Reply To: Medicine Making | Internal Preparations
Hi Tannis,
I am so sorry that I seem to have missed this follow up question from you.
In the case of red clover, yes 190 proof/95% alcohol by volume is far too strong. You can easily ‘water’ this down to create a 35-50% alcohol by volume strength for the red clover. I use this range because using fresh flowers will add a bit of water to the tincture and you want to have a bit of buffer room to allow for that without diluting the end tincture to lower than 25% strength.
I would recommend picking the red clover and letting it sit to let the critters wonder away. No washing with water.
If you had 100G of fresh clover and you were looking to make a 1:4 that is about 25-30% end result with your alcohol strength. I’d say start with making a 40% or maybe even 50% with your 95% alcohol.
To create a 50% strength from your 95% alcohol that is 52% of the total volume of your mentruum as alcohol and 48% of your total volume of your menstruum as water. Water form you well is fine. The best would be filtered water or water from a local spring perhaps, but well water is what I use too.
So we have 100g (herb) x 4 = 400 mL total of menstuum
-52% of 400 mL = 208 mL of the 190 proof/95% alcohol and the rest is water so 192 mL water.
You would mix this up before adding it to your clover.
I hope that is helpful and not too confusing and overwhelming.
Happy medicine making!
Warmly,
Benna
So