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Moonshine still instead of source turbo

Smoklahoma

Smoklahoma

New member
Has anyone tried to use a still to recover the alcohol during the RSO process? I purchased a 5 gal. moonshine still and a single burner electric stove off Amazon yesterday. Was thinking about putting a small nonstick pan inside to hold the tincture. Not sure if its going to work? Just didn't want to spend the money on the turbo extractor. Figured if it doesn't work out, at least I'll be able to brew something to drink.
 
I use my still for alcohol, tried to do an extraction with it, the cheap ass thing dont get hot enuf to evaporate the THC, well not much anyway. I put that in the ST and got almost pure THC, not very much mind you, a better system would do it, the ST uses heat vacuum and ice to do the job.
Give it a try and tell us how it works out using it to evaporate the alcohol off.
 
It might be a long shot, but we'll see what happens in a few weeks. Mainly trying to reclaim the alcohol to reuse. Wife eats quite a bit of chocolate bars and gummies, trying to stay away from the dispensaries.
 
Before I bought my EtOH, I made a simple still using a Ball jar in a heated water bath(hey, I live in the N GA mountains, so still technology has been in this area for a long time) with a hose fitting mated to the lid that allowed me to collect the alcohol vapor from the tincture and recondense that by running the coiled hose through an ice water bath. As long as you can prevent the tincture from reaching the boiling point of water, you'll get primarily ethanol in the reclaim.
It'll work but it's an absolute mess trying to get the extract out of the jar-aside from being able to post-process the oil with the EtOH that's the biggest advantage of that equipment.
 
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I use a countertop water distiller with adjustable temp to reclaim alcohol. Still perfecting the concentrate part but the reclaiming alcohol works quite well. Maybe not quite as specialized as the ST but seems to do the trick for less money.
 
How hot does it get during evaporation? I have a Source machine that I love, keeps the temp at 100 F or below while the everclear gets recycled.
 
alltatup said:
How hot does it get during evaporation? I have a Source machine that I love, keeps the temp at 100 F or below while the everclear gets recycled.
Click to expand...
alltatup if your question was re the countertop water distiller, the temp can be set and they give you a suggested best temp for alcohol. It is kind of funny that they advertise as a water distiller on Amazon and barely mention alcohol but all the packaging references the distilling of alcohol as a primary function. If you want to try a countertop water distiller for alcohol you have to make sure it has adjustable temperature because the temp for water is too hot. I think the way it works is that it holds the temp for as long as it can and when the temp starts to spike (because the alcohol is all gone) it shuts off. I purchased a decent alcohol hydrometer and in addition to pulling nice clear alcohol out of some qwet (with just a small hint of weed smell remaining but no colours or visible impurities) I was able to run it through the machine a couple times to strengthen it so that it now tests closer to 95% alcohol (the strongest I can buy here without a permit is 76%) so future batches will turn out much better. I think that is getting as close as I can strengthen to the max in a distiller. I think higher than that and you start needing a molecular sieve (not sure the exact strength for a sieve but somewhere north of 95%). I think the ST is probably a little more efficient because it is purpose built but it comes at a price and that extra efficiency is beyond what I need for what I want to achieve (plus I would get shot is that much showed up on the credit card without prior agreement 🙂 ).

I think I already posted this pic in a different thread but here is my device below. It is quite tall, maybe 1.5-ish feet. It also came with charcoal sachets that fit in the spout for filtering (which I don’t use) and a rack for inside the chamber i think in case you have something for sterilization so it doesn’t sit on the bottom and the steam can circulate around it (which I also don’t use 🙂). I use it outside for safety but arguably it isn’t necessary given the only way vapour can escape is at the point it goes into the jar and there are no open heating elements.

D146C9BB-119A-4F14-AFEB-68499DD9ADFC.jpeg
 
So your machine recycles the alcohol at 170 degrees? That's about 70 degrees hotter than the Source runs, and the alcohol evaporates and runs down the sides at 100 degrees. So there is no need to BOIL the alcohol to evaporate it. What I aim for whenever I make a tincture or concentrate is keeping my temps low so as to preserve as many cannabinoids and terpenes as possible.
 
It doesn’t have a pre-set temperature - It can be set to whatever temp I want to use. It has fan extraction so arguably I could go lower without slowing the process too much but for now I’ve been using it at the temp it recommended for distilling alcohol, which I think was about 75C. I use my extracts in edibles so I am not overly focused on terpenes although the temp is low enough that I think only the more volatile terpenes should be able to evaporate or denature in any great volume and I think the cannabinoids are less volatile, although it has been a while since I looked at a chart. Next time I use it I’ll try it at a lower temp and see how it runs.
 
No machine, just a plain reflux still. Wasn't sure sure what temp to start with at first. Thanks for the input, sounds like I'll try 100 deg and see what happens? I just dropped 2500 on new lights, so I was trying to save a little money.
 
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Well theres more to it than that, there are 3 boiling points when brewing alcohol, the first boil gets you acetone and other bad stuff (head and foreshots) then the heat comes up to about 180* and the good stuff is brewed (hearts), when that boil stops the heat again rises and more bad stuff is boiled off (tails). Mine does not have the heat control, I wish it did!
 
Source turbo puts alcohol in a vacuum which reduces temps needed to boil from 170f to 100f. You will never get quality extracts from a still. Yes it works but not good quality for dabbing or vape carts etc.
 
alltatup
Just ran a test batch of plain 90% alcohol (not qwet) and can confirm it won’t distill alcohol at lower than about 75c/167F. It does what I want it to do but if the goal is a lower temp distillation then this unit isn’t the one to do it. Like all things in life, you get what you pay for and with this one you don’t get the benefit of operating under vacuum. Is that worth a few hundred extra... depends. Not for me given what I use it for but for others I am sure the added cost for added control with a ST is worth it.

I would be interested in the science behind the statement that distilling at a lower temp/distillation under vacuum is necessary to make a better extract for dabbing/liquids for vape cartridges. I get that higher temp will also distill off some terpenes with higher volatility but would like to know how it impacts the process beyond that. I would have thought it would be the quality/purity of the qwet and any other ingredients that would be the main factor. I don’t dab or use liquid vapes so I am not an expert, just curiosity.
 
DeadlyFruit I thank you for sharing your research information about temps, terps and noids. I went back and reviewed a little bit, and the issue is approached in a lot of different ways, depending on exactly what kind of information someone seeks: different concentration methods, proper storage, cooking, etc.. I am most concerned about proper storage and preserving the THC etc. under the best conditions possible, and so when I make a concentrate, I don't want to degrade THC into CBN with too much heat. That doesn't just create couch lock: it creates a drooling couch zombie!!

You wrote:
  • I would be interested in the science behind the statement that at a lower temp/distillation under vacuum is necessary to make a better extract for dabbing/liquids for vape cartridges.
My understanding is that in all aspects of treating cannabis ideally to get the very best medicine/highs, heat and light are not good. So I go by that rule of thumb when I make concentrates in my Source machine. I never leave my bud out of the bud vault for very long, just sitting out in the light...

And that's why I only decarbed my bud briefly before I froze it and quick-washed it https://forum.growweedeasy.com/foru...5-clear-concentrate-cannabutter-ghee-actually

You remember that experiment? Folks loved the fudge. I ate one piece and got a nice buzz, so then I tried two and got too high and didn't try any more. And so for the fudge, I knew that I was going to have to re-melt the concentrate butter with other ingredients, and I also kept the heat very low there. It's just my rule of thumb.

The Source machine is one of my cannabis toys. As an adult, I love my adult toys, things like good cookware, good kitchen appliances, good cannabis machines!!! Since I love to mess around in the kitchen just about as much as I love to mess around in the grow room, I want the best I can afford at this point in my life (age 68). Some lucky bastard friends will inherit good shit, but hopefully not for a few more decades... at least the antiques will be better then...
 
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