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

J

jalapeno

New member
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.
 
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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. :)
 
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.
 
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.
 
There's some dispute about that. Many ovens don't do a great job of preserving terpenes because of uneven heating.
 
> 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! ;)
 
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.
 
Usually when I do the second soak I do it for 24 hours or so and shake every few hours. As long as it all stays frozen you get that nice golden color and a much better taste. I agree with you that something may be lost in benefit from the soluble agents in the weed though atu.
 
Dutchman1 So it doesn't turn green in 24 hours? I wonder what's left? If it's not much trichome, maybe it's other stuff; this makes me think that I need to take a good whiff of the expressed buds after I've filtered the tincture out: maybe there's terpene left???? ...

Currently, I'm so totally convinced that for me, the whole plant is the whole medicine. Smoking or vaping can't compare for me. And I'm going to have to make some tincture with a mixture of the buds, to see how it compares to eating the leaves. (Plus other straight CBD-strains tincture without the interference of the narcotic Kushes!!, which give a relaxing AND intensely cerebral high).
 
Still will be golden after 24 hours atu , as long as its all kept frozen. I even pour and filter it in an upright freezer.
 
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.
 
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.
 
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😊
 
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.
 
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 :D
 
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