewing music – though I acknowledge it probably works quite well!). Ultimately, it will come down to both your own personal preferences and practicalities of how much time and effort you wish to expend each and every time you brew. I’d encourage you to read around, as there is certainly no end to the recipes and resources on this, and many other brewing methods.

One other point to note, I have yet to try the inverted brew method that is also quite popular, however I had done enough tinkering to the point of settling on the above. That experiment is for another day.

I would be very interested to hear any other recipes or techniques that work for you. Please let me know in the comments below.

A short, long story

/ Pete Denison / 5 Comments

The concentrated focus of a good espresso provides many things. A 25ml expression of every step from plant to cup. For many years my preferred method of afternoon brew, however as time goes on I am drawn towards the longer form brewing methods again.

Perhaps this is due to the proliferation of techniques such as pour over, siphon, chemex, and the like in recent times, or my own desire to experience the unique flavour profiles of single origin beans in a more subtle form. Most likely the latter, as access is one thing, but gaining deeper experience in home roasting provides a natural push towards a more mindful assessment of the output.

One method of brewing a long cup is the Aeropress, an ingenious method of brewing that, although very simple to use, has its own World Championships, the most recent of which has just concluded in Melbourne, Australia. Hit the World Championship link to check out the recipes of the top three place getters.

A more detailed review of my Aeropress brewing method will follow at a later date.

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Using Day One to Track Workouts

/ Pete Denison / 4 Comments

I have always struggled to find an easy to use, yet accurate method of tracking exercise sessions, whether they be resistance training or cardiovascular in nature. Various attempts at simple or more complex spreadsheets, dedicated apps, or even pen and paper have inevitably been shelved due to an inability of myself or the tools to do the job the way I have in my mind.

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Enter Day One, primarily a journalling app, which is both a Mac and universal iOS app that I have found to be an ideal solution for this purpose. I tend to input workout data on my iPhone and review on my iPad.

As far as my workouts are concerned, these are generally either home based resistance training sessions conducted in the early morning darkness of the back yard (EZ bar, dumbbells, resistance bands, anything else I can dip on or hang from), or sprint running sessions in similar lighting (or lack thereof) at the local high school. Either way, I do find it beneficial to track these for self satisfaction at having completed another session, as a reference to check progress, or to set weights for the next session.

Resistance Training

Though a whole post (if not a series) is required to adequately describe my use of the app Drafts, this is the starting point for the resistance sessions. They are titled according to the type of workout, for example Weights for time – 21/16 or Weights for strength. The 21/16, refers to a 2 lap circuit, the first of which has 21 repetitions, with the second set containing 16. I generally do 4–5 exercises per session.

Once the exercises and weights for each are written in Drafts, it is simply a matter of starting the stopwatch, and noting whether the repetitions were met in one effort or broken up into multiple efforts to reach the rep total. For example, if Deadlifts took, 3 efforts to reach 21 reps in the first round and 2 efforts to reach 16 reps in the second, we then have as follows

Deadlifts 40kg
3/2

Each exercise and results are completed in the above manner in Drafts. Upon completion of the session, the time is then recorded in the title of the Draft, thus for a session of 19 minutes and 6 seconds, the title appears as follows:

Weights for time 21/16 – 19:06

I have included a screenshot below of a completed workout, which was a 16/9 circuit that day.

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Walking/Running Sessions

As I mentioned above, these sessions are undertaken at the local high school oval, where at 5am it is pitch black, and I am relying on my inherent knowledge that the track is flat and even, as I certainly have no way of seeing where my feet are being placed – I guess it makes things a little more interesting.

These sessions are therefore titled School Run in Day One and are originally generated in Runkeeper, which gives me total distance, total time, and average min/km pace (though average pace is really not important as a large part of the total time is spent walking to the school oval for the sprint repetitions) Calories burnt are really not of interest to me. At the completion of the session I snap a screenshot of the Runkeeper summary, and add this to Day One, along with manually recording the sprint repetitions.

The screenshot below shows a session which involved six 30m efforts and two 200m efforts.

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Overview of Entries

Once each session is completed, and sent to Day One from either Drafts or the Runkeeper screenshot, Workout tags are added to both types of session, with a second tag containing either Weights or Walk_Run, to enable a second level of filtering.

Day One Screenshots

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Advantages of Using Day One

Ease of Use – Primarily I find Day One to be the best means of recording workout information due to it’s ease of use, which is certainly enhanced by using Drafts and Runkeeper in combination. I acknowledge the simplicity of information I record may be limiting for those used to maintaining a more detailed exercise log, however the more time I have to spend on data input increases the likelihood I will not record anything at all.

Additional Information –
Along with the actual workout information contained therein, Day One automatically time and date stamps the entry, which I find quite helpful as I do not want to spend time adding this when it can be automated. Though not critical, it is a nice addition to have the location and weather also recorded (perhaps using a cold day as an excuse for poor performance?)

Support –
The information recorded in Day One can be modified or viewed on all Mac / iOS devices through Dropbox or iCloud syncing, with entries able to be exported as a PDF file also. Markdown is supported for text entry, and a nice touch is that hashtags in text are converted to native tags when entered in Day One.

Though there a many uses for Day One, the outline above demonstrates what has been working really well for me for some time now. I do also use it for it’s intended purpose of journalling, even if my entries are few and far between.

Day One is available at the App Store now.

1000 M&Ms Don’t Make a Meal

/ Pete Denison / 3 Comments

Does a compliment forcefully extracted from the giver ultimately devalue the message?

I believe it does.

Time and time again we are constantly asked whether we “like” this; whether this looks good on me; or, what do you think of my new (insert clothing item, gadget)? Perhaps even the expectation that the item you have needlessly taken from your bag and left on your desk, despite its irrelevance to your workplace, somehow adds to your social standing, intellect or, for want of a better word, “coolness”.

When asked these questions in an office or social situation, what answer would I give other than my default, and that which is also expected by the asker, “of course, looks great / your doing great / yes so cool”.

Compliment extracted, “like” button pushed, ticket validated. Here, have an M&M.

Whilst I am not saying there should be no recognition of achievement or personal development, nor even of effort in failed attempt, however I assure you I will, and do notice. That is, I will notice meaningful achievement (a category in which I do not put your latest purchase). As a result, I am far more likely to give thoughtful, honest, constructive, and heartfelt feedback or encouragement than simply throwing the fourth M&M of the day your way because we are already up to question (compliment extraction) number four – and it’s not even lunch.

The positivity, or even honesty in my response is inversely proportional to the number of times you ask, because eventually I just don’t want to hear about you anymore.

Surely a full, sit down meal would be much more rewarding than extracting, accumulating and consuming one thousand M&Ms. Apart from being far more satisfying, it will give you much greater energy and drive to achieve the aims you have set for yourself, rather than wasting energy chasing the next M&M.

Do we really need some external validation for every single (mostly consumer driven) decision we make? The answer to that question increasingly seems to be yes. If not for some kind of validation, then it becomes somehow linked to inching up our social standing – I am better or cool because I have this, am doing or reading this, or “like” this.

We often read how publicly set goals will assist us to be more accountable. That may be true, however I do not believe the premise behind this is for you to achieve (what you think) is ascendancy over your friends or colleagues by a constant barrage of everything you have bought, are buying, or doing (and since when is buying an actual achievement?). Set significant goals for yourselves on the inside people, and let those who do just that, every single day, go about achieving theirs without having to validate every single step of yours.

Where you aim, set a path to, and achieve the desired result you have set for yourself, is, I believe, where you will find a true sense of self worth, satisfaction, confidence, and most importantly the desire to repeat the process. The real key is that this occurs in the context of, but independent to, what influences or opinions there are around you.

I think that regardless of how many people you ask, you know (or should know), the real answer, and whether this meets the standards you have set for yourself, reflects the person you want to be, or is even the right question to ask in the first place.

That is for you alone to ask, answer, and continue along your way.

Finally… something to say

/ Pete Denison / 2 Comments

“Of course you have to do it dad, we all are.”

With those words became what you, the reader are now working your way through. That is, the family are all “blogging” in some way, shape or form. So simply write and publish right? Sure… but no. Both the idea and plan for this blog were developed some time ago. Even the name is months old.

Perhaps my exceptional ability to over-plan to the point of under (never?) delivering may finally be put to rest as some content goes out on this site. Or it may just take a nap here and there… after all, I am not prepared to disclose how many drafts and re-writes have already occurred on this, my initial post.

The exact path for this journey is yet to be fully mapped out. I see many directions we can take – “we” assuming you, the reader, will remain until such time as this site produces a few more posts than this initial effort. A further assumption suggests that those posts will be somewhat interesting to those prepared to read them.

There are a few places I would like to visit on these pages:

Productivity and Self-Development

The basis for the name of this blog. An area where I have had more … not failure per se – probably frustration would be more accurate, than outright success. I guess the philosophy that if things came easy they would be less worthwhile and appreciated rings true here.

I’d like to share some of the challenges, successes, and the many, many resources that I have discovered along the way that may assist your own journey.

Hopefully these insights will provide the basis for some incremental changes to help you generate some real momentum (there it is) for your own development.

Things of Interest

Here is where things get a little more interesting, fun, and at times costly!

Pens and paper – analogue tools that are truly a delight to use, and should always have their place in an ever increasing digital world. This may be anything from Mont Blanc to Moleskine and everything in between. there is also no better place to start than the Pen Addict.

Coffee – all things beans, roasting, brewing and cupping. A long held interest that is now beginning to branch out further as I expand my horizons and seek to learn a few more skills that will take me closer to the ultimately unachievable perfect brew. Not surprisingly then, fuelling the words in this very post are the results of an Aeropress brew of a very impressive medium roasted Ethiopian Yirgacheffe.

Digital tools – though locked into the bland wasteland that is a corporate office Windows based network; the escape that is a seamless and rock solid iOS platform becomes more interesting by the day – plenty to learn and share here !

Gadgets – the majority of posts are planned to fit the categories listed above however a general “other” bucket always has its place; perhaps this should be called the second drawer.

Health and Fitness – you will certainly not see any word spoken here about a quest I have set to run a marathon or the like. Whilst a noble pursuit, that is certainly not something for me. Here there will be snippets, links, and hopefully a little bit of information that is both useful and easily applied.

Oh, and by the way, as I mentioned at the top if this post, my family are the biggest inspiration I have, and you should probably check out their blogs too – My Wife, son, and daughter here and here.

Until next time…