7/29/2023
I got some new honey at the GE farmers market.  It tastes amazing.  I’ve been reading recipes again and you know what that means.  Got to get another batch going.  (I now have 2 fermenting.  This one makes 3)  Here we go:
1/2 oz Paraoh’s Paradise (Loose leaf tea from teajutsu.com)
32 oz Just Tart Cherry from Knudsen (Kroger)
32 oz Just Black Cherry from Knudsen (Kroger)
12 oz frozen Raspberries (Kroger)
12 oz frozen Sweet Cherries (Kroger)
1 tsp fermaid O
Lalvin EC-1118 yeast
2 lbs honey.  (Name goes here)
Spring Water (Dollar Tree)

I started by steeping the loose leaf tea in about 1/2 gallon of spring water and reconstituting the Lalvin yeast with the fermaid O in a small amount of spring water.  While the berries were thawing, I added the 64 oz of juice to the carboy and the 2 lbs of honey.  I shook the bejesus out of it.  The mixture wasn’t going to fit in the gallon glass carboy so I had to switch to using a Kilwins bucket.  I let the tea steep for 20 minutes.  I added the mostly thawed fruit and tea to the bucket.  I took a temperature reading and it was 72.  I pitched the yeast and covered the bucket.

S.G. = 1.106 (if dry it’s going to be 14.2%)

8/18/23 (21 days)
S.G. = 1.006.  13.3% ABV.  I racked off the fruit today.  It’s dry and HOT.  Cherry taste comes through nicely.  Not much hibiscus though.

8/29/23 (33 days)
Stabilization DAY!!!
1/2 tsp potassium sorbate
1/4 tsp potassium metabisulfite
1/2 tsp Wine Tannin

9/1/23 (35 days)
Bottling Day!!!  I back sweetened with honey ONLY to 1.030 and bottled.

7/9/23 (day 1)

4.2 lbs honey (some clover, some orange blossom)
2 gallons purified water
Mangrove Jacks M05 yeast
S.G. = 1.078 (if dry it will be ~ 10.88%)

Secondary:
3 lbs bananas (Frozen and thawed)
1/2 tsp pectic enzyme
24 Graham Crackers

7/10/23
2 grams Wine Tannin
4 grams Fermaid – O
I added the suppliments today.

7/18/23
S.G. = 1.040  It’s very “buttery” and smooth.  It’s only done 40 points in 10 days.  Mouthfeel is very nice.

7/20/23
Another 2 grams Fermaid – O.  No SG today.

7/26/23 (18 days)
S.G. = 1.022.  It’s still fermenting and I don’t know why it’s taken so long.

8/4/23 (27 days)
S.G. = 1.000
I racked into clean bucket over 1 tsp Potassium Metabisulphite and 1 tsp Potassium Sorbate.  I will add the thawed bananas either later today or first thing in the morning before leaving for IrishFest.  Tastes like mead though.  Smell needs more honey character.  I’m hoping that once the bananas start to flavor for a couple of weeks then the Graham Crakers it sweetens up a little.  It’s not clear at all.  Still very cloudy.

8/18/23 (41 days)
No SG today but I added 18 Graham crackers to the bag with the bananas still in it.  I’m not getting a banana flavor right now.  So next week I can rack all that off, back sweeten and bottle.  Yay!!

8/25/23
It’s got some weird floaties in it.  Doesn’t taste much like banana or graham crackers.  Gonna give it another week and back sweeten and bottle.

9/1/23 (55 days)
I racked off into a clean sanitized bucket.  I added: 3/4 lb brown sugar, 3/4 lb honey and 3 tsp of vanilla.  OMG this is going to be amazing!  Bottled and labeled today too.  F.G. = 1.028.  It’s sweet but tastes amazing!

I bought this book from Amazon.  Started on 8/24/23.  So this really was a “short story”.  I finished on 8/27/23.  3 Days.

I wish someone would have told me before I read this one to read “The Perfect Child”.  I mean I read it, but having it fresh in my memory would’ve been a little better.  This is a continuation of The Perfect Child.  It tells the short story of what happens after the release of the demon child.  How she effects the lives of the people she’s hurt and how they effect her.  I’m giving this book a 7/10.  Characters were sketchy at first (because the other book wasn’t fresh in my mind) and chapters were a little long.  They were written in character style though so that made it a little easier to manage.  It was kind of predictable in all honesty, which isn’t necessarily true for anything else she’s written.

7/19/23
Recipe for 1 Gallon:
2 lbs Palermo Bolssom Honey (From Menards)
3 cups Black Current Concentrate
2 oz cacoa nibs toasted for 10 minutes on burner level 5
1 cup Utopian coffee grounds (finely ground) and French Pressed in luke warm water for 15 minutes.  Makes 3 cups of coffee
Top off to full gallon with Niagara spring water from Dollar Tree
Mangrove Jacks 1/2 packet only
S.G. = 1.084

7/20/23
There’s activity in the airlock.  Going to add 1 oz Fermaid O today.

8/4/23 (17 days)
Wow, I racked this off today to a wide mouth gallon and took a taste.  It’s very sweet and very heavy on the coffee and chocolate flavor.  With some time that will subside though.
S.G. = 1.010

8/25/23 (38 days)
Bottling day!!  I added some more black current juice to bring the sweetness up just a bit and about 1/2 lb honey.  I forgot that I didn’t stabilize this so I’m worried that 1. carbonation will occur or 2. fermentation will continue.  It was down to 1.002.  I got 5 full bottles and 1 very small amount to taste it in a month.  11.2% ABV

I believe I bought this book from Amazon.  I like Mark’s writing.  I started the book on 8/15/23.  I’m four chapters in and so far it hasn’t had any major twists.  Characters seem well defined though.  I finished the book on 8/24/23.  10 days.  Wow, the twists…  Lily and her parents move into a new home in Wales.  Folklore states that there is a witch that lives in the woods and steals children every 35 years.  The writers “Retreat” is where Lily’s family lived.  Mum still lives there but lost her husband and Lily the same day.  Husband drowned and Lily “disappeared”.   Lucas, the writer, goes to the Retreat to finish his second book.  It’s actually his old hometown but they moved away…Humpf 34 years ago…..  Well the twists start to happen at about chapter 40.  Characters are well written, chapters are kind of long and names are hard to pronounce.  Overall I’m giving this book an 8/10.

Well this one needs no introduction.  I started this book on 7/15/23.  I really don’t want to rush through this one so I may just read it leasurely for enjoyment.  I finished this on 8/14/23.  Yes it took me a while but I didn’t read it every day like I do with other books.  This isn’t a “how to” book but there are a lot of rabbit holes that could be explored from the book.  I like his take on Bix.  I feel like I didn’t give Bix’s week a fair shake.  I must listen to more Bix.  His feelings of Miles are about the same as mine.  It’s just like…”uh, ok”.

So it took me 30 days, but it was worth it.

I just finished “Lock Every Door” by Riley and I’m going to start this one today.  Started on 7/31/2023.  If this is half as good as the last one, I’m going to like it. 8/11/23 and I finished this book.  12 days.  Not sure why it took me so long but this book was really good.

Kit may have let her mother commit suicide yet she gets hired to be a caregiver for Lenora.  Lenora has secrets of her own and the more the story goes on the more we find out all the secrets in Hope’s End.  (That’s the house).  Once the secrets are revealed the house has it’s last say.  Great book with lots of secrets.  Characters are very well written and you never loose track of who is who.  Chapters are somewhat long but it’s a great read regardless.  Giving this book a 9/10.

First time reading this author.  I started this book on 6/28/23.  I’m about 80% done with this book already and really like it.  The characters are well written.  Chapters are very long, but they seem to go quick.

Harlan Winter (the main character) is living in his home town that is in economic decline.  There’s no money anywhere.  He takes on a job of finding the brother of these two twins who think their older brother goes missing in the “Lighthouse Church”.

There’s freaky stuff going on at the Lighthouse.

I’m really liking his writing style.

Somehow I got my dates mixed when reading this book.  The site on mrice.net isn’t accurate for this book but I did read it this year.  I gave it an 8 on the site and the day count is probably wrong.  I don’t remember exactly how many days it took me to read it, but it was good (memorable).

I started this book on 7/21/2023.  I finished on 7/30/2023.  9 days.  This was a TikTok recommended author.  This book was amazing.  Characters were very well written.  Chapters were fairly long though.  Story had a couple of twists that kept you interested throughout the whole book.

Jules, a broke 20 something, needs a job, a place to live and a new boyfriend.  She reads an add that will pay here to live in the nicest building in Manhattan.  The Bartholomew isn’t exactly haunted, but there are some strange things going on.  Read it to find out.

I’m giving this book a 9/10 and can’t wait to start the next book from Riley.

Amazon recommendation.  NOT a first read.  I started on 7/17/23. Chapters look short (35 all together).  Story looks interesting from the description of the book.  I finished this book on 7/20/23.  Yes 3 days.  It was a very, very good book.  Characters were very well described and I could picture this as a story in my head like watching a movie.  Abby & Wes are upper middle class working hard for everything they have.  Wes spends to much time at work and not enough with his family.  Abby wants a divorce and Wes has to move out of their dream home and into an apartment with a high school friend.  It gets twisted from there.  I’m giving this book a 9/10.  Chapters were kind of long but it kept my interest the whole way through.