Hi all!
Welcome to my mimosahuasca brewing journal. It is a work in progress in which I track my experiments with brewing mimosahuasca, which eventually will be turned into a hopefully comprehensive and lucid guide that contains all the nitty gritty details-- No more endless googling needed.
Here is an overview of the questions I hope to solve (copied from my post below this one, for the sake of clarity):
1. What exactly is the point of filtering 3 times during the standard 3x3 recipe? I understand that the water evaporates, but why not just add water to the pot every 3 hours and filter at the end? Is it just a safety device in case the boil gets messed up somehow (i.e. then you at least have your previous 1 or 2 boils, or is it somehow crucial to the brew itself?)
2. Moreover, why brew without the lid on the pot?
In this thread, ms_manic_minxx seems to have gotten good - perhaps even better and more economical, it seems - results with the lid on. I wonder if she still did the 3x3 process during this experiment. Just filtering at the end + keeping the lid on for 9 hours would make the brewing process a bit easier-- so why not?
3. Does a cold water brew work or not? With or without a MAOI? It would be great if this worked, because the preparation process would require a lot less time. I intend to do the experiment at some point in the following way:
Quote:A) Mix powdered MHRB in water and some vinegar and leave in fridge for multiple days, shaking it once every day.
B) Strain the liquid through cheesecloth or something to separate the plant material from liquid.
C) Apply egg white tek on the stove and reduce.
Further questions to ask (if it works) are: What is the effect on the potency of the brew, i.e. do you need less, more or as much MHRB? Does it create more, less or as much nausea, even when applying the egg white tek?
4. Why can the egg white tek only be done on unreduced brew? I understand that during the tek some liquid further evaporates, but if you calculate that in, then it seems the most logical to do the egg white tek way at the end, as with the least amount of liquid there is greater certitude that the egg whites will soak up the tannins? Or is my reasoning wrong here?
5. Is boiling destructive to potency? What kind of 'simmer' is too much of a simmer, if any? Can a 'low' simmer be too low to be effective, even if hot enough to evaporate water?
6. I hear people say that powdered MHRB requires less time on the stove to fully extract. But how long is enough?
Underneath (---) is the original post of this thread, which was not initially a journal but more to get some questions answered. Feel free to ignore it.
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I am brewing aya as we speak for the second time. I am using 30g of mimosa hostilis (for multiple sessions), with about 1 liter of water. However, all the instructions say to brew for 3 hours 3 times, but considering the speed with which the water is evaporating, I will have to change the water much sooner.
I am brewing at a (very) low simmer and the pot seems an appropriate size (20cm diameter). I also read that too low heat is ineffective and that some people even boil, so turning down the heat is also not an option (yet I've also read that too much heat is destructive to the alkaloids- anyone know what's up?).
Are my ratios off? How much water would you recommend for 30g of MHRB?
Also, how much water can I allow to evaporate before having to change the water? I intend to consume brew that equates to 3g of MHRB (at least for the first few upcoming trips), so the end brew would need to be about 0,5l I guess (50ml per trip)?
Thanks ahead! (Extra thanks for quick responses as I would ideally finish the brewing today

!)
EDIT FOR UPDATES:
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First boil:I changed the water after approximately 2 hours and 25 minutes. However, the amount of liquid left (after filtering) is only about 290ml. Just started the second brew with about 1.6 liters of water.
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Second boil: Brewed for 3 hours and 5 minutes, 310ml left (after filtering), even though I partially kept the lid on the pot for about 20 minutes near the end of the boil. Kept the brew on a very low simmer mostly.
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Third boil: Brew voor 3,5 hours in 2.1l, about 800ml left. The lid was kept on for about half an hour. For a while, the brew reached the cooking point (accidentally). Hopefully this did not damage the potency.
Steps left: Egg white tek and reduce, but this will be for in the near future.
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“Joy at the smallest things comes to you only when you have accepted death. But if you look out greedily for all that you could still live, then nothing is great enough for your pleasure, and the smallest things that continue to surround you are no longer a joy” -C.G. Jung