Felnik, when I mentioned that the caapi extraction worked great, it was with caapi...
what should have happened is once basifying, a precipitate would form. But as a few of us have seen, it doesn't.
As gibran2 informed me, it could be that there are simply not enough alkaloids to clump together and form a precipitate.
Perhaps reducing the brew a great deal would help?
Another possibility is that it is similar to MHRB in that simply basifying does not precipitate the alkaloids, as something is holding it in suspension.
Now, my chemistry knowledge is quite limited.
With the idea of taking my basified solution back to acidic in order to try a manske, I added as close as I could calculate, sufficient HCL acid to neutralise the NaOH and then a little extra. (My HCL acid does not give an exact % - somewhere between 20-30%).
Upon doing this a thick precipitate immediately formed.
The NaOH and HCL should react to form sodium chloride, right? Could this have produced a manske type effect?
Thing is, there is lots of it, and it is taking a while to settle out but it is beginning to.
There was some fine matter at the bottom prior to basifying, but it was filtered quite well.
Any thoughts?
Edit: image after settling, may not settle much more.