The intention behind mushroom double extracts is to create a full-spectrum, shelf-stable, effective extract and also preserve one of the most active constituents in medicinal mushrooms, Beta glucans, which are a water soluble polysaccharide. If you see a mushroom tincture for sale that doesn’t follow this extraction process I would avoid it as it’s missing much of the medicine.

For this batch I used dried Lion’s Mane from Forest Mushrooms. And another source that’s wonderful and local to western Massachusetts is Mycoterra.

Step 1: Tincture the mushrooms at 1:4 (dried) or 1:2 (fresh) in 95% alcohol. You an use the weight: volume method of making tinctures or choose to use the folk method for making tinctures.

Step 2: Steep 4 weeks, shaking often if possible, strain and reserve the marc (the strained mushrooms).

Step 3:  Make a 1: 5 decoction of the marc, meaning use 1 part mushroom: 5 parts of water, by volume (for example if you have 1 cup of the marc, simmer in 5 cups of water)

Step 4: Make a double decoction by cooking the water down to ½ of its original volume, slowly simmering on low heat. Ideally this should take hours and at minimum at least ½ hour.

Step 5: Combine the decoction and tincture using 30% of the tincture and 70% of the decoction so you have a final extract that is about 30% alcohol, which will make the extract shelf stable! If you have extra decoction you can freeze it for future use and if you have extra tincture you can save it for a future batch.

To arrive at these numbers:

To get your 70:30 ratio, divide the strained-out decoction by .70. This will give you the total number of cups for your finished double extract. Then subtract the number of cups of decoction you have from that total, which will tell you how many cups of alcohol to add.

Here’s an example:

1.      Strain out your decoction. For this example, let’s say you have 5 cups of your decoction.

2.     Divide that number by .70 to get your total number of cups you’ll have of your finished product

Example: 5 divided by .70= 7.14 cups finished double extract

3.     Subtract the amount of decoction you have from this total amount of finished product you’ll have. This result is the amount of tincture needed to complete your double extract

Example: 7.14 cups finished double extract- 5 cups decoction= 2.14 cups tincture needed to complete the double extract

4.     Add the tincture to the decoction to complete the double extract. Your final product will be approximately 30% alcohol, which will make it shelf-stable

Example: Combine 5 cups of the decoction + 2.14 cups tincture to yield a final amount of 7.14 cups double extract

Step 6: Bottle, store, and use as-needed! Dosage for most medicinal mushrooms is between 2-4 ml/day, which is approximately 1/2-1 tsp/day