I’m my own client. So, 1:5 for most stuff.

Though I’m thinking about getting a different herbalist because whenever I’m sick, my herbalist just wants to lay around and feel sorry for himself instead of getting up and getting me some herbs. It’s hard to get good help.

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Stacy Mackey, Sharon, Rachel Redekopp, Annabelle Konyu, Sydnia Ginger Anady

Sounds like you do need a new herbalist Doc – but good luck on finding such a personable one!!

I have a request that I think many of us would really love.  Would you consider making a list of the various herbs and what ratio is “normal” or possible?  That way we’d know at a quick check that the tincture we’re about to make will not, or will work in the 1:5 ratio.  Hops as an example – had I known how thirsty it was before I started, I could have saved myself some mess and hassle by using a bigger jar and just planning on using more hooch.  It would be a wonderfully helpful thing I believe!  🙂

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Helen Pirtle, Marian Knudsen, Heather Campbell, Charlotte Chumlea, JENNIFER COATS

After making some tinctures, I clearly see the benefit of using ground herbs, it really levels the playing field for those absorbent leaves, though thirsty is still thirsty.  And if the vodka soaks to the middle of a chunk of root, I can’t press that out.  I have a much better chance at pressing it out of ground matter.

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Sydnia Ginger Anady

Karen wrote:

So, I am currently trying to tincture some hops. I processed them so they were fine, and used the 1:5 ratio and it ended up making a thick paste. So I added a bit more vodka so I could shake the jar.  It drank that up too. What do I do? How much vodka can I add? Do I then need to extend the time to tincture?

I’ve run into that problem too. I’ve measured out the next increment of alcohol and then slowly added that, then I label it “1:6”. However, there are times even that seems too thick.

Karen, re-watch the video for lesson 4, about 9 or 11 minutes into it he talks about some herbs just being thirstier than other ones, and so its okay to do a 1-to-6 ratio or a 1-to-7 ratio. He says we want our ground-up herbs to be moving in the alcohol, we don’t want a thick paste.

I think the confusion is stemming from the PDF for all the medicine-making lessons doesn’t have that particular info. So we need to be sure to always watch the video to add any additional info we think we might need.

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Helen Pirtle, Nina Osterhout, Stacy Mackey, Dr. Patrick Jones

Is it safe to assume that IF an herb will play nice with a 1:4 ratio (my Cold Away specifically this time) that it would be even better since it would be a bit stronger?

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Lisa Bateman

Sounds like a really dumb question, but does the ratio refer to weight or to volume.

Weight.  I put the empty jar on a scale, tare it to zero, add herbs, let’s say 100g, tare it to zero, that add 5x that or 500g of vodka.

• This reply was modified 1 year, 5 months ago by Lisa Bateman.

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Susan Bryg