Amazon First Read.  Started on 3/25/25. Finished on 4/2/25.  9 Days!!

Wow!  Matthew & Sarah have been married for 9 years.  They have 2 kids.  Their marriage isn’t doing well.  Sarah doesn’t know much about Matthew’s past and Matthew goes off on his own quite a bit.
A family camping trip should fix everything but things go terribly wrong and Matthew goes missing.
Did Sarah do it?  Did Bella do it?  Izzy, Sarah’s sister comes to help.

This one had me on the edge of my seat!  Giving it a 10.  I couldn’t put it down.

I started this on January 1.  It took me all month to finish it.  It’s January 30th.  It was a really good book that I didn’t want to finish.

Well hello old friend.  Started this book on 2/20/25 and finished on 3/20/25.  28 Days.  Enjoyment: 9

Billy finds himself investigating a murder of a French guy AND investigating the dissapperence of a missing girl AND helping his home town friend Tree free a wrongfully imprisoned soldier.  Tree and Angry are to afro America soldiers in a tank destroyer unit.  Angry is accused of killing the person Billy is investigating.  It’s a great story of friendship even through the racial divide of the USA.

Started this book on 1/30/25.  Amazon First read.  Free. Finished on 2/20/25.  23 Days.  Enjoyment: 8

Sienna, a NY Cop who had to leave NY goes back to her home town to the police force.  Her ex boyfriend is a wealthy card player.  Murders are happening and Sienna has to jump in right away.  A few run in with her ex and his family along with the investigation of the murders.  This is a spaghetti mystery that will have you hanging on the edge of your seat.

Amazon First Read:  Funny cause it’s the first read of the year 2025.

Asher has a girlfriend who is trans.  He is the hockey star of his high school team.  No one in the school knew that they were trans. He didn’t even know.  Did he kill her or did someone else do it?  Read it to find out.

Started on 01/01/2025
Finished on 01/28/2025
28 days.
Enjoyment lever: 7

1/1/25 (Day 1)
First Batch of 2025!!!

1 gallon recipe
2 lbs very ripe frozen and thawed banana
3 lbs very new and unripe banana
2.5 lbs bochet honey (Craig’s honey from the gallon I bought before the move)
8 whole cloves
Qa23 Lalvin yeast (whole packet)

Boiled the ripe bananas (peel and all) AND the cloves in 1/2 gallon of the spring water for 30 minutes.
Mixed remaining ingredients.  Pitched yeast.
Starting Gravity = 1.090

1/3/25 (Day 3)
5 grams yeast nutrient. (I didn’t really measure it though)

2/1/25 (Day 32)
S.G. = 1.000.  11.9% ABV
racked and stabilized.  I added 1/2 tsp tannin

3/8/25 (Day 67)
Back sweetened to 1.020 and kegged.  This one didn’t clear AT ALL!  Still a lot of floaters.  You need to be more deligent with clearing agents.  Start using them again.  The taste of bananas comes through nicely.  The clove hits at the end.  The sweetness is there but there’s just so much stuff floating around.
This isn’t carbonated, just kegged.

SECOND BATCH AT MSR!
10/20/24

1 16.7 oz “Dryck Lingon” from Ikea (lingonberry drink mix)
1.37 lbs Rekeweg honey (This one is from Decatur)
1 packet 71B yeast
10 Grams Fermaid-O
1 gallon filtered water

S.G. = 1.080 (10% ABV possible)

I was surprised at the gravity reading with only 1.37 lbs of honey.  The drink mix must be very sugary.
I will probably add tannin and some other flavor at the end of this depending on how it turns out once it’s done fermenting.

11/3/24
S.G. = .994 (He’s Done!) 11.3% ABV!!!!!
Racked and stabilized
Added Mexican Hibiscus (about 1 oz)

12/3/24
Racked off hibiscus.  It’s way to much.  Can’t taste lingonberry at all.  It’s all hibiscus.
Back sweetened to 1.036 and added 1/8 tsp vanilla.  It’s still hot and way to much hibiscus flavor.  I may try to grab another bottle of lingonberry or try to add something else to this.  The hibiscus is just way to much.

12/19/24
I had a small glass of this (still bulk aging) and it actually wasn’t bad.  Going to bottle and let set for a while.

1/4/25
Bottled this today.  The labels are wrong.  They say it was bottled in 2024.  It’s good.  I got 4 bottles out of it.

10/20/24 FIRST BACTCH AT MSR!!!!
(10/19/24) Thawed 5 lbs of blackberries in a Kilwins bucket

10/20/24
5 lbs blackberries
5 lbs McComb Bees Honey (From Decatur)
2 gallons Crystal Geyser water
10 grams Fermaid-O
Mangrove Jacks Yeast
S.G. = 1.082 (10% ABV possible)

Mixed all ingredients.  The bucket is full and the airlock is getting a little cramped.  It’s going (I lifted the lid once).

11/3/24
S.G. = 1.000 (He’s Done!!)
racked and stabilized.  Tart but flavorful.
Added small amount of sage.

12/3/24
Tasted both the dregs and the good stuff.  I threw out the dregs.  It was bad.  The good stuff tasted great.

1/4/25
1 Gallon for me.  Back sweetened to 1.020 and it tastes amazing!
1 Gallon for Grace.  No sweetening.

Bottled and labeled 1/4/25

11/21/24
96 oz G.V. apple juice
1/2 gallon Kekionga Cider
1/4 lb honey
2 cinnamon sticks
S.G. 1.064 (about 8%)
71B yeast pitched dry

12/3/24
S.G. = 1.010
Nothing added and Nothing racked.  I think it’s still going.  I have another half gallon of cider to mix in to give it a really good flavor.
Going to keg this one though.

12/23/24
He’s done!  Kegged with a backsweetened (Eurithritol) cider.  The cinnamon doesn’t really “shine” on this one.  It was only 2 sticks.  The flavor is really good and can’t wait to see how it taste carbonated!  Final gravity was 1.000 so this is about 8% ABV.  A little less because I diluted it with a little more cider for flavor.

1/5/25
Drinking this now and boy oh boy is it good.  A little sweet, a little tart.  Apple flavor really comes through.  Cinnamon shines but isn’t overly done.
I will make this again for sure.

Started this book on 10/14 and finished on 11/27/24.  It’s not that it wasn’t a good book, it was super long.  499 pages.  It’s the first time I’ve read the author.  Chapters were on the long side.  The move was going on and we were very busy a lot.  When it came time to read, I could only stay away for a few pages.

Characters were well written.  You knew who everyone was.  Once it unfolded and all the secrets were revealed it was easier to understand.

Famous author dies in her hotel room.  The reporter who has been following her for her story is blamed.  Turns out it’s not her.  The strange man, is it her ex husband, is blamed.  Not him either.  Then there is the woman who was invited to the book signing out of the blue.  Not her either.  Read it to find out who did it.

Giving this book a 6/10 just because it took soooo long to read.  44 days to read this book.