Egg to remove tannin's: to boil or not to boil?

[chr0nic]

Hi all,

I'm going to attempt my first MHRB brew soon, and I noticed a couple of points that seem contradictory... I'm sure there's a simple explanation- but I don't want to ruin it, so thought I would get clarification.

All extraction teks stress how important it is not to 'boil' the mixture, as excessive heat can damage the alkaloids- so use low temperature for tek.

However, when reading about the 'egg white tek' to remove tannin's the procedure seems to REQUIRE boiling the mixture so that the egg "cooks" and absorbs the tannin's (see detailed post in link).

"egg whites and ayahuasca - Harmalas - Welcome to the DMT-Nexus"

Am I missing something? Is it less of a problem to boil in the latter stages, once the goodies have been removed from the MHRB? Or is it just that you shouldn't boil it for the whole tek, but a few minutes won't hurt if it's for the greater good of removing nasties?

Thanks!

 

[Jees]

Thousands of years of boiling ayahuasca in south America, and all that modern pressure potting on even higher temperatures 120 °C (248 °F), all that has never damaged the alkaloids.
As long as it's in an acid stage, the alkaloids are in salt stage and you can boil the heck out of it no problem. Just keep heat away where the alkaloids are in their freebase stage, that is another story all together.
Since the egg tek is executed in an acid stage, no worries :thumb_up:

...All extraction teks stress how important it is not to 'boil' the mixture, as excessive heat can damage the alkaloids- so use low temperature for tek.

Try to quote one of those when it involves an acid stage.
I suspect you mix up with the advice to keep temp low (say max 40 deg C) when making the non polar pulls, for two reasons:
* pulls are done in a base stage (freebased alkaloids = way more vulnerable to temp);
* more temp drags more waxes and plant oils/fats & whatnot into the non polar layer.

BTW this is a snippet I kept from another forum about egg white tek:

1. First of all, never do this on a reduced brew, but only on the portions that are not reduced.
2. Use one egg white (NO YOLKS!) per quart or liter.
3. Make sure your brew is slightly acidic (or it won't work right - at least ph6)
4. Add the one egg white to your quart/liter of unreduced brew and whisk with a whisk.
5. The egg whites will turn the brew cloudy. Boil for about 5 minutes or so until you can see the brew clearly separate into a totally clear golden fraction. This happens rather suddenly as soon as the egg whites become fully cooked. If it doesn't make a clear separation despite cooking thoroughly past 8 minutes, you should add a little vinegar and it will force separation.
6.Filter the brew through cloth or coffee filter and discard the pinkish- colored egg whites (the pink is the color of the tannins). This is very simple, since the egg whites are cooked and won't clog the filter. Do not try to proceed to filtration unless YOU HAVE ACHIEVED separation in step 5! This will clog your filter, and you'll know you did it wrong. The brew should filter through as easily as water!

Do 1-6 for each quart of unreduced brew, then reduce as normal.

I'd suggest to do 4. at room temp, certainly not warm, at this stage you want the soup to become milk-ish without any egg white solidification. Only from point 5. the heat goes on.

2 cents.

 

[○]

Yup, as Jees said - high heat extended boils on mhrb are totally fine.

And personally speaking I'd skip the tannin/egg white, though is can make the mhrb brew a bit more palatable. To avoid much taste issue I will usually do my boils on the mhrb, then reduce down to about a shot glass worth of concentrated mhrb tea, then when I go to drink it I just throw it to the back of my throat, bypassing much of the taste bud locations [only hitting a few towards the back of the throat ime].

 

[chr0nic]

Thanks for the detailed responses- I've certainly got a lot to learn about the chemistry!

Very excellent advice all round, thank you both for taking the time. :thumb_up: