For Mr. Mike, Trav, and other tincturers

Ok, I do not like the look of my powder tinctures. It seems like they swollen up a lot. I hope in changes because otherwise I won't have anything to strain! How do you strain powder, anyway? The more I read I realize that it is recommended to powder the roots, but HOW do you strain tiny particles of powder when you are done?

Should I have put in the jar less than half full of herbs?

Thanks!

LOL! Basically a really good cheese cloth (the real stuff that cheese is made with) is fine enough that if you doubled it, it would catch almost all of even the powdered herbs.

I only have bought this, as I was using it for straining cheese and yogurt: hoeggerfarmyard.com/xcart/Cheesecloth.html - but I have worked with it and know that it could get the majority of the powdered herbs out.

But this is why I chose to work with the "cut" herbs instead of the powdered herbs. All I need is a strainer and some muscle to strain the herbs.

Well, when drinking it, it's straight up! But for tincturing, yes I add the water.

The only things I've tinctured have been oats and motherwort (leaves). I was prepared to tincture red root, but since it's contained in my Lyme.

I wouldn't be too concerned about the roots still being hard though, the alcohol will penetrate it and remove the right parts still.

That's okay - we only just went "wet" (selling alcohol) in my county just 3 or 4 years ago!

Thanks, Trav!

On top of the roots being hard, some of them are still floating in the Eleuthero (the worst) and the red root (the least, just a couple of medium size pieces). Everything else has submerged. I hope I won't get bad tinctures with those 2 because I made large jars of them. Do you think is ok if they have stuff floating in like that?

I will probably put my drops in water, too. I can't stand alcohol the way I used to pre-lyme. No more straight up drinks for me LOL I just don't even like them anymore. A few sips is ok, but I can't tolerate more than that.

So it's illegal to make your own liqueur? I didn't know that! I went for visits in Europe and they do it all the time! Not sure if things changed.

@sayyadina:

Never been to NH and most likely never will.

My cat's claw bark whole is completely submerged, but a little red root and some eleuthero is still floating. Maybe it takes a few more days.

I used the coffee grounder for a couple of the herbs, but many of them I bought already powdered also, so I tried it both ways. I find the powdered ones quite annoying because they look like mud and this mud sticks to the top of the glass when the jar is shaken.

"I believe you're supposed to add water when you're using dried herb, but you don't need to when you use fresh herb."

Actually, since I am using 80 proof which is 40% alcohol and 60% water, I believe I should not use anymore water, or it will be too diluted. Buhner is using higher proof and I think that is why he adds water but the way I do it, there is no more need for water because it already comes mixed.

Anise also worked in my coffee grinder. It is very fine powder now. I already had the coffee grinder, which I never used (maybe 1 time in 10 years), so now I get some use out of it.

I hope you are feeling better :) My son had a pain crises this morning and I haven't had a very good day because of it. He was ok for a month and now his pain is coming back :(

Happy tincturing :)

LOL  Oh, you got me!  LOL

I just don't know anyone there or in Maine, so it is not on my list of places to visit.  I think it would be pretty crazy to go to NH just to by booz  LOL 

I too found that higher doses of antioxidants helped my pain levels.


And Simela, do you have a sieve or strainer of any size? You could cut the coffee filter to that size if necessary and then carefully pour the tincture through it. You may have to stop and empty the coffee filter out if the sieve/strainer is small, but it would work.

But this is one reason I chose to not use powders to tincture, even though they are done much quicker.