Tao of rue... After filtering until tea was clean one went on to add base solution.
400 ml rue tea (60g Syrian rue seeds 3 boils)
Slowly added saturated solution of water and sodium carbonate (approx 100g sodium carb into 400 ml water)

Now when one added the solution it didn't get as milky as the picture but it did get to a creamy coffee color. Is this okay? Is it because one didn't use lye? Not enough or too much sodium carbonate? Perhaps the sodium bicarbonate didn't convert in the oven at 450 for 2 hours? First time trying this. Does look like something has started to settle but one thought it might be sodium carb.

Any thoughts or advice? Thanks

From my experience the first base must be done with lye, i think its because so many particles in the solution and sc isnt that strong.... just my 2 cents.

For one, Sodium Carbonate is just fine for the first base. Secondly, it won't be milky at first, it will be more golden. Thirdly, you used way too much Sodium Carbonate, i merely use 10 grams of Sodium Carbonate per 400mls. Fourthly, did you add a little bit of vinegar prior to basing? If not, the vinegar is needed to get a full on reaction from the base. Also you'd maybe wanna use 100 grams of Rue rather than 60 grams.

Once you add the vinegar into the Syrian Rue brew, you add 10 grams of Sodium Carbonate per 400mls and stir it in, the color will turn kinda golden/brown/yellow. Let it sit for 30 minutes or so and then filter it all through a coffee filter. Then dunk the coffee filter in warm vinegar water to redissolve the full spectrum extract, stir, filter out anything that doesn't dissolve, and then re-base. This is the point where it starts getting milky. You can clean it up further by redissolving in warm vinegar water and re-basing with Sodium Carbonate.

Hey, thanks for the replies! Went back and re read some of the harmala teks, found most the answers one was looking for. Never found an exact amount for the sodium carb but read that it's okay if you over do it because the next steps will remove most impurities. Ended up with a decent amount that had settled in the morning so one seperated the basic liquid. Dissolved into hot vinegar, filtered, then made up a salt solution with 24 g of rock salt in 200 ml. Boiled salt water then added to the collection jar. Let cool to room temp then stuck in the fridge where it is at now. More had settled in the basic solution so one decanted again and dissolved in vinegar and water with the coffee filters from before. Filtered that and did the salt. 25 g salt for 250ml boiling water. The jar in the fridge looks tea and does have a glow under uv. The second jar looks like beer. Hoping all is on track but it's been a fun learning experience either way.

Would love to hear any tips or comments. Thanks everyone, I'm very grateful!