So, this is my 2nd attempt at this tek. I am following the tek exactly. The only thing that is different is that when I finished reducing my caapi, it ended up being about 700ml instead of 400ml. So I ended up adding like 10 grams of lye instead of the 5g because I didn't really see anything precipitating out when I stirred in the 5g lye water.

So right now I am at the point where I have let it settle and I have siphoned off the dark brown liquid like 3 times now and then added in about 200ml of clean water and stirred and let it settle again. It doesn't really seem like it is getting any clearer. What is going on? Do I just need to keep getting rid of the dark water and then adding in more clean water and eventually it will get clear?

Also, how does that precipitate look to you guys?




ps - On a side note, I did this tek one time with Rue and it worked perfectly. It happened exactly as described in the tek. However, when I do it with caapi, it doesn't happen just like the tek showed. For example, when I did it with Rue and I added in the 5g of lye water into the brew, you could see the alkoloids falling out of the solution the second the lye hit the rue. When I do the same with caapi, you don't see it falling out right away.

How closely any given extraction resembles the photos in the TEK depends on the alkaloid concentration, mix of alkaloids, etc. Don't expect it to look/behave exactly the same way every time.

You can go to the acidification step at any point. You just won’t be removing as many soluble impurities at this step. (What you don’t get now you’ll get during the final basification.)

Your precipitate looks like it has lots of plant matter in it. My guess is that when you acidify, you’ll have a lot of insoluble black gunk that settles out. The top lighter layer is your alkaloids. Overall, it looks good – like a typical caapi extraction.

Report back with your final product and yield!

Wheeeeeeeewww....thanks Gibran....I was starting to think that it was screwed up again........ok, I will continue on and see how it goes and report back.

It's looking good! You can wash as many times as you like as long as you keep the wash water slighly basic, because eventually the excess lye will be washed away too, and you don't want your crystals to start dissolving. After you acidify, decant, and go back to base and wash again it will be much cleaner. And depending on how dirty it is after that, you can use it or go through the process all over again.

The potency of rue makes it easier to extract, so much so that a little waste is no big deal. After a little experience with extracting caapi, you'll become more efficient extracting rue.

Yeah. I added the vinegar and it is looking a lot better...I'll post some more pics....I think I am finally getting it.

Ok, I added the vinegar and let it settle, then put aside the liquid and threw away the plant matter.

Then I added in the lye water and stirred it up and let it settle overnight. Here is what I have now. I know you said that it won't always look like the pictures in the tek, but man, it looks completely different.

No, it looks fine! It is a definite improvement from the first picture, you have brownish crystals and tea colored water, it looks just like caapi. The water is still a little glowing yellow-looking, you might want to add some more lye to make sure you crashed it all out. Wash it with water until the pH goes down and it will start looking much better. In my experience, the caapi crystals are generally more brown than rue crystals, but still work as expected (caapi is mostly harmine which requires a higher dose than the rue crystals with harmaline). I can never get them as "white" as in the tek pictures, but it's fine with me. As long as the crystals work and don't taste bad when smoked, I'm good. Smoking on some mullein or something else neutral-tasting gives you a good idea how dirty the crystals are. Some of the harmalas I've bought online tasted a little too much like chemicals, not sure if it was impurity chemicals or just really pure harmalas, but the uncertainty makes them less pleasurable than harmalas I extracted myself.

If you were to do two acid pulls on the same plant matter and performed extractions on them separately, they would not necessarily look the same.

thanks damon...I will carry on and see if I can get a nice product...will post pics when done.

Ok, I just want to make sure I am right before I proceed. I have done like 5 washes on this so far. I'm think I am done right? Now I just need to remove as much water as I can and then pout it into a pyrex dish and let it evaporate?

I am now at my 7th wash on this. I have a PH meter that I have never used until today. I am assuming that they come calibrated, but who knows, maybe it is off. Anyway, it is showing that the PH is 10 right now. After 7 washes, is there any chance of lye still being in there?

10!? You want the ph between 7-8 before you transfer it to a dish to dry.

That precipitate looks really dark, no? The precipitate from caapi following Gibrans tek should be a tan/yellow/slight brown color. It shouldn't be that dark.

One question though..how many washes did you do on the first basing before you went to the acidification step?

Well, Gibran said that it won't always look like the pictures in his tek. I followed the tek EXACTLY, so I don't know what else I could do. Well, I haven't transferred it to the dish to dry yet. Like I said, it is possible that the PH meter is off. I guess I need to calibrate it to make sure. Or can you test it with some vinegar? What is the ph of vinegar suppose to be?

One question though..how many washes did you do on the first basing before you went to the acidification step?

Yeah I understand that. But the final freebase precip shouldn't be in any way a 'dark' color.

The color variations can go anywhere from offwhite to tan to tan/slight brown, but it shouldn't be dark. That's most likely excess plant matter.

Maybe Gibran will comment on this.

I did like 3 washes on the first basing.

Then when I did the vinegar step and let it settle, there was plant matter in the bottom and the liquid was actually a yellowish color.

I really don't know why the alkaloids are so dark.

Your precipitate looks unusually dark. As has already been said, it should look off-white to tan. I’ve never had results like that, so I can’t say what’s going on.

I’d remove most of the liquid and then re-acidify. See what (if anything) settles out. Then basify and try again.

Ok, I will do that and see what happens.

So I re-acidfied with the vinegar and let it settle over night. There was a very, very, very tiny bit of debris in the bottom. I got rid of that and then based the solution again. Now I am back to having a large amount of precipitate in the bottom. They are still dark, I can't explain it. I guess I am just gonna do a couple washes on this and then throw it in the pyrex dish to dry out. I don't know what else to do. I followed the tek exactly and it worked, except the colors are off. There are a bunch of types of b caapi out there right, could the type I have caapi I have create different colored alkaloids?

Thanks for all the help. I hope this works.

Ok, I have done a few more flushes and the water is basically clear. I did a ph test on it and it was like 9.8

But here is the thing, I tested the water right out of my tap and it is 9.1, so I think everything is ok...right?

So, tomorrow I am gonna go ahead and dry the alkaloids and see how it goes.

So this is my result after it dried. I'm assuming that there is no way that this could actually be Caapi Alkaloids?

http://imageshack.us/a/img849/6661/caext.jpg

So far I have wasted 120g of caapi. I don't know why it isn't working? I am doing everything exactly right.

This is very annoying.