Hello zecon, welcome
zecon wrote:Step 1 says to heat for 3 hours but step 2 says after a half hour or so I can strain the plant material out of the mixture. Can someone clarify what exactly I'm supposed to do in this 3.5 hour period? How do I dispose of the plant material safely?
It means, half an hour after taking it off the heat
It will be too hot to squeeze the cloth before that.
I recommend to not dispose of the plant material until you're sure you got everything out that you wanted. Typically it's recommended to simmer the same material at least 2-3 times. 3h is a pretty long heat, but i'd still add a second one, maybe for one hour. You can combine the filtered teas for further processing. You can throw the bark on the compost, or add it to soil mixes, or throw it into the trash, ... because in this tek, it doesn't soak up any petrochemicals.
zecon wrote:Will 5g lye / 100 ml distilled water be sufficient for my mix? I assumed there would be some sort of ratio. I assume I can slowly add it and keep testing the PH until it breaks into 13 and then stop.
It should give you 100ml of lye solution with pH above 12. It's probably more than enough, but if not, you can make more. You can of course measure to get exactly 13 or whatever, but it's not really necessary.
Btw, this is the step that is exothermic. Make sure to stir well until all is dissolved, add in smaller portions if necessary and wait between additions. I don't think 5g in 100ml gets it to boil over when stirred though. Do this in a well ventilated area as the lye fumes aren't pleasant.
zecon wrote:is the 48 hours absolutely necessary? How can I store the solution for the 48 hours? will it need to be covered/cooled/left at room temperature?
No it's not necessary. I think nowadays it's even discouraged to let base soup sit that long without nps sitting on top to cut out contact with oxygen. I like to add the nps for first pull ca. 20 minutes after mixing in the lye, when the solution is still warm to hot.
zecon wrote:Am I able to use a beaker (straight wall) and just stir/swirl instead of a jar? Does the solution need to stay covered? Do I need to keep it in the fridge or room temperature for this?
Yes you can do it in a beaker. The naphtha should be at least room temperature, better warm to hot, so it can dissolve a lot of dmt. Warm pulls pull more, at the risk of also pulling more fats. There isn't much fats in MHRB though.
Later when you separated the naphtha and cool it, that dmt will crash out of solution and crystallise.