Original creation day is 10/16/23.  This is a split from John Handy Traditional

11/5/23 (Day 1 of split)
1 gallon yield

This is the split mead.  I used Lahua honey for a traditional mead and separated a gallon off of it.  I added 2lb frozen black berries and 1 oz American Oak and .5oz whiskey oak chips.  I’m planning on letting the berries go clear.

11/10/23 (Day 6 of split)
I tasted this beast today.  Needs more time on the oak and the berries.  Giving it another couple weeks before racking and back sweetening.  The blackberries really shine nicely though.  It’s gonna be a great one.  Just like Jelly Roll Morton!

12/1/23 (Day 27 of split)
Racked off blackberries and stabilized.
1 crushed campden tablet added as well as 1/2 tsp Potassium Metabisulphite & 1/2 tsp Potassium Sorbate (for stabilization)
Now we just let it clear for a couple of weeks to bottle it.  It’s not close to a full gallon

12/4/23 (Day 30 of split)
This is gonna need cold crashed.  I’d like to bottle this on Friday.  Still floaties and a lot of sediment.

12/22/23 (Day 47 of split)
Back sweetened with Eurthrotyl till I liked it.  It’s still not very sweet and blackberries don’t come through much.  This one will just be kind of OK.
Bottled and labeled.

10/26/23 (Day 1)
3lbs Menards Honey
3 lbs Sam’s club Honey
2 Navel Oranges
2 Cinnamon Sticks
3/4 tsp Ginger
3/4 tsp Clove
2 tsp bread yeas
2 Gallons Spring water

I mixed all the ingredients.  In the original JAOM recipe it says mix and let sit.  No gravity, no swirling, nothing…That’s what I did, but I’ll estimate the gravity to 1.070.  If it goes dry (which it might) it would be around 9.2% ABV.

11/30/29 (36 Days)

I’m entering this for Roland, but it wasn’t created on Roland’s week.  I just needed to wait to get to a good artist to name this.  I’m going to take a gravity reading and taste tomorrow 12/1/23.

12/8/23 (44 Days)
This has been cold crashing outside for about 24 hours.  It’s only about 44 degrees outside.  That should be cold enough.

12/22/23 (58 Days)
Racked into pitcher, back sweetened with 1/2 cup honey and bottled.  There was 2 gallons so there was 2 pitchers full.  Tasted great!  Hope it was stable though.  F.G. = .992 (actually 10.3% ABV)

I started this book on 12/7/23.  Pretty sure this was an Amazon First Read.  It’s an FBI procedural.  This isn’t my first Labuskes book.

Raisa, an FBI linguist looks for patterns in the way people write to catch serial killers.
So I finished on 12/21/23.  14 days.  Not to shabby.  This book wasn’t bad.  There seemed to be a lot of characters.  A family murdered in a small town.  Three girls (sisters) survived.  Then 25 years later another family is murdered along with several other people.  The FBI is there looking into who did it.  Turns out Alex (the son who was accused of the family murder 25 years ago and he committed suicide then) wasn’t the one who did it.

Most chapters were short.  Raisa’s chapters were almost to long and I found myself stopping mid chapter some nights.

Overall I’ll give this book a 7 out of 10.

I’m starting this book on 11/21/23.  I’m also reading Art Pepper’s book during this time so hopefully this is a good story.

This is an Amazon first read book.  Didn’t like it.  I read it fast but the story was kind of bland.

A murder, a news anchor who was a sports star herself.  Best friends husband gets murdered.  He’s a sports super star.  It’s a who done it and there’s just to much going on.  I’m giving this book a 6.  Finished on 12/6/23.  9 Days.