Hey there I recently decided to start an A/B tek and I'm just working it all out right now & looking for a bit of advice on how long i have to leave the filtered acidic solution to settle before decanting, but any other advice on the amounts of MHRB/H20/Vinegar is also welcome....

So i'm going to be working with 250g Powdered MHRB & planning on adding it to an acidic solution of 1.5ltr water/500ml white vinegar, i will mix/shake for an hour & keep the solution as warm as possible, then i will filter through a t-shirt into a large salad type bowl & leave it to settle, when it is settled i shall decant into a big glass jar (7ltr) which i will be using for basifying & extracting the DMT with Naphtha. 7ltr should be enough to leave me room to have all amounts of the acidic solution (3x 1.5ltr water & 3x 500ml vinegar) with room to spare for Lye & Naphtha.

What i'm wondering is how long will the filtered acid solution take to settle before i can decant into the glass jar for basifying? Would buying some cheesecloth reduce settling time as it may filter more MHRB?

I'm planning on leaving it to settle for an hour while the next acidic solution is being remixed with the MHRB getting ready to be filtered. i'm just wondering if an hour is enough or if overnight is best... as then i will have to buy another 7ltr glass jar to allow all the acidic solution to settle together, and then decant out of that into another jar for basifying & extraction.

Thanks in advance

Overnight in the fridge is the way to go my friend but you can use three 1.5-2l plastic bottles so as not to have to buy another 7l glass jar.

P.S : to make it easier to handle you should reduce it to half the initial volume after decantation and before adding lye.

Good idea with the plastic bottles, 2 ltr bottles should be perfect for the amounts of water/vinegar im planning

I actually like the idea of using a 7ltr round glass jar for when i add the Naphtha as i can then swirl it around really well & get it mixed in without splashing/shaking, but your right i'd prefer it to be around 3-5ltr of acidic solution inside the jar, 6lltr will be close to the top of the jar & may not be enough room to get a good 'swirl' going on.

Im wondering ifit would be possible to say, mix 3ltr white vinegar with 250g MHRB (no water at all) let it sit for 3 days on a heater, mixing it ocassionally, filter/decant after 3 days, then use the vinegar (still with no water) to basify & extract?

For some reason this appeals to me, i could do it slowly over a week.

White vinegar is mostly water. That should work fine but may be stinky.

If you have that much time you may do a freeze/thaw cycle. It helps to disrupt cell walls and release alkaloids into the acidic solution. You may also thaw and heat your frozen acidic solution in a microwave oven. Microwaves are known for speeding up extractions.

I think acidifying your water to pH less than 3.5 - 4.0 is useless and it will definitely increase the smell during reduction.

Cheesecloth does not help to speed up settling, because the smallest particles that settle the longest are not filtered with cheesecloth.

I would reduce the acidic solution as much as possible. It saves a lot of chemicals later. Usually I do small-scale extractions (50 g of mhrb) and reduce my acidic solution to 200 ml or less, so you can reduce yours to 1 l or less.

I've found that after reduction it is useful to do another settling/decanting. The clearer my acidic solution, the cleaner my spice.

Thanks for the info, i'm going to take my time with this one...

Also if i was using only 3 ltr vinegar i wouldn't have to reduce as i will be basifying in a 7ltr jar so 3ltr would be just right as i want to get a big 'swirl' going on when mixing in the Naphtha, i think i will do the freeze/thaw though, that sounds appealing, not so much the microwave, i don't actually own one anymore, bad vibes imo.

We live in one big microwave oven all the time anyway.

Modern MW ovens are very well shielded, so there is no noticeable energy leakage, besides all that microwaves do to stuff is forcing molecules to wobble faster .

They also caused me to have a sharp headache or subtle belly ache when i was near one being used, im only going off how my body felt around a live microwave, i am super sensitive in general though.

Cool website!

I just read on this thread that hydrochloric or sulfuric acid (which are both cheap and very easy to
acquire) might be better than vinegar for an a/b. But beware, if you do not have a ph meter or some
ph paper you have to know that 1 drop will be enough to acidify 1l of water to ph 2.5.

I can get pure aectic acid (not vinegar solution) would that be any better you think?

Don’t see what the issue is with vinegar. Never had any issues here. Have only worked with citric acid and 5% white vinegar though. Recent extractions with vinegar have yielded up to 1.7%. All extractions were performed with an acid cook, rather than extended sit in acid solution. Have never used any more than 2 tablespoons vinegar per litre water.

Was it a std A/B or a "dirty" A/B (not filtering the bark) ?

I decant and filter twice.

Current process is:

• 30mins–1 hr simmer with 1L H2O/1-2tbsp 5% white vinegar per 100g bark.
• Let solution cool.
• Decant.

Repeat above another 2 times, combine solution, leave to sit. More small bark particles will sink to bottom.

• Combined cooled solution is filtered through cotton wool balls stuffed in the neck of a big plastic drink bottle (inverted with the bottom cut off).
• Add filtered solution back to a pan and boil down to about 20% of original volume.
• Let cool.
• Decant and leave to settle again.
• Filter reduced solution as above.
• Basify.

Don't waste your glacial acetic acid on this. You only need the solution to be weakly acidic ~pH4. Combine your acid soup, reduce down, and chuck in the fridge overnight. Pour off the free liquid from the crap at the bottom and you're good to go.

Is the height of the decanting cup important ? I presume that taller stuff would work better than an average jar-type-height ?

Taller allows you to separate 2 phases better yeah.