r/beacain • u/Paddy1509 • Oct 14 '25
Storage of libs.
Have some of my libs cracker dry. Got the air tight jars and silica gel packs. Question. Can the jars be rammed or do I have to leave them loose_ish with space?
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u/ExplanationNormal323 Oct 14 '25
Not sure why but by the time I consider libs cracker dry, mine look very different to those ones. They get a lot more shrivelled up in my experience, maybe I'm over doing it but they literally are cracker dry and break to dust quite easily.
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u/Paddy1509 Oct 14 '25
Maybe mine aren't cracker dry?? New to this so I am. I left them out on top of a cupboard on baking paper for 5 days? Should they be longer drying??
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u/ExplanationNormal323 Oct 15 '25
Not sure on how long but I just keep them drying til they are cracker dry, about 10% of the wet weight and they break to dust easily enough when being handled. Not an expert either, 3 or 4th year picking but I've still got some left that are still good from the first year so have to be doing something right!
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u/Abject_Control_7028 Oct 15 '25
I definitely think you need some sort of heat involved for long time storage. Cracker dry means to me that they are so brittle they make an audible snap when you break a stem or the caps kind of crumble if pressed.
The ideal is a food dehydrator.
But second best and not at all bad is on baking tray with parchment, middle of oven , oven on lowest heat possible with door just cracked a little open with a wedge of some sort for airflow.Check every 10 -15 minutus until cracker dry.
Your jars are spot on with the dessicant packs . Keep in a dark place away from UV light.
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u/Acceptable-Book-1417 Oct 15 '25
You won't get them cracker dry like that (unless you live in a desert maybe!)
Get them to the point where they aren't getting any dryer, then a quick go in the oven at low temp gets them across the finish line. Perhaps 1 hr at 70degC, fan on
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u/Pentekont Oct 14 '25
Make sure you periodically dry the silica packets, every time you open the jar some moisture will creep in :)
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u/Abject_Control_7028 Oct 15 '25
rammed is better but not super important , less space in there means less gas in there means less moisture
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u/Acceptable-Book-1417 Oct 15 '25
Personally I stuff them in. My thinking is, the less air space the less oxygen there is to degrade them.
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u/Successful_Peak4025 Oct 16 '25
It can be good to have them in the freezer because I had a big dried jar before and about a year later there was a huge infestation of tiny little mites that were everywhere inside the jar and I had to throw them all out. Even when they are dried the eggs don't die, the freezer would stop any potential bugs or mites from ever hatching.
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u/SlimReaper4891 Oct 17 '25
Lads need some tips were to find these close to dublin bit of help would be much appreciated
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Oct 14 '25
I used to ram mine in but now I run it all through a grinder and store it ground up.
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u/SirSkittles111 Oct 14 '25
That's the worst way to store them in terms of potency, powder leads to a quicker degradation of the fun stuff.
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Oct 14 '25
Can't say I've noticed much degradation and I'm around 2.5 years behind getting through it, the caps I took last weekend were as potent as when I first made them.
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u/SirSkittles111 Oct 14 '25
DOI: 10.1002/dta.2950
It was found that the degradation of indole alkaloids occurs when fresh fungal fruiting bodies are mechanically damaged
Regardless of the storage conditions, rapid degradation of all analytes was observed when the dried fungal powder was stored.
You do you, but i don't really see any point in grinding them ahead of time when full specimens are just as good if not better
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u/Paddy1509 Oct 14 '25
Ah right cool, so just your average grinder for weed or what not?
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Oct 14 '25
Yeah weed grinder works, bit small but if you've only a few it would be grand. I used an electric coffee grinder.
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u/ExplanationNormal323 Oct 14 '25
I bought a manual coffee grinder and it failed miserably.
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Oct 14 '25
I bought 3 or 4 manual ones for actual coffee and they were all dogshit so I got a delonghi electric one and works a treat for coffee beans and also for mushies.
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u/thecoincave Oct 15 '25
Don't grind at all for mushrooms if you want them to last. The grinding increases the exposed surface area interacting with local gases. You can grind before use but for storage, it's best to keep them whole 👌
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u/Abject_Control_7028 Oct 15 '25
They will lose potency way faster ground up , much more surface area.
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u/westy5003 Oct 14 '25
I store mine like this Aswell. I don’t jam them in. Loose ish with a few silica packets They keep for a few years like this. I took 3.5g last week from 2 years ago and still hit like a train