Alcohol Tincture

LeastExpectedGrower

Well-Known Member
Very informatic thread, thanks!
My question on professionals...
I have made 12 gramms of skaff from indor trim from BubleGum, after this I have dissolved this in alko let inside 3 days, after filtered alko, than evaporate alko in the oven on 70-80 Celsium, after made a decarboxilation in a same oven on 110 Celsium. After this I dissolved my decarboxilated amber in 80 mililiters of Glycerine (heated it). Today is a third day inside Glycerine, I shaking it every day... the tincture is workable but not a homogeneous before I shake it...
My question is - shall I wait also 60 days and shake it every day, like in a case with weed, to get a ready tincture? Or I can filter this solution even now..? Thanks
sorry for my english, I am not a native speaker
I would suggest some refinements to your process.

I would:

-decarb before the alcohol bath.

-Evaporate off all the alcohol (Be careful! This can be dangerous if there's open flame...I do mine across weeks and let it just naturally evaporate).

- Once you're left with the final FECO (Full-spectrum Extract Cannabis Oil), which really will look like a sticky oily substance, THEN add your glycerine. Shake across a day or two and you should get a homogenous liquid.
 
-decarb before the alcohol bath.
Thanks for reply.
For a future sounds: is it enougth to put skuff in a powder form in the oven on 110 Celsius for 10-15 min? Or better use another way?

Shake across a day or two and you should get a homogenous liquid.
And than, in your opinion, should I filter the final glycerine liquid or let it be like it is to avoid missing of THC and every time shake before use?
 
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should I filter the final glycerine liquid or let it be like it is to avoid missing of THC and every time shake before use?
somebody could tell me, should I filter the final glycerine liquid or let it be like it is to avoid missing of THC and every time shake before use? Now is arround one week and on a surface of glycerine I see some shit... is this shit is good for me or I should use the rest of glycerine without this shit..? Thanks in advance )
 

oldsilvertip55

Well-Known Member
I found good recepies for three methods: Hot Extraction, the quickest extraction of cannaboids (20 minutes); suprisingly the Cold Extraction next (2-3 days); and the Warm Extraction longest (30-60 days).

--

Hot Extraction:

This is a simple and efficient 4 Step process.

Ingredients:
1/8oz high quality cannabis
2 oz Bacardi Rum 151 proof


Process Summary:

1. Chop cannabis very fine (coffee grinder works great)

2. Place in a shallow pan (pie pan with aluminum foil works great) and bake at 325°F for 4-5 minutes.

3. Remove from oven and place cannabis and place in 2 oz of rum (use a small wide mouth mason jar)

4. Simmer in a water bath for 20 minutes. Maintain temperature of the rum/cannabis mixture between 150°F 165°F.

5. Strain the mixture and store.


Dosage:
One eyedropper is very nice. Two puts you in space. But you should self-titrate. Effects take about 1.5 hours to begin (at least in myself) and lasted for 5 hours (1 dropper) to 7-8 hours (2 droppers).


Process detailsreferences and rationalizations:
1. Chop the cannabismore surface area gives means a faster and more efficient extraction.

2. Bake the cannabis.
In whole-plant cannabis, THC content is expressed as THCA (tetrahydrocannabolic acid) prior to decarboxylation into THC, which takes place when cannabis is heated during cooking, and smoked or vaporized ingestion. THCA is a mild analgesic and anti-inflammatory but does not have good affinity with our CB1 receptors, so in order to make a THC-rich tincture that has many of the same therapeutic effects as smoked ingestion (including rapid absorption, quick relief and ease of self-titration), we must convert the THCA in the plant matter into THC prior to extracting it through an alcohol soak. (from Vancouver Island Compassion Society http://thevics.com/cannamist.htm)
THC vaporizes at about 380°F. We want to heat the cannabis to convert THCA to THC, but keep the temperature under 380°F. That is why 325°F is used. Between four and five minutes your oven (and house) will start to smell very strong. This is the time to remove the cannabis from the oven.

Notice also that there is considerable misinformation regarding heating the cannabis. It is true that you don't have to heat it to extract both THC and THCA, but the amount of THC in whole plant preparations is relatively small compared to after decarboxylation of the THCA. So if you want to maximize the strength of your tincture you must heat the cannabis prior to extraction.

3. Use the highest proof alcohol available. In my area this was Bacardi 151. The more alcohol the more efficient the extraction will be.

4. Simmer the mixture.
This is one of the areas that seems to be most debated. Many recipes call for placing the cannabis (unbaked of course) into the alcohol and waiting 2 6 weeks. The main concern with heating the alcohol is that it is explosive (not exactly true...it is however flammable).

The purpose of the simmering is to heat the alcohol mixture to improve extraction rates and efficiencies. Heating during extraction increases the motion of the molecules (basic physics/chemistry) and drastically decreases extraction times. The boiling point of pure ethanol is 173°F (78°C). We will use the water bath to heat the rum/cannabis mixture to just below the boiling point of ethanol.

Heating the alcohol mixture can be done very safely using a hot water bath. You will need an accurate candy or quick read thermometer. Place about 1 inch of water in a wide, vertical-edged pan (9 wide x 3 high). Bring the water to a low simmer. The rum/cannabis mixture should be in a small (1 pint) mason jar. Do NOT cover the jar.

Put the thermometer into the mason jar and place into the simmering water bath. Bring the temperature of the rum/cannabis mixture to about 165°F (I maintain it between 150°F and 165°F). You want the alcohol mixture to be just barely moving (not boiling, but showing active convection within the mixture). If the mixture starts to bubble too much, just turn down the water bath.

You should have the oven fan on high. You will notice that any alcohol fumes are mixed with water vapor from the water bath and vented out the fan. This combined with the fact that you are trying not to boil the ethanol makes the process quite safe.

5. Strain, titrate, and store.
When you are finished with the extraction you will be left with about 1oz of green dragon tincture. Note that one ounce of the alcohol has evaporated.

Now you should test your eyedropper. In my test 34 full droppers equaled one ounce of liquid (this is a little less than one gram of liquid per dropperful as 29g equals 1ounce).

The liquid should be dark green and smell like cannabis.

6. Dosage.
Everybody is probably different. It takes me 1.5 hours to feel the effects of eating cannabis. Similarly this tincture also takes 1.5 hours to take effect.

I had tried a tincture someone had made using the cold extraction method with the same amount of cannabis and found that 5 droppers did pretty much nothing.

Using my Green Dragon technique I find that one dropper will bring effects on in 1.5 hours and last 5 hours with 1.5 hours of lingering aftereffects.

Two droppers gave me a "spiritual dose" (as strong as any brownie I ever had). Effects lasted 7-8 hours with lingering effects for 2 more hours.

This means that 1/8oz of good cannabis yields about 30-34 doses of tincture (1 dropperful is really all I need). And is much more pleasant than smoking (which really is bad for you and your lungs and the reason I've stopped smoking entirely).


This link might be helpful.
Metric Conversion: http://www.worldwidemetric.com/metcal.htm


Enjoy and let me know of your success and/or questions.

Master Wu
__________________
Alchemist
this i must do!thanks@Master Wu
 
Got any pics Stan?

I switched from Alcohol and glycerine to Coconut oil and a Magical Butter Machine. Great for canna coco drops.
Here are some pics, but I am not sure about pics quality...
when its at room temperature - it is not homogeneous, but if I heat it in a warm water to arround 80 Celsius its become homogeneous.
I have tried glycerine without this stuf on a surface - and its less potent, than heated homogeneous glicerine solution...
So, I heated this again and fill a small syringes 2 ml for one dose (for one day).
Imho the best way for me for a moment.
So, I have made arround 30 daily doses from 12 gramm of skuff... I use it in the morning before a breafast and its working the hole day, what is great!
I am more than 30 years smoker, last 20 years only indoor, but last 2 years only Volcano vapor - done daily approx 1 - 1,5 gramm weed every day in two times and with 2 ml of this tincture I feel a same from morning to everning on a same wave ))
Peace for all!
 

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LeastExpectedGrower

Well-Known Member
Thanks for reply.
For a future sounds: is it enougth to put skuff in a powder form in the oven on 110 Celsius for 10-15 min? Or better use another way?

And than, in your opinion, should I filter the final glycerine liquid or let it be like it is to avoid missing of THC and every time shake before use?
Sorry for my delay...

I don't think that 110c for 10-15 minutes is enough to decarb. I think you're looking at something more like 116c-121c for something like 45 minutes to an hour.

If you're extracting THC to alcohol, the less you break up the material, the less 'green' it will be. I do my best to decarb material as whole as possible. I filter the alcohol through one of those fine metal coffee filters (the kind that replace the paper cone filters in coffee machines). to get all the solids out.
 

LeastExpectedGrower

Well-Known Member
Here are some pics, but I am not sure about pics quality...
when its at room temperature - it is not homogeneous, but if I heat it in a warm water to arround 80 Celsius its become homogeneous.
I have tried glycerine without this stuf on a surface - and its less potent, than heated homogeneous glicerine solution...
So, I heated this again and fill a small syringes 2 ml for one dose (for one day).
Imho the best way for me for a moment.
So, I have made arround 30 daily doses from 12 gramm of skuff... I use it in the morning before a breafast and its working the hole day, what is great!
I am more than 30 years smoker, last 20 years only indoor, but last 2 years only Volcano vapor - done daily approx 1 - 1,5 gramm weed every day in two times and with 2 ml of this tincture I feel a same from morning to everning on a same wave ))
Peace for all!
It sounds like the 'separation' is solids from the cannabis? By pulverizing the material you're getting lots of particulate matter. Alcohol strips out the THC from the Trichomes pretty effectively so having it ground down I don't think is netting you much besides more chlorophyll and small particles.

Here's what my 'golden dragon' looked like after I'd:
-Decarbed
-Frozen the decarbed flower (whole not broken down)
-Soaked in alcohol at -20C for 3 days:



Keeping the cannbis frozen 'locks' the chlorophyll in the plant material so you get less in your alcohol.

That evaporates down and is still dark and gunky but once the alcohol is gone there really is only a 'skim' in the jar not a measurable amount...from there add the glycerin and I think it should stay in solution at room temps.
 

shredder4

Well-Known Member
I make a fair amount of this stuff and i found little difference between a 10 minute cold (200 proof ethanol) soak over a multiple day soak in the freezer. I filter with a paper coffee filter.

@StanleyMan why are you using gylcerine? Its water based and doesnt mix well with cannabis oil. There are probably better options depending on how you consuming it.

Infusing sugar, honey, mct or other oils, and butter come to mind and cover a lot of edibles.
 
LeastExpectedGrower
Thanks for reply, unfortunetly I can't give to nobody finger up as a new user I think ))
Imho in my case this solid pieces are not axactly a chlorofyl, because I've made it from the first skuff from a trim, not from the flowers... and yes, the alcohol liquid was a same like in your jar.

shredder4
It was my first experience wich Glycerine, in past I use to make only an Alko Iiquid. Now I understand that Glycerine is not a my song, but now I've got this stuff and have to use it as well ))

With greetings from Czech republic
 

FirstCavApache64

Well-Known Member
All this talk of tincture got me motivated. I made four different strains using Everclear and a 7 day soak. I don't mind the strong taste and I like to extract all the THC possible even if I end up with some chlorophyll. I decarbed at 240 for 40 minutes after breaking the buds up with my fingers to bong hit size. I do freeze my booze and plant matter before my soak and first shake and then for several hours after. Just the way I was taught and it seems to work for me. One jar went 12 days as life intervened before I could filter it and get it jarred up. That stuff is green dragon pure and simple, no gold or Amber to it. My other batches are usually Amber to light green. I'll evaporate some of the alcohol off to adjust the dosage to where I want and it's good to go. The Nurple strain tincture has been really good so far as has Bum Wine which was an auto flower I grew awhile back. It's really a good strain for nausea and anti anxiety. The purple pheno of Nurple was really good for my wife's medical needs. I can't wait for my Bubba Kush clone to finish up since the tincture from that is going to be really good I'm hoping. It's getting really frosty and bubba is good pain medicine.IMG_20220518_004049005~2.jpgIMG_20220518_004127227~2.jpgCM210612-004528001~3.jpg
 

LeastExpectedGrower

Well-Known Member
All this talk of tincture got me motivated. I made four different strains using Everclear and a 7 day soak. I don't mind the strong taste and I like to extract all the THC possible even if I end up with some chlorophyll. I decarbed at 240 for 40 minutes after breaking the buds up with my fingers to bong hit size. I do freeze my booze and plant matter before my soak and first shake and then for several hours after. Just the way I was taught and it seems to work for me. One jar went 12 days as life intervened before I could filter it and get it jarred up. That stuff is green dragon pure and simple, no gold or Amber to it. My other batches are usually Amber to light green. I'll evaporate some of the alcohol off to adjust the dosage to where I want and it's good to go. The Nurple strain tincture has been really good so far as has Bum Wine which was an auto flower I grew awhile back. It's really a good strain for nausea and anti anxiety. The purple pheno of Nurple was really good for my wife's medical needs. I can't wait for my Bubba Kush clone to finish up since the tincture from that is going to be really good I'm hoping. It's getting really frosty and bubba is good pain medicine.View attachment 5135062View attachment 5135063View attachment 5135064
I've found a place locally that carries Polish 196 proof vodka, so that's what I'm using.

The last few rounds I've done, I've evaporated down all the way (multiple 8oz Ball jars), then once it's totally down to sticky residue I've added a measured amount of alcohol back to re-hydrate it enough to pour...then I pour it all into a 6oz brown glass bottle I have...and since I know that I used 1tbs of alcohol each bottle to rehydrate, I can calculate strength based on per-tablespoon use. In my case, I've been adding it to chocolate then pouring it into bars, so I know one little cube or two little cubes, etc. is what I want per serving. I've found that half a cube of chocolate before bed doesn't make me high, but I certainly have no trouble sleeping!

I think this weekend though I'll play around and make another batch of butter and make some treats or brownies.
 

FirstCavApache64

Well-Known Member
I've found a place locally that carries Polish 196 proof vodka, so that's what I'm using.

The last few rounds I've done, I've evaporated down all the way (multiple 8oz Ball jars), then once it's totally down to sticky residue I've added a measured amount of alcohol back to re-hydrate it enough to pour...then I pour it all into a 6oz brown glass bottle I have...and since I know that I used 1tbs of alcohol each bottle to rehydrate, I can calculate strength based on per-tablespoon use. In my case, I've been adding it to chocolate then pouring it into bars, so I know one little cube or two little cubes, etc. is what I want per serving. I've found that half a cube of chocolate before bed doesn't make me high, but I certainly have no trouble sleeping!

I think this weekend though I'll play around and make another batch of butter and make some treats or brownies.
That sounds like a great idea. I evaporate down based on my trial dose. I find that most initial batches take about 25-35 drops to medicate me fully. I'm a pretty big guy, 6'4", 275 lbs so my dosage is a good bit higher than my 5'5, 130 lb wife. I usually cut the volume down by half for her batch and by 1/4 for mine so I'm taking roughly 6-8 drops and she's taking about the same maybe a couple more since hers is a little weaker. I accidentally let one of mine evaporate all the way down to the sticky tar like you are talking about and had no idea what to do with it. I was wondering if at that point it was able to be smoked as a dab. Do you know if it's able to be? I just waited to make my next batch and kept it covered to prevent dust and added in my next tincture to it. It left little balls of dark colored crap in the mix but damn it was obviously potent.
 

LeastExpectedGrower

Well-Known Member
That sounds like a great idea. I evaporate down based on my trial dose. I find that most initial batches take about 25-35 drops to medicate me fully. I'm a pretty big guy, 6'4", 275 lbs so my dosage is a good bit higher than my 5'5, 130 lb wife. I usually cut the volume down by half for her batch and by 1/4 for mine so I'm taking roughly 6-8 drops and she's taking about the same maybe a couple more since hers is a little weaker. I accidentally let one of mine evaporate all the way down to the sticky tar like you are talking about and had no idea what to do with it. I was wondering if at that point it was able to be smoked as a dab. Do you know if it's able to be? I just waited to make my next batch and kept it covered to prevent dust and added in my next tincture to it. It left little balls of dark colored crap in the mix but damn it was obviously potent.
I haven't tried to do anything but edibles with it...I don't combust anything these days, but do have a small Pax as well as eating things.

If you 'rehydrate' it with alcohol you shouldn't get those 'little balls' I only see those if there's any amount of water in the fluid since the THC oil won't mix with water. If I haven't dried the cannabis enough before decarb, its possible to get the water out of the plant when you're doing your alcohol washes, and then you'll see that separation once the alcohol has evaporated but the water hasn't. If I see that, I let the jar sit and let the water evaporate off all the way. My method for that is to use a ball jar, but skip the metal lid... use a piece of paper coffee filter over the top and then screw the 'ring' over it and onto the jar. keeps out everything but lets everything out-gas.

One of the nice things about combining batches...is that you can really standardize the strength across your use. So if you have a jar that's stronger than the others or vice versa, once you combine, they all even out when you use them.
 

whelk

Active Member
I just put the weed and the alcohol in freezer separately overnight then in the morning combine the 2 and shake for few mins.. Put back in freezer for another 24 hrs shaking a few more times.. Then I strain out the weed and put tincture in an open bowl for few days to evaporate as much of the alcohol as possible
 

shredder4

Well-Known Member
The advantage of of a quick soak is how much plant wax is in the tincture. 190-200 proof alcohol will strip the canna oil quickly. And the longer soaks get more plant wax. Same deal with frozen weed and alcohol , less plant wax transferred to the tincture in freezing temps, than if you did it at room temperatures. And with less wax, it's a little stronger and tastes better.

Not a big deal when you're making most edibles I guess, but it's worth mentioning. But if it isn't a big deal then freezing everything might not be worth it either, since alcohol will strip oil better when warmer.

If chlorophyl is causing green tinctures, direct sunlight will take care of that green and turn it more amber and it happens in hours not days.

And while making oil with a solvent can remove terpenes, but you can add back terpenes with food grade terpenes or an essential oil with terpenes like sweet orange oil, black pepper oil, lavender oil and so on.
 
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iggy097

Well-Known Member
Anyone watching this thread able to help with dosage numbers on tincture? Like if I have the potency of the (CBD) in this case - how much it will end up being per dosage?
 

LeastExpectedGrower

Well-Known Member
Anyone watching this thread able to help with dosage numbers on tincture? Like if I have the potency of the (CBD) in this case - how much it will end up being per dosage?
Some guys may have a better handle on this, but you can sort of back into the numbers...When I evaporate down to oil I end up with ~14% based on weight or so (depending on the batch), from there it's something like 80-85% THC. So if you're leaving it in alcohol solution, your batch would still be 14% x .80 or 14% x .85 or whatever percent you're getting for your output.
 

shredder4

Well-Known Member
Anyone watching this thread able to help with dosage numbers on tincture? Like if I have the potency of the (CBD) in this case - how much it will end up being per dosage?
You find your total cbd available like @LeastExpectedGrower said. Then divide that by the doses.

For 16% cbd that starts as 160mg per gram of cbd before filtering. You lose some when filtering out plant material.

For strong infusions ( I prefer infusions of oil over alcohol tinctures) I count drops for accurate doses. So find out how many drops in your tincture, or ml works for less strong tinctures, then find out how many ml in a eyedropper for example. Google makes this easy.

To make your tincture stronger, just evaporate some off the alcohol.
 
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