Help! Dehydrator disaster. Is my batch ruined.

[Paulhedges27]

Hi all,

Some advice please. I feel very sad right now that my batch is for the bin.

I foraged a huge amount and spent hours destemming and brushing off dirt of each cap, giving each one my love and attention.

I have the Excalibur 9 dehydrator, same as A.D. and many others of you in sure. I set it to the top temperature setting as I always do. I had each tray lined with caps. I've never had the dehydrator this full. My initial instinct was to dehydrate the Amanitas in two batches but thought well if I can fit them all in one go then that's fine and more efficient obviously.

I put them on last night, when I woke up this morning they were all super shriveled up and dried and dark brown mostly. They are near burnt to be honest. They've had about 15 hours only in the dehydrator. I usually give them 24 hours as per A.D. instructions. I'm reluctant now to let the dehydrator run anymore.

My thinking is that because the dehydrator was so full to capacity that the airflow was not as it should be so the temp was intensified possibly. Is my batch for the bin or do you think I should still save it and it may just be less potent.

I'm quite upset to be honest as it was a lot of work foraging and processing and I feel I've lost the batch and am dishonouring the mushrooms.

Should I have left the door off the dehydrator for the first few hours maybe or is it just not good to use at full capacity for the Amanitas. I always run exact same top temp setting for 24 hours and they come out perfect.

Thanks for any insights guys.

Paul

[Fungo]

I wouldn´t toss them away. Maybe you can elaborate a tincture or alcohol maceration for external use with those.

[Paulhedges27]

Thanks Fungo. I will crush them and do an alcohol extraction. I think they would be wasted for tea.

[sb_stefan]

Thanks Fungo. I will crush them and do an alcohol extraction. I think they would be wasted for tea.

How does an alcohol extraction work?