Need Help: Extracting THC Using Alcohol

KimJongLulz

New Member
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.
 
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.

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
 
YES, Ethanol alcohol is the type you want to use for extraction. Isopropal alcohol is rubbing alcohol.

Ethanol is the legal name for the stuff you drink, like everclear or vodka. Isoworks fine but you can't drink the wash. You can drink the wash from ethanol
 
Thanks, this will help me a lot! But would you happen to know if Ethanol Alcohol will extract THC and be suitable for human consumption?
Hi,
Almost any alcohol would extract some of the goodies from Can..Ethanol that is designed to be ingested from the start can be used and will be safe at the end...Methanol can be used much easier for extraction of several alkaloids. I am just starting with cleaning my grinder with ethanol 99%. I have vast experience using many methods to extract what I need from GUS, the fun one. Ethanol has been, hands down, the best solvent for extracting the necessaries from, say, Oyster Mushrooms......

1. HEET brand gas line antifreeze is 99% methanol with no adulterants. Be sure that it is the YELLOW bottle, NOT THE RED ONE!!!! If you are using Grain Alcohol, the following still applies!!!!!
2. Using a heat source is OK if you know a few things:
A. any spark or open flame is absolutely unacceptable....Even electric ranges with the coils on top can, and do, produce a spark when turned on. It happens at the connection point between the heating element and the socket that it plugs into. Likely, refrigerators, thermostats, coffee grinders and on all produce a spark.....Figure this to be safe: IF IT PLUGS INTO ANY ELECTRIC SOURCE, IT IS CERTAINLY CAPABLE OF SPARKING...ALL ELECTRIC MOTORS PRODUCE ARCS SOMEWHERE!
B. If you are unsure, 0r even just weary, Methanol will evaporate with a fan blowing over it. Use a shallow dish, like a Pyrex baking dish. Most alcohols will evaporate easily when using this method. The only drawback to using 190 proof Ethanol, IME, is that you must deal with the water left over.....There is 5% H2O in grain alcohol....Methanol has 1% H2O(It will absorb water from the air at any temp. below it's vapor point..)
C. Even with great experience, the chances of an explosion in any lab is great. Please use caution and go easy.....

All that being said, Methanol is not safe for consumption at any level. Here's what you do to ensure consumability:

1. You can extract with methanol, evaporate, scrape up residue, redissolve in Ethanol and evaporate again. This SHOULD be a safe end product.
2. To further ensure safety, and purity, you can freeze the final product as Alcohol, of any sort, is not going to freeze in your freezer. After 24 hours or so, anything that is left in your sample product that is liquid in nature is undesirable and can be removed by tipping, blotting, or other methods.

Good Luck and Stay Safe

P
 
Re: Need Help: Understanding alcohols

Seriously????Ethanol(Ethyl Alcohol) is ISOPROPYL alcohol??????
NOTHING could be further from the truth.
Ethyl Alcohol is commonly known as GRAIN ALCOHOL and can be consumed by mammals.
ISO-of any kind-can be produced in SMALL AMOUNTS during fermentation. IsoPropyl Alcohol(IPA) is not safe to consume....Distillation is required to separate the undesirables from the desirables, if you will.
Please, at least, read and understand this before you make a statement that is so potentially harmful to you or someone else:
1-Propanol - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Pay particular attention to the Primary, Secondary, and Tertiary alcohol list at the bottom....

IPA can be used for extractions. I have found it difficult to use for a good end result. There is Estherification and isolation issues that make it just difficult in the home lab......

PLEASE Don't consume IPA.....

Nothing But Love For Ya'
P
 
KimJong,
Please make sure that you just made a mistake in identifying 99% Ethanol Alcohol? Grain is only 95%. Did you mean that you use 99% Methyl Alcohol?(HEET brand, maybe?)....

Once you are clear on what you are using You will probably get accurate instructions.
 
I have been using the Rick Simpson Method:
Cannabis Oil Cure for Cancer - How Rick Simpson Makes Medicine

I use 99% Isopropyl alcohol and I like to freeze the bud and leaves first.

Gather about 2-3oz of bud or trim. Put it in a pan & cover it with the alcohol and stir for 2-3 minutes, strain thru cheesecloth and repeat.

Use a rice cooker, OUTDOORS WITH A FAN BLOWING ON IT, to boil off the alcohol, when it gets down to the last bit i add a few drops of water then transfer the oil to a small container and set it on a "cup warmer" to finish off.

The oil is black, sticky and very potent!
 
hey everyone.. i have been messing around with cannabis alchemy, i use ever clear, and a turkey baster and do qwiso,... i am about to make my first batch of hexane hash oil in a day or 2, there is very little information on how to make it, would any one like to tag along on my journey to making quality hash oil??? i will be soaking a qp of mixed trim, gdp,lemon kush, pineapple chunk, chernobyl, sour grapes, and critical mass... should be a pretty good alchemy project
 
hey everyone.. i have been messing around with cannabis alchemy, i use ever clear, and a turkey baster and do qwiso,... i am about to make my first batch of hexane hash oil in a day or 2, there is very little information on how to make it, would any one like to tag along on my journey to making quality hash oil??? i will be soaking a qp of mixed trim, gdp,lemon kush, pineapple chunk, chernobyl, sour grapes, and critical mass... should be a pretty good alchemy project
I'd love to see this in a journal form.
 
it is my first time doing it but i am half way done now, i will post pictures and by the looks of it after i do my posts and everything people are gonna start trying it this way,... i can tell you this, its the best i have ever seen, cant wait till its finished
 
image5931.jpg

I made this last night. I used my zombie weed from vaping, and the little amount of keif I found in my grinder. Just used a pill bottle and 97% ISOpropl I'll post a review of it within the next couple of days.
 
Ok so just tried this and I messed up the control lol. I started just smoking this in my glass pipe, well I didn't feel like I was getting any thing. So I put a piece of hash in there and it just melted into my oil. So now I'm pretty high but not sure the effects of just the oil. Guess we try again tomorrow night.
 
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

i just had an awesome idea,... what if i do a 30 second soak with 180 proof moonshine, then instead of using coffee filters and all that, dont you think i would get a cleaner product if i filtered it through bubble bags???
 
Is it possible to use the finished product in creating edibles? Can this finished oil be 'diluted' with cooking oil (such as canola) and used to bake brownies at 325 degrees. How do you approximate dosage when using the finished evaporated oil, assuming you begin with one ounce of potent buds only?
 
Is it possible to use the finished product in creating edibles? Can this finished oil be 'diluted' with cooking oil (such as canola) and used to bake brownies at 325 degrees. How do you approximate dosage when using the finished evaporated oil, assuming you begin with one ounce of potent buds only?

Yes it can be used for edibles. You don't want to use canola. Use virgin olive oil, coconut oil, flaxseed oil, or similar.
Add liquid lecithin (non lignan).
 
you can soak your weed in Isopropyl alcohol for 24 hrs no worries...
but you don't want to soak your weed in Ethanol/Ethyl alcohol for any more than 20-30 seconds.

ethanol extracts everything, particular chlorophyll, which is why the alcohol goes GREEN...
it makes it taste disgusting and will give you a headache before it gets you high

if you are using ethanol, try making some crackle.
there is a recipe in this same forum...
under, 'making crackle'

cheers
 
you can soak your weed in Isopropyl alcohol for 24 hrs no worries...
but you don't want to soak your weed in Ethanol/Ethyl alcohol for any more than 20-30 seconds.

ethanol extracts everything, particular chlorophyll, which is why the alcohol goes GREEN...
it makes it taste disgusting and will give you a headache before it gets you high

if you are using ethanol, try making some crackle.
there is a recipe in this same forum...
under, 'making crackle'

cheers

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.
 
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