THE ROASTER IS FIXED!
Last time I checked in, I planned to begin roasting on Tuesday, this did not happen because of a gas permit that wasn't in the right people's hands. So Wednesday I showed up to roast as soon as the city inspector verified the integrity of the plumbing. This was about 10:30 am. Needless to say, we were behind and I had plenty of coffee to roast, I was planning on about 400 pounds, which would allow me to pack it all up before the UPS man got there. So I roasted, and roasted, and roasted beautiful, fragrant coffee. Our neighbors complained about the smell (I still don't get it). But we're ordering a pair of no-loss vent caps for the roof, so they should smell no more. I was almost done for the day when I had my most terrifying roasting experience to date. The drum stopped moving. The roaster got really quiet and I stared in shock at the stationary coffee for a few seconds before I realized that it was going to start on fire pretty quick if I did not empty the drum. I opened the chute and turned on the cooling bin, as the coffee fell out of the drum, the drum began turning slowly, but soon creaked to a stop. John showed up around four thirty and we figured that it must be the roaster drum motor, which has been turning the drum faithfully for eleven years and who knows how many pounds of coffee. We immediately called Grainger and ordered a replacement part overnight. Of course, the only place that had one was in Central Time and had closed for the night. So Friday, we got the roaster motor and we spent all day figuring out how to mount it (it was a different size, requiring us to get out the sawzall and modify the roaster mount plate). We got it in, turned it on and it spun, slowly, so we called it a night and figured that it was just a slightly different gear ratio and our coffee would be fine.
Enter Saturday, I show up and start warming up the roaster, I notice about six minutes into the warm up that the drum is slowing again. WTF?! I shut it down and start freaking out about how to get another motor here on labor day weekend and all that. John shows up and waves his hand over the shaft and it works, must have just needed to warm up the motor and the grease, or the drum may have shifted during the move and had to recenter itself. Anyway- we roasted, we did not run out of espresso, and we will roast again tomorrow!
On to my weekend at home.
Emma and I subscribe to Imbibe Magazine and in the most recent issue was a recipe for homemade triple sec. I lent the magazine to John (because it also features 100 of the best beers), but I remembered the jist of the recipe and decided to
give it a shot. I went to Safeway and got some oranges, Ketel One and Everclear. I sliced oranges and dehydrated them in the oven for about a half hour, stacked them in a pitcher and in went the everclear, also a hint of ginger, black pepper and sweet dried basil for nuance. I made some simple syrup, two 1/2 cups of water, 1 1/2 cups of orange juice and 3 cups of sugar, simmered to a thick syrup. The vodka I mixed with mandarin oranges and when everything was orange, I strained and combined the elements. I look forward to doing a taste test next to some other high quality liquors, I'll keep you updated.
So the photos are of the first cocktails with my homemade triple sec, I look forward to experimenting more with this and other infused liquors. The first cocktail was for Emma, a Margharita with Reposado Tequila, Triple Sec and Lime Juice, with an Everclear Orange Garnish. My Drink is a Ketel One with Triple Sec, shaken with frozen blueberries and garnished with orange peel. It's delicious! Cheers-
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