SWIM just completed their first acid boil of some MHRB powder and noticed how dark the decanted liquid was. They know it's supposed to turn black when it gets basified, but they say it's black already. Any opinions or theories as the why it's already so dark?

Is it really black already, or just dark brown/red and almost black?

If it's totally black already, I've had that once when I burned the bark by heating too much and not stirring enough. Even then, I just continued as planned and I still had acceptable yield.

If it's just nearly black, that just means you have a nice concentrated tea. I think once you pour in the lye, you'll notice that it gets even blacker

I was told that if the flask was laid over you could tell that it was translucent.

Was told the third boil came off a little lighter than the first two, however, it still looks a deep dark purple. I sure hope this is the right stuff. The plant matter is being saved for a possible boil later just to see if anything was left in it. SWIM is anxious to see if the pressure cooker was a good idea. No distilled water was used, just straight DWV @ 5%. The pH was approximately the same before and after the boils, as the pressure didn't allow for much of the water to boil off and lower it. The DWV/MHRB was inside a Mason jar with a lid on with just a pinhole poked through the middle of the lid. 30g MHRB, 300mL DWV, 60 minute boils. Save for that last one, it was only 30 minutes, which may have attributed to the liquid being slightly more transparent. We shall see. There is so much more that I have written down such as that there's a freeze cycle in there somewhere as well as a few nights just sitting and soaking. I've recorded it all, so if it's a complete failure, I'll go back and use a listed TEK here from the forum to check the MHRB. If I get x-stals out of it then I'll know there's some in the MHRB and just start tweaking the proven TEK.

30g MHRB
First pull: 203mg
Second pull: 114mg
Third pull still in kelvinator
Pretty clear x-stals except for on the second pull SWIM exhibited some poor technique and carried the pipette that had drawn up some basified solution and dripped some in the precipitation dish.
Second pull was kept separate and took SWIM on a journey the likes of which they have never experienced. Time dilation reported in the opposite of what most others report. 15-20 minutes send like only a few seconds. Just colors and shapes but SWIM reports feeling disembodied. No concerns about breathing or any of that. SWIM can see why this is called the spirit molecule.