How much water do you add in the Chris Jenks method?

I watched Chris Jenks interview and he said for every 2kg of RB, he used 4.5mL of water and 1.5L of vinegar or something like that and they're the proportions I went by. I started reading his extraction manual though and he says something different. He says for every kg of RB, to use 1.5L of vinegar. Also, I can't find any mention of how much water to use in the manual. I assume you have to add water because when I added the 7mL of vinegar and 25mL of water (I can't remember the exact volumes but it was something like that), I could barely even wet all the powder so I ended up adding a bit more water. If I only added 7mL of vinegar, it woulda just got absorbed by the powder.

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georgena92· 21 Sept 2026

I just use white distlled vinegar 5% and never have to use water. Enough so I can stir it efficiently in a bucket or shake in a jar. Can use great equipment to stir rapidly every day for 1-2 weeks. Like a drill with a paint mixer attachment or a hand blender. Really helps. Honestly with all the complexities with preparations none is better for my needs than the simple vinegar extraction to Ammonia precipitate. Once I tried it I was pretty won over with the final product.

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calmridge84· 23 Sept 2026

Yeah, I think you have the right idea. Best to use an excess of vinegar to ensure you neutralize all the alkaloids. When you neutralize the excess acid with ammonia, ammonium acetate will be formed but after filtering out the precipitated alkaloids, quick water wash will get rid of the NH4COO. Theres no need to use heat at all with this method. I'm guessing its better to convert your isolated alkaloids back into salts to increase their shelf life (since salts are more stable than the free base form).

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