Couple questions, folks.
The back story: 250 grams ACRB was split in half, a extraction was performed on half the (volume) of bark, during this several day process the bark was combined with a cup of water and then frozen and thawed several times, followed by the solution remaineing in acid (vinegar/water) stage for 24 hours, then was salted and based, left to chill for 8 hours, then several 100 ml pulls were performed using hot naps. Over four grams of golden majik wax was achieved, which was not re-xed since the whole team is happy with it.
SOOO... Here's the question. Upon performing a similar process on the remaining bark, which was separated into two vessels for extracting, since we wanted to experiment with variances in the process, it appears that the spice is being recalcitrant. While the previous batch had clear flat coffin shaped crystals forming little castles in solvent at room temp, these two bottles aren't doing much.
I applied the same process to them, except the times were increased, due to unavoidable life. Whereas the first was acidified for a day, these were for ,i want to say, several days for one and a week for the other. They were salted and based and left for several more days before pulls were begun.
The jar that was acidified/based for a shorter period is pulling much more yellow naps than the other, which is producing cloudy white naps instead of yellow. Nothing has been dried yet, but we have a plate of orange goo that even as a goo supporter I'm not super happy with.
Soooo, after all that- will having the solution in solution- either acid or base, significantly affect a yield from the same batch like this?
Also, the weather up here is crazy hot, and i think that is throwing me off. Whereas i usually blow gently on a shot glass of naps after pulling to gauge it's density, i can't get this to produce clouds by doing so. It's late summer in the Great PNW, and the it's getting up in the high nineties. So, i get that it may be harder to see, but what about crystallizing? Will the temp affect that negatively? Our last batch was so pretty, the only real difference other than time is my expectation, perhaps i created some type of "uncertain" effect upon the spice simply by thinking about it :shock:
Also, if you look down there, you'll see a quote in my sig re basifying till black. I never use a pH meter or strips and, well, basify till black. Is this NOT a reliable indicator of pH being in the right 12+ range? The only other real variance in this extraction could be that i weighed out 125 grams of NaOH for the first, where i simply added based water to the second- until the soup turned black. Do i need to remove that sig?
Thanks in advance.
The back story: 250 grams ACRB was split in half, a extraction was performed on half the (volume) of bark, during this several day process the bark was combined with a cup of water and then frozen and thawed several times, followed by the solution remaineing in acid (vinegar/water) stage for 24 hours, then was salted and based, left to chill for 8 hours, then several 100 ml pulls were performed using hot naps. Over four grams of golden majik wax was achieved, which was not re-xed since the whole team is happy with it.
SOOO... Here's the question. Upon performing a similar process on the remaining bark, which was separated into two vessels for extracting, since we wanted to experiment with variances in the process, it appears that the spice is being recalcitrant. While the previous batch had clear flat coffin shaped crystals forming little castles in solvent at room temp, these two bottles aren't doing much.
I applied the same process to them, except the times were increased, due to unavoidable life. Whereas the first was acidified for a day, these were for ,i want to say, several days for one and a week for the other. They were salted and based and left for several more days before pulls were begun.
The jar that was acidified/based for a shorter period is pulling much more yellow naps than the other, which is producing cloudy white naps instead of yellow. Nothing has been dried yet, but we have a plate of orange goo that even as a goo supporter I'm not super happy with.
Soooo, after all that- will having the solution in solution- either acid or base, significantly affect a yield from the same batch like this?
Also, the weather up here is crazy hot, and i think that is throwing me off. Whereas i usually blow gently on a shot glass of naps after pulling to gauge it's density, i can't get this to produce clouds by doing so. It's late summer in the Great PNW, and the it's getting up in the high nineties. So, i get that it may be harder to see, but what about crystallizing? Will the temp affect that negatively? Our last batch was so pretty, the only real difference other than time is my expectation, perhaps i created some type of "uncertain" effect upon the spice simply by thinking about it :shock:
Also, if you look down there, you'll see a quote in my sig re basifying till black. I never use a pH meter or strips and, well, basify till black. Is this NOT a reliable indicator of pH being in the right 12+ range? The only other real variance in this extraction could be that i weighed out 125 grams of NaOH for the first, where i simply added based water to the second- until the soup turned black. Do i need to remove that sig?
Thanks in advance.
