Fill a clean, empty mason jar 3/4 full of fresh turkey tail mushrooms or 1/2 full of dried turkey tail mushrooms.

Cover the fresh or dried turkey tail mushrooms with alcohol, making sure the contents of the jar are completely covered.

Screw the lid on tightly and gently shake the contents of the jar. Place in a cool, dry location away from light, allowing the extraction to occur over the next month to 6 weeks.

Give the contents of the jar a gentle shake every couple of days.

Keep an eye on the alcohol level, adding more alcohol to cover the mushrooms if needed.

After a month, you’re ready for the next step. Strain your turkey-tail-infused alcohol into another clean mason jar and set it aside. I use cheesecloth and a funnel for this, but you can also use a fine mesh sieve. Don’t compost the mushrooms! Just set them to the side. We need them again soon.

Measure the alcohol mixture at this point.  The total amount is important, as that determines how much you'll need to cook the mushroom tea to get the right ratio for a shelf stable finished extract. 

In a stockpot, bring ½ gallon of your filtered or spring water to a boil. Once it’s boiling, add your mushrooms from the previous step.

Reduce the heat and simmer for about 2 hours until the water has reduced to 8 to 16 ounces (1 to 2 cups). Keep an eye on the water throughout the 2 hours, and add more water if it evaporates too quickly. 

After two hours, remove the pot from the stove and let the water cool. Then, strain out the mushrooms.

Continue to cook the mushroom "tea" until it's about 1/4 the volume of your alcohol tincture.  For example, if you have 2 cups of finished alcohol extract, you'll want about 1/2 cup of water extract.

If you keep to this ratio, despite adding water, this extract should still contain between 25% and 35% alcohol, which keeps it shelf stable like a typical tincture.

Once the water extract is cool, combine your turkey-tail-infused alcohol with your turkey-tail-infused water to create a shelf-stable turkey-tail mushroom double extract!

Pour your double extract into amber tincture bottles and label each bottle with the name, date, and dosage of your tincture. There’s no need to get fancy; I recommend using a small piece of masking tape and a marker. It peels off easily when I'm ready to use the bottle for something else.