Well, I finally got a hold of some 160 proof vodka and gave the ethanol extraction a shot. Had my best trip so far. Some details...
Why 160 proof? Because anything stronger would be illegal to obtain without a special permit. What a joke.
Anyway, I ground up 4 grams of Cubensis. By hand since I still don't have a mortar & pestle or a coffee grinder (I'm going to be getting some lab filtration equipment and a proper grinder down the road but for now sandwich bags, drinking glasses and coffee filters will have to do).
I emptied the coarse powder into a small glass 'slurry vessel' as PF called it. First I just covered the powder with my 80% vodka, but soon found myself adding more because the powder had swollen. About 2x the amount of powder is what I'd recommend.
I combined two instructions as I often do to try and make sure I will get the best possible results. The first instructions I followed are a credit to a dude called Willy Myco.
As per his instructions, I left the shrooms to soak (in the dark!). Not for 24 hours, mind you. Ain't nobody got time for that.
A little more than 12 hours later I filtered the vodka out into a drinking glass, moved it in the darkness to evaporate while I work on the Fanaticus part of my project.
In this next step I took the mushroom matter, moved it all back into the original slurry vessel, covered it with vodka once more and this time used a double boiler method (cloth in a pot of simmering/boiling water and the vessel on top of it, halfway submerged. I put a lid on the vessel to prevent unnecessary evaporation. Soon the ethanol started to boil inside. Again, being the impatient hustler that I am, I cut the intended boiling time to about 45 minutes, after which I combined the extracts while the other one was still hot (as PF specifically said to do).
Then, I ran the combined pulls through a double layer of coffee filter once more to get a clearer product. Ended up with a nice, golden liquid with a pungent mushroom smell. Too pungent. I didn't want to drink it because I dislike both the taste of alcohol and the taste of the dried shrooms. I figured I should reduce it in the double boiler and put it in capsules.
At this point (too early!) I decided I wanted to dye the extract red. Added some food coloring (carmine) which made it look very cool indeed.
After having the extract nearly boil for a few hours I was left with a few measly milliliters of liquid which I loaded in three 500 mg capsules. Perfect fit. There was a lot of red precipitate on the sides of the boiling vessel which got me a bit worried that it might be psilocybin or even psilocin. I tried to scrape it with my scalpel but it was kinda futile, so I put what little I managed to scrape off in a fourth, 250 mg sized capsule and went to wash the vessel. The residue felt greasy and had very poor solubility in either water or vodka so I figured all might not be lost since psilocybin should be reasonably soluble in both. Had I not added the food coloring so early on I might've probably gotten some more conclusive results but I figured what's done is done. I encapsulated the vodka that caught some of the residue just in case.
I was all set with three big capsules and one small capsule. They looked really neat. I was about to take some pictures but I noticed that the little shits were starting to turn into jello so I ate them and chased them down with some vaporized fresh Berry Ryder bud.
30 minutes passed. Nothing. I thought alright, maybe it's because my stomach is still kind of full. I would wait patiently.
One hour. Still nothing. I must've fucked up.
Some one and a half hours later I finally started to feel mild effects. The onset was the most comfortable one I've ever had, it felt like being gently lowered into a warm bath where normally I'd get a bit anxious and somewhat sick to my stomach. I realized how much I had missed mushrooms.
From that point on, the effects got stronger for probably over an hour or even more. It was perfection. Comedown was equally slow and smooth which also felt perfect. Normally the comedown is a lot faster and thus quite sad because it feels like everything good just unexpectedly starts slipping through my fingers. I had plenty of time to enjoy the trip this time.
Not only was this the most enjoyable trip I've experienced so far, it was by far the most profound. I feel like this time something clicked. In a good way. I'm glad I chose to make the pills red.
Despite a lot of fucking up during the extractions (particularly all the mess with the coffee filters) the potency was there and I couldn't be more happy. I'd say I managed at least 75% efficiency if compared to eating 4 grams of dry shrooms.
TL;DR Mushroom booze capsules. Worth every bit of effort and then some.
My best guess is old spores and not enough honey.
