Can I Make Cannabutter From Fresh Bud & Trim?

[Kolohe22172]

Newbie Here
I am new to growing my own cannabis and am just about to harvest a weak, first attempt plant (Bubblelicious - clone from friend). The plant itself is quite pitiful ... we suffered just about every possible malady known in our first growth, but have arrived with our "beginners luck" girl boasting some pretty tris (although few). We actually have not harvested yet, but the resin is just starting to show a bit of opacity so are planning harvest next week.

Anyhoooo, I'm more of an edible enjoyed rather than smoke/vape. I'm trying to find the best advice on how to process my fresh bud into cannabutter. Because the bud is such a small amount, I wasn't planning to do a full cure process to work this small amount.

For making cannabutter:

1. Do I have to conventional dry/cure first?
2. Can I use fresh cutting?
3. Should I separate trim from bud if only making butter?
4. How soon should I make butter after cutting plant?

Attached are a few pics of the size

Thank you in advance for your suggestions and support

 

[Blew Hiller]

Not sure how attached you are to canna butter, but I have found oil to offer more cooking/baking options. It's also easier to store in the fridge.

Check out a very good link on it here...

Fresh Harvest Infused Cannabis Oil

Fresh Harvest Oil There's a lot of excitement starting on the site about creating a fresh-harvest infused olive oil, a method so carefully developed by PsyCro and written up in his thread Olive oil extract update. I've adapted it a bit for my own purposes, but I recommend you read through his...

www.420magazine.com

 

[Greenlizard]

I plan on making butter as well. I just finished a harvest and put all my trim and popcorn buds in a container and put it in the freezer fresh. I will decarb it all on cookie sheets first. This will dry the material so no need to dry and cure prior to making butter... at least that's what I have read.
I like the oil option Blew posted as well. Maybe next time I will give that a go.

 

[Blew Hiller]

For those that like tea....I infuse honey as well...a spoon of that at the end of the day...

 

[Greenlizard]

Oh I do like honey! I will have to look into infusing honey for sure. I have been talking with my wife a lot lately about getting some hives and try my hand at bee keeping. My thoughts are why not grow an outdoor crop of cannabis around a beehive. I would like to think that perhaps some of the medicinal properties of the plant might be carried over to the honey. I doubt it would get you high even if you were to bring the honey up to temperature for decarb but it might make a food that is already a super food into a super duper food lol.

 

[Blew Hiller]

Oh I do like honey! I will have to look into infusing honey for sure. I have been talking with my wife a lot lately about getting some hives and try my hand at bee keeping. My thoughts are why not grow an outdoor crop of cannabis around a beehive. I would like to think that perhaps some of the medicinal properties of the plant might be carried over to the honey. I doubt it would get you high even if you were to bring the honey up to temperature for decarb but it might make a food that is already a super food into a super duper food lol.

The bee-hive/cannabis thing doesn't really work...we looked at it (briefly) ...you would have to have them isolated since they fly 2 miles (you would need acres of cannabis!). We keep bees...they can be a pain in the ass, but the honey is nice. If you want to keep it simple, buy some good honey, put it in a slow cooker (125F) and just throw in a satchel of decarbed cannabis for 12-24 hours. Strain and jar and it will keep in the fridge for a long time. Honey is one food that has a "limitless" shelf life...they have found honey in the pyramids which is still good.

 

[BeezLuiz]

For making cannabutter:

1. Do I have to conventional dry/cure first?
2. Can I use fresh cutting?
3. Should I separate trim from bud if only making butter?
4. How soon should I make butter after cutting plant?

1. You probably don't need to cure, but I would highly recommend drying the bud first. At least for 3 or 4 days.
2. You need to decarb (bake) your weed to active it before infusing, so fresh cuttings won't work very well.
3. Probably not necessary, but the more leaves there are, the more "grassy" the butter/oil will taste.
4. You can make butter anytime after the drying and decarbing steps.

I'm not an expert, but have made many batches of butters and oils for baking edibles. Just my opinion.

 

[PaleSun]

Keep doing your research but I have read recently that coconut oil is best for extraction. I can not quote you the specifics, just Google it yourself for more information. I made some for a friend last fall and it was superb.

On that note. I have a Sous-Vide cooker and am going to try it for the extraction process next time. Sous-Vide is a slow low temp immersion cooker.

 

[tess]

I've been making butter from the plants I grow for many years. My process comes from voracious reading. There are lots of different ways and ideas out there but this is what works for me.

First, fresh product for making butter is simply a no go.

BeezLuiz's advice above is right on in my experience.

I harvest my plants whole, hang them to dry for the required time as if harvesting for bud. Usually takes around 5 - 10 days with optimum conditions... 60 - 70 degrees F, Humidity 45 - 50 %, small fan to circulate air, dark room.

I do not cure.

Once dry I process the entire plant minus the large stalks and large fan leaves. My plants are female and full of bud and I toss the whole bunch together.

I decarboxylate in batches so I might weigh out around 80 - 100 grams of my dried and cut up plant, spread it on a baking tray, pop it in the oven for 45 minutes at 200 F.

I store just as you would bud... in sealed mason jars, dark cool cupboard. I write on the mason jar lid the date of decarb and the weight.

My butter is so easy to make... I just use a slow cooker/crock pot. If you are at all interested in how I make it I would be happy to share.

There's lots and lots of info out there posted by experienced canna butter makers.

It took me many trays of cookies to understand potency and at first my baking would cause couch-lock. I have it figured out now.

Good luck! Have fun (p.s. if you know anyone throwing out the trim ask for it... trim makes good butter even if there is no bud in it.)

 

[PaleSun]

Hi @tess I am wondering what method you use to grind up your plant material before decarboxylation? Do you use a blender, large grinder of some sort? A whole plant is a lot to do.

 

[tess]

Hi @tess I am wondering what method you use to grind up your plant material before decarboxylation? Do you use a blender, large grinder of some sort? A whole plant is a lot to do.

I do it by hand using sharp pruners & scissors. I am pretty careful with the buds using my fingers to gently break them apart. I have read that grinders and blenders cause a lot of the trichomes to be lost. Also, for making butter I don't want it super fine.

It is time consuming ... so I just stand at the counter and work away while watching baseball

 

[Oldgrowth]

I do it by hand using sharp pruners & scissors. I am pretty careful with the buds using my fingers to gently break them apart. I have read that grinders and blenders cause a lot of the trichomes to be lost. Also, for making butter I don't want it super fine.

It is time consuming ... so I just stand at the counter and work away while watching baseball

I try to "use everything but the squeal" (as was formerly said about the Chicago stockyards.) 4 plants are plenty for what I do.

1. The nugs with sugar leaves are dried in a hanging rack-this loses fewer trichomes than merely hanging.
2. Nugs and trim are separated after drying then cured for 1-2 months, nugs to smoke or vape, trim to make canna butter-MBM.
3. Trim may also be sifted for kief.
4. Fresh fan leaves and any nugs not yet harvested go right into the freezer. After a few hours it is ready for bubble hash processing. Fresh leaves have produced better than the dried material and of course much quicker. DON'T WASTE THIS GOOD MATERIAL!
5. If using MBM it helps to reduce the volume of material processed. The best way to do this is decarb the trim and nugs then break into very smal pieces before inserting into the machine.


The 4 plants I grew this year (3 GG and 1 Afghan Kush) have produced 6+ lbs of nugs and trim, a quantity of kief, and what promises to be several ounces of bubble hash to join the 3 oz already processed. I'll prepare the canna butter and some hash by decarbing nugs, trim and/or hash at 225F for 30 min. I use a large amount of decarb for my edibles so reducing the volume is key.

Pick your strain carefully for trichomes and grow as much as you can handle and your preparing edibles will go well.

 

[Oldgrowth]

I've been making butter from the plants I grow for many years. My process comes from voracious reading. There are lots of different ways and ideas out there but this is what works for me.

First, fresh product for making butter is simply a no go.

BeezLuiz's advice above is right on in my experience.

I harvest my plants whole, hang them to dry for the required time as if harvesting for bud. Usually takes around 5 - 10 days with optimum conditions... 60 - 70 degrees F, Humidity 45 - 50 %, small fan to circulate air, dark room.

I do not cure.

Once dry I process the entire plant minus the large stalks and large fan leaves. My plants are female and full of bud and I toss the whole bunch together.

I decarboxylate in batches so I might weigh out around 80 - 100 grams of my dried and cut up plant, spread it on a baking tray, pop it in the oven for 45 minutes at 200 F.

I store just as you would bud... in sealed mason jars, dark cool cupboard. I write on the mason jar lid the date of decarb and the weight.

My butter is so easy to make... I just use a slow cooker/crock pot. If you are at all interested in how I make it I would be happy to share.

There's lots and lots of info out there posted by experienced canna butter makers.

It took me many trays of cookies to understand potency and at first my baking would cause couch-lock. I have it figured out now.

Good luck! Have fun (p.s. if you know anyone throwing out the trim ask for it... trim makes good butter even if there is no bud in it.)

Have you tried using fresh to make bubble hash? After freezing the trichomes come off more readily I believe than the dry and it's of course much quicker.

 

[Edzzed]

I chopped down my legal 4 Canada plants and while the smoke is great I have yet to find out how potent my butter is. I took all of the trim and used 2 pounds of butter. In all of my other butter experiments I did not weigh the result. This one I did and ended up with 432 grams of butter yet used 908 grams. I assume the rest went to what could not be squeezed out. It has the nice green color but won't know the potency until I do up some cookies. I do freeze the butter so it will keep.

 

[Oldgrowth]

I chopped down my legal 4 Canada plants and while the smoke is great I have yet to find out how potent my butter is. I took all of the trim and used 2 pounds of butter. In all of my other butter experiments I did not weigh the result. This one I did and ended up with 432 grams of butter yet used 908 grams. I assume the rest went to what could not be squeezed out. It has the nice green color but won't know the potency until I do up some cookies. I do freeze the butter so it will keep.

I now use the MBM to make canna butter for a powerful nite time edible. About 2 oz of nugs and trim decarbed are processed with 3 lbs of rich butter. I use a sturdy colander to squeeze out as much processed butter as possible. The 3 lbs of untreated butter 3 cups) become 2+ cups of rich canna butter. The remainder can be used for a smaller batch of sumthin or to beef up the 2 cups in hand. The colander (learned from 420 Forum) has made a big difference. I hope this helps you.

 

[Samiam92]

Hello everyone, just wondering if it's possible to make canna oil or butter with fresh bud? I just got it a few days ago.

 

[PaleSun]

That's a very good question. Mostly we do decarboxylation first, to convert aTHC to THC. I do wonder though if fresh bud would decarboxylate while being held in the hot oil or butter for several hours.

Good luck with this. I'm very interested in what others might have to say

 

[Samiam92]

That's a very good question. Mostly we do decarboxylation first, to convert aTHC to THC. I do wonder though if fresh bud would decarboxylate while being held in the hot oil or butter for several hours.

Good luck with this. I'm very interested in what others might have to say

Oh no I meant as in like buying fresh bud, how long do I have to wait until it's dry to decarb to make canna oil?

 

[PaleSun]

lol

Oh no I meant as in like buying fresh bud, how long do I have to wait until it's dry to decarb to make canna oil?

Well damn I totally misunderstood. Think if you broke it up a bit and left it somewhere out of direct light it would be dry in a couple days. Plus, decarboxylation will finish the drying too.

 

[Savage Grow]

I've been making butter from the plants I grow for many years. My process comes from voracious reading. There are lots of different ways and ideas out there but this is what works for me.

First, fresh product for making butter is simply a no go.

BeezLuiz's advice above is right on in my experience.

I harvest my plants whole, hang them to dry for the required time as if harvesting for bud. Usually takes around 5 - 10 days with optimum conditions... 60 - 70 degrees F, Humidity 45 - 50 %, small fan to circulate air, dark room.

I do not cure.

Once dry I process the entire plant minus the large stalks and large fan leaves. My plants are female and full of bud and I toss the whole bunch together.

I decarboxylate in batches so I might weigh out around 80 - 100 grams of my dried and cut up plant, spread it on a baking tray, pop it in the oven for 45 minutes at 200 F.

I store just as you would bud... in sealed mason jars, dark cool cupboard. I write on the mason jar lid the date of decarb and the weight.

My butter is so easy to make... I just use a slow cooker/crock pot. If you are at all interested in how I make it I would be happy to share.

There's lots and lots of info out there posted by experienced canna butter makers.

It took me many trays of cookies to understand potency and at first my baking would cause couch-lock. I have it figured out now.

Good luck! Have fun (p.s. if you know anyone throwing out the trim ask for it... trim makes good butter even if there is no bud in it.)

I would love the recipe for your butter. Thanks so much.