Ayahuasca, report, questions, troubleshooting.

[Traged]

Hi, two weeks ago we finally attempted it.

Me and my friend took approx. 125g of banisteropsis vine and approx. 125g of psychotria viridis (chacruna). It was put in a pot, covered with water and little vinegar was added. We simmered for 3 hours, then strained into another pot to start reducing, meanwhile we added more water to plant material and simmered again for 3 hours, then strained and added to reducing pot (during second simmering I have added two teabags of lemon balm to the mix).

After it was reduced, we took it - half each (that would be approx. 62g of banisteropsis and 62g of chacruna per person)

We took it on almost empty stomach - both of us drank ginger juice beforehand, and chased aya with little bit of it.

After some time, there was not very pleasant discomfort. Both of us thought we will throw up - in the end after 5-6 hours I did - more on that later.

There was almost no effect - i would compare it to 2grams of mushrooms probably. That was for me and my friend.

Only change happened when I threw up - for few minutes it started coming on - but still, not anything crazy - just some visual distortions of space.

My questions would be:

Did we made a mistake somewhere?
Was dosage too low?
Was should we simmered material more times? 3 for example?
Longer cook time needed?
Should we use different ratio than 1:1?

What about stomach discomfort, anymore tips? (anything from diet, to ginger and lemon balm or maybe cooking plants separately?)

We have approx. 125g of banisteropsis and 125g of chacruna left, I also have some MHRB and syrian rue on hand - If you think issue was not enough DMT.

Thank you guys for any suggestions and help

 

[spyfish]

That does sound on the low side, but doesn't have to be. Typical is often 100g+, BUT it can be significant from just 50g depending in brewing and source material. However I suspect the brewing method is your problem. The leaves extract easy, so simmer can do the trick. But the vine needs full on boil! Its wood. And personally i keep the brews separately, (easier to test and gauge dosage)

The analogs are much easier to brew. Caapi especially difficult to brew at home due to the amount of water needed due to higher dosage needed. So larger batches are not practical.

When I brew Ayahuasca or analogs, I do full on boils for 4 times 4 hours. With plenty of distilled or "de-ionized" water. That may be overkill, but certainly gets me the result I'm looking for. Multiple multi hour BOILS is especially important for Caapi. I would do minimum 3 x 3 hour BOILS with new water each time and a dash of white vinegar. In the jungle they sometimes boil caapi for days.

I suspect you achieved minimal MAOI. Good source material can produce significant effect at dose doses. I like dose consistency, so i always brew bigger batches. And for safety, a Caapi/Chakruna brew I would first test at 50/50g before moving onto more typical 100g dose, as it can be strong even at 50g if brewed well and good material.

That said, caapi only extracts are easy to find online and chakruna alone is much easier to brew as its leaves not wood.

BUT, its a good start.

I would try agaion the left you have of Chakruna and Caapi, boil minumum 3 x 3 hours and split in two. I woukld aim for min 6-7 liters of brew before reducing down to drinkable amount. This may sound crazy, but thats the only way Ive been able to brew caapi at home sucessfully. (though brewed dry vine is the most horrible ive tasted, worse than rue. Fresh brewed is almost yum in comparison)

For MHBR I use same brewing method, but less water is needed. Good MHRB brew have me unable to stand up at just 3 gram. Caapi is the hardest of them all to brew at home, (but amazing).

Syrian rue is very easy, I have a little "trick" to make it less vile:

2-3 g rue pp is enough. I usually go with 2.5, I wouldnt go over 3.5.

1. Roast the whole seeds in a dry pan on low heat until it smells a bit "nutty" (vastly improved taste)
2. Lighly grind teh seeds, no need to powder. Also fine if some seends are whole.
3. Boil for 15 minutes and strain. reduce as needed down to shot size. Never boil rue more than 20 minutes, its not nessesary and just gets more difficult on tummy.

For bark and vine, try aim for 25ml of water (unreduced brew) per g of dry material.

Some importrant brewing points:
- Only filter unreduced hot brew. Cold and reduced molecukles precipites and gets filtered out as the water is at this point oversaturated.
- Aim for 25 ml of unreduced brew per gram of material.
- wood material needs to boil, not just simmer
- shake/mix teh sludge in reduced brew evenly. More goodies in the sludge
- Decanting, egg white wash etc usually just end up with weak brews. In my opinion and experiance not worth it.

 

[spyfish]

Forgot to mention freezing/tawing. Freezing the vine wet after a boil helps breaking up the cells and extract alkaloids in next boil. I freeze it at least once between two boils.