Dual Extraction Turkey Tail Tincture

Level of Difficulty: Medium

Key Benefits of Turkey Tail mushrooms: Immunity Booster, Anti-inflammatory, Antioxidants

What you’ll need:

1.Time and Patience. This will take roughly 4-6 weeks to complete.

2.Turkey Tail mushrooms. If you are fortunate, you may be able to forage these in your region. If you are super into it, you could also cultivate your own. But the most practical thing to do is research and source a reputable place that sells them online or in-person. For this instructional you will need 85g of dried turkey tail.

3.Alcohol; either 75.5%(151 proof) or 95% alcohol (190 proof). Yes, you need that high of a proof otherwise you are unable to extract certain beneficial compounds. It will be diluted later though. Amount: 100mL.

4.1L water

5.Food Processor (or you can chop things manually too)

6.Slow Cooker (you can do things on a stovetop but be warned, you are simmering things for up to 12 hours )

7.Glass Jars

8.Strainer

This will happen in 4 parts…

Part 1 (Prep)

If you are lucky and in the Pacific Northwest area for example, you can gently harvest Turkey Tail from dead trees, fallen logs and hardwood stumps in the forest. Take care when doing so, they are pretty distinct when it comes to identification but you really don’t want to harvest the wrong mushroom because well - death.

Turkey Tail is called that because it looks like one. It’s fan shaped and velvety and has different coloured bands (reddish, greyish, brownish) running across it . The underside has tiny visible spores.

If you harvest them yourself, you will also need to clean them up a bit (use a toothbrush) and then wait for them to dry out - which takes about 2 days. They should be brittle and crumbly when they are ready and will have shrunk in size. If you buy them online/in-store they most likely will already be dried and you can go straight to Part 2.

Freshly harvested

All cleaned up

Dried and ready to go

Part 2 (The first extraction using alcohol)

For some plant matter you can extract all the beneficial properties with just one solvent (ie. alcohol or water). But some others, like Turkey Tail, you need to do what is called a ‘dual’ or ‘double extraction’ as some of its constituents can only be extracted with alcohol and others only with water.

The alcohol-soluble compounds:

Triterpenes: Immunomodulators

Sterols: Regulate cholesterol levels and support cardiovascular health

Lignin: Anti-oxidant and anti-inflammatory

Linoleic acid (Fatty acid): Anti-inflammatory

The water-soluble compounds:

Polysaccharides, such as beta-glucans: Boost the immune system, stimulate the release of immune protective proteins. They also have prebiotic effects, promoting a healthy gut microbiome

Antioxidants: Help combat oxidative stress and inflammation by neutralizing free radicals. Can protect cells from damage and support healthy aging

Fungal Melanin: Anti-oxidant and anti-aging properties, immunomodulator

Essential Amino Acids: Building blocks for proteins that support overall health

You could just do one or the other, but you would not get the full spectrum of medicinal properties. In this instructional, we will take the time to do both and create the most beneficial tincture we can.

What you need:

20g dried turkey tail mushrooms

100ml of your high-proof alcohol

Food Processor (or manual chopping)

Glass Jar

1.Measure out your alcohol and weigh your turkey tail.

2.Chop up your mushrooms manually or in the food processor. Don’t cut or grind them too finely, diced onion size is good.

3.If you are using a food processor, add your alcohol in at the same time, there will be more surface area for the alcohol to absorb. Transfer all to a glass jar.

If you are doing it manually, no big deal, after you have chopped up the turkey tail transfer to your jar and add your alcohol.

Shake this jar like you mean it, once a day, everyday, for the next 4-6 weeks. The longer you leave it in, the more time you allow the alcohol to extract all the compounds out. Sometimes we get antsy or need it sooner, but try to aim for 5 weeks if you can. You don’t need to go longer than 6 weeks though, we are only extracting from 20g not 200. At a certain point there is nothing more to extract.

After 4-6 weeks, strain your mixture and set the alcohol aside. Keep it in a labeled glass jar in a cool dark dry cupboard for the time being. Way to go! You have now prepared the first extraction of your dual tincture.

The lighter one on the right is the turkey tail extraction; the reddish one on the left is a red-belted polypore extraction we were making at the same time

Mushroom fever!

Part 3 (The second extraction using water)

What you need:

65g dried turkey tail mushrooms

1L water (some of this water will evaporate in the process, you’ll lose around 1 cup in total)

Slowcooker or Stovetop

Strainer

Jar

Put half/32.5g of your turkey tails and the litre of water in your slow cooker for 6-12 hours. Keep it on the lowest setting (this is why a slow cooker is more convenient than stovetop). This is called a ‘decoction’ - a funny way to say ‘liquid extract made by boiling plant matter in water to extract the active compounds’.

Once the time has elapsed, strain and set aside your decocted turkey tail water. If you need a break though, you can leave it overnight and strain it the next day.

After it’s been strained, take your remaining half 32.5g of dried turkey tail, and using the same decocted turkey tail water you made, put everything into the slow cooker for another 6-8 hours at the lowest setting. This technically will make your tincture a triple extraction, and far stronger in terms of compound concentration. You could put all 65g in the 1L and do it once - but like we said earlier - we are making the most beneficial tincture we can here.

Don’t worry, you are close to the finish line. Once that second decoction is done, strain it and set aside your twice decocted turkey tail water. (See notes below for optional ways to use the strained out mushrooms)

Strained - but not all spent, read Notes below if you want to max out their value

Part 4 (The Final Step - Making It A Dual Extraction)

What you need:

Your previously prepared turkey tail alcohol extraction

Your twice decocted turkey tail water

A glass jar large enough to hold both

1.Add your turkey tail alcohol extraction to your twice decocted turkey tail water. Let this mixture sit for 2-3 days.

2.Once it has settled for a few days, strain it.

3.Transfer to individual glass bottles (if you like) and label. Or keep it in a labeled glass jar in a cool dark dry cupboard.

Take 1-2ml twice a day for immunity boosts.

Notes

Normally, we would want this to have a final tincture strength of 20% at a 1:5 ratio, which is the most common. So there is a little math involved to calculate how much of everything you will need. When you are using herbs, you generally will dilute higher proof alcohols with water so as not to burn your matter, but because mushrooms and gums and resins are much tougher to break down and extract compounds from, it is not usually necessary.

Alcohol Extraction 1:5 (1g mushrooms to 5ml alcohol)

We want a 1:5 ratio strength. We have 100ml of alcohol. To calculate how much mushrooms you need:

Divide total liquid by ratio: 100/5=20g mushrooms required

Decoction Extraction (also 1:5)

1g mushroom = 5ml water

We have 65g mushrooms, to calculate how much water we need for 1:5:

Multiply the amount of mushrooms by the ratio: 65x5=325ml water

But in our case, because we did a triple extraction, decocting twice with more water, our final alcohol content will roughly be 10% strength and 1:13 ratio.

What to do with the strained turkey tails (optional)

Each time you strain, you can use the remaining mushrooms (called the ‘Marc’) in different ways. You could just compost them, or do the following:

Marc from Part 2: After the 4-6 weeks is up and you are straining the alcohol extraction, you can save those mushrooms, dry them, and make a separate water decoction from them. And then add that to the decoction in Part 3, increasing your concentration of water-soluble compounds.

Marc from Part 3: After you strain this water extraction, you can do the reverse and make an alcohol extraction with the remaining mushrooms. And then add that to the final mixture in Part 4, for an even more concentrated final product.

The information/content provided on this website is for informational or educational purposes only and is not a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment.