Dual-Extracted Mushroom Tincture
Wild harvesting or growing your own functional mushrooms? Learn how to create your own extractions at home her by making your own dual-extracted tincture. Tinctures are a great way to make the beneficial beta-glucans more bio-available for our bodies and preserves your mushroom for long periods of time.
INGREDIENTS
- Dried mushrooms (Lion’s Mane, Chaga, Reishi, etc)
- 150 or 190 proof alcohol (Everclear works well)
- Water
- Roughly chop your dried mushrooms into small chucks with a knife or break into pieces with your hands and add to the blender*. (The smaller the pieces, the quicker the extraction.)
- Add alcohol to the blender until you have an extra inch of alcohol above the mushrooms and blend.
- Add the mushroom blend to a clean glass jar. Place a piece of wax paper on top of the jar and seal with the jar lid. (This protects the tincture from any chemical reactions with the metal lid).
- Allow to macerate for a minimum of 2 weeks (4-6 weeks is ideal). Shake the jar occasionally to ensure no air pockets (every day is ideal).
- Once sufficient time has passed, strain the mushroom materials from the alcohol.
- Measure how much liquid you have of the strained alcohol tincture. Once measured, reserve this liquid.
- Multiple the number of your strained alcohol tincture volume by 3. Measure this volume out in water. Example, if you have 200 mL of strained alcohol tincture, measure 600 mL of water to use to create your hot water extraction.
- To create a decoction (hot water extraction), add water to a pot and add in the strained mushrooms from the alcohol extraction.
- Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to low and let simmer for a minimum of 4 hours. Add water if needed, the goal is to have equal part of alcohol vs water extraction. Example from above, if 200 mL of alcohol tincture, you want 200 mL of water extraction liquid.
- Once sufficient time has passed, strain the mushroom material from the water. Discard or compost your mushrooms. (If you have more decoction than alcohol mixture, simmer the decoction down further until equal volumes of both are achieved.)
- Allow the decoction to cool completely. Then slowly add the alcohol tincture into the decoction liquid and stir to combine.
- Store in a labeled, sanitized glass jar or tincture bottle with a tight-fitting lid. Best to store in a cool, dark place.
