Chương 174: Chapter 169 (hehe) - Potash

Alric returned to the cellar and looked down at the experiments from the previous day. The plain water sample had split up. Oil floated on top, the liquid underneath looked clearer, and the crushed Wickleaf had sunk into a green-brown stripe at the bottom. The alkaline sample tried to do the same thing, but managed to do it with far more murk. He set his notebook on the worktable but did not open it. He started by sensing the mana in the lye sample.

The mana had weakened a bit, but he could still feel it there, sense it. The mana responded faintly. He pulled his hand back and looked down at the sample.

"Of course you stayed," Alric said, rubbing his thumb against the side of his finger. The lye hadn't destroyed the mana-holder. Whatever the alkaline treatment did, the Wickleaf could still absorb or take in mana once he got pushed past the resistance, and it could hold onto some overnight. Good to know, but also annoying. It just made the problem more stubborn. He opened his notebook and wrote under yesterday's entry. Mana remains after resting overnight in the lye solution. It's weaker, but still present.

Strong alkali does not destroy holder. He read the line twice before putting the charcoal down. The problem had been following him since he woke up. He'd thought about it while eating, crossing the courtyard, and again while pretending to listen to Seren talk to a maid about where the winter firewood should be stacked. The Wickleaf problem reminded him of programming issues from his old world. Errors were often simple: they made noise, things failed, and you got an error code as a clue.

The worst problems were the ones that gave the right answer for the wrong reason. Everything looked fine until something else changed, and then the whole thing fell apart because some result had depended on luck. He'd lost sleep over those before. He moved the alkaline bowl to the far side of the table and slid its label beneath it. He would leave it intact. The ordinary water sample was next. Alric took a shallow spoon and began skimming the oil from the surface.

The glass was one of Margaret's dark green ones, which made it harder to see what was inside. He'd borrowed enough of them that returning one now would just remind her the rest were missing. A clean cloth went over another pot. Alric poured the remaining Wickleaf mixture through slowly. The liquid passed through pale green-brown. Wet plant matter gathered in the cloth. Lifting the cloth he twisted it slightly, then stopped before squeezing too hard. He looked at the wet Wickleaf caught in the cloth.

He had no way to tell how much the first water had pulled out. The plant still smelled strong. He untwisted the cloth, scraped the Wickleaf into a clean pot, added fresh distilled water, stirred it under, and slid a label underneath. Second water extraction. Previously soaked Wickleaf. If the water changes color, it's either saturated or the Wickleaf just needs more time. That's a problem for later. He moved the pot beside the alkaline sample and returned to the water sample from the day before.

There was much more Wickleaf than the last time he distilled it, and more liquid too. He grinned as he poured the filtered Wickleaf liquid into the boiler. A clean pot went beneath the end of the condenser. He checked the seals with his fingers and placed a heating stone beneath the boiler. Alric waited until the copper started to warm and checked around the lid again. Nothing leaked. No steam escaped from the join, though the liquid wasn't hot enough yet to really test that.

He wanted the menthol and citrus liquid that came through the still. He also wanted whatever powder was left behind. Last time he'd only gotten a scraping. This time he'd used a lot more Wickleaf, and if the mana-holder stayed in the boiler again, there should be enough to study without having to split something that barely covered a fingertip. Alric gave the still one last look before turning toward the lye maker. More lye had collected beneath the ash overnight. He added it to the lye that didn't have Wickleaf.

The combined lye was in a wide ceramic pot. Alric placed it in a cleared area of the cellar and set another heating stone beneath it. Alric looked at the still. The copper had started making the faint sounds it always made while heating. Small clicks moved through the lid and arm as the parts expanded. A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation. He returned to the lye. Steam rose. The first part of the work turned into routine. Stir the lye.

Check the still. Add cooler water around the condenser. Check the Wickleaf soaking in its second water. Go back to the lye and stir again. The first drop from the still struck the receiving pot while Alric was bent over his notes. He looked up, waited, and heard another. The flow was slow but steady enough. The lye had started bubbling. It wasn't boiling hard, but small bubbles gathered around the sides and moved inward. A faint gray line appeared as the levels dropped.

Alric stirred and watched the line disappear under the moving liquid. Time dragged on. As the lye pot reduced, it needed more attention. The bubbling got sharper, and the surface started breaking unevenly. A small drop splashed over the edge and hit the stone floor. Alric stepped back. Another drop struck the side of the pot. He went to grab a longer stick. The new stick was, in fact, a fire poker. Alric had cleaned it before bringing it into the cellar. He stirred slowly and awkwardly.

By the time most of the liquid was gone, the contents no longer behaved like water. A thick grey paste was left in the middle. Around it, the material had dried against the ceramic into flaky crusts. Black flecks were scattered through both, small enough to have passed through the cloth with the ash. Alric stirred once more. The end of the poker dragged across the bottom rather than moving freely. Far enough. He removed the heating stone using the metal tongs and pushed it away from the pot.

The grey material continued bubbling in two places before slowly becoming still. Alric set fresh distilled water over another heating stone. While it warmed, he began scraping the inside of the lye pot. The dry material broke away in brittle pieces. Some curled as they came loose, while other sections powdered beneath the edge of the wooden scraper. The center remained damp and sticky. This was closer to the potash he'd read about. It wasn't pure potassium carbonate, not even close.

He wanted to dissolve it while it was still warm. Potash attracts moisture. He remembered that, though he couldn't say how fast it happened or if it mattered in a cool cellar. Waiting would not improve it. Alric broke the larger flakes apart with the end of the scraper. The residue turned into an uneven mix of grey powder, brittle pieces, and paste, all with small black fragments.

Carefully, he took the concentrated lye mixture, added hot water, and skimmed any charcoal or black clumps off the surface with a piece of folded cloth. The cloth darkened as it soaked up the floating charcoal and some of the liquid beneath it. He turned to a clean section and did it again. It was slow work. If he dabbed too hard, the fragments sank below the surface, drifted off, and came back somewhere else. After several pieces of cloth, most of the floating black material was gone.

He poured the liquid through fresh cloth, stopping before the grey sediment at the bottom reached the edge. What came through was clearer, though still faintly grey. He kept filtering and dabbing. Eventually, Alric got what he wanted: a clear liquid in a ceramic bowl. He slid a label beneath it. Cleanish potash. Strength unknown. The still had slowed while he worked. Drops still fell into the receiving pot, but enough time passed between them that Alric removed the heating stone and let the boiler cool.

Once the still was cool enough, Alric opened it. He scraped the pale mana residue into one container and placed the wet green Wickleaf remains into another. Both joined the growing collection on the table. He had the distillate with the flavors he wanted, the pale residue that seemed to do something with mana, and a pile of different Wickleaf samples. He let out a slow breath as he considered the many Wickleaf samples.

Fresh Wickleaf had turned into dried Wickleaf, crushed Wickleaf, water-soaked Wickleaf, lye-soaked Wickleaf, distilled Wickleaf, and Wickleaf that had already been soaked once and was now soaking again. Plants got complicated when you refused to throw them out. He labeled the two new containers and started cleaning out the still. If anything came out citrusy, he wouldn't know if it was from cleaning or if something else had gone very wrong. For now, at least, he had something to be pleased about.

Alric tasted a small amount of the distillate. The menthol spread quickly across his tongue, refreshing right away and even more so on a hot day. He swallowed, and the citrus peel flavor followed. Both were much stronger than in his first attempt.

"Hmmm…" he said, smacking his lips. He grinned as he reached for the strong alcohol. He mixed a small amount with the distillate, then added mineral water until the alcohol no longer felt like something meant for cleaning wounds. The flavor held up easily; cooling, bright, and sharp enough to come through the spirit. It still wasn't gin. The Wickleaf gave him an aroma, something to round things out, a background flavor, but not the dry bitterness that held gin together.

He needed juniper, or something close enough to fake it. Alric took another sip. Not gin yet, but close enough that he could finally taste what it might become. The next experiment used fermenting beer. Alric cleaned out the thumper, took a deep breath, and poured in the clear lye solution, slowly and carefully. The goal was to make the CO2 gas from the fermenting beer pass through the liquid. Alric brought over the cask of lager he was sacrificing for this and poured it into the still's main pot.

The liquid foamed up fast and he pushed the lid back into place. It felt wrong to use the still for this. He checked the lid, tightened the seal, and connected the arm to the thumper. Alric crouched beside the thumper and watched one bubble force its way through the cloudy liquid. It rose slowly, wobbling from side to side before breaking at the surface. He waited for the next one. The pause felt longer than it probably was.

Alric glanced at the still pot, half expecting the beer to have stopped fermenting just because he needed it. Another bubble appeared before he could stand. Alric smiled. The system was working. The smile faded quickly. He knew there was potassium in the lye and carbon dioxide coming off the beer. Whether this would amount to anything, though, he wasn't sure. The setup now filled most of one corner of the cellar. The still held beer he wasn't distilling. Another pot heated water he didn't need.

The beer made gas for lye he hoped might be safe enough to use near a drink someday. Alric stepped back to look it over. Some processes made less sense once you actually put them together. Another bubble rose through the potash. He opened his notebook. The beginning was easy to record. Fermenting beer in sealed still. Gas directed through cleanish potash solution. He paused after that. Anything more would require numbers, and he had none of those.

He didn't know the strength of the potash, how much gas each bubble carried, or how many bubbles would be enough. Not even close.