So this is my guide and attempt to clear up a lot of the confusing circling around about how to make oil with isopropyl/isopropanol. Hopefully this thread will explain in detail on a proper method to process with these solvents and answer any questions that may remain.
Step 1; Material and Material Preperation.
The quality of your material is of the UTMOST importance. If you start with something thats not very good, your going to end up with something thats not very good. Personally i like to use sugar leaf/bud/bottom of the bag stuff.
The quality of your material will determine how much you should grind your material up. For this demonstration we will be using medium quality bud.
Here you can see the bud i started with, 1oz dried.
The bud is frozen for approximately 1-2 weeks before hand, this does 2 things, accelerates the breakdown of chlorophyll, and locks what chlorophyll that remains in the plant matter in place. Since the material is of medium quality it is ground up as such, not extremely fine, but a mix of what would be good for a joint, and chunks that are just a little to large to roll...
Step 2; Iso quality's and prep.
do not, and i cannot stress this enough DO NOT use iso that is below 90% concentration, it is a waste of time and will leave you with a slimey disgusting mess. this is NOT what you want!
Quantity of iso to use is under great debate, for med-> high quality materials i like to keep the ratio around 1L of iso to 1oz of bud/sugar leaf, this assures the highest possible cannabinoid recovery.
So now you have acquired your isopropyl/isopropanol of greater than 90% concentration, personally i recommend nothing but 99% but that is not available in all areas. If you have to use anything But 99%, there will be some changes in the cooking process.
DO NOT SKIP THIS STEP.
Freeze your iso!! deep freezer is best but a kitchen freezer works just fine as well, make sure its as cold as the freezer can get it... will usually take between 3-5 days to accomplish this.
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Step 3; Processing materials and filters.
This step is open to a little bit of interpretation, but the filtering process is essential, the containers are not... but i recommend them as they are extremely cheap, durable. and effective!
I use 2L pop bottles, cut like so to create a large cup and funnel. You will also notice in the attached picture, reuseable coffee filters, these are the basic plastic ones with the mesh insert <--- very important! there is also some regular cone style coffee filters with no holes (or flavor pores as they list them on package) you just want the regular old typical coffee filter. and finally youll want something to clean up little spills, wipe your utensils/tools down with, i find good old ass wipe works best. spray a lil iso, wipe, done.
Step 4; Processing your material.
all your iso/bud should remain in freezer until the very last moment.
When your setup like so;
filter in place over the cut 2L
Take your bud, and put it in your filters.
Dump your iso over.... you will notice it practically just Falls through, this step shouldnt take more than a few seconds. lift the filter and shake it down abit to get the remaining large drops out.
Take the filter with the iso'd material, and quickly dump its contents back into the bag in which you dumped it out of. Push the material to corner of bag, and cut the corner of the bag, replace the filter overtop of the 2L, and squeeze the remaining iso out of the material into the reusable filter on top of the 2L. Time is of the essence... do this QUICKLY things warm up fast and start to strip chlorophyll faster than you would think. Personally i can do my runs, and squeeze remaining iso out of material in under a minute.
Step 5; Post filtering.
after all this work you should end up with a 2L full of cloudy iso that somewhat resembles this...
this is Excellent! But we arent done yet.
grab your other 2L's and set the cut off 2L top on top of the 2L like you did the reusable coffee filter, and place one of the regular coffee filters in place.
this filtering process can take upto an hour or more, BE PATIENT DO NOT RUSH IT!!!!!!
take your 2L with your cloudy iso, and pour it through the coffee filters you have setup. the reason for this is the iso is cloudy because of a suspension of trichomes that are in it... this can be A lot
As can be seen in the attached photos.
As you can see its quite significant what this step removes!
after completing this filtering process, you will notice the color of your iso has changed from a cloudy color, to a more consistent clear color
from->
mid filter ->
filterd ->
Step 6; Cooking!
Use a pyrex/borosilicate dish.
i like to use a hot plate to heat my iso...
Try not to boil your iso when cooking as this can lead to degradation of your (boiling in itself will not cause damage, but is a clear indication of temperature, Iso will boil around 70-80c the problem is once its starts boiling you are unable to tell if your mixture is getting TOO hot) cannabinoids. There is an exception to this... if you are using anything less than 99% you will NEED to boil your mixture for a certain amount of time. The reason behind this is the other remaining % of your solvent, is actually water... since iso cooks down in a short period of time, you will be left with a pool of water in your oil, this will most definitely not be pleasant, by achieving boiling for a short time, say 5-10min you are aiding in the evaporation of this excess water content.
Cooking is an Art form.. im sorry to say but up until this point there is science in how i make my oil. at this point... its quite simply experience... over cooking your oil will destroy the consistency and very much change the high. Properly cooked iso based oil, should be gel like... eg when i grab a dab of oil, it will pull a tail, then pull the tail back up under its own viscosity.
May this guide be of use to you all and serve you all well... for those of you who would like to dispute my methods well...
argue with that.
-this document is fiction and any attempts to reproduce its contents may or may not be illegal and i will and shall not be held accountable for what you do with it
However, I have access to lots of material to make my own stuff, so here I am
