Need Help: Extracting THC Using Alcohol

[highsakite]

wow, no effects at all...bummer...
i've never tried using Everclear for this. i have used both Ethanol (medical grade 97%) alcohol and Isopropyl (again 97%). i have made batches from good bud, bag shake and crappy seeded bud that was impossible to smoke, and the end product always gave a high.
one thing i never do is decarboxilate the smoke beforehand (i know, every thread says to do so, but i don't have an oven so we make do, and besides, you decarb it when you smoke it...) and i'm not so sure about leaving it for three days to soak in the alcohol. THC is pretty much the first substance to be taken up by the alcohol, leaving it for three days may draw out undesirable substances. i left one batch in the fridge in Iso for 24 hours and there was no difference in how effective the high was to a wash of 2-3 minutes of shaking the gear in Iso and straining it immediately...do you freeze everything for 24hrs beforehand? What do you mean when you say 'cooked it down'?
the fact that the bud got you high but the extract didn't, is very weird. i've never heard of this before. maybe the temperature of the decarboxilation was too high? or too long? have you tried making some without the decarbing?

 

[tpalmer7833]

wow, no effects at all...bummer...
i've never tried using Everclear for this. i have used both Ethanol (medical grade 97%) alcohol and Isopropyl (again 97%). i have made batches from good bud, bag shake and crappy seeded bud that was impossible to smoke, and the end product always gave a high.
one thing i never do is decarboxilate the smoke beforehand (i know, every thread says to do so, but i don't have an oven so we make do, and besides, you decarb it when you smoke it...) and i'm not so sure about leaving it for three days to soak in the alcohol. THC is pretty much the first substance to be taken up by the alcohol, leaving it for three days may draw out undesirable substances. i left one batch in the fridge in Iso for 24 hours and there was no difference in how effective the high was to a wash of 2-3 minutes of shaking the gear in Iso and straining it immediately...do you freeze everything for 24hrs beforehand? What do you mean when you say 'cooked it down'?
the fact that the bud got you high but the extract didn't, is very weird. i've never heard of this before. maybe the temperature of the decarboxilation was too high? or too long? have you tried making some without the decarbing?

Much of my confusion comes from the lack of consistency in various preparation instructions I find on the Net. Some say soak for 5 minutes, some say a month, others say everything in between. I decarboxylated because I'd like to move away from smoking. Lung problems. Again there is a wide range of "information" out there on decarboxylation as far as time and temp is concerned. The average seemed to be 240° for 45 min - hour, although some suggest lower temps or shorter times. No, I did not freeze the buds. When strained, the process yielded a green tincture. I first tried absorbing the tincture under my tounge. No reaction. Then tried directly investing in liquid form. No reaction. Re: cooking down: I took a portion of the tincture and cooked off most of the alcohol leaving a thick, viscous oil. I tried smoking this mixed with some low quality weed. Again, no effect. Arrrrg. This is my second attempt to find an alternative to smoking. I also tried making THC infused coconut oil. It also turned out to be worthless for getting a high. I've now wasted a HUGE amount of money on product trying to create a smoking alternative, wthl completely failed results. Very frustrated. HELP!

 

[highsakite]

yes, there are many different recipes for hash/oil on the net, a lot i feel are bogus and maliciously misleading, written by dorks who want you to waste your precious time, money and buds. (seriously, some of them are well fk'd up, if you haven't done this before, you could kill yourself, or worse, attract the attention of the filth, if you follow what some of them recommend) if you are after gear to eat, then you want to be making cannabutter with your buds. the oil tincture can be eaten but the butter would serve you better...again, though, beware of the myriad of recipes for the process, check out some of the vids on youtube for some easy, straightforward ones, i use the double boiler method, myself. works well every time. i've never tried using coconut oil to extract THC, but butter does the job well, chocolate also works and baking with either of them is easy too. bestwell.

 

[Tyleraw96]

What would the difference be when vaping alcohol instead of drinking it? What if I just use the heating method outdoors with a lid and release valve/hose and I make a tincture instead and just evap some of the alcohol and I'll have a alcohol vape and a thc drink.

 

[jacksonh]

I think this is a solid method and your right on. Some things to consider, used high grain alcohol if you state will let you access it. The max alcohol you can buy phsically without additives is 98% anything more than that, it is denatured. Try to avoid rubbing OH.

To evaporate faster, increase the surface area of the fluid you are trying to dry.

do not cook it just open a window and put a fan in front of it to avaporate it off heres what I do


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I make hash oil using this method

How to make hashish, increase the potency of your marijuana, and salvage bad weed that was unfit to smoke.

Do you want to know how to make hash the easiest way? It is very simple, and this method works for just about any grade of marijuana/cannabis, even clippings, trim, and plain old bunk.

Do you have some weed laying around that wasn't good enough to smoke? This method will salvage whatever can be salvaged from lousy weed, greatly improve its potency, and even turn bunk into something that is useful (for emergencies, anyway)..

Step 1. Get some alcohol

The active ingredients in marijuana dissolve readily in alcohol. You can find rubbing alcohol (isopropyl alcohol) at any drug store. It is cheap -- usually about a dollar per bottle.

BE SURE YOU DO NOT GET DENATURED ALCOHOL. Denatured alcohol contains ingredients that can be POISON. "Denaturing" is a process where they add ingredients to make the alcohol unsuitable for human consumption. If you use "denatured" alcohol, you will wind up with hashish that is unsafe to consume, and it will probably taste terrible, too.

If you cannot find alcohol in your drug store, you can also use any high-alcohol content rum or vodka, such as Everclear. If you are going to use rum or vodka you should note that the alcoholic beverage may contain additional ingredients that may modify the flavor of the resulting hashish, or make it harsher to smoke. Plain alcohol is to be preferred, and plain alcohol is cheaper.

Please be extremely careful when you are handling alcohol. Do not smoke or get near open flame while you are doing this process. Alcohol can be extremely flammable, and it burns with a flame that is often hard to see until it is too late. Some methods elsewhere recommend evaporating the alcohol off by heating the mixture on a stove. I would NOT recommend that. For one thing, the alcohol vapor can be extremely flammable and, because the flames are hard to see, you can have a big problem (like the whole house burning down) before you know it. For another, the alcohol vapor can get you very seriously drunk in a hurry. Seriously. You can a couple of good whiffs and be staggering.

Step 2. Grind up your weed.

You will get the most out of this process if your cannabis is ground as finely as possible. You can just soak the leaves whole and get satisfactory results, but grinding the weed will allow the alcohol to get to all the plant fiber to get the most out of it. Just put the weed in a blender and let it run until the material is thoroughly pulverized.



Step 3. Soak the marijuana in alcohol

Put the marijuana in a jar that can be sealed tightly and pour the alcohol over it. Put enough alcohol in so there is enough to cover the marijuana completely, and then some. Let it sit for about 24 hours. By the end of 24 hours, the alcohol will have turned distinctly green. (If you have real bunk, the alcohol may turn brown.)

Step 4. Filter out the plant fiber

Pour the liquid through a coffee filter into another jar. This will remove the plant fiber and give you a green alcohol mixture that contains alcohol and the active ingredients from the marijuana.

Step 5. Let the alcohol evaporate.

The final step is to pour the mixture into a bowl and let it evaporate. Depending on the amount of alcohol in the mixture, it might take a day or so.

Some other methods recommend heating the mixture on the stove to evaporate off the alcohol. This can be dangerous, as described above. It is far better to just be patient and let the alcohol evaporate naturally. It takes a little longer, but it is far safer and a lot less work.

This will leave you with a form of hashish. The result will be a thick green kind of tar. It can be difficult to work with or smoke, just because it is so concentrated and sticky, but it is useable at this point.

I use 99% isopropyl alcohol and let it set 24 hrs then strain it thru cheese cloth and evap the alcohol off using a fan near an open window so it is more like hash.
I was wondering if theres anything I can use the left over grounds for.
any ideas would be great.
thanks and enjoy
papaduckie

 

[VladimirPutin]

Hmmmm...

Be careful fellahs,

I don't see many DIY extract threads on this website because many unfortunate people have let the vapors condense enough near a spark or open flame and cause an explosion, police show up, people go to court and then tell the judge they read how to do it on 420 magazine.

The best extracts can be made using the ice hash technique and you don't even need those bubble bags, I've used pantyhose.

Comes out dank and melty every time.

Or you could just put your stuff in a bottle of alcohol for ingestion and do "green dragon". It's safer and needs no heat.

Good luck...

V

 

[rshackleferd]

I've done this sooo many times, I buy the 99 percent rubbing alcohol at Wally. I then put a wad of DRIED leaves and trim in a blender then pour the alcohol over the trim/leaves and then blend it till it turns into a green mush. I then get a large pvc pipe with one of the ends taped up with a coffee filter then fill up the pipe and let it drain into a large Pyrex dish. I do not wait I immediately pour the mixture after it has blended. I then put that Pyrex dish somewhere safe and warm so the alcohol will evaporate. After it has evaporated I use a large cutting razor. to scrape the hash oil off the pan. I smoke this the same way I dab, I also put a small amount the size of a grain of rice on a cracker and eat it before work. Best high in the world. Eating this hash oil is awesome, it's easy to conceal no need to inhale a bunch of garbage and it's not like eating weed. It takes only ten minutes or less to kick in.

 

[tomryder]

If I were to follow this method but use a voile curtain (220 microns ish..) would the result be more like squidgy black than rso? Thinking of doing this as ice extraction always leaves lots of resin still on the trim.

 

[Jakok420]

YES, Ethel alcohol is the type you want to use for extraction. Isopropal alcohol is ethel alcohol.

This is NOT true.

Methyl alcohol CH3OH (methanol aka wood alcohol) is NOT safe for human consumption unless you are a desperate homeless alcoholic who has given up on life. As little as two tablespoons (1 fl oz / 30 mL) can result in blindness and/or death.

Ethyl alcohol C2H5OH (ethanol aka booze hooch etc) is safe for humans to consume provided that it is NON-denatured (the only kind bars and liquor stores serve, but beware buying "pure" ethanol online as some of these products are denatured and thus toxic to humans / for industrial purposes only).

Propyl alcohol C3H7OH (isopropyl aka rubbing alcohol) is NOT safe for human consumption unless you are aforementioned desperate alcoholic. While not nearly as toxic as methanol, even small amounts can cause irritation of lungs and mucous membranes, bleeding of stomach and intestines, so why risk it?

Three very different alcohols with increasing number of carbon and hydrogen atoms. Three very different effects on the body.

Strongly recommend using high purity ethanol such as 190 proof (95%) Everclear. "Regular" spirits like vodka/gin/tequila/etc are typically only 80 proof (40%) therefore almost 60% water, which will not do the trick. Everclear isn't too hard to find as even BevMo carries it.

 

[MadScience]

I use cheap grain alcohol. I would never use rubbing (Isopropyl) alcohol, that stuff is poison.

You want to use a lot of shake. I save it up from trimmings across multiple grows, and store it in the freezer. When I accumulate a solid brick, I cook up my famous pot sugar cookies!

My process:

1) Place your shake in a good high speed blender, add grain alcohol to cover. Blend on medium for about five minutes. You should end up with something that looks like a thick green smoothie.

2) Set a one-cup coffee filter holder with one of those v-shaped coffee filters from the grocery store on top of a tall glass that can hold the volume of liquid you've used.

3) Put paper towels down around the glass to catch splashes and drips - the extract will dye anything it touches green! Especially kitchen counter tops! (Household bleach or bleach spray will clean this up if you spill or drip a little.)

4) Poor the blended mixture into the coffee filter and let it drain. This can take upward of 30 minutes or more.

5) Lift the filter with green blob out of the holder, fold the top over, and wrap it in a few more filters so that it is "sealed", then *gently* squeeze the remaining alcohol into your glass. Be careful not to split the paper filters.

You're done with the blob now, toss down the garbage disposal or bury it in the garden.

6) Place a large, clean, deep sauce pan on the stove and set the stove to its lowest setting. (Like "warm" or "1".) Turn on the hood fan or open windows or doors or whatever, make sure the alcohol vapor has a place to go. Poor the green mixture in the pan.

NOTE you do not want to rush this part of the process. Do not simmer or cook this stuff, you just want to warm it up so it'll evaporate off over a period of a few hours.

Let this sit for a few hours evaporating. You should start to see 'shiny' resin collect on the sides of the pan. There will also be globs of green resin collecting on the bottom and surface as you progress. Evaporate all the liquid, and don't rush it! It's easy to burn the resin if you apply too much heat.

7) Once dry, add a half stick of good butter. Use a spatula to slowly melt and then mix the butter with the resin. This can take some time, you'll have to rub the sides and bottom of the pan to get the resin to mix in. Keep the stove on low.

Let the butter mixture cool a little before you mix it into whatever you want to bake. I personally like sugar cookies which usually call for at least one egg. (You don't want to mix the butter and the egg together until the butter has cooled a bit!) Find a good recipe that calls for a half stick of butter and bake away!

Fun Fact - if you use grain alcohol and you want a good kick in the pants, take a 2 oz poor of your alcohol mixture and mix it into some sort of drink. A mint Julep works well. Be careful! This stuff will kick your butt! The alcohol acts as a vehicle for moving the THC into your blood stream. You can really knock yourself out with this stuff so be careful!

Another Fun Fact - if you want to hurry up a good buzz from a baked good, enjoy a cup of coffee with cream with it!

 

[Rabideauman]

Everyone's going to think I'm nuts, I don't really soak my cannabis in the alcohol I bought a bottle of Dark eyes vodka I then ground up 7gs of some premop
tty dank ass bud it was really finely ground, poured my vodka into a pan and then poured all the bud into the pan, after that I turned on the stove with the pan away from it then brought the flame down to its lowest point then I brought the pan to the stove and let it simmer out damn near all the alcohol then get a metal strainer and a jar and strain the bud and you got you some good stuff then if you wanna be risky repeat the process- double exact and except this time turn the flame up when the pan gets to the stove and decarbaoxylate the bud in the alcohol or, even decarbaoxylate the bud in the pan before you put the alcohol in it, but do not do not pour above the stove, then extract from that, then you get this

 

[borealisland]

This is NOT true.

Methyl alcohol CH3OH (methanol aka wood alcohol) is NOT safe for human consumption unless you are a desperate homeless alcoholic who has given up on life. As little as two tablespoons (1 fl oz / 30 mL) can result in blindness and/or death.

Ethyl alcohol C2H5OH (ethanol aka booze hooch etc) is safe for humans to consume provided that it is NON-denatured (the only kind bars and liquor stores serve, but beware buying "pure" ethanol online as some of these products are denatured and thus toxic to humans / for industrial purposes only).

Propyl alcohol C3H7OH (isopropyl aka rubbing alcohol) is NOT safe for human consumption unless you are aforementioned desperate alcoholic. While not nearly as toxic as methanol, even small amounts can cause irritation of lungs and mucous membranes, bleeding of stomach and intestines, so why risk it?

Three very different alcohols with increasing number of carbon and hydrogen atoms. Three very different effects on the body.

Strongly recommend using high purity ethanol such as 190 proof (95%) Everclear. "Regular" spirits like vodka/gin/tequila/etc are typically only 80 proof (40%) therefore almost 60% water, which will not do the trick. Everclear isn't too hard to find as even BevMo carries it.

I wish your post was at the top of the thread...

It seems to me that some people on this thread may be using the product as edibles, and you sure as hell don't want to be consuming poisonous solvents.

 

[Bud]

Fill quart mason jar with dry trim small buds and larf ground up.
Fill with everclear seal and freeze for a week turning occasionally
Remove from freezer and forget about it for a few mounths after all it’s only trim.
Dran thru coffee filter twice and place in glass baking pan to evaporate the everclear what’s left is the good goo scrape and enjoy

 

[gr865]

Hello 420,
I am a new member and am coming to you guys with some questions. Recently I received some cab (leaves of the cannabis plant), with about 6% THC in them. I am trying to extract the THC from them and currently have them soaking in 99% Ethanol Alcohol. I am wondering if this will be successful in extracting the THC from the cab. I am also paranoid about boiling off the alcohol, as both the vapor and the liquid are very flammable. I was wandering what temperature I should cook it at and what kind of thing I should cook it in (I've heard ceramics and Pyrex beakers). Please help!

Smoke weed erryday.

Get between 50 and 75 grams of FECO per pound of BUD's. not shake. Do not do in a closed space, you will blow yourself up.

 

[ChiBlu]

I created a tincture using Everclear 190 proof alcohol. The weed was first decarboxilated for 1 hour at between 240-255 degrees. The soak was 3 days long. After straining, a portion of the tincture was stored and the balance was cooked down to oil. Bottom line, neither the tincture nor the oil produce ANY psychotropic effects. I didn't get even slightly high. The weed I started with was fairly high grade buds only. One bowlful in a small pipe and I'm nicely baked. So the problem is not the source

I have read dozens of extraction recipes. Some say soak the weed for less than an hour. Others say soak it for up to 3 weeks. What is YOUR take on this? Why is my end product so seemingly worthless? Thx.

Hey. I find the same thing.I made a tincture with death bubba and 6 oz of scotch. No real effects 6 g of bud to 6 oz of scotch. Grind. Freeze the weed in with the scotch for 3 days. Sit in a dark cupboard for 4 days. Strain. Jar.

 

[Elvin]

Personally, I'm using pentane. A 90-minute soak then distill it using a couple of mason jars, one in hot water and the other in ice water (it boils at just under 98 degrees F)
It does not absorb water so chlorophyll does not get into it if you don't soak overnight.

 

[Bush Doctor 77]

Do some research into making Rick Simpson Oil.

 

[gr865]

Personally, I'm using pentane. A 90-minute soak then distill it using a couple of mason jars, one in hot water and the other in ice water (it boils at just under 98 degrees F)
It does not absorb water so chlorophyll does not get into it if you don't soak overnight.

Pentane is a hydrocarbon and not safe to ingest, it does not boil off completely and leaves it's byproducts in the oil.
I personally would not take it.
JMHO!

 

[Elvin]

Pentane is a hydrocarbon and not safe to ingest, it does not boil off completely and leaves it's byproducts in the oil.
I personally would not take it.
JMHO!

Sure and all that butane stuff also has those issues but is being sold everywhere it is legal; people worry about a few molecules left behind (that can't even be tasted) but are perfectly willing to use terpenes to flavor their extracts when they liquidize them to put them into vapes; they might want to view an SDS for their favorite terpene;-). By the way; are you worried about the hydocarbons that butane lighter imparts to your weed when you smoke it?

For a home extraction pentane has the advantage over butane and alcohol because of the ability to use a closed system (fumes are minimal) and it has nothing added to it. Alcohol absorbs water so chlorophyll can be an issue (n-pentane has no water absorption). Butane used for home extraction has odorants (mercaptan) to contend with, which commercial extraction doesn't have, is also avoided with pentane.
You do know ethyl rubbing alcohol is,
" In the United States, rubbing alcohol made using ethanol must conform to Formula 23-H, which specifies it consists of 100 parts by volume of ethyl alcohol, 8 parts by volume of acetone, and 1.5 parts by volume of methyl isobutyl ketone"
(pretty sure acetone and (CH₃)₂CHCH₂CCH₃. might be hydrocarbons)
Isopropanol is,
" Rubbing alcohol made using isopropanol is regulated to contains at least 355 mg of sucrose octaacetate (MSDS sheet) and 1.40 mg of denatonium benzoate per 100 ml volume. " (that sure sounds like stuff I really don't want in my vape or to be dabbing)

Everclear seems to be the only viable choice (of the alcohols availible) after one distills it further to remove the water it contains if one wants to avoid the few molecules of hydrocarbons that almost every commercially available hash oil has, wants to avoid the added crap drugstore alcohol has, wants to avoid chlorophyll and isn't planning to fill a vape (it's silly to worry about a few molecules of hydrocarbons if you use terps). I'd also go for quality over quantity; an easy quick soak over grinding it fine and soaking for a long time, likely gets one a nice amber color instead of green. Also, any moisture left in the plant will help the chlorophyll get into the alcohol even if the alcohol is truly anhydrous.

For me pentane is safer, cleaner, my butane lighter with that yellow flame imparts more hydrocarbons than pentane leaves behind and I really really hate chlorophyll.

 

[Bud]

Tears of the sun, Rick Simpson’s book. Also he has a video of how to make it!