Dry sifting

[PeterMatanzas]

I don't use carts so I'm not much help here. I'll take a chance and say those "clumps" are plant matter that didn't get filtered out. When you're creating the wash - what's your setup? How do you prepare the cannabis and prepare the alcohol before the wash?

Picture 1 is oil that's been sitting around for a couple months, the ethanol has evaporated so it's like glue. If I want it less viscous, that container can be moved to the warming pad on the stove (pictured) and heated at a low temperature. The warming temp will cause the glue like substance to melt down. Then I mix 1:1 of MCT oil in the warmed cannabis oil, add a drop of lecithin. The output is actually an infusion, not a tincture - the infused MCT oil is loaded into capsules (edibles).

When the oil comes out of the distiller it still has enough ethanol in it that I can pour it into the silicon cupcake baking liner. That cupcake liner (food grade silicon) is moved to the warming pad on the stove.

 

[DeadlyFruit]

Thanks grouchy. I actually tried the tincture last night. I wasn’t sure how much I wanted to try as a first sample so I used a half ml…. Holy smokes that was potent stuff, I was well on my way to green-out territory when I decided sleep was probably a good option. Next time I will cut my dose back at least by half to .25ml. Brilliant stuff!

 

[DeadlyFruit]

Hi PeterMatanzas Entirely possible it is plant matter, although I get the sense there is a good bit of thc mixed in with the dark sticky goo.

A description of the process I followed:

1 - I decarbed a mix of trim and popcorn bud in closed mason jars I think it was 40 mins at 240. After that I let the jars cool and squashed up the plant matter a little - that may be a place I can improve because some of it crumbled and created almost a powder that was probably hard to filter. I sealed the jars up and put them in my freezer for a couple days.
2 - I bought 76% ethanol (the strongest we can get here) and used my distiller a couple times to bring it up to about 88-90% alcohol. I put the alcohol in the freezer as well.
3 - Once everything was in the freezer for a couple days I poured enough alcohol to cover the plant material, gave it some gentle shaking and put it in the freezer for 2 hours to sit. I filtered out the alcohol and that was my first ‘golden’ wash.
4 - I added more cold alcohol to the plant matter and let that sit for 24 hours for my second ‘green’ wash.
5 - I filtered both washes separately for a second time using a 120 bubble bag to get a little sediment that was on the bottom. There may have been a tiny bit of sediment still after that but not much.
6 - using the golden wash I put it into my distiller and distilled it, recovering the alcohol, until I thought it should still be liquidy but with a bit of alcohol left. Unfortunately it had gone farther than I realized and had just started to form that milky liquid. And some clotting/curdling of the dark sticky bits.
7 - Thinking I should try to rescue the situation I took the golden wash from the distiller and put it in one Pyrex dish and the green wash that I hadn’t tried distilling yet I put in a second Pyrex dish. I put a fan on both and covered them with a screen to keep out dirt.
8 - Both washes evaporated down to the point where I thought I had a shatter like residue on the Pyrex that I would have to scrape off (that is happened the last time I tried making it) but I realized both dishes just had an extremely thick sticky residue that was still slightly liquid. I heated up the dishes to make it more liquidy (didn’t completely liquify) and added a little vegetable oil to one and a little alcohol to the other and stirred them both. They both went into solution but with some dark sticky clumps (larger clumps in the oil and very fine clumps in the alcohol). I sucked it all up into 1ml syringes, avoiding the large clumps. There was some left over oil mixture (I ran out of syringes) with the larger sticky clumps that wouldn’t completely mix in so I decided to experiment and also added a bit of alcohol to it and that allowed even the sticky stuff to mix into solution. I think next time I am going to mix a little of both oil and alcohol into the resulting mixture to see if I can get it into full solution (while trying to keep the ratio low so it doesn’t get too weak).

Thanks so much for the pictures, it is good to be able to visualize what other people are seeing. I will post a few pics of my stuff in progress.

 

[DeadlyFruit]

The two washes after evaporating under a fan and then warming them to increase liquidity

One of the washes after adding alcohol

The second wash after adding vegetable oil (first wash empty in background) - the larger clumps are visible

The syringes of tincture

 

[Puglover1]

Color in the syringe looks decent. You need some 25ml syringes me thinks. When you said Pyrex I thought you meant a small baking dish, not a little bowl. That's from two oz's? Decent capture. From all of my oil reading and research many said to put heat underneath while using the fan. Now I wanna get a bag of ice and try my leftover-for-a-second-wash jar from the freezer. But I have seeds to start first. Did you sample the green or the gold batch last night? How long until it kicked in? It's kind of late for me to make a firecracker. Glad you had success!!

 

[DeadlyFruit]

I decarbed about 66 grams of mixed trim and popcorn bud but I only used half of it because I wanted to see how it would turn out - this volume is from just 33 grams. Now that I think I can actually produce something usable I won’t wait so long before trying it again. Maybe I’ll do another run of oil this weekend when I make some cannabudder (I have piles of trim and ABV to use up). I have some larger syringes around but I couldn’t find them (I hate knowing I have something but not knowing where!) so I had to use the 1ml syringes. I am going to try to dishwash them when I am done and re-use them. I started out with a bigger Pyrex loaf pan but decided there might be less waste if it was in a smaller bowl. You should definitely run your leftovers through a second wash - I haven’t sampled the second wash yet for strength and taste but there was definitely extract there to work with.

Last night I tried the golden wash tincture. I used .5ml. I think it started kicking in around 20 or 30 minutes, so it was pretty quick onset. It was a gradual build from there but it eventually steamrolled me. I was at the point where I knew if I didn’t get into bed and go to sleep I would have to explain to everyone here that I was high AF. Seriously, I was absolutely blotto. Next time I am dialling back to .25ml. It was a fun trip but I wasn’t looking forward to explaining I was high to the point of being non-functional 🙂. I’m pretty sure I had an actual hangover this morning.

 

[Puglover1]

Use etoh to clean the syringes? I think a Pyrex pie plate, something more shallow, is what I'd use here. You can just put the oil in the center of the pan. One time I made firecrackers with ABV, my scale batts must've needed changing. Walking down the hallway to the bedroom at 3 a.m. was pretty trippy.

 

[bmeuptoo]

Hi, I have a newbie question related to decarbing. Will it work with "fresh" bud or shake, not dried. I don't care about the harshness, I'm going to try making tincture or oil. Thanks

 

[Puglover1]

OMG three ounces?? I think I'd be trying to recapture and clean it somehow.

 

[DeadlyFruit]

bmeuptoo yes you can for sure directly decarb bud that wasn’t dried/cured (some people do it because they believe it to be a more ‘full spectrum/live plant type product). I personally would suggest drying/curing your bud trim/shake. I generally make edibles so harsh smoke isn’t a big thing for me but you can greatly improve the taste of your edibles if you go through the full process of dry/cure, decarb and then extract your cannabinoids with a freezer QWET. If you are making butter then it may be less practical to do an extra step with a QWET instead of just boiling it in butter but it would help make for a less ‘green’ product (less chlorophyll, plant lipids and generally a better colour). With that said I go the easy route with butter because I’m the only one using it in my house 🙂

In short, yes you can but I suggest you don’t, even for edibles.

EDIT it may take slightly longer to decarb fresh bud because of the higher water content (my assumption is the higher moisture will keep the plant material from coming up to full temperature until most of the moisture is gone due to it constantly evaporating, acting in the same way as a swamp cooler)

 

[Puglover1]

PeterMatanzas Can cold pressed hemp oil be used as a carrier for edibles? I bought some to try on a senior rescue pug, it's sitting in my fridge. My pancreas can't handle etoh tincture, I'd like an oil that I can use in any edible recipe. I wouldn't think a bit of canna hemp oil would alter fudge or brownies, or spaghetti sauce, etc ?

 

[DeadlyFruit]

I’m sure Peter will know more but just to contribute, I know you can use hemp or any other type of oil to be a carrier. I have some grey market oil in my cupboard that uses hemp oil as a carrier. As to whether it will harm the recipe, I think that has more to do with the recipe - if the recipe contains an oil (or the final product wouldn’t be harmed by an oil) you can just swap out some of the regular/vegetable oil for cannabis/hemp oil (it is probably such a small amount that it isn’t likely to harm things but check the recipe).

During my trials and tribulations of trying to get a decent pure cannabis oil (with nothing else added) I started doing something that I think would be more efficient for edible makers. Rather than making oil, sucking it into a syringe and then keeping that until you cook something I now make the QWET and keep that. When I am ready to cook I recover much of the ethanol but not quite all (to keep it easy to work with) and pour the remaining liquid into the pot/pan I am cooking in and do the final reduction to pure oil there. When it is done I just cook whatever I am cooking right in that same pot. Given I suck at making oil this takes away all of the guesswork and it is also more efficient because you don’t have the loss from trying to get all of the oil from the pan into the syringe and then the syringe into the next pan. There is also no ethanol or other oil to worry about. I made two killer batches of gummies last week this way that turned out really great. I actually have to dial back how much I put in because at the strength I made I can only take about 1/3 of a gummy at a time.

 

[PeterMatanzas]

Puglover1 yes, and DeadlyFruit is right, any oil is a carrier. I use sesame oil a lot.

 

[Puglover1]

Thanks, @PeterMatanzas

DeadlyFruit So you have no idea of your gummies' strength until you try one? I like that. When I finished reducing and syringed up I used store-bought gummies, rubbed them all over to clean out the pan's remnants. But once I threw up big pat of butter in the pan to clean it and wow was it strong. How do you just eat 1/3 of a gummy? I'd probably throw it in a capsule or the taste would make me want more - sweet tooth here.

 

[DeadlyFruit]

Puglover1 I have a general ‘sense’ of how strong they should be but given I am using trim and popcorn there is a lot of guesswork involved. Also, since my oil making skills are a bit weak (but improving lately!) there is sometimes more waste than might be normal for others (this also is improving!). This all changes the calculation and without a handy lab it is hard to know (really wish we could just bring samples to a local lab for a reasonable price). From the top of my head I used the assumptions that 33g of trim and popcorn to be about 5-10% (call it 8% as the trim was high quality and mixed with a good portion of popcorn), my extraction to be about 80% efficient and the gummy cooking to again be 80% efficient (20% waste). These could be wrong but hopefully in the ballpark. With those assumptions, 33g = 33,000 mg. At 8% strength that becomes 2,640mg of thc. With an 80% efficiency on the extraction that reduces to 2,112mg and with 80% efficiency in the cooking step that reduces again to 1,690mg. Divide that into 30 gummies for a total of 56mg thc in each. One third of a gummy is 19mg thc. That amount is a definite buzz but still functional. That batch gave me 90 buzzed but functional doses.

With all that said, yep that first taste of a new batch is always a bit of an adventure 🙂. As for portioning one gummy, I just take a knife to it and weigh the portion. The mold is pretty large so I am not surprised. I am with you on the sweet tooth - one reason for making them weaker is so I can eat more!

I made two different batches, using a store bought gummy mix intended for cannabis for one and the GWE recipe for the other. One turned out extremely firm (stale gummy texture) while the other was closer to a fresh store bought gummy. I added a few drops of lecithin to the GWE recipe which is probably what made it so firm. I should have just followed the recipe more closely (and cooked it for less time and with less stirring).

 

[Puglover1]

DeadlyFruit Last year a gal used my kitchen to make gummies for herself and her disabled daughter, she bought 2 syringes of dispo RSO - THC & CBD strains. They worked for me. I still have all of her molds and such here, all I need is the oil. I can live w/o lecithin for now, I have Knox, Jello and I might make some condensed Kool-Aid to match the Jello's flavor. With dispensary edibles it takes 75-100 mg for me, I didn't realize you made Big gummies. She has small bear molds, leaf molds and one other, so 2 or 3 different sizes. Dispo was selling nice strain-specific cartridges of FSHO but I haven't seen any lately. Might have to buy some ice and finish off that once-washed jar of good bud in my freezer. I don't want to wait for sub-zero outdoor temps to arrive. Thanks.

 

[DeadlyFruit]

Puglover1 if you come across a good gummy recipe let me know. The two I tried were pretty good but always happy to learn some new tricks. If you want links to the recipe I followed and the mix I used for the second batch let me know. I should have mentioned my 86 year old mother who had never in her life tried cannabis asked to try my gummies. I gave her a tiny piece before bed and she said it made her sleep like a baby. She asked me to leave her with a few doses. If you’d ever met my mother you would know that her to trying cannabis goes in the win column.

My gummies are indeed pretty big. They are weed leaf molds I found on Amazon and they can contain gummies that weigh about 6-10 grams depending on how full you fill it. I figure my dose to get some effect but stay relatively functional is about 18mg but that is mostly based on the calculations I showed so they may not be accurate. I may be underestimating my tolerance lately. I will have to pickup some RSO from the dispo where the thc has been lab tested and try myself again to see how accurate my calculations seem.

 

[Puglover1]

DeadlyFruit I just saw your q, it may have been since answered. pYur is hemp oil based, I just went into the kitchen to look at the bottle but I did 2 dabs and weighed my pitiful autos' dry weights. Forgot the pyur. Next time. Soon.

 

[Puglover1]

DeadlyFruit I was searching and re-reading. We may have subzero temps again in a week or so. I kind of like his idea, instead of the thick, sticky syringes of oil. "During my trials and tribulations of trying to get a decent pure cannabis oil (with nothing else added) I started doing something that I think would be more efficient for edible makers. Rather than making oil, sucking it into a syringe and then keeping that until you cook something I now make the QWET and keep that. When I am ready to cook I recover much of the ethanol but not quite all (to keep it easy to work with) and pour the remaining liquid into the pot/pan I am cooking in and do the final reduction to pure oil there. When it is done I just cook whatever I am cooking right in that same pot. Given I suck at making oil this takes away all of the guesswork and it is also more efficient because you don’t have the loss from trying to get all of the oil from the pan into the syringe and then the syringe into the next pan. There is also no ethanol or other oil to worry about. I made two killer batches of gummies last week this way that turned out really great." - What kind of oil did you use for those gummies?

Hey, I have the bottom of a big bag of trim from a year ago in the freezer, it was dried then frozen (with some popcorn that's already been used for butter, ran out of jars). It's rather fine, like dispo shake, do you have any tweaks for decarbing shake? I'm trying to empty my freezer somewhat, plan to use empty glass dispo jars from 1/8ths to measure out 3-4 ounces of EverClear for QWET. Less volume might get colder, faster, and that'd be one step done ahead of time, ready to pour. Those jars would be nice for storing un-reduced QWET.

 

[DeadlyFruit]

Hey Puglover1 sorry I am late responding. I’m on the forum less often as I am between grows. Given I have a couple pounds of bud (or more) on my shelf taking up space I thought I should hold off. Thinking my next indoor grow might be carrots while I try to make a dent in my stash 🙂

We haven’t had many days of subzero Fahrenheit here but definitely a lot of subzero Celsius recently. My hands are blistered from shovelling the last dump of snow we just got.

Re your question on the type of oil I used in my gummies - I can’t remember exactly what I’ve done in all of my batches (sometimes I throw in stuff to use it up) but with one batch I used up some oil I made - basically just RSO with a small amount of MCT and a couple drops of lecithin if I remember correctly. These days I mostly just make qwet and distill out most of the ethanol, move the still liquid qwet to my cooking pot and gently heat out the remainder of the ethanol with no carrier oil added and immediately cook the gummy mix in the same pot. I find it the easiest way to do it with the least amount of waste. I sometimes still add a couple drops of lecithin to help it all stay together but it isn’t completely necessary if you have your recipe dialled in.

Sounds like an idea to have some ethanol pre measured in smaller amounts to help it chill. I have a chest freezer so I just leave my bottle in there all the time so it isn’t a concern for me. After distilling it out of the qwet I put the ethanol in a mason jar and store that back in the freezer as well so it is always ready to go. I tend to use trim (often with some high cbd bud added) when I make qwet so I find I need larger amounts of ethanol than others might. I store the unreduced qwet in mason jars back in the freezer. If I could do it with less alcohol using the smaller containers would definitely save space.

With decarbing trim I just treat it like chopped up bud. I cure it like bud and store it in jars for a period. When I am ready I put the sealed mason jars in the oven to decarb and store those in the freezer after they cool. Sometimes I will instead put it on foil on a cookie sheet and cover it with foil if I have a lot, mainly to keep down the smell. I treat my popcorn like trim with no special steps beyond chopping it a bit. The only special advice for fine trim is that it will require more effort filtering, otherwise it will decarb in the same way. I do find that some of the icky sticky stays on the glass of the mason jar or stuck to the foil - in my head this is probably melted kief. When I use jars I will sometimes shake up some fresh ethanol in the jar I did my decarb and wash in to be sure I am not leaving anything behind, but perhaps I am just being overly retentive.