I'll tell you what.....just making it made the whole house smell awesome. The only sample was a lick off the spoon. Pretty tasty and I'm hoping the taste of the booze fades a bit as it mellow. What I did that worked very well was put a layer or two of cheese cloth, a paper towel, then another layer of cheese cloth. We poured the brew through this and into the jars. The straining worked perfect.