A/B seapration: ph to 4 *before* or *after* the bark?

[mercurio]

Hi there,

I have a very simple, straight question.
I am using LexTek, A/B extraction: first simmer in PH4 water, then strain it, bring it to PH 13, then separate with Shellite/Naphta.
Now... my question is: pretty much all A/B teks say that you need to put the bark in PH4 water. Now, what I notice is that when I add the bark, the PH goes up, from 4 to 4.7 or even 5. So, my question is: shall I THEN make sure the PH goes back down to 4, with more vinegar? Or shall I leave it?

The question also applies to the second go in terms of simmering: when I add water, do I need to make sure the PH is 4 *with* the bark, or *without* the bark?

Thank you!

Mercurio.

 

[endlessness]

Even at pH 5, 98% of the DMT is in salt form (and therefore water soluble) according to the freebase percentage calculator, so you'll have a good enough pH in theory. But lowering the pH to 4 or even a bit lower so is not a bad idea because then you'll have 99.9+% of the DMT in water soluble form, but also because the low pH helps break down the cells and expose more of the DMT to the water. This is specially true if you have shredded bark as opposed to powdered.

So yeah ph 4.7 or whatever is just fine, but if you want, do get it a bit lower just in case.

 

[mercurio]

Hi,

Thank you!

And... how low is "too low"? If I dropped it to 3 by accident, would that be really bad?

Mercurio.

 

[endlessness]

Nope definitely not bad, DMT should be very stable even in very low pH. Even if it was 1, it wouldnt really degrade.