How do you grind your bud and trim for tinctures, RSO, etc. ?

[jalapeno]

I have 5+ oz. of very dry, decarb'd ACDC bud and trim. I'm making high CBD, low THC RSO which helps with my wife's Parkinson's symptoms. Previous batch, I just 'massaged' the dry material by hand before adding 190 proof Ethanol. Results were good, but I'm thinking I may get a better yield if I push the dry material through an appropriately sized mesh screen so that I get more uniformly, 'correctly' sized particles.

I found stainless steel wire mesh in 1' x 2' sheets on Amazon for $22 a pop. Two interesting sizes, 8 mesh claims 2.5mm aperture size (about 0.1 inch), and 5 mesh which claims aperture of 4.5mm, (0.18 inch). Note, that the square openings have longer diagonals. I'm leaning towards the smaller size. Idea is to make sure that particles are uniformly small, but not powdery enough to pass in any quantity through the muslin filter.

I will be straining the tincture through muslin sacks. The product will be ingested, never smoked, dabbed,or vaped. I'm definitely more concerned with getting every drop of cannabinoids and terpenes out than I am about having a clear, good tasting product. As an herbalist trained in oriental medicine, my wife is used to the idea that medicine often tastes terrible, and she's used to the taste of the the previous batch. Important was that it seemed to work as well for her symptoms as the product we had been buying from the dispensary, and saved us hundreds of dollars.

[DoctorJohnson]

I don't think you need anything as fancy as a stainless steel mesh. Just popping the buds in a blender and grinding them to powder will give the maximum surface area and thus fastest extraction. Of course, that's going to aid in extracting everything. If you were just to gently wash the buds without breaking them up, you might dissolve and remove more of the surface material (trichomes) and less of the internal material (everything else, including chlorophyll), but since you (like me) are making a whole-plant tincture, that doesn't matter.

Ultimately, I don't think any of this matters all that much. If you have a good solvent and leave it in contact with the plant material long enough, it's going to solublleize and extract everything eventually anyway.

Good luck to you you and your wife.

[DW2]

Howdy jalapeno, I have been using my small Ninja chopper to 'grind' up my bud and trim (for capsules). It works well as long as one fills it over half of the way. I then use just a plain kitchen strainer (the opening is approximately .75 to 1.0 mm) to sift out the clumps. The smaller the particulate size, the better the absorption into the ethanol. I just cap up the ground bud in size 0 capsules and take them orally. The trim, I extract the resins by the dry ice hash method and cap that up as well. I do it this way for two reasons, 1st, there is always some 'leftover' after all of the extraction methods (they all say to save the leftover or edibles) and 2nd, I can not use any alcohol due to taking blood thinners, so I just grind, bake, and cap the whole bud.
You could use large paper coffee filters for the tincture and then You could grind the bud and trim very fine, to achieve greater extraction of the resins.

[Dutchman1]

If you decarboxylate and use the whole bud in capsule you will get the most benefit. Look into a NOVA for perfect decarboxylation. If you want more potent forms then you need to soak in Everclear and reduce the alcohol amount usually by fan or heating at low temperature. You have to decarboxylate or what you make will be useless. I have made tinctures for a long time now and have had great effect from what Ive made. If you need further help send me a personal message and id be happy to help.

[DoctorJohnson]

Look into a NOVA for perfect decarboxylation.

You really don't need an expensive appliance to decarb effectively. 90 minutes on a cookie sheet at 220F will do the job just fine.

[alltatup]

There's some dispute about that. Many ovens don't do a great job of preserving terpenes because of uneven heating.

[jalapeno]

I use my electric oven, but bought an inexpensive, but accurate oven thermometer which II can view it through the oven window. I read that 110 minutes at 110C (230F) was 'optimal' for decarboxylation. I put the 5oz + of material in a large stainless pot with a lid, set the oven to convect (to keep the temperature even throughout). Found that at a setting of 245F, the temperature in the oven ranged from 230 - 250F.

I found a chart showing the boiling temperatures of MANY cannabinoids and terpenes, and all were well above that range except CBG (cannabiggerol). CBG is a recent trend in medical cannabis research, but it's unlikely to be available in significant amounts in any currently readily available strains. CBGa, is the precursor for THCa and CBDa, and others in the plant, and as I understand it, it is more or less immediately transformed to these.

Here's the page with the chart: http://www.weedist.com/2012/07/tailo...oiling-points/

[DoctorJohnson]

> Many ovens don't do a great job of preserving terpenes because of uneven heating.
The gas stove in my old apartment would be a great example of that! But a modern electric oven can regulate well. If not that, then a double boiler for an hour and a half will do the job just fine. I see so many people spending so much money on budder machines and decarboxylaters that are just so unnecessary... unless you like kitchen gadgets!

[Dutchman1]

I made a batch in my oven with a THC level around 15% according to the breeder. It was kick ass tincture and everyone wanted more. So much so a friend gave me an ounce of Shiatsu Kush to make a batch. It had a breeder lever of THC supposedly at 25%. Now I know there are lots of variables with breeders and all and also individual plants but the Shiatsu Kush tincture was about half the potency of my batch. It should have been much stronger. I also reduced the liquid level even more than I normally do to intensify the effects for my " head" friend. I used an oven thermometer to make sure of the temperature and checked like every 5 minutes during cooking. The only thing I can account for the lack of potency is something was not the same during the decarboxylation. If you have to much moisture in your weed it takes longer to "cook" in the oven. If it has less moisture you need to cook it less. Who wants to screw around gambling with an ounce of weed. I bought the NOVA not as a " gadget" but as precise instrument to get precise results every time. So far that has been true. Im totally satisfied with the $ 160 I paid. I never have to hope I did it right.

[D.A.A.S.69]

Morning Dr.,I believe you ought to try a Nova one time before you call them just a gadget, you might learn something new ,you will love.

[alltatup]

What DAAS said. Who's gonna go out and buy a modern electric oven for decarbing? Still no guarantee of stable temps.

[GreenDragonRon]

If you have a sous vide, no need for a Nova. I'm saving up for a Source Turbo Extractor, I am hoping there will be a great sale on 420. Then I won't care how much Everclear I use during extraction because I'll recover 90% of it and I believe it recovers at 100 degrees F due to the vacuum.

[Tika]

Additionally freezing your grind before you add it to alcohol helps release the trichomes from the green matter. Be sure to shake about 5 minutes when you first combine and then at least 2x a day. Wait 11 days or so...Should be good to test. I personally let the green matter stay in the jar in the freezer for a few weeks...Then strain.
Just my HO😊

[Dutchman1]

Ya,, ive heard about long soaks, tastes like crap right?

[alltatup]

That's what I am concluding as well: green is good...

[Tika]

If you get past the sublingual burn of 190 proof Everclear who cares? LOL. I usually follow with triple cream Bri cheese...It shortens the dance😊
For me...Effective over Flavor.
Have fun with it.

[alltatup]

I put 2:1 orange juice:everclear tincture and hold under tongue. No burn.

[Tika]

OzBud ..Glad you liked that...Been missing you!!!!😁🌺

[OzBud]

I've been around watching but not contributing much lately.
Been flat out at work, never enough time to keep on top of the gardens and have a neglected third grow going at the moment in a back corner of the greenhouse. There's a thread floating around for it.
Just had to email seedsman too, two months now and my order hasn't arrived and no letter from customs.
Glad to see you're busy enjoying life as always

[Tika]

I finally subed you. My bad. I have had the same issues with late with them as well as AMS...They eventually make good but a pain wether snatched or whatever.
Happy to be alive...Could use less hamster wheel as well.
Delighted to see your post! Good bad ugly 🤗🍃🤗🍃 nice to know you are around.

[jalapeno]

I found a big 'sieve' at a local restaurant supply. The holes are a bit bigger than the flour sieve I have, maybe about 1.8mm. Took not much time to rub my weed through it, and the result was a nice consistency. Would roll up nicely if I was into smoking any more. I like the idea that there are small, but visible pieces of a consistent size. If I used a blender or food processor, I'm afraid I'd always either end up with some larger pieces, or just powder. Sure it's not that important, but pretty small investment, and easy to use.

Not sure due to what, but after boiling down my tincture, it's just not getting to the thickness I expect for RSO. At some point, it seems to stop boiling, and from there it reduces VERY slowly. It's sitting in an open 2oz glass vial at room temperature now, and it's loosing about 3/100 oz in weight each day. Right now, it's about 1.65 oz. in weight (50 grams), way more than I can reasonably expect in yield if there isn't some residual solvent. I'm going to start a separate thread on the question of the best ways to FINSIH making RSO.

[jalapeno]

Maybe it's the additional plant matter that's thinning out my extract. But, the basic RSO Instructions on Tearsofthephoenix don't seem any more refined than what I'm doing.

[Canyon Grower]

jalapeno In my opinion freezing doesnt do much to reduce chlorophyll. The idea is that any water still in your bud is frozen and since chlorophyll is water soluble you keep it from being disolved in your solvent. Ive done this many times and some still gets through anyway. What does work- every time- is to set out your strained and green tincture in the sun for about 20min. Your tincture will turn a lovely amber color. On the subject of decarbing. Your oven is just fine. If you reduce your tincture by gently heating it, into RSO for example, you loose lots of terps anyway. If you are really concerned about your oven, you can put your bud in a mason jar with the lid just barely snug. This allows carboxyl groups to degas (escape the jar), but your heating will be quite even. Just a few thoughts.

[Dutchman1]

Sun is a no no for any form of cannabis or tinctures. Degrades the potency.

[Canyon Grower]

Yes, sunlight can be harmful but only if you leave it in strong light for a considerable amount of time. 15-20 minutes produces NO noticeable decrease in potency but eliminates chlorophyll quite quickly. I have used this technique numerous times and its foolproof. Consider also all that nice sungrown cannabis out there whos buds are lit up all day long. Make you wonder just how terrible that sunlight really is.

[Dutchman1]

Thats why commercial growers harvest in the early am before the lights come on and some keep the plants in dark for a few days. To reduce the THC loss.

[Dutchman1]

This tincture was made last summer. No sunlight, no nasty taste, high potency. Easier than almost any recipe ive seen. Start with 10-12 ounces of liquid and reduce to anywhere from 1-3 ounces of liquid. The " oil " can be put into anything as is. Honey, Candies, chocolate, etc. Ive made all with it. I just put a few drops in my coffee in the morning and im good from 6 - 8 hours.