Alcohol Tincture

[true]

I would just like to say this thread is wonderful! I've been doing research on tinctures too and I would like to add one thing:

Alcohol tinctures have a longer shelf life and kill mold (for those of you who recycled some infected buds) so keep that in mind if you plan on storing your tincture for a long time.

I am wondering, will heating and/or freezing my ALCOHOL tincture increase potency? I've heard mixed reviews.

I am also wondering if anyone has tried using FRESH trim and FRESH buds for their tincture? This is what I am doing because from what I've read, cannabinoids break down as bud dries, and I want to get every last bit of the plant. Is this counterintuitive/fallacious?

I've also read that grape extract can aid in the extraction process? Any word on this?

*One tip when grinding your bud in a coffee grinder: Grind your fresher/greener trim first (to clean out any spent coffee grounds you may have missed) then grind your highest quality material second. This way you can scrape off the resins left along the side of the coffee grinder, its kinda like finger hash Finish by grinding a bit of fresh or dry stem. All of the remaining resins on the sides will have stuck to the fibrous ground stems, making the cleaning process much more efficient and easy.

 

[grunt]

Hey guys, i'm a newie here.

thanks for starting this thread, Hobbes, i really want to make tincture 2 weeks out from exams, now .
I've got a couple of questions, though.

I plan to do a hot extraction, but i don't have a coffee grinder. what can i use to achieve similar results?
would there be any difference if i used a convection oven? i figured since it's portable i can take it outside (less stink), but the air circulation will throw off my baking time a little bit. plus the fan might just blow all my weed everywhere so i'll have to make a little foil envelope or something to keep it in.
also, about how much rum (volume wise) is in an oz? I'm australian, and maybe it's just an american thing, but our alcohol is sold by the volume.

Cheers
grunt.

 

[Bucket head]

 

[Hobbes]

Hey guys, sorry for taking so long to get back to the thread.

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"I plan to do a hot extraction, but i don't have a coffee grinder. what can i use to achieve similar results?"

A mortar and pestle once the plant material is bone dry. It'll grind into a flour easily. You could use a steel pot or bowl and a wooden dowel rounded on one end.

Another excellent option would be a rolling pin. Probably the simplest, but it won't give you as fine a flour as a M & P. Plant matter must be bone dry.

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"would there be any difference if i used a convection oven? i figured since it's portable i can take it outside (less stink), but the air circulation will throw off my baking time a little bit. plus the fan might just blow all my weed everywhere so i'll have to make a little foil envelope or something to keep it in."

Convection oven outdoors is great, I often use a hotplate for boiling bud and dregs out doors.

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"also, about how much rum (volume wise) is in an oz? I'm australian, and maybe it's just an american thing, but our alcohol is sold by the volume"

1 oz alcohol ~28.37 ml

A standard shot of alcohol in Brittan is 25 ml.

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[Hobbes]

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Hey True

"I am wondering, will heating and/or freezing my ALCOHOL tincture increase potency? I've heard mixed reviews."

My understanding - once the THC is decarboxalized (by air/water/bake cure) any additional heat will degrade the THC, making the tincture more sedative and fuzzy headed until too much heat destroys all of the THC over time. Freezeing will slow or stop the degradation of THC but will not aid in decarboxylization. The only method of freezing that may help with potency (I haven't read anything on it yet, speculation) is a cold alcohol extraction in the freezer below 0 C.

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"I am also wondering if anyone has tried using FRESH trim and FRESH buds for their tincture? This is what I am doing because from what I've read, cannabinoids break down as bud dries, and I want to get every last bit of the plant. Is this counterintuitive/fallacious?"

I do, but how I prepare the fresh bud depends on the method that I'm using. If the method has enough heat and time to decarboxalize the THC during the process then I put the fresh bud in as is. If it's a cold or warm method I bake the bud (in a toaster oven, in my grow room, beside my carbon filter) to do a quick cure. The cannaboids must be cured somehow before you ingest.

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"I've also read that grape extract can aid in the extraction process? Any word on this?"

No, but if the grape extract is acidic it may help dissolve the resin quicker. Thanks, that's some good stuff to think about. I use grape seed oil as a medium, it doesn't dissolve resin any quicker than olive oil. I'll pick up some grape seed extract.

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[Hobbes]

Saw this. Interesting with oil.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wqje5StAhCI&feature=related

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That's a great video, thanks Grinch!

Make a light grape seed oil tincture and cut it with alcohol for quick absorption. Fantastic!!

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[true]

Hey just wanted to keep this awesome thread going by adding a VERY useful link I've found while reserching.

THC Vaporization points:

http://www.cannabis-vaporizer.com/marijuana-vaporization-temperatures.php

(c to f conversion: http://www.wbuf.noaa.gov/tempfc.htm)

Also, I believe that heating pads DO aid in decarb. for the old fashioned method because it has made my tincture much more 'milky' since using it.

For reference, Sunbeam heating pad surface temps:

http://www.sunbeam.com/Faqs.aspx?section=&fid=74

Thanks to Sweet Baby Ruth & Hobbes for inspiring me to go ahead and try this. Nice info on the grape seed oil, let me know how the seed extract works, if at all.

Does anyone know if its possible to boil everclear @ 225F? Or will it ignite? I know the boiling point of alcohol is 172F...

 

[vh13]

Does anyone know if its possible to boil everclear @ 225F? Or will it ignite? I know the boiling point of alcohol is 172F...

Maybe a good pressure cooker can contain those gasses and raise the boiling point. Don't know how much though, just that they can cook beans MUCH faster then stove-top.

Make sure you have a good one, don't want the top to blow off and release a huge cloud of alcohol vapor. Test a new pressure cooker on a batch of beans or something first. Definitely do it outside as well, so if it does blow no worries.

 

[Hobbes]

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DIY: make your own Press Bowl

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I've read that there's a fair bit of butter (glycerine/alcohol/oil) left in the marijuana ball after hand squeezing and a press bowl would help get most of it out. I bought a 4" garlic press to see how it would work and it collapsed the first time I used it. The least expensive Press Bowl I could find online was $90 usd so I thought of how I could make one quick and cheap.

I salvaged the perforated bowl and pressing pad from the Garlic Press and picked up a C clamp at Canadian Tire. The metal pot is a dipper with a thick steel bottom and the cup is from a metal thermos to add strength to the pressing pad. I wrap the dreg ball in 3 layers of cheese cloth to keep the dreg flour from pressing through the holes in the garlic cup. I'm looking for a large metal coffee filter to line the garlic press cup, to keep the tiny sediment out of the butter. I've got to find an inflexible metal disk to replace the cup for pressing pad reinforcment, the C clamp bends it in the center.

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I started with about 165 ml of butter and got about 25 ml from the Press Bowl - about 15% of the total used and almost 25% more butter than if I hadn't pressed. And hopefully the most potent butter. 75 ml butter from the 1 gallon bubble bag; and 30 ml from the metal strainer. In reverse order from the extraction order. The next picture shows the 3 grades of butter, each hardened in a 250 ml measuring cup; below is each of the tools used to extract the respective butter disk above.

. . . Drip drain, hand squeeze, bowl press . . .

This time I was making Lava Butter with 2 cups of Volcano dregs (coffee grinder-ed to just under 1 cup of flour) and about 165 ml of butter - so I could make two trays of brownies with 1/3 cup of Lava Butter per tray.

It's important to crank the handle as hard as you can (of course), then put the whole press in the oven at ~80 degrees C (buy a C clamp without baked on enamel if possible, no plastic or paint in the oven). The butter has probably started to harden by this time, the heat will liquefy it again. It takes time for the butter in the middle of the ball to make its way through, you'll probably re-tighten a half dozen times before you have most of the butter out.

The large garlic press was $10 at the grocery store (or walmart); the C clamp was $15 at the hardware store. Get a large C clamp, you need a big handle to crank some press on. If you can fashion a larger handle you'll be able to crank harder and if you have a vise you can make the clamp stationary while you tighten.

Can anyone come up with a better design, a way to attach a larger handle; a way to vise the clamp so it's stationary; how to recover a larger percentage of used butter; where to buy silk screen in small towns (craft shops don't carry it); etc. I lost a lot of butter in my bubble bag, I'd like to just use silk screen so the butter will rinse off in hot water. I have to scrape the pots and measuring cups better as well, a lot of butter to be recovered. The other thing I have to watch is the temperature and length of simmer, I've been reading through this forum to improve my cooking.

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[true]

Haha, loving the clamp. Just got done straining mine by hand for the first time. It was very trial and error and lets just say my hands were completely green and I ended up falling asleep 45 minutes later

Word to the noobs: be organized before straining, it can be messy.

What I did was just press two metal bowls together, agitating the shake ball each time in between. As far as your clamp goes hobbes.. All I can think of is building a frame for it out of wood, to hold it in place. As for the screen, good luck I have the same problem. Also, you MAY be able to find an industrial sized washer for the metal piece. Other than that, I found that by making smaller shake balls, I was able to squeeze more out.

Any tips on how much to reduce the tincture? Thicker or thinner, syrupy or creamy viscosity?
Also, should I let all the shake from the shake balls dry out first now that I'm done using them?

 

[The Grinch]

Why don't you just dry the bud/chop out and then smoke it, instead of trying to squeeze every last drop out...
Once the alcohol had dried up, wouldn't it be like bud in hash/honey oil?

 

[true]

Why don't you just dry the bud/chop out and then smoke it, instead of trying to squeeze every last drop out...
Once the alcohol had dried up, wouldn't it be like bud in hash/honey oil?

Because that defeats the entire purpose, which is to extract the active ingredients without smoking. Also, I would just like to say that I just tested my first batch and an eyedropper of the shit I just made will have you blazed in ways you never thought imaginable. TRUST ME. The old fashioned method is extremely potent!

 

[The Grinch]

Sorry mate, that was less a statement, amd more a question. I finished a batch 2 weeks ago, and am currently letting some of the alcohol evaporate out, but am left with all this volcano leftovers covered in the dried out tincture and was considering smoking it instead of chucking it, like honey bud. Anybody have any experience?

 

[the church man]

what is the shelf time for these methods? i might to half alcohol and half glycerine but i'm wondering for how long do these keep? i would prefer to store them in a dark place, no fridge availability.

what do you guys think?


*subscribed*

 

[potka]

alcohol tinctures last pretty much forever from what i've heard. Glycerine has a pretty short shelf life. I heard when using glycerin it's better to keep it refrigerated after making it or else it wont last too long.

 

[potka]

also i had a question I used a mix of the warm and cold extract methods. First i ground up a little less then 3 grams of herb and used that with the warm method. But i was left with a golden amber liquid. I preheated the cannabis by using a lightbulb vap LOL but it worked. I'm dissapointed it came out this color instead of the green i see. But i assume it's because i only used 80 proof vodka. SO after straining all the herb out i opened the grinder up and plopped some kief in there. And followed the cold extraction method, which is now sitting in the freezer. My question is will the 80 proof not turn green? also now that i'm doing the cold method straining the kief out seems like too much of a chore, since the plant pieces are so tiny. Would it be harmful to consume the kief? ALSO in the cold method i was wondering if i should keep it in the freezer as it doesn't exactly specify in the instructions.

 

[Hobbes]

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"I'm dissapointed it came out this color instead of the green i see. But i assume it's because i only used 80 proof vodka"

That and perhaps the time, a longer extraction will leach out more chlorophyll - where the green color comes from.

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"My question is will the 80 proof not turn green?"

You're going to need more time and cannabis with a lower percentage alcohol. If you can't get Everclear and don't like the taste of 151 proof rum you could distill vodka into a higher proof. You don't want the green, it's part of what tastes awful. The green just indicates a lot of extraction has been done.

http://www.stillsmart.co.uk/

"also now that i'm doing the cold method straining the kief out seems like too much of a chore, since the plant pieces are so tiny. Would it be harmful to consume the kief?"

No, just leave it. The longer it's there the more can be disolved by the alcohol, it will be absorbed in the digestive tract rather than sub sublingually

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"ALSO in the cold method i was wondering if i should keep it in the freezer as it doesn't exactly specify in the instructions."

Yes the freezer.

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[potka]

Thank you for answering! just one more question haha
would you recommend putting the mixture in a hot water bath?
i did it with the bud and it seemed to make a bit of difference

 

[The Grinch]

When i bought glycerinne it had a used by date 6 months after the purchase date.
Hopefully when you buy yours it will have some sort of expiration indication.

 

[newbie grow420]

ok i posted my results on my thread but going to put it here too.

my 114lbs ass can not press it like herb press can and for $79 cant beat it.

I tried it with just squishing two bowls at first but all it did was (1)make a mess, and (2) left me with a bunch of wet herbs. so then i put the stuff i couldnt get out by me siting, standing, leaning, twisting, pressing, on, into the press. then got the rest out, the herb was dry. i used the stuff i hand squeezed and it was ok. but the stuff that came off the press was OMG good. well i back that press 100% call it a waist of money if you want but im a believer . not to mention its so much easier to just put it in the bowls and stick it in the herb press and turn the screw.

Couldnt you have just used a C clamp and get the same effect