I'm about to boil some root bark and was wondering if adding an acid to the brew is really necessary. I only have vinegar and don't want to stink up my place. Will there be a loss of yeild or something without it?

open a window and turn on a fan. you can handle it.

All about aya

*Notes on acidifying: there are many cases in which acid is not added to an Ayahuasca brew (traditional Amazonian preparation, Santo Daime, and among others on the net). Some people say this does not impact the efficacy of the brew; in my personal experience, however, it has. There are too many variables at hand to quickly determine what the cause of this may be at the present time. Adding acid will DEFINITELY turn the taste of the brew for the worse (brewer beware, this is not a joke); feel free to consider all methods, and attempt what sounds best to you. If you do have any experiences to add to this subject, please do share them here with everyone! In my personal experiences, tested multiple times, 200g+ of non-acidified water brings only minimal effects, vs. < half the identical materials brewed the same way WITH vinegar would yield stronger results--in MY experience, again, which is not the same as some others' and a subject worthy of much investigation!! There are things to consider: freshness of materials used, source water, cook times, and possibly much more.

Thanks for posting. Now i wonder if the non-acidified brews being less potent is specific to B. Caapi? I'm brewing for an extraction to make changa with 100 grams.

Oh, I'm sorry, I thought you were brewing ayahuasca. For an extraction you could do stb but I'm pretty sure the acid is recommended. One has done q21q21 dry tek 2. One uses vinegar but not enough to stink an apartment for more than an hour and it's pretty much as easy as baking a cake. And yes it works for acrb. Keep researching my friend.

No prob, actually i'm glad you posted that ayahuasca thread, now i think i'll stick with that, as it seems you get more out of it anyhow. I think i'm just obsessed with the idea of smoking dmt from what i've heard and read, but at the same time i'm terrified of it's intensity. Ayahuasca seems gentle, which is more my style anyways from working with cactus. When i think about extracting dmt, it makes me feel uneasy for some reason, i started boiling the material and my heart started racing, wierd. I guess i'm just wierd like that. Saving it for ayahuasca

I much prefer not to make Acacia or any other DMT-containing brew acidic. When it's acidic, the taste and smell is way more pronounced (and that's just with Citric Acid), with Vinegar i'm sure it wouldn't taste good.

What i do, is boil on up the Acacia (a few separate boils) and when the boils are all combined, add in a few egg whites and reduce the brew down while cooking the egg whites. After reducing and filtering, i stick it in the freezer or fridge overnight, let the remaining sediment drop to the bottom, and i pour off the tea until the sediment tries coming out and i let the sediment rest and continue pouring off the rest of the tea.

The end is result is a very easy to drink Acacia tea. I've been mixing it with regular old sweet tea with a few ice cubes, and it goes down really smooth, is actually quite yummy. I usually drink my tea an hour and a half after taking a Harmala capsule (which could be filled with either purified Harmalas or purified full spectrum extract from Rue, but one could also use Caapi instead of the Rue of course).

I think this way is like really where it's at. Plus, my Acacia tea has been in the fridge going on 3 months now and still looks, smells and tastes the same, no mold or anything growing in it, so apparently it's not expiring, so no need for acid to preserve it

And as for extractions, i'd say yeah an acid is needed, but for oral teas, no acid is needed, and with oral teas there is little to no loss in potency.

Wow thanks for the great info! One will have to give that a try!