From Farm to Extract Lion’s Mane Production Explained

By the time Lion’s Mane extract reaches a capsule, most of its quality was settled weeks earlier in a grow room.

We run the whole chain ourselves on our farm in Thomastown, Victoria. Here's each step, what we do and what you should ask any supplier about it.

Why Production Matters to a Brand

Two powders can both say "Lion’s Mane extract" and be very different things. One is fruiting body only. The other was grown on grain and still contains mycelium and leftover grain. The front of the pack won't tell you which.

If you're putting Lion’s Mane into a food, drink or supplement, the production method decides what's in the bag, how one order compares to the next and what you can honestly print on the label. So ask how it's made. Vague answer, vague ingredient.

How We Take Lion’s Mane From Farm to Extract

Grow, harvest, freeze-dry, extract, test, pack. Six steps.

1. Growing in Controlled Rooms

Everything starts with the substrate. Ours is Master’s Mix, our own blend of Tasmanian oak hardwood sawdust and Australian soya husk, prepared, moistened and mixed before the mushrooms fruit.

Founder and head cultivator Jaz Konig runs the farm day to day, from substrate prep through climate, harvest and drying. Same mix, same rooms, same hands. That's where consistency comes from, long before any lab.

2. Harvesting by Hand

We pick the fruiting bodies by hand and leave the substrate and grow block behind.

That one decision is the biggest difference between our extract and much of what's sold. No grain, mycelium, starch or fillers go in.

3. Freeze-Drying and Milling

Straight after harvest, the mushrooms go into the freeze-dryer at −82 °C. Then we mill them to a powder.

That powder isn't extract yet. Milled mushroom and extract powder get confused all the time, and they shouldn't be.

4. Dual Extraction

Hot water, then ethanol. The dual extraction gives a 10:1 extract, which works out to about 4 kg of fresh Lion’s Mane for every 100 g of extract powder.

Don't read the ratio as strength. It tells you how much raw material went in, nothing more. Read it next to the lab data.

5. Testing

We send submitted samples to named labs, and every result we publish carries the lab, the sample and the date.

Symbio Laboratories recorded 32.2% beta-glucans in a tested extract blend with 1% BioPerine in May 2026 and analysed nine trace elements. AEGIC Analytical Services looked at beta-glucans, nine heavy metals and a nutrition profile in November 2024. RMIT University researchers screened for E. coli and coliforms in April 2025 and found none.

Each result covers the sample tested, not every batch. That's exactly why we date them. And pesticides? Not tested yet. We'd rather say it than have a retailer ask.

6. Packing

The finished extract is packed as powder for a 1 g serve or filled into 300 mg plant-based capsules, taken as a 2 x 300 mg serve. Keep it sealed, cool, dry and out of direct sunlight.

For white label and private label, we agree the format, blend and pack size with you when you enquire.

What Knowing the Process Gives You

Mostly, fewer surprises.

You can write an ingredient statement you can defend: fruiting body only, no added starch, grain, mycelium or fillers. You can explain the 10:1 ratio and a beta-glucan result separately, without blurring them. Your QA team gets a spec sheet and dated COAs to file, and you know what hasn't been tested before anyone asks.

Country of origin is simple too. Grown in Thomastown, Victoria. And because the substrate, drying and extraction stay the same, one extract can carry capsules, powders, drinks and blends without much change between orders.

Why Brands Source White Label Lion’s Mane From Us

We're growers before we're anything else. In practice that means:

• Our own controlled rooms in Thomastown, run by our founder and head cultivator.
• Fruiting body only, freeze-dried at −82 °C, dual extracted to 10:1.
• Dated reports from Symbio, AEGIC, the National Measurement Institute and RMIT researchers, each naming the sample.
• 1 g powder serves and 300 mg capsules, ready to go.
• White label under your brand, or private label with your own blend, formulation or packaging.
• Spec sheet and COAs on request. MOQ and lead time confirmed when you enquire, because they depend on your brief.

Conclusion

Know how your Lion’s Mane was grown and extracted, and you can formulate and label it with far fewer unknowns.

Planning a range? Start with our Lion’s Mane extract powder and ask us for the spec sheet.