19 April 2026

Brian Bilbrey

Coffee Changes

For the last several years, I've been brewing my home-roasted coffee in a Behmor Brazen - it is a neat brewer with a bunch of settings that make it come pretty close to emulating a good hand pour-over. It'll put a few ounces over the ground beans in the basket, then wait for a programmed amount of time for the grind to bloom. Once done, it releases 4 oz. at a time of hot water over the grind until the water's gone. It's worked fine for me over the years, although I'm on the second Brazen, as after 5 years, there was an un-recoverable error code. 

The new coffee brewing setup: a kettle, a Barzata coffee grinder, and a 6 cup glass Chemex with paper filter holding the ground coffee
Barzata, Chemex, and kettle

While the current Brazen is still working fine, I've decided to change to actually using 6 cup Chemex, and doing a pour-over the old-fashioned way. I just boil up about the right amount of water in the kettle, and spend the few minutes to enjoy making my (18 oz!) "cup" of coffee. The Brazen worked well while I've been working, but I'm going to have all the spare time shortly. Since it was due for a cleaning, I did a deep clean of the Brazen and I've retired it to a shelf pending future need.

Yard Work

I took a few hours off on Friday and did some yard cleanup, and raised bed garden cleanup.

Cleaned out two veggie garden raised beds, left just the row of leeks in case they do something interesting.
Two garden beds, leeks still standing.

I still want to buy a few bags of garden soil and turn it into the beds to amend the conditions a bit before planting happens in about a month.The leeks from last year are still there and green, so I'm leaving them in case they do something interesting this year.

In the front yard, I collected a bunch of fallen sticks and twigs from the winter storms. Best done before the grass grows enough I can't see them until I encounter them with the mower. Yeah, I think mowing will happen sooner than I expect... WIth the week just past of 40's and 60's (lows and highs, respectively), everything is greening up nicely. That said, w're back down to 30's and a night or two in the 20's in the coming week - that'll slow things down a bit.

Amusing Music Tidbits

I was listening to Radio Paradise this morning while doing some chores, and a song came on... the hook sounded familiar. Somewhere in the back of my brain, a neuron fired, and I wondered, "Is that Chris Rhea?" I walked over to read the artist from the screen, and yep, Chris Rhea, the song was Road to Hell. I haven't heard that song since Dave Morey played it (more than once) on the KFOG morning shows. That means better than 20 years since I've heard Chris Rhea. Hmmm, brain not dead yet.

 - =  * = -

Yesterday while I was doing errands, shuffle Rock on the iPhone via CarPlay brought David Byrne from Bonnaroo 2004, singing "Finite = Alright". I caught a lyric I didn't recall:

Only one record in this whole wide world
Where Jimi Hendrix sings "House Burning Down"
Another Elvis will not come along

Hmmm. In the moment, I thought it was just a tongue in cheek reference to Talking Heads "Burning Down the House", but nope. I recall something from Funkadelic being the inspiration for "Burning Down the House", and a web search reveals there really is a Hendrix song, "House Burning Down", which I'd not heard before. So, more Hendrix discography is in my future.