Hello all. It’s been awhile since I’ve been on here.
I wanted to get some opinions because I think something isn’t right.
With MHRB, the average yield is 2%, right?
For some reason I can’t figure, I am not getting anywhere close to 2%.
In my last extraction, I did 400g of bark, in four 100g chunks if you will. Basically I do it 100g at a time, but I’ll do two to four of them at once.
I like to do do a A/B. I don’t measure amounts, I adjust for pH. Before I basic, I like to filter the bark material out with cheesecloth. I call it a run. I’ll filter out the bark, and that’s one run. I usually do three runs, with three pulls on each run.
With 400g total MHRB, my yield is only 1.5g.
I should be getting AT LEAST 5g out of 400g, correct? Or could the bark not be the best or something?
The way I extract, is to powderize the bark, then I make an acidic solution from RO water, with hydrochloric acid added until it reaches a pH of 2-4. About 250-300ml per 100g of bark.
I then do three freeze/thaw cycles of the acidic bark slurry. After the third thaw; I filter it through a cheesecloth, squeezing out all the liquid I can before putting the solid ball of bark into another jar and adding more acidic solution for the second run.
After filtration, I dissolve 50g of salt in 100ml of RO water, and add it to the extract.
Then I add lye to 200ml of RO water until it reaches a pH of 12 or higher, and add the base solution to the extract until the pH measures 12. Mix vigorously. Then I add 75ml of Heptane for the pull.
Is there something screwed up or wrong with this procedure? Why am I getting such low yields?
The first run yielded 1.5g the second run yielded .5g, and I haven’t finished the third run yet. However usually the third run doesn’t produce much at all.
Can anyone shed some light or give some advice on this?
Thanks for your time.