Reishi/Chaga Tincture

Hello,

I'm making a reishi/chaga tincture with extract powder. The powder naturally clumped into a solid ball on the bottom of the jar after I poured the alcohol in. The alcohol has changed color, so it seems the extraction process is working, but I'm wondering what I should do about the ball of powder. Do I need to try to unclump the powder, or do you think the alcohol is penetrating it?

Thanks,

Jake

Powder tends to be hydrophobic, so when added to a liquid it tries to grab the nearest non-wet thing (I find often it will attach to the glass around the edge of the jar). What % alcohol did you use? (not sure if powder also resists saturation by ethanol).

Is all the powder clumped or just bits of it? I would probably stirr it with a fork a few times a day to break it up and speed up the rate at which the extraction is happening.

Powder tends to be hydrophobic, so when added to a liquid it tries to grab the nearest non-wet thing (I find often it will attach to the glass around the edge of the jar). What % alcohol did you use? (not sure if powder also resists saturation by ethanol).

Is all the powder clumped or just bits of it? I would probably stirr it with a fork a few times a day to break it up and speed up the rate at which the extraction is happening.

I'm using 60% alcohol. It has all clumped up and I plan to leave it for six weeks before beginning my decoct extraction. I've been shaking it daily, but it doesn't seem to matter much since the bottom half of the jar it's solid matter.

not sure what you mean. If it's a big solid lump at the bottom that doesn't move when you shake the jar, then I'd stir it up a bit. You want a fairly even exposure of the alcohol across all the fungi matter.

Yeah, it's a big solid lump.

Stir it up and then give it a good shake every day.

In general if you want to tincture dry powdered herbs it is useful to moisten all the herb in part of the menstrum (the fluid you are using to tincture with) for 12-24 hrs before adding the rest.

It won't stir at this point, but I can take a spoon and try to mash it up as well as possible. This is good to know for next time.