Pocket Percolator
The Pocket Percolator is another innovation you to can use to enjoy your
own small batch tinctures of medical herbs.
I've been making tinctures of various herbals from the Hobbit
House Forest Garden. As the Forest
of Fruit started to reach a mature canopy height I begin in earnest to fill
in the bush layer of the garden with high valued herbal material that promised
to do well here in the Colorado Front Range. So far I've used the
propagation greenhouse to start and grow out many perennials including:
Lady's Mantle
Black Peppermint
Bergamot Mint - great for your own instant "Earl Grey" tea!
Comfrey Root
Garlic Chives
Motherwort
Mugwort
Gravel Root
Valerian
Spearmint
etc
With the Pocket Percolator, you can do all your tinctures in one small
package. Capable of doing up to an ounce of your homegrown herbals ,
you'll have a device that can manage your tincture needs one tincture dropper
vial at a time.
Place your herbs in the percolator, saturate with alcohol overnight, open
the dripper control and Voila! pure a concentrate of the herbs drips out.
Then, using the Herbal Tinctures in Clinical Practice manual from Michael
Moore's Materia Medica papers, you can look up the ratios of alcohol to herb to
use for your formula. The rest of the alcohol is added in small doses and
the drip continues until the formula values are satisfied.
The basis of intent with the Percolation Method is that after a
saturation, the volatile oils and water soluble active ingredients are in
solution. With the initial drip evacuates the percolator herb chamber,
then more alcohol is added to dilute the remaining solubles. Once that
fresh charge of alcohol has passed, more is added on shot at a time until the
formula is satisfied. By this time ALL of the solubles have been rinsed
out of the herb and are now in the solution with the alcohol.
The Pocket Percolator can be made at home with:
- readily available plumbing fittings, 6" of L-Type (regular
copper pipe)
- a 1" piece of 1/4" copper tubing
- a 1/4" by 1/4" compression fitting style brass needle or
globe valve
- a 3/4" copper tubing plastic shipping end cap
- a recycled 4 oz tincture bottle & one Jagermiester bottle
lid. (or the lid from the dripper from the tincture bottle can be used,
you'll need some epoxy paste if you use it)
Tools you'll need include:
- standard copper plumbing & soldering gear...
solder torch, silver based solder, soldering flux, flaring tool,
sand-screen, tubing reamer, tubing cutter, 3/4" pipe fitting brush and
de-burring reamer
- an assortment of the right size drill bits (I use a Lenox step-drill),
- a tapered center punch,
- and a bench vise.
To assemble the device:
- for the herb chamber, cut a piece of 3/4 L-type copper pipe about
6" long, de-burr both ends and then using a 3/4" pipe fitting
brush and-screen it to a nice shine inside and out,
- to accept the needle valve, cut a 1" piece of tubing,
de-burr both ends and sand-screen it to fine shine,
- create a very small flare on one end of the tubing (you can omit
this step if you don't have the tools or what in heavens name what 'flaring' is
all about!)
- then drill a 7/32" hole in the middle of the end of a 3/4
copper cap and sand-screen in to a fine shine inside and out,
- sit the copper cap on the jaws of a bench vise open about 3/8"
of an inch and then, using the tapered center punch, gentle pound it into the
hole just enough to spread open the hole large enough to accept the 1/4"
piece of tubing,
- drop the short piece of flared tubing into the hole from the inside
of the cap
- the tube flare and the punch indent should mate well enough such that
the bottom inside of the cap and the tube are a flush fit (if not, you can use
the center punch on the top of the tube again to gently punch down the tube
for a better fit - you can also sand down the top of the flare to get a nice
flush fit.)
- now lightly clamp the cap into the vise with the open end pointed
up,
- drop the needle valve receiver (the short piece of 1/4" tubing) into
the hole in the cap, flare a the top,
- slide the herb chamber into the cap all the way and check your fit
and finish.
- if the fit and finish is good to go, disassemble and carefully brush
on some flux at the 1/4" tubing & hole joint, the 3/4" cap sides
and bottom and at the bottom of the 3/4" pipe,
- re-assemble and then carefully solder the pipe to the cap with the
needle valve receiver pointed down. Your may need to re-clamp the assembly
at the cap with some insulating wooden blocks if your torch is not beefy enough
to deal with the mass of the vise drawing all your heat away.
- keep adding solder until it flows down the cap sides and overflows
on the inside enough to flow over into the tubing joint - you'll see it appear
around the rim of the hole. If you use too much solder, it will flow down the
sides or down the middle of the tube... wipe off any bulky flows from the
outside of the tubing to make sure the needle valve can still be accepted later.
- spray a little water on the herb chamber and needle receiver assemble
you've just created to cool for handling,
- then clean the assembly with HOT soapy water and abrasive cleansers to bring
it to a clinical clean state,
- remove the nut and ferrule from both compression fitting ends of the
needle valve,
- slide a nut over the needle valve receiver, then a ferrule, then slide on
the needle valve all the way to a stop. Check to be sure the orientation
of the valve is correct - the tubing should be inserted in the end that the
valve stem and seat are NOT showing.
- vise the needle valve and tighten the nut down until very snug and the
ferrule is fully deformed to the tube for a good seal,
- now take the Jagermiester bottle cap and place it on the tincture
bottle... it must fit perfectly,
- using a step-drill or drill bits, drill a hole in the top of the cap JUST
big enough to allow you to screw the other end of the needle valve into the
cap... snug it down to a water tight and stable fit
- as an option, you can also glue the needle valve into the plastic cap
salvaged from the dropper of the tincture bottle, it wouldn't be as resilient as
screwing the valve into a metal cap, but if you do a good job with some epoxy
paste or some such full bodied adhesive, you should be good to go.
- carefully remove the assembly from the tincture bottle along with the
bottle cap ,
- blow out the drill shards, wash and clinically clean it up and you are
DONE!
All you need in materials for each batch is:
- the herb you've homegrown, bought or ethically wildcrafted
- a small cotton ball
- and a few ounces of pure alcohol or Vodka, depending on your
availability and/or the formula you use.
To make a batch:
- stuff a small cotton ball to the bottom of the herbal chamber... just
enough to act as a fine filter that will pass ONLY alcohol,
- chop or grind up your herb fine enough to get a dense and full pack into
the herbal chamber
- funnel in enough herb to fill the chamber to no more than halve full, 1/2
to 1 ounce depending on the herb
- make sure the needle valve is turned all the way off clockwise,
- fill the chamber with alcohol suitable for your formula
- put the shipping cap over the end of the chamber
- next day, 8-24 hours later, open the needle valve just enough to get one
drip every 5-10 seconds,
- when the alcohol charge has passed through in a few hours, add another
charge.
- graduate the tincture bottle with marks to determine the amount of
discharge,
- use your formula to determine when to quit charging the chamber.
- remove the assembly and clean,
- put a dropper back on the tincture bottle and AWAY YOU GO with your
first batch of herbal tincture.
Cost of Materials
It's hard to say, but a quick check around town (I had all the parts on
hand, didn't buy any of them), tells me that the plumbing parts would cost you
no more than $5. An hour or two latter and you can make yourself $8-$20
bottles of tincture for the cost of the alcohol at about $1/oz.
Have the Hobbit Make You One!
This handy unit has become a hit, and folks are wanting me to build them
one. I've been able to get them delivered to your home ready to go for
$35. Email
me for details.
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