In this article, we’ll be giving step by step into how to make herbal tinctures at home. Specifically for this walkthrough, I’ll be showing you how to make what I affectionately call “ginseng whiskey.”
Making herbal tinctures typically involve using alcohol extracts of some type of plant material. The alcohol is used as a solvent that draws out the properties and chemistry of the plant material, notably alkaloids, terpenes, sterols, essential oils and more. Other solvents can be used, such as vinegar, glycerine, honey, etc., but more often alcohol is used for tinctures because it’s easy, inexpensive and it works very well. Furthermore, the alcohol acts as a preservative, so tinctures keep a long time. And tinctures allow the herbal components to be delivered straight to your blood stream, bypassing digestion, and thus typically delivering greater benefits with less.
They’re easy to take and travel with. (I get asked this many times, but I’ve never even had troubles getting through airport security, even with a bunch of tinctures on me.)
You can go far in your herbal tincture making skills, but what is covered here is a relatively simple format, along with a few tips for going more advanced. Here’s an outline of what is covered:
Step 1 – Procure Herbs and Tincture Supplies
Recently, we acquired some high quality American ginseng roots. (Sorry, these are not for sale, though there is a possibility we could have them available for VIP customers in the future.)
It is important that you start with fresh or dry herbs. You do not want to create a tincture from a finished extract, like most of our herbs at Lost Empire are. This is because you will be losing out on some of the benefits if you do so. If it’s a water extract, it will have pulled out the water soluble components, leaving the alcohol soluble components behind. Even if it’s a dual extract already, you will lose potency by making a tincture off of an already extracted herb. Good choices from what we do have available are:
(You could do Maca, but in my opinion, maca is not worth tincturing. Some herbs are best used in one fashion or another.)
Instead, fresh or dry herbs can be wildcrafted, bought at many health food stores, or purchased elsewhere online.
In addition to the herbs, you also need a few simple pieces of equipment to make your own tinctures.
- Mason jar with lids, or something similar
- Alcohol
- Cheesecloth or paint strainers
- Funnel
- Tincture bottles
- Labels
I’ll describe details about these largely as we get to the relevant steps. But right now let’s talk about the importance of alcohol selection in making herbal tinctures.
Selecting the Right Alcohol for Your Herbal Tincture
How strong should you alcohol be? In general, with fresh herbs, you want a higher proof alcohol. That is because fresh herbs have a water content that is going to be drawn out, so you’ll end up with something lower proof.
In the end, you want something that is at least 30% alcohol, or 60 proof. That is generally considered the amount that is necessary to preserve something. Lower than this and your tinctures might spoil.
As for the best proof or percentage, it depends on the herb you’re using. Some are better with something higher. Some with something lower. In this case, an actual chemical analysis would be needed to find out the ideal. The good news is you don’t need to have anything exact. Anything 60 proof up to 190 proof will work.
In general, clear alcohols, most notably vodka is used. Brandy is another alcohol that has often been used for making herbal tinctures over the years.
Never use isopropyl alcohol! Anything besides ethyl alcohol, which is what is in all drinking alcohols, should not be consumed
For something more potent you can use close to pure alcohol like everclear. If you’re using pure alcohol, it is important to note that the alcohol is too overpowering on the taste buds so it must be watered down in some fashion. If you want the really excellent pure stuff, you can order from a place like https://organicalcohol.com/
That being said, you can use all kinds of alcohols. I used a top shelf Scotch whiskey, Johnnie Walker Blue Label, to make my Ginseng whiskey. Why? Because whiskey and ginseng go together well of course. :)
Step 2 – Grind Herbs to Expose More Surface Area
When you’re working with a solvent such as alcohol for tinctures, the alcohol is interacting with the herbs and drawing out the things inside. Therefore, the more area you can have where these interactions can take place, the more it will happen. For this reason, you want to expose more of the surface area of your herbs.
Depending on the herb you may not need to do much work here. Pine pollen is already very granular, so mission accomplished, though it makes Step 5 much tougher. For things like roots and mushrooms, this step is crucial.
In working with the ginseng, I put all the roots in my Vitamix blender. The roots were completely dry, so it was more like wood than a fresh root. If you’re working with fresh material, you can often use a pair of scissors or just a knife to cut it up. I did not include this in the list of supplies because it depends on what herb you’re working with.
You can see the Vitamix completely powdered most of it while leaving some smaller and bigger chunks. I felt this was good enough to move forward.
Herbal Tincture Technical Terms
There are three terms that are likely to come up when you’re talking about making herbal tinctures. All three start with the letter “m.”
The term for the solvent used, in this case, alcohol, is menstruum.
The term for the herbs, the solid material used in a tincture is the marc.
The term for the combination of the menstruum and the marc is a maceration.
Step 3 – Add Alcohol
Take the powdered herbs and put it into the mason jar, or another vessel that you’re using to make the herbal tincture. Mason jars are ideal because of the wide lid, plus they’re generally easy to find and cheap. It is important that you have a lid that seals well.
Once the herb is in there, you add your alcohol.
With the ginseng, I had a bottle of Johnnie Walker Blue Label that I had been gifted on my birthday. Some might think this is a waste of good scotch to make a tincture. My opinion is I want to use the best quality alcohol with the best quality herbs. Good ginseng deserves a good scotch.
Tincture Ratios
A word as to ratio for your tinctures. A ratio is used to tell you the weight of the marc, to the volume of the menstruum. Thus an ounce (weight) of marc, to one ounce (volume) of alcohol would be a 1:1 ratio. An ounce of marc to five ounces of alcohol is a 1:5 ratio.
But don’t worry. When you’re starting out you do not need to be exact with the ratios. Here are two rules of thumb to use:
- Pour in enough alcohol to cover the herbs plus about two fingers widths on top of that.
- Pour in enough alcohol to cover the herbs and double that. For example, if your herbs come up to the halfway line of your jar, then fill the jar with alcohol.
Anywhere between these two measures will be okay. Obviously, with less alcohol, you’ll have a bit stronger of a tincture. With more alcohol, it will be weaker, but you’ll have more tincture. If you on on the lower side, make sure you check your tincture and add more alcohol if needed because the plant material, especially if dried, may absorb the alcohol, leaving some parts uncovered. Uncovered plant material can lead to unwanted mold.
My powdered ginseng filled between 1/3rd to 1/2 the jar, then I filled it with alcohol. Had I not ground the ginseng, I couldn’t have even fit all those roots in there! Still, with this ginseng whiskey, I more than doubled the volume, but I never weighed the material. Still, it would likely end in that 1:1 or 1:2 range, had I done that.
A more technical way to do it (and the way our Pine Pollen 1:1 tinctures are measured) is one gram of herb to one milliliter of alcohol (1g/1mL). That means there are 60 grams of pine pollen per 2 fluid ounces, or 60 mL, which is what is in each bottle. That’s potent stuff! The thing is you can’t do this easily at home, without more equipment.
Step 4 – Let Maceration Sit, with Frequent Shaking
Now you’re going to let the tincture maceration sit for at least two weeks. But you’re not just letting it sit. At least once a day you want to shake the jar vigorously. Feel free to do it more often than this. Shaking the jar gets more action going on, as things may settle, and thus will yield a better herbal tincture in the end. That is also why it’s important that the lid is tightly sealed!
It is a good idea to label your jar with what kind of tincture it is and the starting date. I promise you, if you make more than one tincture at any one time you may forget what is what. Other information like alcohol type and the ratio can also be written on the label. You can see the label used in the picture at the top of this article.
If you want to get more esoteric and traditional, tinctures would be started on a new moon and then finished on the full moon. If you want to get even more esoteric or alchemical then that, you need to know which planet rules the plant, and then work with days of the week and certain times that reflect that energy more so.
Step 5 – Separate Marc
Once those two weeks are up (and there is no harm in going longer and can be a good thing), its time to separate the alcohol from the herbs, or the menstruum from the marc.
Take the lid off your jar and grab a measuring cup or another vessel. Put the cheesecloth over a funnel between vessels and pour. Or if you’re using a paint strainer it’s already funnel shaped. With larger pieces in your marc, it can be effortless. But depending on how powdered your marc is, this can be a complicated process, which requires going back and forth, and often leaving things to strain for some time. Anything powdered essentially turns to mud, and thus can be quite difficult to work with.
Squeeze the cloth until the marc is as dry as you can get it. If you’re using something that absorbs the alcohol, you can also blend this up, then squeeze more. That will allow you to extract even more. Good hand strength comes in handy!
I prefer working with paint strainers, though it is important to note that with too much squeezing the mesh can come off the paper. It might take a few paint strainers to handle one tincture pressing. Also, as you can see the paper in the paint strainer is going to absorb some of the alcohol.
For more advanced operations you can get a tincture press, which helps you to press out more of the liquid mechanically.
However you do it, repeat as much as needed until you have a filtered fluid.
Optional Spagryic Steps
Typically, the marc is then discarded. However, more advanced steps can be undertaken with it…
In spagyric work, which is the term for alchemical processes used with herbs, you’ll use the marc by calcining, meaning burning it and grinding it, until it yields a fine white powder. That is then added to water to separate the soluble and insoluble minerals. The soluble minerals are then evaporated until crystals result. Finally, these crystals are added back to the tincture. That puts the mineral matrix, or “salt or body,” back into the tincture making it more robust and more holistic.
It’s a lot more work requiring a few more bits of equipment like crucibles and strong fire sources! Perhaps in the future we can cover those steps in more detail.
This spagyric process is how our Ashwagandha and Nettle Root Tinctures are prepared.
Step 6 – Herbal Tincture Bottling and Enjoy
From your filtered liquid, use a funnel to pour your tincture into one or more tincture bottles. The measuring cup, with it’s shaped mouth, helps to make this easier too.
It is best to use amber bottles, or other types of dark glass like miron or cobalt because these will further protect the tincture from light. Once again, you’ll want to label your tincture bottles, so you remember what is in them. Here a date, or other information, can be used but it’s up to you.
Depending on the herbs used and the strength of your extract your dosage can range from a drop to tablespoons. Please experiment responsibly.
The final step is to enjoy your new herbal tinctures. (This article was finished under the influence of ginseng whiskey.)
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Josh says
This is great information and very enthusiastic and trying this but as an alcoholic I’m afraid my tincture making life will never start, is there a way to extract with alcohol and not get the alcohol, probably a dumb ? But would like to try. Thanks for the article
Logan Christopher says
Although they don’t pull things out quite as good as alcohol this can be done with vinegar (making an acetract) or glycerine (making a glycerite).
kim kenney says
I’d like to make a Shilajit tincture, can i do it this way?
Logan Christopher says
Shilajit doesn’t tincture very well as it’s more of a mineral than an herb. It would draw out some things but not most.
Korrin Schriver says
Hi Logan, I have been able to successfully grow some cordyceps militarus…
I have never made a tinture before and would like to know if I should use my dried, powdered, cordyceps to make a hot water extraction, an alcohol tincture, or a dual extraction tincture with both alcohol and hot water…? Is a dual extraction preferable with cordyceps? And which method would bring out the athletic benefits the best?
Lastly, if you could, if a dual extraction is preferable, which part to do first, the hot water or the alcohol?
Thank you so much for helping this DIY novice grower!?
Logan Christopher says
Dual extraction is preferred with all the medicinal mushrooms, Cordyceps included. Typically you’ll do the alcohol part first, then hot water after.
Theodore Victor says
can i use your Pine Powder to make a tincture ?
Logan Christopher says
Absolutely!
Sydney says
Just how long can you let your tincture extract?
Logan Christopher says
There’s no upper end to how long the maceration can go.
Aty says
Can I make tongkat Ali tincture using the same method ie. Soak tongkat Ali chips in alcohol for 1 month?
Zane Christopher says
Yes, Aty, you can, but as the root is used, a stronger alcohol is usually suggested to penetrate the tougher fibers. Alternatively, you could use a normal alcohol and just let it sit for double or triple the time.
Mary says
I have the reshi powder, it’s really tough to get down in my coffee. I was going to team shred that I noticed another response you said it’s already been extracted, so I should just take this and water also.
Logan Christopher says
Yep, that’s bitter stuff. Coffee is fine to take it with but it may be easier to just do it with water.
Kim Moeller says
do you have a formula for making a tincture of He Shou Wu
Zane Christopher says
Hi, Kim, a really simple recipe would be filling up a mason jar with processed He Shou Wu chips if you can get them at a local herb or health food store or find online. Then use a 40 proof alcohol or preferably something higher as it is a root (harder to pull stuff out so the higher proof will work faster) and fill it up with the alcohol. I would suggest a month at least for roots but the longer the better. The end result will be very strong so you can either add some water to the initial batch, a half to a quarter of the jar, or you can add water to your finished alcohol extraction to make it more palatable. Find what you like best as you or those you give it to will be more likely to finish the bottle!
Kim Moeller says
Could I use the He Shou Wu powder you sell?
Logan Christopher says
It’s already extracted so it would not be ideal.
Randy says
Would it make sense to use water after the alcohol to extract more nutrients, then mix them together?
Logan Christopher says
Were certain things yes you would then do a decoction and could add them together. That’s often what I do with mushrooms.
Raghu says
What’s dis herbs uses for erection disfunction for men
Zane Christopher says
Especially connected with this article, pine pollen is a excellent one for many people. You could also try stuff like Tongkat Ali, Cistanche, Tribulus, Shilajit, Maca, Horny Goat Weed and the list goes on..