Making your own instant
- Thread starter Edward
- Start date
So I got to the fish food flake stage as here...
and ran it through the coffee grinder and got this...
Which amounts to about 2 or 3 teaspoons of instant from 4 tablespoons of root. It's not as fine as all that because the quantity was too small for the coffee grinder. Also as it is very light flakes it seems to just sit in the grinder. I'm hoping that with larger quantities it will work better. Another issue that I had is that the residue really stuck to the plates. The bowls weren't too bad but the plates were a bit of a nightmare and I'm bound to have left some powder stuck to the them. The proper plastic sheets should be a lot better and if you can do 2 cups of liquid in each one and you can run 4 at a time then that will be a lot more efficient. It seemed to take a long time to dry this small batch, maybe up to 11 hours since I started today. That's a long time. I think the first couple of hours weren't hot enough so if it takes 9 hours to run a batch then I suppose that's manageable.
Tomorrow I'm going to mix up a 250g bag of Malekula Magic in as little water as I think I can get away with in the blender and use the bowls. Even if I have to fill them a bit fuller and wait longer for it to dry I think it will be easier. I will test it tomorrow night as well after I have run the bigger batch and I have more.
and ran it through the coffee grinder and got this...
Which amounts to about 2 or 3 teaspoons of instant from 4 tablespoons of root. It's not as fine as all that because the quantity was too small for the coffee grinder. Also as it is very light flakes it seems to just sit in the grinder. I'm hoping that with larger quantities it will work better. Another issue that I had is that the residue really stuck to the plates. The bowls weren't too bad but the plates were a bit of a nightmare and I'm bound to have left some powder stuck to the them. The proper plastic sheets should be a lot better and if you can do 2 cups of liquid in each one and you can run 4 at a time then that will be a lot more efficient. It seemed to take a long time to dry this small batch, maybe up to 11 hours since I started today. That's a long time. I think the first couple of hours weren't hot enough so if it takes 9 hours to run a batch then I suppose that's manageable.
Tomorrow I'm going to mix up a 250g bag of Malekula Magic in as little water as I think I can get away with in the blender and use the bowls. Even if I have to fill them a bit fuller and wait longer for it to dry I think it will be easier. I will test it tomorrow night as well after I have run the bigger batch and I have more.
wanderingwoodsmith
Kava Enthusiast
I had the issue of a small amount of it sticking to my fruit leather sheets also. I don't know any way to completely avoid this, without spraying some kind of oil on the sheets. That would probably be a no-no. On the particle size, it would probably be beneficial to fine grind it with mortar and pestle after running through a grinder. I need to pick up a large set sometime and try that. Cant wait to see your new experiment. I am taking notes as this thread grows! 
I'm wondering if the powder was completely dry or as the Kapm said the oils in it prevent it from ever getting completely dry which will just make it stick to the grinder. I'm guessing there's still some powder in the grinder because not much came out of the bottom, it just sort of sat in the top clogging up the grinder feed. I'll do the bigger batch today and we'll see what's what. I think I may have to grind something else through there to clean it, not coffee beans because that might flavour the kava but something bland that would grind ok and push through any kava powder stuck in there. Something like unsalted peanuts. Anyway it'll be ok for today as it's all Malekula Magic powder at the moment.
@Kapmcrunk I've just bought a ball mill. What size media do I need and how do you go about separating the powder from the media once your done?
I've just ordered a bag of 13mm ceramic balls to get me started. I just can't seem to find any steel ball milling media anywhere in the UK or the sites aren't stores, you've got to call them to order. I know the kava will stick to the ceramic a bit but that's something I'll have to put up with for now.
Going to get my next batch started in a minute, I'll keep you updated.
Going to get my next batch started in a minute, I'll keep you updated.
I've mixed up a super strong batch of kava. I put 250g of Malekula Magic in the blender with about a litre of water. The blender was really struggling and the mix was like soup, it was really thick. I'm a bit worried that it might not have been enough water to get all of the KL's out of the root. I had a nightmare straining it all, I just had to keep squeezing and squeezing and passed the whole lot through a clean strainer one more time to get a good amount liquid which is in the dehydrator now. I've put it on for 6 hours and I'll check it every couple of hours in case it needs rotating.
I've come to the conclusion that it's quite difficult to make a strong batch of kava with not much water AND get the best out of the root. To make a big batch of instant you would need to use a lot of water with your root and you can't use lots and lots of root. I think that's something we just have to live with. Doing it this way was messy, time consuming and possibly wasteful. I've thought about mixing up batches with the aluball and running it through a strainer, that could work ok but you're still left with the problem that you're going to need a good amount of liquid to get all the KL's out.
At the end of the day I think it will have to be something like about 1 cup of root to 2 or maybe 3 cups of water and then just leave it in the dehydrator for longer. It doesn't cost much to run so what's the big deal? This 9 tray dehydrator can fit quite a bit in so I'm sure a weekend kava making session could be made quite productive, worth it enough to do. We'll see.
I've come to the conclusion that it's quite difficult to make a strong batch of kava with not much water AND get the best out of the root. To make a big batch of instant you would need to use a lot of water with your root and you can't use lots and lots of root. I think that's something we just have to live with. Doing it this way was messy, time consuming and possibly wasteful. I've thought about mixing up batches with the aluball and running it through a strainer, that could work ok but you're still left with the problem that you're going to need a good amount of liquid to get all the KL's out.
At the end of the day I think it will have to be something like about 1 cup of root to 2 or maybe 3 cups of water and then just leave it in the dehydrator for longer. It doesn't cost much to run so what's the big deal? This 9 tray dehydrator can fit quite a bit in so I'm sure a weekend kava making session could be made quite productive, worth it enough to do. We'll see.
wanderingwoodsmith
Kava Enthusiast
wanderingwoodsmith
Kava Enthusiast
Some sugar might do the trick? Maybe even cocoa powder? But that would add sweetess and flavor.
Sam Handwich
Kava Enthusiast
When I made up my batch I made a pretty normal grog, 4 heaping tablespoons of kava to 28 oz. of water. I let this sit and settle for a few hours then siphoned half of the water off the top so that I would only need to dehydrate the thicker grog in the bottom. I thought the yield was really good, 22 g. from a normal batch is great and will probably last longer than that batch would have on its own.
wanderingwoodsmith
Kava Enthusiast
@Sam Handwich have you had any luck further grinding down your instant? I have a mortar and pestle ordered. That should do the trick, but I wont be doing large amounts at a time.
wanderingwoodsmith
Kava Enthusiast
http://www.ebay.com/itm/HIC-Porcela...245180?hash=item417041f5bc:g:Db4AAOSwYGFUrzwC
Theres the one I ordered, if anyone needs a cheap one to try it out.
Theres the one I ordered, if anyone needs a cheap one to try it out.
My yield from a whole bag of root is tiny. I haven't been letting it settle, don't know if that makes a difference? I think once the sheets arrive it might be better. I think I'll use the aluball to make up the mix and maybe strain it once to get some more particles out then let it sit before I start drying it.
Bwiggy
I like plants
When I made mine, I used my powerful food processor and added a bit of my preference of oil (walnut oil). I ran that guy at through at least three cycles, 1.5 - 3 minutes each cycle. I then filtered and worked it through a nut bag. I did three washes like this, each with a bit of oil.
The oil may help with extraction, and also makes it come loose from the drying pans super easy. I just peeled up the pieces, knocked some loose with a spoon, and put the remains in a baggy. The pieces broke up quickly, and they're not powdery or messy at all - kind of like little pieces of fruit leather.
I don't miss not having a grinder.
The oil may help with extraction, and also makes it come loose from the drying pans super easy. I just peeled up the pieces, knocked some loose with a spoon, and put the remains in a baggy. The pieces broke up quickly, and they're not powdery or messy at all - kind of like little pieces of fruit leather.
I don't miss not having a grinder.
I'm thinking though that this batch of instant may not look much but could well be extremely strong due to the amount of root I used. When you think about it how much of the residual powder is actually KL's? I'm guessing not much. I'm at fish food stage at the moment and I'm going to wait for the ball mill to turn up, get it nice and fine and then try 1 teaspoon and see how I go. If it's not that strong I'll go up to 2. Who knows, this could be a half teaspoon batch ;-)
@Bwiggy that's an interesting idea with the oil. It probably does help get more of the KL's out of the root and if it makes it easier to get the dry powder away from the vessel that's got to be good. Still waiting for the plastic/Teflon/whatever sheets to come.
Overall this weekend there has been plenty of trial and plenty of error. I think as time goes on this will get easier. I'm still pretty surprised at the low amount of powder I'm left with from 250g of root though. Hopefully I'm right and it's a KL wonderland, 1/2 a teaspoon knocks your head off
@Bwiggy that's an interesting idea with the oil. It probably does help get more of the KL's out of the root and if it makes it easier to get the dry powder away from the vessel that's got to be good. Still waiting for the plastic/Teflon/whatever sheets to come.
Overall this weekend there has been plenty of trial and plenty of error. I think as time goes on this will get easier. I'm still pretty surprised at the low amount of powder I'm left with from 250g of root though. Hopefully I'm right and it's a KL wonderland, 1/2 a teaspoon knocks your head off
wanderingwoodsmith
Kava Enthusiast
That sure is a beautiful pile of flakes. 