So I just added lye to my reduced harmala tea and I think o added WAY too much. I was debating between making a lye-solution but I just added directly to the harmala... Now I see why one makes a solution first.

So at the bottom of the glass that the basing is happening in, below the precipitating alkaloids, is a quarter inch layer of lye. It got saturated and the excess is sitting at the bottom... With my alkaloids ON TOP! What do I do here? Do washes work even for a large excess of lye?

And what do I wash it with again? Vinegar to get the alks out, or water to get the lye out? Or was there something about a sodium carbonate solution?

Alright well thanks everyone. This was a real first-timers mistake...!

you should be able to just wash them in water and let the harmalas drop back out..works with sodium carb precips anyway when too much of it comes out of solution. I would collect all the precipitates and dissolve in warm water and then let it sit to precip again. The excess lye I would imagine should stay in the water.

I have done the same thing before but while salting the rue tea..I always make a salt or sodium carb saturated solution now before precipping.

hm so it seems the lye formed a hard crystalline "cake" at the bottom of the glass... here, checkit out. Also, while filtering the alkaloids out the FILTER popped. I was like daaaamn. But they're getting back to precipitating as you can see.