DpTek2

Please note that DpTek2 is at an early stage of evolution and not yet intended as fully completed & workable. Further input is welcomed from all.

Equipment & Ingredients

• Shredded root base material (in this test 425g was used)

• Large Sieve & bowl

• 1L jars

• 2L container (preferably heat resistant erlenmayer flask)

• lye, solvent, citric acid (or similar)

Procedure

1. Use a large seive with a bowl underneath to separate the fibres from the powder.  Consider a suitable dust mask.

2. From our test with 425g of shredded root base, 170g of fibres were separated. The sieved powder is put aside for later processing using dpTek 1 -  the remainder of this tek concerns the fibres caught in the sieve.  

3. In two 1 litre mason jars, dissolve 60g citric acid into 750ml warm water in each jar. Then equally divided the 170g of fibres, (2x 85g) adding 85g to each jar

4. Leave the jars at room temperature for couple of days, shaking periodically. 

5. After this phase, blend the acidifed fibres through a nutribullet or similar and perform one freeze/thaw cycle. Note that the fibers may be tough & stringy so there will still be some smaller fibers remaining. 

6. Leave them another couple of days sitting at room temperature, then remove the acidified blended fibres from the jar and transfer into the sieve over a bowl to strain the liquid from them.  Note: For removing the contents from the jar, consider carefully using a fork to minimise disturbance to any sediment on the bottom. 

7. Once the fibres had stopped dripping, compress as much liquid out of the fibres as possible. In our test, around 1.5 litres of mhrb juice remained with some of sediment at the bottom. 

8. Now in the 2L flask, carefully dissolve 100g lye and then 250g salt into a quantity of water which will allow the total volume of the salted lye water plus the mhrb juice to not exceed the capacity of the 2L flask (in reality, a 2L erlenmayer typically has a total capacity exceeding 2L), plus a reasonable safety margin. For example, if we had 1.5 litres of mhrb juice, perhaps 400ml of water could be used to dissolve the lye.  Be aware of rapid heat buildup when dissolving lye in smaller quantities of water.

9. Now add the mhrb juice to the flask and stir briefly

10. Perform the usual quick pulls,as detailed in DpTek1.

Notes

• Unlike DpTek1, increased heat did not appear to adversely affect purity (i.e. whiteness and presence of goo), perhaps owing to the absence of plant materials coming into contact with lye. Yield was around 1.3%. The purity flakes from fibres has displayed equal purity/whiteness from all pulls, rather than the normal expectation of the later pulls having gradually reduced purity. 

• For comparison, in this test, yields for the remaining powder have been between 1.6 and 1.9%. 

• All DpTeks are under constant review and evolution, the above represents a snapshot as of 22nd January 2023