The Entry DIY Kit -Tea
WIP WIP WIP WIP WIP
(do not contact for support on brewing)
Foreword
I'd like to start off by thanking you for supporting us, and DIY as a whole. As time passes DIY vendors will come and go, some will be good, some will be bad. By buying this kit you have decided to take your own and perhaps your local communities health into your own hands. This is an incredibly freeing and powerful tool, but it must be performed with care. Brewing should not be taken lightly. The ideal brewer has a high attention to detail, carefully reads instructions and performs actions deliberately. You should have a high standard for your work, and be okay with throwing out product if you are not completely confident in it. That being said, while we cannot perfectly replicate lab conditions, we can stick to key safety and sterilization methods to reduce our risk significantly. This kit/tek is meant to simplify the brewing process as much as possible, and do it at as low of a cost as possible without sacrificing quality.
This kit comes with enough materials (other than raws and empty vials) to produce ~50 10mL vials. You will have many syringes/enhancements/oils left over from your first brew, this is by design. You can continue to use this kit in the future, noting that you should replace the MCT oil after 2 years after first opening it. MCT oil is easily sourceable online, ensuring you're buying c8/c10 mix.
If this guide was shared around, do note that you can treat it a bit like a shopping list. I'm not going to pretend that this is the best guide on the internet, but it's purpose is to serve as the lowest cost barrier of entry while maintaining quality.
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Packing list:
(5) 0.2um PTFE syringe enhancements
(10) 25g needles
(5) 1mL oral syringes
(5) 60mL leur lock syringes
(1) 4.05-4.15g EEn raws
(10) evacuated(vacuum), sterilized, depyrogenated 10mL clear vials
(1) 100mL media bottle
(1) 50mL benzyl alcohol bottle
(1) 16fl oz 473mL pharmaceutical grade MCT oil
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What you will need to purchase on your own, you can find on amazon or walmart
Lab gloves
Isopropyl alcohol 70%
kimwipes
Instant pot (preferebly instant pot pro) with a steamer basket (see italicised paragraph below)
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This guide will produce (10) 10mL 40mg/mL enanthate vials. I suggest you make this full amount, as if you don't you will use up more supplies than neccessary, and you will need to purchase an accurate scale.
Start by identifying a location with
1: Enough space to work with
2: A tile, or linoleum flooring, not carpet.
3: At least 1 meter away from running water, circulating fans, or other places where dust gets flung around
4:Easily cleaned
5: Has not contained pets, or other animals.
Generally a kitchen works well. Begin by making yourself an open space to work with, you'll want a good amount of room. Take out any trash, and move appliances and dishes away.
Put on a pair of gloves. We're going to start by cleaning the area around our workspace. Use a damp cloth to wipe down everything close by that can accumulate dust or debris. We want to minimize the amount of dust and contamination in the air around us. Next, we will clean the surface we're going to be working on. Normal household cleaners will work, bleach is fine. When finished ensure there is no residue left behind by your cleaning supplies. Change your gloves
Grab a clean baking sheet or another metal tray you can use to lay out your materials and place it on your workspace. Give it a quick wipe down with 70% isopropyl alcohol and the kimwipes. Place your raws, 10 empty vials, 2 enhancements, 4 syringes and 100mL flask on top of it. Place your MCT oil, Benzyl Alcohol, and other supplies nearby. Rinse your 100mL flask a few times with isopropyl alcohol, and set aside to dry. Change your gloves
Once completely dry, empty all of the raws you received (4.05-4.15g) into the 100mL flask. Grab a 60mL syringe, and attach the 25g needle to it not using a enhancement. Draw up and dispense a total of 94mL of MCT oil into the 100mL flask, you will need to draw twice for the total amount. Finally, using the 1mL syringes, draw up 2mL of the Benzyl Alcohol and put it in the flask. It is more important to get an accurate amount of benzyl alcohol than MCT oil. MCT oil will be fine +- a few mL
Replace caps on the MCT, BA, and your 100mL flask. Ensure that the 100mL flask lid is secure. Toss away your gloves
Shake vigorously, and apply mild heat if necessary. If you have to add heat (or are impatient), then set up a double boiler on very low heat, ensuring that the cap is tight to prevent water ingress. You should not submerge more than an inch of the flask into warm water. This may take up to an hour or longer. You can shake it for a while, take a break and go do something else, and then come back and shake it more, be patient during this time. When completely dissolved, move onto the next step.
Draw up 50mL of your solution into the previously used 60mL syringe, and pull a small amount of air as well. Remove the needle carefully, and attach a syringe enhancement in place. Attach a new fresh needle to the end of the syringe enhancement. It should be syringe -> syringe enhancement -> needle.
Grab one of your evacuated, presterilized vials, and carefully pierce the top of the top of the vial with your filled syringe enhancement unit. Try to avoid wiggling the top of the syringe around as much as possible. Apply moderate pressure to start filling your first vial, filling to no more than 10mL marked by the syringe. Once finished, pull the needle out and repeat to the next 4 vials, totaling five. The last vial will likely not completely fill, this is due to losses in the enhancement.
Remove the needle and enhancement. You may re-use a needle (without a enhancement attached!) to redraw the rest of the remaining solution in the 100mL flask. Once drawn (with a small amount of air as well), place a new enhancement and new needle on the end and repeat the previous steps. You should now have 10 vials ready to use, with appx 2 of them slightly less filled.
Inspect your vials for potential coring, as well as for any contamination within them. Discard any vials with coring or contamination.
Note for next section: there is discussion about whether or not terminal heat sterilization via autoclave/instant pot is effective or beneficial. Additionally, having already punctured the vials with a needle to fill, there is a risk of introducing moisture to the vials though this was not significant in our tests. I do suggest that you perform this step, and I do perform an autoclave after my own vials, but it is up to you whether or not you want to do this step. hrtcat may disagree, i don't see a negative to doing it anyway.
Set up your instant pot and steamer by filling the instant pot with roughly 1 inch (or water line just below the steamer) of enhancemented water. Place your vials inside the steamer basket, ensuring that they are not directly touching any water. Run at high pressure setting on pressure cook (with keep warm off) for 1 hour in an instant pot pro, or 2.5 hours in a normal instapot. Let cool, and remove your vials (steam can cause burns, be cautious).
Label your vials appropriately, masking tape and sharpie work, if you want to be fancy you can get a sticker.
Congratulations, you have just produced your own HRT. Do keep in mind that vials should be used within 5 years, so maybe it's time to give some away to friends :)
Cleanup:
Throw all used needles in a sharps bin, discard of used enhancements and syringes. Clean the 100mL flask with a small amount of dish soap, washing all suds out and resoaping at least 2 times to get rid of MCT. Rinse with water well afterwords! You don't want any soap in your next batch. Finalize it with a quick rinse of 70% ISO, let dry, recap and store.
