merkin
Rising Star
I'm not allowed to add this to gibran2's easy caapi extraction tek but having embarked on it and gotten a little worried about things going wrong I thought I'd post it anyway for anyone new to the process.
I started with about 200g of thick yellow caapi vine, hammered to shreds and did the boil 4x50min with fumaric acid (I have a ton of it sourced for fumarate spice but could only buy a 1kg minimum!). All went well and I probably used more water than I should so I started reducing after 4 boils to about 800ml. Went well, filtered some crud and let it cool while I started on boiling the rest.
The liquid was always like a dark golden brown, especially after filtering so I get worried it doesnt look like the pics. Then to add to that nothing seems to happen after adding the base. I added a bit more, stirring and stirring. No real change. Looked kinda caramel coloured since cooling not dark black like the pics and thats not getting lighter. I panic, maybe its bunk vine? Leave two hours. No change. Damn. I just put it in the fridge and leave it and keep reading this seemingly endless thread full of stories about things going wrong. Must definitely be low alk levels?
Oh well, let me finish the rest of the boils. I do and reduce. Still I'm getting a golden liquid that darkens as its reduced but never as dark as the tek pics. I filter that and let it cool. On the last boil I tried to blend the bark in my blender. Not very successfully, but its a lot finer, adds crud but that gets filtered out reasonably easily. Not easy, but easier than Rue.
So finally I leave the reduced solution to cool and go cloudy (a good sign apparently). Then I add the base. Whoa! No precipitation like the milky stuff the rue makes but definitely there's a clear centimetre or so on the top. Sure enough this increases slowly. That sends me back to the fridge and the other solution I had pretty much given up on. Nearly 5 hours later - and YES! It has a gap at the top.
So there are alks after all! Just need time....and patience. No worries about the colour matches, don't give up hope.
Moral of the story: don't go negative too soon -- distract yourself and give it time, lots of it it seems, patience is key!
Pic: Liquid reducing is golden not black. First 4 boils, base - just starting to show a layer after 5 hours! Second lot of boils next to it, definitely settling faster - maybe just less alks in it I suppose.
I started with about 200g of thick yellow caapi vine, hammered to shreds and did the boil 4x50min with fumaric acid (I have a ton of it sourced for fumarate spice but could only buy a 1kg minimum!). All went well and I probably used more water than I should so I started reducing after 4 boils to about 800ml. Went well, filtered some crud and let it cool while I started on boiling the rest.
The liquid was always like a dark golden brown, especially after filtering so I get worried it doesnt look like the pics. Then to add to that nothing seems to happen after adding the base. I added a bit more, stirring and stirring. No real change. Looked kinda caramel coloured since cooling not dark black like the pics and thats not getting lighter. I panic, maybe its bunk vine? Leave two hours. No change. Damn. I just put it in the fridge and leave it and keep reading this seemingly endless thread full of stories about things going wrong. Must definitely be low alk levels?
Oh well, let me finish the rest of the boils. I do and reduce. Still I'm getting a golden liquid that darkens as its reduced but never as dark as the tek pics. I filter that and let it cool. On the last boil I tried to blend the bark in my blender. Not very successfully, but its a lot finer, adds crud but that gets filtered out reasonably easily. Not easy, but easier than Rue.
So finally I leave the reduced solution to cool and go cloudy (a good sign apparently). Then I add the base. Whoa! No precipitation like the milky stuff the rue makes but definitely there's a clear centimetre or so on the top. Sure enough this increases slowly. That sends me back to the fridge and the other solution I had pretty much given up on. Nearly 5 hours later - and YES! It has a gap at the top.
So there are alks after all! Just need time....and patience. No worries about the colour matches, don't give up hope.
Moral of the story: don't go negative too soon -- distract yourself and give it time, lots of it it seems, patience is key!
Pic: Liquid reducing is golden not black. First 4 boils, base - just starting to show a layer after 5 hours! Second lot of boils next to it, definitely settling faster - maybe just less alks in it I suppose.