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Acid vs. Non-Acid Brew Experiment: Comparison of Alkaloids Remaining in THP Brewed Caapi

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Rivea, super interesting! I'd love to hear about any mad science contraptions you can build to aid inner explorations. :twisted:

Angels got me a $500 discount on an already discounted price and fate intervened with shipping so I didn't pay sales tax. PHEW!! I wanted a good water filter for a long time (you know, fluoride, pineal, etc.), but couldn't justify it... until I saw the digital pH setting. Considering I drink Ayahuasca at least once a week and microdose, kicking the vinegar has been priceless. There's a way the taste of vinegar persists in the mouth after drinking... now the taste disappears quickly, and doesn't burn. I've dealt with horrible depression and anxiety my whole life, and drinking frequently is the only way to keep my head above the water, so it was a completely worthy investment for me. I drink as much for the lessons as I do for the strength and elevated baseline between lessons.

I use the filter for changa, too, but it's less critical because of everything else involved in the process. It does a max pH of 11~12 on the alkaline side.

Hahaha... I feel so domesticated in my practice. :p
 
ms_manic_minxx said:
Rivea, super interesting! I'd love to hear about any mad science contraptions you can build to aid inner explorations. :twisted:

Angels got me a $500 discount on an already discounted price and fate intervened with shipping so I didn't pay sales tax. PHEW!! I wanted a good water filter for a long time (you know, fluoride, pineal, etc.), but couldn't justify it... until I saw the digital pH setting. Considering I drink Ayahuasca at least once a week and microdose, kicking the vinegar has been priceless. There's a way the taste of vinegar persists in the mouth after drinking... now the taste disappears quickly, and doesn't burn. I've dealt with horrible depression and anxiety my whole life, and drinking frequently is the only way to keep my head above the water, so it was a completely worthy investment for me. I drink as much for the lessons as I do for the strength and elevated baseline between lessons.

I use the filter for changa, too, but it's less critical because of everything else involved in the process. It does a max pH of 11~12 on the alkaline side.

Hahaha... I feel so domesticated in my practice. :p
Click to expand...

I just explored water ionization on the internet. It looks like a batch process can be done fairly easily. A guy is selling a complete batch ionization unit that costs about $160 and it will make a batch of acid and alkaline water in two containers. These are connected together with a tube covered by an ion permeable cloth 'membrane' to prevent convective mixing of water between the chambers while providing the necessary electrical path between chambers. One chamber with the negative electrode provides the (OH-) alkaline water, and the other chamber with the positive electrode provides the (H+) acidic water. Platinum plated titanium mesh electrodes tend to not sluff particles nor ions into the water and this is why they are used versus other conductors. Plated electrodes are used because solid platinum electrodes would be insanely expensive.

You put water in the containers, apply power (DC 30 volts approximately I think), and wait. This is manually controlled and pH is determined by time to 'brew'. Mineral free distilled water has very little conductance to electricity, so this system recommends the addition of 1/8 teaspoon of salt to provide ions to allow the current to flow. This could possibly be avoided by using higher voltage, increased 'brew' time, or by increasing the electrode area of this design. I personally would use reverse osmosis filtered water and experiment with voltage, time, and lastly electrode area. I would try to avoid the use of any salt if possible.

The platinum plated titanium mesh electrodes are available from pyrotechnic and electroplating companies and are also available from one ebay seller tonight. The 0.5 inch x 4 inch or larger electrodes range from $39 to $110 each depending on surface area. Like I observed earlier, the cost of any of these systems (batch or flow through processing) is driven by the expense of platinum electrodes.

To me this is a do it yourself project and it seems like it is practical. I think that it could be done for about $110 if you do all the work, and of course there is the internet guy who has done all of the work if you shell out the $160. I have other things to do first however before I take this any further; however, it intrigued me enough to learn about how it works because of the silver ionization unit in the photo that I have been working on productizing.

I thought that you and others may be interested in how this works and a cheaper alternative to the flow through unit.
 
I've been brewing without acid up until now. I had my first experience with an acidified brew last night with the same quantity of bark from the same source which has been consistent in strength. I added a good few drops of vinegar that smelt quite acidy during the intial boils, but once it was reduced there was no hint of vinegar. I know as soon as that first gulp hit my tongue that I was into something way stronger. The bitterness of the brew was way more prominent. Still quite managable, but it definately wasn't the creamy warmth I've become acustomed to.

I've been brewing 100g per dose but now I may drop down to 75. 100 wasn't unmanagable, but I'd be interested to see if I can get to the promised land with less :)
 
soulfood, did you really mean just a few drops? id be interested to know how much water used total as well.

i just did my first brew with vinegar and i found it took a min. of 1 tablespoon per 1/2 gallon distilled h20 to achieve a 3.6 ph.

interesting enough is that the ph remained at 3.6 even after a second table spoon was added.
im not sure how this could be but i repeated it a second time and got the similar results except the ph dropped to 3.5 and flickered back and forth to 3.6.
 
I only went down to pH 5 as I checked on the first boil. With the following boils I just estimated the amount of vinegar based on the first boil and then didn't measure the pH. On my last boil I added a little more than previous.

I use tap water for my brews and the pH usually comes out around just over 7. I use around 10 drops per boil just so there was a hint of vinegar smell and then did 4 3 hour boils giving me 2 litres of liquid that was then reduced to 80ml, by which time I couldn't smell any vinegar.
 
would you consider using a full 1-2 tablespoons next brewing in the name of science 😉 ? it would be great to know if 3.6 ph makes a much larger increased in potency or if just a few drops like you did is adequate.

my brew still has a pretty definite vinegar smell. if i could lower the amount id like to.
 
You can add NaHCO3 to your final brew after using acid in order to neutralize the vinegar taste (it can actually make it taste almost as if there was no acid used whatsoever). The only thing is, if you go this route, you should drink all of the sediment in case the rise in pH causes the Harmalas to precipitate out of solution. This gives you the efficiency of an acid extraction and the taste of an acid-free extraction. 😉

credit to Endlessness, Cosmic Lion, and anyone else who took part in the brain-storming behind this idea way back when...
 
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