Sugar breaks and SNA timing

This is mainly about calculating when to add nutrients during SNA (Staggered Nutrient Additions), not the benefits of specific dosages, or dosage regimes; that's for another post.

So what the hell is a sugar break? Think of it as a mile marker, that's all it really is, there's no physiochemical change in yeast performance (there are changes, but that just clouds the water of our clear atoll here), or important kinetic changes inherent at these events (though some appear as a byproduct of choices made regarding treatment at certain mile markers).
Let's talk wine for a minute to get a picture.The average grape wine (traditionally) starts around 23*Bx (SG ~1.097), and it will probably finish close to -1*Bx (SG 0.996). So a total consumption of about 24*Bx or 101 gravity points worth of sugar will have been consumed:
(this is the historical format for SG which is 1000 times our standard fractional SG form of 1.XXX)
So, when is fermentation half done? Half of 24 is 12, so when the yeast have eaten 12*Bx of sugar, they are half done (ie, 23 - 12 = 11; 11*Bx is the halfway mark). The same calculations work with gravity points (1,097.0 - 50.5 = 1,046.5).So, when you here wine people talk about the 1/3 sugar break, you can calculate it like this:
FG: -1*Bx                                                                 FG: 996.0
23 - (-1) = 24                                                           1097 - 996 = 101
24 * 1/3 = 8                                                              101 * 1/3 = 33
23 - 8 = 15                                                               1097 - 33.7 = 1063
1/3 sugar break = 15*Bx                                        1/3 sugar break = 1.063

That's all well in good for wine world where you know both your initial and terminal gravities, but we don't always know our FG in mead land. What if I have a mead with an OG of 1.130? It probably won't finish at 0.99X, it will probably be sweeter. That's where yeast tolerance comes into play. Let's take D47 as an example:
D47 tends to chew through about 100 +/-4 gravity points (~23.8*Bx)
That's all well in good for wine world where you know both your initial and terminal gravities, but we don't always know our FG in mead land. What if I have a mead with an OG of 1.130? It probably won't finish at 0.99X, it will probably be sweeter. That's where yeast tolerance comes into play. Let's take D47 as an example:
D47 tends to chew through about 100 +/-4 gravity points (~23.8*Bx)
D47: 23.8*Bx                                                           D47: 100 points
30.2 - 23.8 = 6.4                                                      1130.0 - 100 = 1030.0
FG ~ 6.4*Bx                                                              FG ~ 1.030
30.2 - 6.4 = 23.8                                                      1130.0 - 1030.0 = 100
23.8 * 1/3 = 7.9                                                        100 * 1/3 = 33
30.2 - 7.9 = 22.3                                                      1130.0 - 33 = 1097.0
1/3 sugar break = 22.3*Bx                                     1/3 sugar break = 1.097
When calculating the 1/3 sugar break for meads, it is necessary to estimate the FG based on the yeasts alcohol tolerance or average amount of sugar consumed (as gravity points or *Brix).

When to feed? That depends on your SNA schedule, but generally there will be at least 2 feedings (one at onset of fermentation, and 1/3 sugar depletion). Some may have many more, but the trick is to spread them out evenly (or close to even) over the first third of fermentation. Let's see some options for a must with an initial gravity of 26*Bx (SG 1.110), assuming a terminal gravity of -1*Bx (SG 0.996):

OG: 26*Bx                                                                    OG 1110.0
FG: -1*Bx                                                                      FG 996.0

26 - (-1) = 27                                                                 1110 - 996 = 114
27 * 1/3 = 9                                                                    114 * 1/3 = 38
26 - 9 = 17                                                                     1110 - 38 = 1072
1/3 break = 17*Bx                                                        1/3 break = 1.072
When calculating the 1/3 sugar break for meads, it is necessary to estimate the FG based on the yeasts alcohol tolerance or average amount of sugar consumed (as gravity points or *Brix).

Here are more possibilities:

Just follow the same color.
Red = 10 feedings (1/27^th breaks)
Blue = 7 feedings (1/18^th breaks)
Green = 5 feedings (1/12^th breaks)
Yellow = 4 feedings (1/9^th breaks)
White = 3 feedings (1/6^th breaks)

Yeast Rehydration

Why?

Choosing a yeast strain is vital to the final quality of mead (and beer, wine, sake, even spirits), as is the care that is taken to nurture them. For the purposes of mead (and wine, because we are mostly using wine yeast strains), we will most often encounter dried yeast as they are more numerous in selection, cheaper, and there is no damage caused by the drying process (beer yeast, especially lager yeast, are rather difficult to cultivate in a medium that permits drying, and can often have mutations result from the process; though techniques have improved drastically over the last few decades). The funny thing about the drying process is that it is not all that harmful to yeast, but the 'waking' is turbulent and rather tiresome for our little helpers. We are basically starting from very weak little creature who are just waking up and we want them to run a marathon; granted it's in their genetics, but without proper conditioning they may pass out at 26 miles instead of the 26.3 they were supposed to run. 

They yeast companies have done a good job feeding the yeast many things that they will need to actually get out of dormancy (high oxygen, nutrient dense, and low osmotic pressure media give them the reserves they need for the trauma about to occur), but once awake, they have to deal with their environment which can be rather harsh (lack of nutrients, and relatively high osmotic pressure), and they may give up. The number of yeast cells that die upon 'sprinkling' (the common technique of just opening the pack and adding the yeast to the must/wort) ranges a considerable gamut with some sources saying as low as 20%, and some claiming almost 2/3! I tend to think the mode number of 50% is most accurate, but even if it were only 20%, that's a lot of helpers you are killing off. The cells that do survive and work are not in very good shape either: having depleted their energy reserves (glycogen and trehalose usually) they have to spend a considerable amount of time and further energy to rebuild these levels in order to get to the point where they can actually start working.

In an environment like mead, where there is always a shortage of yeast assimilable nitrogen, lack of micronutrients, low pH buffering capacity, high osmotic pressure (usually very high compared to other fermentations), why would we want to use yeast that were even the slightest bit unhealthy? Why risk a stuck, stinky, or non existent ferment? "That's never happened to me and I don't rehydrate.", me either, but at least I've got money on the high half, first third and a zero while your all on 31! (sorry, roulette/james bond reference)

Pitching Rates

A quick note on pitching rates is in order here. Pitching rate is measured as CFU/mL (colony forming units per milliliter), but can be approximated using g dried yeast / L of must; assuming 20,000,000,000 (2*10^10)CFU/g dried yeast, we can estimate the resulting pitching rate of X grams of dried yeast added to a liquid whose total volume is Y. Great, how much do I pitch? 0.005-0.5g/L is a good range, that's 10^5-10^7 CFU/mL. More specific? Almost all manufacturers recommend 0.25g/L (~1g/gal), winemaking textbooks say 0.1-1% by volume (which is ~10^5-10^6 CFU/mL), researches have found that 0.5g/L works best for high brix musts, and brewers pitch anywhere between 6*10^6 - 2*10^7 CFU/mL! The best 'rule' to follow is

<24*Bx (SG 1.101) gets either 0.25g/L or 1g/gal, whichever measurement you prefer; 

25-28*Bx (SG 1.106-1.120) gets 0.3g/L or 1.2g/gal

>28*Bx (SG 1.120+) gets 0.5g/L or 2g/gal. 

That is not to say that many people don't cross these boundaries and make unsatisfactory meads, many people do for many reasons, it's just a guideline. Also, there has been research that suggests lower pitching rates enhance the flavors of mead, but I would stick to these guidelines for now (sometime soon I will be starting a pitching rate experiment focusing on the lower end of the spectrum). 

Basic Procedure

1g yeast strain of choice

1.25g Go-Ferm Protect (or what ever their (lallemand's) newest one is, I think evolution)

25g water

          -multiply all numbers by your chosen amount of yeast (pitching rate * volume)

• Boil the water for a few minutes (pasteurization), I would recommend boiling more than needed and weighing afterwards
• Put into a thoroughly sanitized flask (Erlenmeyers work the best), if you can autoclave it (truly sterile), I would
• Wait until the temp is down to ~110F
• Add Go-Ferm 'whatever' and swirl (this is why erlenmeyers are best)
• Wait for the temp to drop to 104F
• Add yeast, swirl gently to break-up clumps
• Wait 15-30min, don't exceed 30min or the yeast will start to starve

Notes

There are actually a range of temperatures that work best for rehydration, from 95-105F, and it depends on the specific yeast strain, but most seem to prefer the upper range with a mode of around 104-105F (40C).

You'll note that the amount of water is by weight not volume, why? 50mL of water at 110F weighs less than 50mL of water at 40F (about 454mg less); if you measured the volume after boiling (while hot) you won't use enough water, and if you measure before boiling you wont be able to account for evaporation. Therefore, weight is the way to go for precision. 

As to the type of water, clean, potable water with no chlorine or chloramines is recommended. The Go-Ferm will not replace minerals found in water, therefore, the water must have a certain amount present for healthy rehydration. The hardness is a vital factor for yeast health with best results being achieved between 250-500ppm hardness.

This entire process is basically proofing the yeast and allowing their cell membranes to form properly, it does not acclimate them to the must, nor add any special property to they yeast, however, it does not damage the yeast as would happen by the 'sprinkling' method. 

Add-Ons

These are extra steps that can/should be added to the basic procedure when the circumstances dictate.

Temperature

The best 'add-on' is an acclimation phase for temperature. Simply put, take your slurry and add some must to it so that the yeast aren't shocked too much by the temperature. More technical you say? For every 18F (10C) difference between your must and starter, add an amount of must equal to the original starter size to the flask.

So, I have 6gal of mead must and want to pitch 8g D47.

I rehydrated with 10g Go-Ferm in 200g of water. I now have a starter/slurry of about 200mL (give or take), that is at 84F, and my must is at 66F. 

I need to take 200mL of must and slowly add it (over a few minutes) to my slurry and wait 15-30min.

If the slurry was at 92F and my must at 56F, I would need to make 2 x 200mL additions to my starter. 

This process works to slowly acclimate the yeast to the temperature, gravity and pH of the must. Because it works for gravity and pH also, it is usually recommended to do this even if the temperature is within the 18F tolerance.

Very High Bix Musts

For very high brix musts (>35*Bx, SG 1.154), there are more delicate steps that should be taken to avoid osmotic shock that can happen even if utilizing the routine above. The method I describe here was put forth by Kantkanen et al. fot the production of ice wines. They tested several procedures across 2 pitching rates (4*10^6 and 10^7 CFU/mL): acclimated rehydration vs simple rehydration, and utilization of Go-Ferm vs none in the rehydration step. The starting gravity of the must was 37*Bx (SG 1.164), and the results showed that only those fermentation pitched at 0.5g/L (10^7 CFU/mL) were able to reach 10%abv, and that utilizing the following process with a lower pitching rate did not achieve desirable results; starters that underwent acclimation showed an increase in consumed sugar compared to non acclimated starters. 

Interestingly, while the use of Go-Ferm decreased fermentation time and acetic acid production, it also decreased the amount of ethanol produced as a function of sugar consumed (ie. sugar was consumed quicker than the non Go-Ferm batches, but it's utilization for ethanol production was relatively lower).

Here's what you do using a 25mL slurry as made above (just multiply the volumes for larger amounts)

• Take sample of must and dilute with sanitized water to 20*Bx (SG 1.083)
• After initial 15-30min wait (above), add 25mL of dilute must to starter (the result should be a 50mL starter at 10*Bx)
• Place flask in water bath at 77F (25C), for 1hr swirled every 30min
• Take a second must sample and dilute it with sanitized water to 30*Bx (SG 1.129)
• After 1hr wait add 50mL of the second dilute must sample; resulting in a 100mL starter at 20*Bx
• Place flask in water bath at 68F (20C) for 2hrs, swirl every 30min

Be warned, this works really well and creates super tolerant yeast that can pass their alcohol tolerance by a few percentage points (actual abv accounting for shift in composite density). Technically this process results in a solution that is equal to 

                                                       25g dried yeast / L of water,

meaning that you would need to pitch 20mL starter / L of must to equal the 10^7 CFU/mL (0.5g/L dried yeast) recommended.

If you want to ferment something higher than 40*Bx (SG 1.179), I would high suggest step-feeding (adding honey in multiple increments during fermentation). However, if trying a polish style mead, or some other absurdly high gravity style, and you do not want to step-feed, I might suggest trying this method with an additional step of adding another equal amount (100mL in our example) of must to the starter for ~3hrs with swirling at 30min intervals (or stirplate the whole time!). Note that each addition has made a 10*Bx jump; in keeping with this the gravity of several additions can be estimated:

20*Bx addition to make 10*Bx starter

30*Bx addition to make 20*Bx starter

40*Bx addition to make 30*Bx starter

50*Bx addition to make 40*Bx starter

60*Bx addition to make 50*Bx starter

Obviously I did not have to list those as they are in 10*Bx increments with a 10*Bx offset, but I did want to show that at 50*Bx and above, it is almost useless in trying to ferment without some sort of gradual addition of fermentable material during the process. 

Mead making rules

Here are some rules for the hobby of mead making. They're in no particular order, and don't take precedence over one another, with the exception of rules 1, 2, and 10 (with 10 being the most important).

1. You must talk about mead making. 
It is vital to spread the word about the hobby, and educate others about mead: the culture, art, taste, versatility, and general awesomeness. It is also very important to recruit other mead makers, not only to grow the hobby, but for your own education; by teaching others, we can learn more than by working in seclusion. A student can have a unique perspective that can induce our own creativity and break us from the binds of dogmatism.

2. You must talk about mead making! 
Just do it. Go to your homebrew club, join GotMead, or other forums. Go . . .  do!

3. Thoroughly clean and sanitize everything. 
Keep in mind that sanitizing is different than sterilizing; the goal of sanitizing is to reduce the cell concentration (CFU/mL) of potentially harmful microorganisms, not rid them entirely. There is a balancing act involved in this: if you don't pasteurize your must (boiling or lower temps), you have more CFU/mL than a must that was sanitized, and may want to be more diligent in your sanitation practices pre fermentation (longer contact times with sanitizer etc). Never think that your equipment is sterile, it's not, just think in terms of concentration of cells and you'll make the better judgements. Also, make sure everything is cleaned before sanitizing (and that the detergents used for cleaning are thoroughly rinsed or neutralized).

4. Patience is more than a virtue, it's a requirement! 
There are several ways to make a mead that is drinkable early in its life, but almost all mead benefits from some aging time. This is easy if you have a few cases in stock that are ready to drink, but to those who don't have that, utilize those quick mead recipes to quench your thirst while you wait for your other batches to age (or brew some beer, comparatively, it's much faster to drink). If you don't have patience mead making will teach it to you!

5. Mead making is not brewing, nor is it entirely wine making. 
There are principles that can be applied from both disciplines, but mead making is unique and breaks certain rules of brewing and winemaking.

6. Get in there, and be involved! 
Sensory analysis, that's what this rule is about. Taste and smell as often as possible: during fermentation, when your aerating, smell it; when you pull gravity samples, smell and taste; when you rack, smell and taste; during aging, every few months, smell and taste; when bottling, smell and taste; set some bottles aside (12oz work great) and preform a thorough tasting at 6, 12, 18, 24 months and longer.

7. Be creative. 
Try new things, and see how they work. Make a to-brew list, but be warned that you will never work your way through it (and if you do, you aren't being creative enough).
8. Avail yourself of local resources.
This is a hard one for me as I love berries and they don't grow well here in south florida; even though I have access to hundreds of varieties of mangos, and rare fruits that most have never heard of, I would love to have access to truly fresh blackberries and raspberries. Take advantage of unique honey varietals (avocado, saw palm, Brazilian pepper, mangrove, and mango in my case), that are local, or unique fruits (or herbs) that are grown in your region.

9. It's your mead, make what you like! 
If you like your mead to be full of mercaptan thiols and disulfides, who am I to argue. I won't have a glass, but it's not my mead. Once you have tasted other meads (via rules 1 and 2), you'll begin to understand what you like in a mead, and if it's something that others don't like, oh well; but do not think that your mead is the pinnacle of mead making if you have such strange tastes, be aware that others may not like what you do.

10. Have fun! 
Find what you enjoy most about the hobby, and guide yourself to doing that the most. If you really like experimenting, experiment; if it's the process of fermentation, get in there and enjoy it; if it's tasting, utilize rule 6 a lot. Just have fun and enjoy the hobby.

Mead Recipes for NewBees

Hah, see what I did there? NewBee, because it's mead, . . . get it?
Ok, enough humor back to work.
Here are 3 recipes that can be made as your first mead. Hopefully you are aware of the cleaning and sanitizing involved, but here is a reminder:
Anything that touches the mead needs to be clean (no dirt, or anything else)
Anything that touches the mead needs to be sanitized
Anything that touches anything that will touch the mead needs to be sanitized
Once sanitized, don't put objects down, unless you want to resanitize them
Don't rinse after sanitizing (unless the water is sanitized, read boiled)
Dry things by hanging them upside down for a few minutes, but they really don't need to be too dry
Sanitize everything
Sanitize again
And sanitize again

Once you get that in your head, it's time to choose a recipe. There are many, but these present good starting points, each with a unique person in mind.

JAOM
Joe's ancient orange mead/melomel/methaglyn
This has been around for a while, and is the recipe many meadmakers first use to get into the hobby. Developed by Joe Mattioli as a simple, tasty recipe that new meadmakers can make and enjoy without much effort or equipment.


Recipe:
3.5lbs honey (whatever you want, even store bought, ultra filtered junk)
1 orange (not navel)
1 stick of cinnamon
1-2 cloves
25 raisins (a handful, more or less)
1 tsp fleismanns bread yeast (not old, make sure their still alive: try baking some bread with it)
Put honey in glass 1gal jug and dissolve with some warm water
Cut orange into pieces (including rind, pith and everything else), and put in jug
Add spices and raisins
Fill with water leaving 3 inches for foam
Shake the heck out of it
When room temp, add yeast
Airlock and keep in dark, warmish (70-80F) place (cabinets work well)
Don't touch it at all! No feeding, racking, shaking, don't even look at it cross!
It's done when the fruit drops to the bottom and there is a clear layer of mead on top (9-12 weeks)

This recipe follows a sort of warranty: if you mess with it, change anything, give it too much attention, anything, and it didn't work . . . I'll quote joe "If it didn't work out then take up another hobby. Mead is not for you. It is too complicated."
With that being said, a few people (myself included) don't care for the flavor of this mead. It's sweet, phenolic, pithy, and just no my thing; however, it is a technically good mead, it has some balance, no off overt flavors, and complexity. It's similar to white Zinfandel: you may like it or not, but it is (usually) made OK, it's just not your thing.
Warranty aside, there are many variations of this mead that do work.
You can swap the fruit:
12oz frozen blackberries
2 tangelos
Lemon (zest and pulp only)
Dates instead of raisins
2lbs frozen blueberries

Or you could change the spices:
2-4 allspice berries
A pinch of nutmeg
A sliver of ginger
1 Vanilla bean
1 star anise

You could try different honeys as well, but their flavors tend to get covered.
This should give you some ideas for making JAO style meads. If JAOM is something you really like, you can spend years working out different variations of it and build quite a collection.

BOMM
Bray's one month mead
This was developed by GotMead member loveofrose (Bray) over several trials to attain a simple, traditional mead recipe that was easy, and reproducible. It uses some of the techniques that a regular traditional uses (SNA, multiple aerations, sample taking), but is a more forgiving mead than the average traditional; it also ages faster. This follows the same warranty idea as JAOM: if you deviate from the recipe, don't complain about bad results. The thing that sets this mead apart from the average traditional is the yeast; after several tests to find a suitable yeast, Bray settled on wyeast 1388, a belgian ale yeast. This may seem strange as most meads are made with wine yeast, except the few brewers who use beer yeast, but belgian strains are POF+ (meaning they produce phenolics) as are most wine yeast, and they produce more esters than most other beer yeast. In fact, belgian yeast strains seem to be closer to wine yeast than normal brewers yeast (except for their ability to ferment maltotriose and easily ferment maltose which is lost in the isolation process of wine yeast), but they don't require as much age as the average wine yeast will.
This is the recipe I suggest for most people starting out as it is easy, fast drinking (and quite tasty), but will teach you some techniques that will be used throughout the hobby.


Recipe:
Start with a gallon of spring water
Remove 1/2 cup (to compensate for the volume of the smack pack)
Draw a line on the jug at this water level
Remove 3.2 cups (757mL) of water
Add honey back to line (~2.4lbs)
Add 1/4 tsp (1.225g) DAP and 1/2 tsp (2.3g) Fermaid K
-Add these nutrients again when the gravity is at 1.064, and 1.032.
Add 1/4 tsp (0.825g) potassium bicarbonate
Shake mixture until homogenous
Add activated Wyeast 1388 smack pack (left for >2hr to swell)
Cover loosely
Shake daily until done (1 week)
Add airlock after fermentation is complete (1 week)
Allow to clear (3-4 weeks)
Rack, then decide: drink, age, backsweeten, what ever you wish to do.
Don't worry about the weight of the additives unless you are scaling up the recipe, volume measure work fine for small batches.
There are some variations that Bray and a few other mead makers have been working on, and I'll probably do a separate post for modified BOMMs.

Standard Traditional
This is not as easy as JAOM or BOMM, but if you have experience making wine or brewing it is not that difficult. The benefit with starting with a traditional like this is that it will teach you all the right things to do so you don't have to unlearn things (like with JAOM). It is designed to be a dry mead, but you can backsweeten if you'd like. You can also split it into separate containers after some aging and spice them differently, or add fruit, or oak or what ever.


Recipe:
3lbs honey per gallon of must (18lbs for 6gal batch)
Dissolve all honey in some water (stick blenders work miracles)
Then add water to make SG of ~1.108
Add 1g/gal potassium carbonate (6g for 6gal batch)
Add 0.2g/gal tannin FT blanc soft
Add rehydrated yeast at 1g/gal (6g for 6gal batch)
Keep temp below 74F
Seal with airlock, and wait for bubbles
When it bubbles, uncover and see what it looks like (this will get you familiar with the appearance so you don't have to look for bubbles in the future to see when the lag phase is over)
Add 2g/gal fermaid K and 1g/gal DAP
Do not seal the lid (or you can leave the airlock dry if using a carboy)
Stir as often as you can (every 12-24 hours is ok)
When the gravity drops to 1.090 add 1g/gal fermaid K and 1g/gal DAP
When the gravity drops to 1.072 add 1g/gal fermaid K
Seal lid and affix airlock
Wait
When bubbling slows, check gravity
When you have the same gravity reading for 3 consecutive days it's done (gravity should be 0.99X)
Rack, add sulfite (50ppm) and age for 3 months
Rack again (at this point you can split it for experimentation or just leave it) age for 6 months
If left alone add sulfites and bottle

As you can see, this recipe is a little more technical than the others and may scare some new meadmakers off. Not to mention the others are drinkable in 2-3 months and this one really shouldn't be touched before the 1 year mark (though it is "drinkable" before that).
I'd recommend a lighter honey unless you've had darker honey meads before, as they can be an acquired taste. As for yeast, D21 is my go to, it is temp tolerant, gives some acid which mead is lacking, and has a nice flavor; K1V would be my suggestion if you can't get D21, it's still temp tolerant so it's a good newbee yeast. You'll note that JAOM and BOMM can be made in the high 70s to low 80sF, where this one is better below 74 (below 72 if you can manage it), this is a property of the yeast and recipe (being dry and higher alcohol).
Acid may need to be added to this (or BOMM), just taste and start with 1g/gal tartaric (or your preferred acid) and let it sit for a month before deciding if more is needed. If using tartaric acid, cold stabilization is recommended as potassium bitartrate crystals may precipitate if there is potassium present. The reason I suggest tartaric acid is because it will add acidity, but when cold crashed the pH will lower (if it is below 3.6, which it should be) resulting in a more acid taste without additional acid.
Some prefer to add tannin to balance flavors instead of acid. This is a matter of preference, and small amounts should be used to slowly work up to the desired level of tannin.

Decisions, decisions, decisions. For the beer brewer, I highly recommend BOMM; for the completely new zymurgist, I'd say JAOM or BOMM; and for the wine maker, the traditional or BOMM.


If you are familiar with white winemaking, then the traditional is pretty much a white wine recipe (similar in techniques and processes), and it will get you on the track to make very good traditional meads. There are a few things you have to leave in winemaking world (TA measuring and adjusting, and complete anaerobic fermentation), but it should be very close to your other winemaking experiences. You can also split it into several jugs if making a larger batch and spice them, add different fruits or backsweeten a portion leaving you several opportunities to make a few different meads from a single fermentation.
I cannot recommend BOMM enough, it is very easy, very fast, and very tasty. It will teach you a lot of the processes for making meads, but doesn't require as much patience. There are also many ways to treat it post ferment: spicing, sweetening, carbonating, adding fruit, etc.
JAOM is an old standby for many mead makers, and a very simple recipe for the newbee. It's charm is in it's simplicity: no samples needed, no temp issues, no messing with it; but, some people tend not to like it for its pithy, phenolic taste.