How To Make Concentrated Cannabis Oil

[deltadubie]

hope all in well been very quite again here..

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• deltadubie
• Jun 24, 2022

i still love smoking joints..

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• deltadubie
• Jun 24, 2022

 

[ethanjones3004]

Thanks for this well structured detailed guide.

 

[MimiEMU]

Hi everyone,

This past Feb, I discovered a simple holistic hack in making RSO that really cleans up the oil, effectively doubling the potency. It's very easy, so if you know how to make RSO, you will get this.

Here's the magic - When making RSO, add distilled water to the wash before boiling out the alcohol. The water absorbs the water soubles that normally get boiled into the oil. By cleaning out the polar and semi polar compounds, winterization can be done in under an hour.

So now, you can take 2oz cured plant and have vapable decarbed winterized oil in under 2 hours. I have multiple lab test reports showing Total Cannabinoids in the high 70's. Given this is such a cleaner oil, I call it Refined Cannabis Extract, aka RxCE.

Why would I do this? I've lived my life in the shadow of a miracle. This is my Pay-It-Forward to help home bound MMJ patients by cost reducing the process. Turns out, it's also faster, cleaner and more potent compared to making RSO/FECO.

 

[oldoak]

Hi everyone,

This past Feb, I discovered a simple holistic hack in making RSO that really cleans up the oil, effectively doubling the potency. It's very easy, so if you know how to make RSO, you will get this.

Here's the magic - When making RSO, add distilled water to the wash before boiling out the alcohol. The water absorbs the water soubles that normally get boiled into the oil. By cleaning out the polar and semi polar compounds, winterization can be done in under an hour.

So now, you can take 2oz cured plant and have vapable decarbed winterized oil in under 2 hours. I have multiple lab test reports showing Total Cannabinoids in the high 70's. Given this is such a cleaner oil, I call it Refined Cannabis Extract, aka RxCE.

Why would I do this? I've lived my life in the shadow of a miracle. This is my Pay-It-Forward to help home bound MMJ patients by cost reducing the process. Turns out, it's also faster, cleaner and more potent compared to making RSO/FECO.

Hello, buddy!!! Thanks for sharing your method! If it’s not difficult for you, could you describe your method in more detail, preferably, step by step? Thanks in advance for your efforts!!!

 

[panacea]

How much water are we talking about ? I have “The green oil Machine” which is a distiller and reclaimer , so by doing this i will be reclaiming my Alcohol & Water correct? I am assuming we are talking about a small amount of water.

 

[Kapncannabis]

Im wondering the same thing. I have a turbo distiller to extract the alcohol from the cco. Hmm where would the H2O go? In the alcohol? Not sure if that would be good for me. I extract and reclaim, never any vapors escape, just clean clear everclear comes out of the distiller.

 

[InTheShed]

When making RSO, add distilled water to the wash before boiling out the alcohol. The water absorbs the water soubles that normally get boiled into the oil. By cleaning out the polar and semi polar compounds, winterization can be done in under an hour.

At what temperature do you boil it all down? Ethanol boils around 170°F but water at 212°. And when you boil off the water, doesn't anything absorbed into the water stay behind in the oil leaving you where you started before you added the water?

 

[MimiEMU]

Hello, buddy!!! Thanks for sharing your method! If it’s not difficult for you, could you describe your method in more detail, preferably, step by step? Thanks in advance for your efforts!!!

Hi Everyone,

So sorry for the lag, I guess I have weekly notifications setup, will change that to be more responsive.

Okay I am here to answer questions!

OldOak: Here's the 'recipe' for a 2oz run. This scales, but for example simplicity, I'll stick with 2oz.

1) Wash. Wash the plant with multiple 1 minute shakes using 95% Ethanol or 91% Isopropyl. Repeating until the alcohol is clear. Use enough alcohol to cover the plant on each wash.
2) Distill. Use a quart pot on electric heat*. A moonshine still and water distiller can be used as well. Refer to the RxCE Shop Manual for in-depth instructions on moonshine stills and water distillers. The following instructions are for an open boiler.
Add 1 cup distilled water,
Add 1 teaspoon non-iodine table salt.
Pour in the wash, boil to 96c/205f. Use a thermometer to know when to quit.
Place pot in ice water and add a few ice cubes to drop the temp to 10c/50f.
Use a fork to smear the floating stiff oil to the sides of the pot.
Pour out the waste water through a nylon coffee filter basket.
Add 1 cup hot water and stir the oils loose to free up any remaining salt.
Place back in the ice water to cool down to 10c/50f.
Use the fork to smear any floating oil to the side of the pot.
Pour out the waste water. Leave the fork in the pot. Place the coffee filter into the pot.
Dissolve the oils with 1-2 oz of 95% ethanol. Easiest to place the pot momentarily on heat to warm up the alcohol.
First swirl the filter till clean, then stir with the fork to liquefy the oils.
Pour this alcohol into a small metal bowl. Metal freezes faster than glass. Use a silicon spatula to clean up.
3) Rapid Winterization. Place the bowl holding the liquefied oils in the freezer.
Setup an unbleached paper coffee filter in a funnel, set that in a capture jar and place in the freezer.
Place 1oz ethanol in a separate metal bowl into the freezer.
After a half hour, pour 1 half of the now cold ethanol in the liquefied oil and swirl.
Pour the liquefed oil into the coffee filter. Use a silicon spatula to clean the bowl into the filter.
After all the alcohol has drained leaving waxes, pour in the 2nd half of the alcohol to bleach out any remaining oils.
4) Reduction.
Pour the capture jar back into the bowl.
Place on stable 250f heat till the reduction and decarbing complete. See the attached illustration when to stop.
Alcohol boils out from 81c/178f upto 100c/212f.
Water boils out starting at 100c/212f up to about 107f/225f. You can see it in the bubbles..
C02 takes over the bubbling and will go to exhaustion. 121c/250f is the sweet spot for decarbing.
5) You are done!

*For electric heat sources, use an electric skillet, griddle, fondue maker, any cooking appliances that uses an adjustable control thermostatic power cords for the heat source. I use a cuisinart skillet for everything.

 

[MimiEMU]

How much water are we talking about ? I have “The green oil Machine” which is a distiller and reclaimer , so by doing this i will be reclaiming my Alcohol & Water correct? I am assuming we are talking about a small amount of water.

Hi Panacea,

Yes, You want to cover the distiller with 1/2 inch of water, plus a teaspoon of non-iodine salt. The salt breaks the water emulsion and it's easy to remove. There is a trick to using moonshine stills and distillers. For distillers, make two passes. The first, set the ending temperature to 84c. When it switches off, swap capture jars. Restart the distiller with 96c ending temp. You are done when it turns off. Your first capture jar holds 91% ISO or 95% EtOH. The second capture jar is like 70% ISO and I don't know on EtOH, don't use it for bulk washes.

The easiest way to cool down the water distiller is to add a couple handfuls of ice. Once the temp reaches 10c/50f, you can literally drag the oils with a fork. Smear the oils against the metal walls. Dump the waste water thru a coffee filter basket which saves any sediments. Place the fork and basket in the distiller, add 2oz 95% EtOH, power on for 15 seconds, then power off. This will warm up the alcohol. Swirl the basket to clean it first. Use the fork to liquefy any solid oil.

Follow the instructions in the above post to OldOak. There is more information in the RxCE Shop Manual covering devices that can be used. If you can make RSO with your electric pot, you can make RxCE.

 

[MimiEMU]

Im wondering the same thing. I have a turbo distiller to extract the alcohol from the cco. Hmm where would the H2O go? In the alcohol? Not sure if that would be good for me. I extract and reclaim, never any vapors escape, just clean clear everclear comes out of the distiller.

Hi Kapncannabis,

The water stays. It performs two functions. First it absorbs the polar and semi-polar compounds - sugars, acids, phospolipids. The second thing it does is act as a heat buffer so your oil never rises above 212f. This is important if you want to keep the acidic state. Using water keeps the oil from spiking on bare metal. The standard water distiller has a 750w power supply to boil water. It will incinerate what little oil remains after boiling out the alcohol.

For recapturing alcohol, I can give you some tips on setting up a water distiller for optimal recapture, if you wish.

It's easy to deal with the water. Check the 'recipe' above in the reply to OldOak. Oil freezes solid at 10c/50f. Temperature is one of the tools we can use in the kitchen. My last reply to panacea gives details.

 

[MimiEMU]

At what temperature do you boil it all down? Ethanol boils around 170°F but water at 212°. And when you boil off the water, doesn't anything absorbed into the water stay behind in the oil leaving you where you started before you added the water?

Hi InTheShed,

Good question! You run it up to 212f and stop. Actually, you can quit at 205f, that works fine. There is almost no alcohol left in the water at that temp. It boils away in a linear slope from 178 to 212f.

And another great question! Yes! The trash gets left behind. Water is the most polar solvent in the world. So all polar and semi-polar compounds stay in the water. Unfortunately, phospholipids which are made into cooking lecithin, are present in the trichome cell walls. The alcohol dissolves not only the oil we want, but the unwanted lipids as well as the fats and waxes. If you can get oil out of a trichome, it's because the phospholipids have melted and are present in your wash. After the alcohol boils off, the first order emulsion is broken - the miscible alcohol/oil and water emulsion - leaving floating oil. The second emulsion is the hard one. This emulsion is created by phospholipids and denatured proteins made up of stronger hydrogen molecular bonds. The way I found to break this emulsion is with a teaspoon of non-iodine table salt. The salt interferes with the hydrogen bonding of water so the heavier emulsion breaks free. The yield losses dropped to the noise floor.