Just a quick question:

Are there any specific timings used for initial basification? (here I am specifically referring to powdered MHRB in a NaOH solution in the first stage of jorkest's limonene tek)

Is it possible to leave it for too long? Is it possible to leave it too little? Is soaking the material for a couple of hours before beginning pulls long enough, or would a couple of days be better? Are there any specific colour/temp/consistency used to tell when it's ready for pulling?

Cheers

I think it's best to leave it as long as possible. I got my whitest, largest yield with a 2 week soak. I think any less than 24 hours is a waste of time if you want to get everything out, because you'll only have to do a couple of pulls a few days later.

Also some people warm the vessel to speed things up, but in my experience this leads to yellower spice.

I'm also enjoying jorkest's limonene tek at the moment. Smells great - thanks jorkest!

I'm with soulfood on this one- it's not possible to leave it too long! I have had a kg in soak for two weeks now and today pulled what looks to be a lot of alks. I also pulled a significant amount of what appears to be a dark brown oily substance which is insoluble in water but then I'm one of those who heats his extraction to see what I can fish out!

My best advice to you would be patience. Jorkest's limonene tek is IMHO beautiful but quite involved. It would be a shame to complete all the stages only to suffer a less than optimal yield because you rushed the very first stage. Unfortunately, I haven't noticed any visual clues indicating the brew to be ready. Just give it a couple of days for the base to break down the cell walls and spill out those goodies! What I do is to go ahead and add the solvent then leave the whole thing to stew.

The above is of course just my experience - others may have had good yield after only a few hours but I would wait at least three days.

Yeah, I guess what I do is give it 2-3 days, then do my first pull, then the second on 5-7, maybe a 3rd right away if a hell of a lot of stuff pulls out, then just pull until exausted after 10-14 days.

I swear if I just did a 12 hour soak and then exausted that, I would only get barely even half the yield I get.