6/19/23

.20 Ounce Cascade hops boiled for 15 minutes (in purified water)
3 lbs Orange Blossom honey from Meijer
2 gallons purified water
EC-118 yeast rehydrated with 1Tblsp sugar and warm purified water
S.G. 1.046
Pitched yeast at 94 degrees

6/20/23
2 grams Wine Tannin
4 grams Fermaid – O
It’s starting to be active.  The airlock is bubbling even on the bucket.  Need to take another gravity reading on 6/27/23.  It shouldn’t take long for this one to ferment.  Then I will be adding the dry hops.

7/6/23 (18 days)
.45 oz of a combo of Citra, Calypso and Saaz hops added and stirred.  Will bottle on Sunday 7/9/23.  S.G. .998 so it’s gone dry.

7/9/23 (21 days)
Well it wasn’t clear but I bottled it anyway.  To the keg I added about 3 oz honey, 1/2 tsp Potassium sorbate, 1/4 tsp metabisulfite.
To the bottles I added 1 cup Eurithrotal for sweetening and 1 bottle carbonation tab (looks like a piece of candy) per bottle.  I can’t wait to chill and test this brew out.   21 days from start to bottling.  F.G. = .998 with an abv of 6%

6/24/23
2 Gallons Kroger 100% apple juice
2 lbs dark brown sugar
Lalvin D47 yeast
S.G. = 1.086 ~ 10%
2tsp yeast nutrient (Not fermaid)
2 cinnamon sticks

I will be step feeding this with more brown sugar and fermaid – O on 6/26.  I want to push this yeast to the very max.  D47 has a tolerance of 15%.  This batch may go to Travis for distilling.  We will see.

7/6/23
S.G. = .994 so it’s gone dry.  I’m going to back sweeten to taste and bottle it on 7/9/23.

7/18/23

Racked off yeast and cinnamon sticks into clean and sanitized bucket.
S.G. = .994.  Dry and pretty much tasteless.  I added 2 cups Erythritol and it’s still very dry and tasteless.  I tried (in a taster cup) to add peach flavoring.  YUK!  Then I tried some salted caramel flavoring and that was ok.  Will have to get some caramel from the store to add flavor.

7/24/23
I added 2/3 cup brown sugar for priming.  I stirred in 3 oz of sugar free salted caramel flavoring and bottled today.  Labels printed and affixed.

30 days since made into the bottle.  Not bad.

6/1/2023 Blueberry Cider.
2 96 oz Great Value apple juice
2 12 oz Frozen Old Orchard apple juice
2 lbs frozen blue berries
2 tsp Pectic Enzyme
2.5 grams Fermaid O
Lalvin 71B yeast
Mixed all ingredients and let it warm to 72 degrees.  Added yeast.  Blueberries are in a straining bag.
S.G. = 1.060  If it goes to 1.000 will be 8.04 ABV

6/12/2023
Added 1 1/2 oz of American Oak Chips.  Will take gravity on 6/14

6/14/2023
S.G. = 1.000  Needs back sweetened and I think it’s ready to go.

6/20/2023
I’m gonna “Jack” this batch.  I had almost a gallon and a half of cider.  Blueberry really came through and it was dry so before freezing I added 1 cup of brown sugar to the batch.  The first run is in the freezer right now and I’ll melt it tonight.  Then back in for a second run of freezing.

6/23/2023
I did 2 runs in the freezer and came out with a little over 1 quart of product.  It’s very sweet, alcoholic flavored.  The blueberry’s really shine on this.  I’m guessing that it’s about 60 proof.  With a starting ABV at 8.04 then the first jack would get it to 16% then second jack would get it to about 32% ABV.  Needs aging time in the bottle though and labels.

This is  a TikTok recommended author.  First time reading the author too.  I’m starting the book on 6/12/2023.  Will let you know.  Well the chapters were short.  The author is English and uses several terms that even I didn’t understand.  The characters were always forgetful to me.  There were a lot of characters in the story.  Joe (the older brother) Lydia Joe’s wife, Cathy the middle sister and Frannie the younger sister.  Frannie commits a murder and asks her siblings to cover for her.  It eats them alive and worse things happen.  Frannie finally comes forward with the full truth and Joe takes the blame.
I’m only giving this book a 6/10.  I didn’t really care for the story and was just getting a little bored with the book.  Finished on 6/27/2023.  16 days to finish.

First time reading this author.  I believe it is an Amazon First Read.  Started on 5/30/2023.  So far chapters seem short.  Don’t know about characters yet. 6/12/2023 and I finished the book today.  For me it was just OK.  I’ll give it a 6/10.  The story seemed to stretch a bit when the author added a hurricane to the mix.  Laurie, the main character and her husband David lost their baby to a still birth.  David’s father was in prison for 16 years for a crime he actually didn’t commit.  Frank (David’s father) comes back to Galveston and remembers he had a girlfriend in high school who was sick with a non curable disease.  Things get lost in to many characters and to many different story lines going at once. 14 days to finish