Comment on [deleted by author] by dickie

dickie · 8/10/2026, 9:41:58 PM (edited) · permalink

**Making Mushroom “Pillies” at Home**  
  
Making mushroom capsules at home sounds like something that should require a lab coat, a chemistry degree and at least one machine that goes *beep*. In reality, the equipment is pretty simple: a grinder, empty capsules, a capsule-filling machine or holder, and several absurdly tiny spoons, scoops and tampers that appear to have been stolen from Barbie’s pharmaceutical laboratory.  
  
**First, grind the shrooms**  
  
For grinding, the **KRUPS Precision Electric Coffee Grinder** works surprisingly well. It is the 3-ounce model with a 200-watt motor and stainless-steel blades.  
  
I am not particularly impressed with it as a coffee grinder, which is unfortunate given the name, but it works well for herbs, spices and dried mushrooms.  
  
Mushrooms come with one warning:  
  
**Dust. So much dust.**  
  
Dried mushrooms can turn into an extremely fine, fluffy powder in this grinder. When you are finished, give everything a little time to settle before removing the lid.  
  
Otherwise, congratulations. You have invented an indoor mushroom weather system.  
  
**KRUPS grinder:**  
[https://www.amazon.com/KRUPS-Electric-Coffee-Grinder-Stainless/dp/B00004SPEU](https://www.amazon.com/KRUPS-Electric-Coffee-Grinder-Stainless/dp/B00004SPEU)  
  
**Making shroom pillies**  
  
Once the mushrooms are thoroughly dried, they can be ground into a relatively uniform powder and placed into empty capsules.  
  
Grinding a batch together has another useful effect: material from different mushroom pieces gets mixed throughout the powder rather than having each capsule contain material from a single piece. That can make the physical mixture more uniform, although it should not be confused with making the psilocybin potency identical throughout the batch.  
  
For filling more than a capsule or two, a dedicated filling machine makes the job considerably easier.  
  
**The Capsule Machine from Capsule Connection:**  
[https://capsuleconnection.com/the-capsule-machine.html](https://capsuleconnection.com/the-capsule-machine.html)  
  
The machine holds a batch of capsules upright while they are filled, which beats trying to hold one tiny capsule between two fingers while simultaneously operating a spoon approximately the size of a termite.  
  
**Smaller pillies, bigger pillies**  
  
Capsules come in several sizes, which allows you to choose how much physical capacity you want.  
  
Smaller capsules can be useful when working with very small quantities, including the sorts of quantities people associate with microdosing.  
  
Larger capsules provide substantially more physical room, and multiple larger capsules can contain considerably more mushroom powder.  
  
That does **not** make capsule size a psilocybin dosing system.  
  
A large capsule is a large container. It is not a laboratory assay.  
  
Mushroom potency can vary, so the capsule size or number of capsules alone does not tell you the amount of psilocybin present.  
  
**You really do have to pack them**  
  
One of the less obvious parts of capsule filling is that mushroom powder needs to be **packed or tamped**.  
  
Freshly ground mushroom powder can be remarkably fluffy.  
  
You fill a capsule and think:  
  
*Well, that is obviously full.*  
  
Then you tamp it.  
  
Suddenly the capsule is half empty and you discover that you were apparently packaging premium artisanal air.  
  
So filling generally means adding powder, gently packing it down, adding some more and packing again until the available space is filled.  
  
That is where one of those tiny capsule-tool kits becomes genuinely useful.  
  
The **Foosi Capsule Filling Tray Kit** includes a holder along with tiny spoons, spatulas, scoops and tamping tools. The version with the holder was about **$10** in the Amazon listing and is intended for the common capsule sizes from 000 through 5.  
  
**Foosi capsule filling and tamping kit:**  
[https://a.co/d/0bCqg3RC](https://a.co/d/0bCqg3RC)  
  
At first glance, the kit looks like somebody robbed a dollhouse kitchen.  
  
Then you try getting mushroom powder neatly into a No. 4 capsule and suddenly the tiny spoon seems like an engineering breakthrough.  
  
**Capsule sizes, because naturally the numbering is backwards**  
  
One might reasonably assume capsule No. 5 would be larger than capsule No. 1.  
  
One would be wrong.  
  
**000 is the largest common size in this group, while 5 is the smallest.**

Capsule size

Approx. internal volume

**000**

1.37 mL

**00**

about 0.9 to 0.95 mL

**0**

about 0.68 mL

**1**

about 0.48 to 0.50 mL

**2**

about 0.36 to 0.37 mL

**3**

about 0.27 to 0.30 mL

**4**

about 0.20 to 0.21 mL

**5**

about 0.13 mL

Apparently capsule manufacturers took numbering advice from drill bits.  
  
The important measurement in that chart is **volume**, not weight.  
  
A capsule does not have one universal gram capacity. How much material fits depends on the density of the powder, how finely it has been ground, its moisture content and how firmly it is packed.  
  
That matters particularly with mushrooms because finely ground dried mushroom material can be surprisingly light and fluffy.  
  
A dense supplement powder and mushroom powder can occupy exactly the same capsule while weighing considerably different amounts.  
  
For that reason, this is a **capsule-capacity chart, not a mushroom dosing chart**.  
  
**The basic setup**  
  
So mushroom pillies are pretty simple:  
  
**Dry the mushrooms. Grind them. Fill the capsules. Tamp the powder. Top them off. Close the capsules.**  
  
No cannabis-style decarboxylation is involved.  
  
The grinder turns the dry mushrooms into manageable powder, the capsule machine keeps dozens of tiny capsules from rolling around the table, and the miniature scoops and tampers actually get the powder where it is supposed to go.  
  
It is not an especially complicated operation.  
  
It just somehow manages to involve mushrooms, miniature laboratory utensils and a coffee grinder that appears to have discovered its true calling somewhere other than coffee.  
  
And one final piece of mushroom wisdom:  
  
**After running dried mushrooms through the KRUPS, give the powder a moment to settle before opening the lid.**  
  
Otherwise the next stage of the project is not filling capsules.  
  
It is dusting the kitchen.

4 bumps

j.k.harwood2 · 8/10/2026, 10:55:59 PM · permalink

2 bumps

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