Making RSO with Everclear and Distiller

[DuckieDeb]

Maybe I'm talking to myself here, but for anyone following along or finding this later...

I started with 6oz of larfy buds / trim that I had curing for the last few months and 1.75L Everclear.

I decarboxylated it using sous vide at 200°F for 1h 40m. It was in two vacuum-sealed bags, and those were in a ziplock bag. I put some rocks in the ziplock to weight it down and zipped it after submerging most of the way in the water - to push the air out. Then put some more rocks on top. Tinfoil over the top of the pot to retain water. It was all going along fine until maybe 1h give or take into the process when the bags floated up to the surface anyway. The ziplock got a bunch of water inside it (no big deal) so I replaced it with a new one. Getting everything submerged again took quite a while and given that the water and rocks were 200°; it pretty much sucked.

The weed itself remained dry to slightly damp. I popped the weed into the freezer for 10 to 15 minutes. The Everclear had been in the freezer over 24h already.

I dumped the weed into a large glass jar and poured most of the everclear over it. Then I stirred and mashed is using a silicon spatula. Had I been using ISO, I'd have gone for a quickwash, but Everclear isn't as efficient so I spend a good 5 minutes breaking it up and mixing it. I'm sure I extracted a bunch of plant material in addition to the cannabinoids, but that doesn't bother me too much.

I poured the everclear (now tincture) into a large pyrex measuring cup through both a cheesecloth and a metal strainer, then poured the rest of the everclear over the weed for a 2nd wash.

Next I put 2 coffee filters over a new jar and poured the tincture through it. This is the part where using the pyrex with a spout was supposed to prevent me from making a mess. Nope. I got super sticky tincture all over everything. If you ever want to feel like spiderman, just get a lot of that tincture on your hands and jars and touch anything.

The product actually filtered pretty quickly - maybe 2 hours. Much of the plant material settled to the bottom of the pyrex. I poured gently (into the filter) and scooped the tincture out using a shot glass, so as not to disturb it too much. That made less work for the filters, which also caught a ton of material, but didn't clog so much they stopped working. Also, I scraped them off between pours.

After filtering the tincture, I dumped it into the temperature-controlled distiller. I was using the distiller to reclaim the everclear, but it was apparent I'd already lost a TON of it before even distilling.

I ran the distiller a handful of times over the last week to "clean" it of any factory residue. I was surprised how long it takes to distill water compared to a tea pot, and was expecting the Everclear to distill much faster, but not quickly. Not the case. I set the distiller outside, turned it on at the lowest temp, and it started distilling within a few minutes. Of course, the spout and container were unaligned, so I lost more everclear.

Having used a rice cooker in the past, and expecting the distiller to be a tad slower than that, I got distracted on the phone... Bim bam done, the distiller made really short work of evaporating off all the Everclear. I had intended to stop distilling with some alcohol remaining, then transfer to pyrex to finish on a hot plate. BUT - oops. I let it go until it turned itself off. When I opened the top, I'd "burned" some of the oil and it was really thick.

I poured it out into a small glass dish, and scraped off more I could with a silicone spatula. The distiller is ... well, I have to decide if I want to clean it so I can use if for water, or if it's only be used for making oil. There's a decent amount of product that's just stuck to the inside. I poured in a bit of the reclaimed everclear to see if I could absorb more product. Might turn that into a tincture. Anyway, I didn't measure the final amount of Everclear I reclaimed, but it wasn't much. I regret using the distiller. Maybe if I had a still, or lab tubes and beakers I'd have reclaimed more? Hard to say. There's just a lot lost in the process prior to distilling. Maybe if you use a rice press to squeeze out ever drop from the weed and cheesecloth; but that's another dirty super sticky item to deal with.

I moved the oil to a hotplate to "finish" it. I was going to heat off the remaining alcohol, watch the bubbles, do the spark test. Of course I was impatient and heated it too quickly. It foamed up making a zillion tiny bubbles. I pulled it off the heat and combed through the bubbles to pop them. Then cooked it on a much lower temp, but that was pretty much it. No more bubbles. I did a few spark tests, and the oil was clean.

I pulled the oil up into 4 syringes (1ml). Unfortunately, that's all I had left, oops. There's probably another 2 - 3 ml oil remaining, so it's in a shot glass covered with plastic wrap. Given the amount of oil stuck in the distiller, smeared on the glass dish, silicon spatula, in the syringes, and remaining in the shot glass, I'm very pleased with how much I extracted. I didn't measure it but seems to be 7 to 8ml.

(Fun note, I had the shot glass on a 45° angle and let the oil cool. You can press fork prongs into it, pull the fork out and it holds the indentation shape for a few minutes. Sludge!)

I made a huge sticky mess and have a LOT of room for improvement, but had fun and got my RSO; so it's all good.

After I was done with everything, of course, I was eager to test it out and see if it worked. Over the hours of preparing everything, I had gotten a lot of tincture on my hands and oil on my fingertips; so thought I ought to be feeling good. However, wasn't feeling anything. So, decided to do a test and asked my girlfriend if she wanted to try it as well.

Told her "This might not do anything, or it might work and give you a great body high, or it might knock you on your ass for the the rest of the day and well into the evening. No clue..."

She decided to be brave but only wanted a very small amount. I smeared a very little bit onto a basil leaf, and made a parachute for her. Told her to swallow it and be sure not to taste it. She likes basil, so she chewed it up. Ack, so gross! She didn't seem to think it was as horrible as I expected. I made a basil parachute for myself as well.

I set a timer for 30 minutes. When it went off I was just barely starting to feel it kicking in. She said she didn't feel anything. Even an hour later, she said she didn't really notice much -- although sometimes you don't if you're just lounging around; which she was. I was starting to think I didn't give her enough and she wouldn't notice its effects, that it just wasn't that strong, or didn't work. Except, I was feeling it - subtly.

Turns out I didn't mess it up. It kicked in for me and I was feeling great for hours and hours. It hit her a bit differently, and pretty much knocked her out. She took a few naps. The "makes you drowsy" could be from me over cooking the oil in the distiller and again on the hot plate.

It ended up hitting me pretty hard, and I'm not sure if it's due to the amount I took or how much of it I absorbed through my fingertips. Next time I make this stuff, I'm wearing gloves. I'm looking forward to taking another small dose in the future to get a 2nd calibration point. I may gift some to friends and need to let them know if they should take a very small amount or a very very small amount. Haha.

Anyway, I'm happy to report "IT WORKS". I mean, it REALLY works. And based on how little it takes and how long the effects last; I'm thrilled with the quantity I produced, even with all the mess and loss. I'm also glad that this stuff pretty much lasts forever in this state.

Pictures in next post.

Why not just use a Magic Butter machine for your tincture.

 

[Brian420pm]

Big fucking mistake today.
1.75 liter bottle broke, lost all of the wash.

Ouch, so many questions to help others avoid the same problem... what kind of bottle broke, was it the first time you used it, if you used the same bottle in the freezer that you used outside in the sun, how long between the time it was in the freezer and when the sun was on it, was the cap on or off (sealed or not) while in the sun

 

[gr865]

Ouch, so many questions to help others avoid the same problem... what kind of bottle broke, was it the first time you used it, if you used the same bottle in the freezer that you used outside in the sun, how long between the time it was in the freezer and when the sun was on it, was the cap on or off (sealed or not) while in the sun

It was cold but not freezing, lid was off, had used it many times before.

 

[Brian420pm]

It was cold but not freezing, lid was off, had used it many times before.

My theory is too many cold/hot cycles on the glass. If you warm the bottles to room temp before putting in the direct sun I bet you'll extend their life many fold, and um, of course you probably already bought a tray to set them in

 

[GTroop]

Thanks for chiming in @Brian420pm. Very informative. Lots of great detail to consider.

I've never done before & after scoping at the different stages of processing. I'll have to do that.

I was hoping that by decarbing 1st (and using sous vide so it's controlled and precise), I could avoid using too much heat later. Unfortunately, I wasn't as careful and patient as I should have been and temps got high at a few points. I suspect I converted a lot of THC to CBN.

I'll probably sous vide decarb again. I'd love a lighter color too; but I don't mind if I over-extract. I like the idea of distilling off ~ 80% of the remaining solvent, and then just let that last 20% evaporate away -- possibly sped up using VERY LOW heat, but possibly no heat. The product is plenty potent. Probably too potent, so I need to focus on eliminating the drowsy factor.

What I'd REALLY like to do is get into short path distillation, but I just can't put any more $ into this hobby at the moment.

You can try sativa strains to eliminate the drowsy effects. Short path distillation??

 

[Budz210]

Does anyone know how to make a light golden hoey like oil. RSO usually gives me tick tar black results. I am looking for a light golden colour oil to make. Any ideas? Thanks

 

[cannagramma]

Concentrated oil is always dark and tar like, because, well, it's concentrated. The quick wash oil is more amber in color after I add it to MCT for capsules. Long washes/soaks are darker and greener.

 

[616eric]

RSO is made with Naptha. FECO oil is made with Everclear. You made FECO not RSO.

 

[Pinktiger777]

I see. Thanks for the clarification.

 

[joetherag42]

Maybe I'm talking to myself here, but for anyone following along or finding this later...

I started with 6oz of larfy buds / trim that I had curing for the last few months and 1.75L Everclear.

I decarboxylated it using sous vide at 200°F for 1h 40m. It was in two vacuum-sealed bags, and those were in a ziplock bag. I put some rocks in the ziplock to weight it down and zipped it after submerging most of the way in the water - to push the air out. Then put some more rocks on top. Tinfoil over the top of the pot to retain water. It was all going along fine until maybe 1h give or take into the process when the bags floated up to the surface anyway. The ziplock got a bunch of water inside it (no big deal) so I replaced it with a new one. Getting everything submerged again took quite a while and given that the water and rocks were 200°; it pretty much sucked.

The weed itself remained dry to slightly damp. I popped the weed into the freezer for 10 to 15 minutes. The Everclear had been in the freezer over 24h already.

I dumped the weed into a large glass jar and poured most of the everclear over it. Then I stirred and mashed is using a silicon spatula. Had I been using ISO, I'd have gone for a quickwash, but Everclear isn't as efficient so I spend a good 5 minutes breaking it up and mixing it. I'm sure I extracted a bunch of plant material in addition to the cannabinoids, but that doesn't bother me too much.

I poured the everclear (now tincture) into a large pyrex measuring cup through both a cheesecloth and a metal strainer, then poured the rest of the everclear over the weed for a 2nd wash.

Next I put 2 coffee filters over a new jar and poured the tincture through it. This is the part where using the pyrex with a spout was supposed to prevent me from making a mess. Nope. I got super sticky tincture all over everything. If you ever want to feel like spiderman, just get a lot of that tincture on your hands and jars and touch anything.

The product actually filtered pretty quickly - maybe 2 hours. Much of the plant material settled to the bottom of the pyrex. I poured gently (into the filter) and scooped the tincture out using a shot glass, so as not to disturb it too much. That made less work for the filters, which also caught a ton of material, but didn't clog so much they stopped working. Also, I scraped them off between pours.

After filtering the tincture, I dumped it into the temperature-controlled distiller. I was using the distiller to reclaim the everclear, but it was apparent I'd already lost a TON of it before even distilling.

I ran the distiller a handful of times over the last week to "clean" it of any factory residue. I was surprised how long it takes to distill water compared to a tea pot, and was expecting the Everclear to distill much faster, but not quickly. Not the case. I set the distiller outside, turned it on at the lowest temp, and it started distilling within a few minutes. Of course, the spout and container were unaligned, so I lost more everclear.

Having used a rice cooker in the past, and expecting the distiller to be a tad slower than that, I got distracted on the phone... Bim bam done, the distiller made really short work of evaporating off all the Everclear. I had intended to stop distilling with some alcohol remaining, then transfer to pyrex to finish on a hot plate. BUT - oops. I let it go until it turned itself off. When I opened the top, I'd "burned" some of the oil and it was really thick.

I poured it out into a small glass dish, and scraped off more I could with a silicone spatula. The distiller is ... well, I have to decide if I want to clean it so I can use if for water, or if it's only be used for making oil. There's a decent amount of product that's just stuck to the inside. I poured in a bit of the reclaimed everclear to see if I could absorb more product. Might turn that into a tincture. Anyway, I didn't measure the final amount of Everclear I reclaimed, but it wasn't much. I regret using the distiller. Maybe if I had a still, or lab tubes and beakers I'd have reclaimed more? Hard to say. There's just a lot lost in the process prior to distilling. Maybe if you use a rice press to squeeze out ever drop from the weed and cheesecloth; but that's another dirty super sticky item to deal with.

I moved the oil to a hotplate to "finish" it. I was going to heat off the remaining alcohol, watch the bubbles, do the spark test. Of course I was impatient and heated it too quickly. It foamed up making a zillion tiny bubbles. I pulled it off the heat and combed through the bubbles to pop them. Then cooked it on a much lower temp, but that was pretty much it. No more bubbles. I did a few spark tests, and the oil was clean.

I pulled the oil up into 4 syringes (1ml). Unfortunately, that's all I had left, oops. There's probably another 2 - 3 ml oil remaining, so it's in a shot glass covered with plastic wrap. Given the amount of oil stuck in the distiller, smeared on the glass dish, silicon spatula, in the syringes, and remaining in the shot glass, I'm very pleased with how much I extracted. I didn't measure it but seems to be 7 to 8ml.

(Fun note, I had the shot glass on a 45° angle and let the oil cool. You can press fork prongs into it, pull the fork out and it holds the indentation shape for a few minutes. Sludge!)

I made a huge sticky mess and have a LOT of room for improvement, but had fun and got my RSO; so it's all good.

After I was done with everything, of course, I was eager to test it out and see if it worked. Over the hours of preparing everything, I had gotten a lot of tincture on my hands and oil on my fingertips; so thought I ought to be feeling good. However, wasn't feeling anything. So, decided to do a test and asked my girlfriend if she wanted to try it as well.

Told her "This might not do anything, or it might work and give you a great body high, or it might knock you on your ass for the the rest of the day and well into the evening. No clue..."

She decided to be brave but only wanted a very small amount. I smeared a very little bit onto a basil leaf, and made a parachute for her. Told her to swallow it and be sure not to taste it. She likes basil, so she chewed it up. Ack, so gross! She didn't seem to think it was as horrible as I expected. I made a basil parachute for myself as well.

I set a timer for 30 minutes. When it went off I was just barely starting to feel it kicking in. She said she didn't feel anything. Even an hour later, she said she didn't really notice much -- although sometimes you don't if you're just lounging around; which she was. I was starting to think I didn't give her enough and she wouldn't notice its effects, that it just wasn't that strong, or didn't work. Except, I was feeling it - subtly.

Turns out I didn't mess it up. It kicked in for me and I was feeling great for hours and hours. It hit her a bit differently, and pretty much knocked her out. She took a few naps. The "makes you drowsy" could be from me over cooking the oil in the distiller and again on the hot plate.

It ended up hitting me pretty hard, and I'm not sure if it's due to the amount I took or how much of it I absorbed through my fingertips. Next time I make this stuff, I'm wearing gloves. I'm looking forward to taking another small dose in the future to get a 2nd calibration point. I may gift some to friends and need to let them know if they should take a very small amount or a very very small amount. Haha.

Anyway, I'm happy to report "IT WORKS". I mean, it REALLY works. And based on how little it takes and how long the effects last; I'm thrilled with the quantity I produced, even with all the mess and loss. I'm also glad that this stuff pretty much lasts forever in this state.

Pictures in next post.

You gave a very good description of the procedure you use.
I essentially use a similar method.
I decarb first like you did, only for 40 minuets.
I also use everclear, and cover my material and use a small clean broom handle to mash up the material. I also do it three times.
I then use a Buchner filter. When done I have been using a SOURCE Distiller by Extracraft.
It is only good for small amounts at a time.
When I want to make a lot I use Rick Simpsons method of making RSO, or the quick method I saw on YouTube for making a small batch of RSO.
And yes I recommend using gloves, or you will get so wasted it is unbelievable. Have fun and lets get stoned and HEALED.

 

[joetherag42]

Maybe I'm talking to myself here, but for anyone following along or finding this later...

I started with 6oz of larfy buds / trim that I had curing for the last few months and 1.75L Everclear.

I decarboxylated it using sous vide at 200°F for 1h 40m. It was in two vacuum-sealed bags, and those were in a ziplock bag. I put some rocks in the ziplock to weight it down and zipped it after submerging most of the way in the water - to push the air out. Then put some more rocks on top. Tinfoil over the top of the pot to retain water. It was all going along fine until maybe 1h give or take into the process when the bags floated up to the surface anyway. The ziplock got a bunch of water inside it (no big deal) so I replaced it with a new one. Getting everything submerged again took quite a while and given that the water and rocks were 200°; it pretty much sucked.

The weed itself remained dry to slightly damp. I popped the weed into the freezer for 10 to 15 minutes. The Everclear had been in the freezer over 24h already.

I dumped the weed into a large glass jar and poured most of the everclear over it. Then I stirred and mashed is using a silicon spatula. Had I been using ISO, I'd have gone for a quickwash, but Everclear isn't as efficient so I spend a good 5 minutes breaking it up and mixing it. I'm sure I extracted a bunch of plant material in addition to the cannabinoids, but that doesn't bother me too much.

I poured the everclear (now tincture) into a large pyrex measuring cup through both a cheesecloth and a metal strainer, then poured the rest of the everclear over the weed for a 2nd wash.

Next I put 2 coffee filters over a new jar and poured the tincture through it. This is the part where using the pyrex with a spout was supposed to prevent me from making a mess. Nope. I got super sticky tincture all over everything. If you ever want to feel like spiderman, just get a lot of that tincture on your hands and jars and touch anything.

The product actually filtered pretty quickly - maybe 2 hours. Much of the plant material settled to the bottom of the pyrex. I poured gently (into the filter) and scooped the tincture out using a shot glass, so as not to disturb it too much. That made less work for the filters, which also caught a ton of material, but didn't clog so much they stopped working. Also, I scraped them off between pours.

After filtering the tincture, I dumped it into the temperature-controlled distiller. I was using the distiller to reclaim the everclear, but it was apparent I'd already lost a TON of it before even distilling.

I ran the distiller a handful of times over the last week to "clean" it of any factory residue. I was surprised how long it takes to distill water compared to a tea pot, and was expecting the Everclear to distill much faster, but not quickly. Not the case. I set the distiller outside, turned it on at the lowest temp, and it started distilling within a few minutes. Of course, the spout and container were unaligned, so I lost more everclear.

Having used a rice cooker in the past, and expecting the distiller to be a tad slower than that, I got distracted on the phone... Bim bam done, the distiller made really short work of evaporating off all the Everclear. I had intended to stop distilling with some alcohol remaining, then transfer to pyrex to finish on a hot plate. BUT - oops. I let it go until it turned itself off. When I opened the top, I'd "burned" some of the oil and it was really thick.

I poured it out into a small glass dish, and scraped off more I could with a silicone spatula. The distiller is ... well, I have to decide if I want to clean it so I can use if for water, or if it's only be used for making oil. There's a decent amount of product that's just stuck to the inside. I poured in a bit of the reclaimed everclear to see if I could absorb more product. Might turn that into a tincture. Anyway, I didn't measure the final amount of Everclear I reclaimed, but it wasn't much. I regret using the distiller. Maybe if I had a still, or lab tubes and beakers I'd have reclaimed more? Hard to say. There's just a lot lost in the process prior to distilling. Maybe if you use a rice press to squeeze out ever drop from the weed and cheesecloth; but that's another dirty super sticky item to deal with.

I moved the oil to a hotplate to "finish" it. I was going to heat off the remaining alcohol, watch the bubbles, do the spark test. Of course I was impatient and heated it too quickly. It foamed up making a zillion tiny bubbles. I pulled it off the heat and combed through the bubbles to pop them. Then cooked it on a much lower temp, but that was pretty much it. No more bubbles. I did a few spark tests, and the oil was clean.

I pulled the oil up into 4 syringes (1ml). Unfortunately, that's all I had left, oops. There's probably another 2 - 3 ml oil remaining, so it's in a shot glass covered with plastic wrap. Given the amount of oil stuck in the distiller, smeared on the glass dish, silicon spatula, in the syringes, and remaining in the shot glass, I'm very pleased with how much I extracted. I didn't measure it but seems to be 7 to 8ml.

(Fun note, I had the shot glass on a 45° angle and let the oil cool. You can press fork prongs into it, pull the fork out and it holds the indentation shape for a few minutes. Sludge!)

I made a huge sticky mess and have a LOT of room for improvement, but had fun and got my RSO; so it's all good.

After I was done with everything, of course, I was eager to test it out and see if it worked. Over the hours of preparing everything, I had gotten a lot of tincture on my hands and oil on my fingertips; so thought I ought to be feeling good. However, wasn't feeling anything. So, decided to do a test and asked my girlfriend if she wanted to try it as well.

Told her "This might not do anything, or it might work and give you a great body high, or it might knock you on your ass for the the rest of the day and well into the evening. No clue..."

She decided to be brave but only wanted a very small amount. I smeared a very little bit onto a basil leaf, and made a parachute for her. Told her to swallow it and be sure not to taste it. She likes basil, so she chewed it up. Ack, so gross! She didn't seem to think it was as horrible as I expected. I made a basil parachute for myself as well.

I set a timer for 30 minutes. When it went off I was just barely starting to feel it kicking in. She said she didn't feel anything. Even an hour later, she said she didn't really notice much -- although sometimes you don't if you're just lounging around; which she was. I was starting to think I didn't give her enough and she wouldn't notice its effects, that it just wasn't that strong, or didn't work. Except, I was feeling it - subtly.

Turns out I didn't mess it up. It kicked in for me and I was feeling great for hours and hours. It hit her a bit differently, and pretty much knocked her out. She took a few naps. The "makes you drowsy" could be from me over cooking the oil in the distiller and again on the hot plate.

It ended up hitting me pretty hard, and I'm not sure if it's due to the amount I took or how much of it I absorbed through my fingertips. Next time I make this stuff, I'm wearing gloves. I'm looking forward to taking another small dose in the future to get a 2nd calibration point. I may gift some to friends and need to let them know if they should take a very small amount or a very very small amount. Haha.

Anyway, I'm happy to report "IT WORKS". I mean, it REALLY works. And based on how little it takes and how long the effects last; I'm thrilled with the quantity I produced, even with all the mess and loss. I'm also glad that this stuff pretty much lasts forever in this state.

Pictures in next post.

It is also good to give me a good nights sleep, control my bladder, and ease my back pain.

 

[tfliveright]

Thanks for chiming in @Brian420pm. Very informative. Lots of great detail to consider.

I've never done before & after scoping at the different stages of processing. I'll have to do that.

I was hoping that by decarbing 1st (and using sous vide so it's controlled and precise), I could avoid using too much heat later. Unfortunately, I wasn't as careful and patient as I should have been and temps got high at a few points. I suspect I converted a lot of THC to CBN.

I'll probably sous vide decarb again. I'd love a lighter color too; but I don't mind if I over-extract. I like the idea of distilling off ~ 80% of the remaining solvent, and then just let that last 20% evaporate away -- possibly sped up using VERY LOW heat, but possibly no heat. The product is plenty potent. Probably too potent, so I need to focus on eliminating the drowsy factor.

What I'd REALLY like to do is get into short path distillation, but I just can't put any more $ into this hobby at the moment.

Wow! What a great description and running commentary. Major question!!! What is the brand/model of your distiller? I am having trouble finding one for making ROS. Thanks in advance from Tim.

 

[tfliveright]

You gave a very good description of the procedure you use.
I essentially use a similar method.
I decarb first like you did, only for 40 minuets.
I also use everclear, and cover my material and use a small clean broom handle to mash up the material. I also do it three times.
I then use a Buchner filter. When done I have been using a SOURCE Distiller by Extracraft.
It is only good for small amounts at a time.
When I want to make a lot I use Rick Simpsons method of making RSO, or the quick method I saw on YouTube for making a small batch of RSO.
And yes I recommend using gloves, or you will get so wasted it is unbelievable. Have fun and lets get stoned and HEALED.

Great report. My big obstacle is finding a distiller. Where did you get yours?

 

[OrganicGH]

All pretty good points. I’ve found that through the heat of evaporation the oil naturally decarbs. I always ran labs after extracting and found that the majority was decarbed with a tiny bit of CBGa and THCA. Personally I like the broader profile. Also when evaporating I will add a small amount of MCT or olive oil to the batch. When the oil is nearly evaporated I will also add about 20 ml of distilled water to the oil. Once the water has evaporated it’s a good gauge of the level of alcohol remaining. I always dilute my RSO with an EV olive oil at a 10:1 ratio. Ultrasound is very effective in mixing the blend. Lab tests after all applications usually results in zero solvents detected.

 

[Brian420pm]

Once the water has evaporated it’s a good gauge of the level of alcohol remaining.

Thank you for sharing your experience! Can you say how it reacts differently between none and too much alcohol?

 

[Brian420pm]

I always dilute my RSO with an EV olive oil at a 10:1 ratio.

Where does that put you, around 3-5mg THC per drop?

 

[Rahrtn]

Maybe I'm talking to myself here, but for anyone following along or finding this later...

I started with 6oz of larfy buds / trim that I had curing for the last few months and 1.75L Everclear.

I decarboxylated it using sous vide at 200°F for 1h 40m. It was in two vacuum-sealed bags, and those were in a ziplock bag. I put some rocks in the ziplock to weight it down and zipped it after submerging most of the way in the water - to push the air out. Then put some more rocks on top. Tinfoil over the top of the pot to retain water. It was all going along fine until maybe 1h give or take into the process when the bags floated up to the surface anyway. The ziplock got a bunch of water inside it (no big deal) so I replaced it with a new one. Getting everything submerged again took quite a while and given that the water and rocks were 200°; it pretty much sucked.

The weed itself remained dry to slightly damp. I popped the weed into the freezer for 10 to 15 minutes. The Everclear had been in the freezer over 24h already.

I dumped the weed into a large glass jar and poured most of the everclear over it. Then I stirred and mashed is using a silicon spatula. Had I been using ISO, I'd have gone for a quickwash, but Everclear isn't as efficient so I spend a good 5 minutes breaking it up and mixing it. I'm sure I extracted a bunch of plant material in addition to the cannabinoids, but that doesn't bother me too much.

I poured the everclear (now tincture) into a large pyrex measuring cup through both a cheesecloth and a metal strainer, then poured the rest of the everclear over the weed for a 2nd wash.

Next I put 2 coffee filters over a new jar and poured the tincture through it. This is the part where using the pyrex with a spout was supposed to prevent me from making a mess. Nope. I got super sticky tincture all over everything. If you ever want to feel like spiderman, just get a lot of that tincture on your hands and jars and touch anything.

The product actually filtered pretty quickly - maybe 2 hours. Much of the plant material settled to the bottom of the pyrex. I poured gently (into the filter) and scooped the tincture out using a shot glass, so as not to disturb it too much. That made less work for the filters, which also caught a ton of material, but didn't clog so much they stopped working. Also, I scraped them off between pours.

After filtering the tincture, I dumped it into the temperature-controlled distiller. I was using the distiller to reclaim the everclear, but it was apparent I'd already lost a TON of it before even distilling.

I ran the distiller a handful of times over the last week to "clean" it of any factory residue. I was surprised how long it takes to distill water compared to a tea pot, and was expecting the Everclear to distill much faster, but not quickly. Not the case. I set the distiller outside, turned it on at the lowest temp, and it started distilling within a few minutes. Of course, the spout and container were unaligned, so I lost more everclear.

Having used a rice cooker in the past, and expecting the distiller to be a tad slower than that, I got distracted on the phone... Bim bam done, the distiller made really short work of evaporating off all the Everclear. I had intended to stop distilling with some alcohol remaining, then transfer to pyrex to finish on a hot plate. BUT - oops. I let it go until it turned itself off. When I opened the top, I'd "burned" some of the oil and it was really thick.

I poured it out into a small glass dish, and scraped off more I could with a silicone spatula. The distiller is ... well, I have to decide if I want to clean it so I can use if for water, or if it's only be used for making oil. There's a decent amount of product that's just stuck to the inside. I poured in a bit of the reclaimed everclear to see if I could absorb more product. Might turn that into a tincture. Anyway, I didn't measure the final amount of Everclear I reclaimed, but it wasn't much. I regret using the distiller. Maybe if I had a still, or lab tubes and beakers I'd have reclaimed more? Hard to say. There's just a lot lost in the process prior to distilling. Maybe if you use a rice press to squeeze out ever drop from the weed and cheesecloth; but that's another dirty super sticky item to deal with.

I moved the oil to a hotplate to "finish" it. I was going to heat off the remaining alcohol, watch the bubbles, do the spark test. Of course I was impatient and heated it too quickly. It foamed up making a zillion tiny bubbles. I pulled it off the heat and combed through the bubbles to pop them. Then cooked it on a much lower temp, but that was pretty much it. No more bubbles. I did a few spark tests, and the oil was clean.

I pulled the oil up into 4 syringes (1ml). Unfortunately, that's all I had left, oops. There's probably another 2 - 3 ml oil remaining, so it's in a shot glass covered with plastic wrap. Given the amount of oil stuck in the distiller, smeared on the glass dish, silicon spatula, in the syringes, and remaining in the shot glass, I'm very pleased with how much I extracted. I didn't measure it but seems to be 7 to 8ml.

(Fun note, I had the shot glass on a 45° angle and let the oil cool. You can press fork prongs into it, pull the fork out and it holds the indentation shape for a few minutes. Sludge!)

I made a huge sticky mess and have a LOT of room for improvement, but had fun and got my RSO; so it's all good.

After I was done with everything, of course, I was eager to test it out and see if it worked. Over the hours of preparing everything, I had gotten a lot of tincture on my hands and oil on my fingertips; so thought I ought to be feeling good. However, wasn't feeling anything. So, decided to do a test and asked my girlfriend if she wanted to try it as well.

Told her "This might not do anything, or it might work and give you a great body high, or it might knock you on your ass for the the rest of the day and well into the evening. No clue..."

She decided to be brave but only wanted a very small amount. I smeared a very little bit onto a basil leaf, and made a parachute for her. Told her to swallow it and be sure not to taste it. She likes basil, so she chewed it up. Ack, so gross! She didn't seem to think it was as horrible as I expected. I made a basil parachute for myself as well.

I set a timer for 30 minutes. When it went off I was just barely starting to feel it kicking in. She said she didn't feel anything. Even an hour later, she said she didn't really notice much -- although sometimes you don't if you're just lounging around; which she was. I was starting to think I didn't give her enough and she wouldn't notice its effects, that it just wasn't that strong, or didn't work. Except, I was feeling it - subtly.

Turns out I didn't mess it up. It kicked in for me and I was feeling great for hours and hours. It hit her a bit differently, and pretty much knocked her out. She took a few naps. The "makes you drowsy" could be from me over cooking the oil in the distiller and again on the hot plate.

It ended up hitting me pretty hard, and I'm not sure if it's due to the amount I took or how much of it I absorbed through my fingertips. Next time I make this stuff, I'm wearing gloves. I'm looking forward to taking another small dose in the future to get a 2nd calibration point. I may gift some to friends and need to let them know if they should take a very small amount or a very very small amount. Haha.

Anyway, I'm happy to report "IT WORKS". I mean, it REALLY works. And based on how little it takes and how long the effects last; I'm thrilled with the quantity I produced, even with all the mess and loss. I'm also glad that this stuff pretty much lasts forever in this state.

Pictures in next post.

I usually take the rso and place it UNDER THE TONGUE very small Mount start slow ... anything left in the distiller I take a pound of butter and pit itin the distiller and heat it it up till the butter melts stir it up untill the butter has cleaned the distiller . No residue . Use a spat to get everything out you should have some decent butter to bake with as far as the use of rso yiu need very little under the tongue . It's like nitro glissorin (s) under the tongue it bypasses the ingesting system and absorbed through the glans under the tongue immediately.. you should feel the affects in less then an hr ..good luck

 

[vivs]

Great thread! Thank you for sharing it. I have the same questions or concerns, and I would love to test batches using different techniques to see which options are the best ones. Hard to say while we’re kind of in the dark, right?

I’ve also been mixing the best knowledge out there, Rick Simpson’s and Emily Kyle’s, to try the batches of my FECO productions. So I’ve also started to decarb the flower first through Instant Pot method (brake them into popcorn pieces and put in mason jars, then in the instant pot with some water, and let it in high pressure for 40min or a bit more).

Then I add 94% alcohol (in Canada we have Global instead of Everclear), and let them soak for 7-8 days in a dark place in room temperature. I choose to shake them a bit everyday - not sure if it’s good but I don’t mind about chlorophyll. I chose to do this since Emily Kyle revealed through lab tests that long soak of 7-8 days will get the most from cannabis.

Then I do a second soak for some more days the same way (and I’m not sure if it still takes medicinal properties from the buds but I do it anyway).

I put both washes in a temperature controlled distiller (I use one I bought on Amazon, from the Chinese brand Vevor), and set it up to heat at 79-89°C (enough for the alcohol evaporate). I could reclaim more than 70% of the alcohol! I hope the distiller won’t break anytime soon.

I don’t let the distiller distill all the alcohol content to pour it into a double boiler, where I evaporate the rest of the alcohol in water bath.

To finish it, I mix MCT oil into it to make easier to collect it and to dispense the doses later on. I collect it using plastic syringes (started with glass 1ml ones but they aren’t easy to handle). Since the MCT allows the FECO to not be too thick when cooler, I wait to cool off and collect it with the plastic syringes. Off topic tip: the markers of plastic syringes will wear off quickly when in contact with oil, so I put a clear adhesive tape on the markers to protect them.



My objective with FECO is to give it to my husband 1ml a day (for cancer and seizure control), so I add 0.5ml of MCT per 1ml of FECO, and collect it in a way that he’ll take 1.5ml a day. I hope my rationale is right with this - if not I’d appreciate some suggestions!

Here are my concerns:

1- From what I’ve read, the reclaimed 94% or 95% alcohol won’t be lower in alcohol volume after the distilling process, right? It could just stay the same or higher in volume? Just a fear of not having a good reclaimed high proof alcohol to use in the next batches.

2- I also don’t know, as I said, if the second long-soak will make my FECO less potent. Do anyone could answer that for sure?

3- Should I measure the MCT the way I’m doing or could I been making FECO less potent by mixing it the way I do? (0.5 of MCT per 1ml of FECO then collecting 1.5ml to have the same dosage)

Hard to go on a certain direction without questions if we don’t test the final product in laboratories.

 

[Rahrtn]

Great thread! Thank you for sharing it. I have the same questions or concerns, and I would love to test batches using different techniques to see which options are the best ones. Hard to say while we’re kind of in the dark, right?

I’ve also been mixing the best knowledge out there, Rick Simpson’s and Emily Kyle’s, to try the batches of my FECO productions. So I’ve also started to decarb the flower first through Instant Pot method (brake them into popcorn pieces and put in mason jars, then in the instant pot with some water, and let it in high pressure for 40min or a bit more).

Then I add 94% alcohol (in Canada we have Global instead of Everclear), and let them soak for 7-8 days in a dark place in room temperature. I choose to shake them a bit everyday - not sure if it’s good but I don’t mind about chlorophyll. I chose to do this since Emily Kyle revealed through lab tests that long soak of 7-8 days will get the most from cannabis.

Then I do a second soak for some more days the same way (and I’m not sure if it still takes medicinal properties from the buds but I do it anyway).

I put both washes in a temperature controlled distiller (I use one I bought on Amazon, from the Chinese brand Vevor), and set it up to heat at 79-89°C (enough for the alcohol evaporate). I could reclaim more than 70% of the alcohol! I hope the distiller won’t break anytime soon.

I don’t let the distiller distill all the alcohol content to pour it into a double boiler, where I evaporate the rest of the alcohol in water bath.

To finish it, I mix MCT oil into it to make easier to collect it and to dispense the doses later on. I collect it using plastic syringes (started with glass 1ml ones but they aren’t easy to handle). Since the MCT allows the FECO to not be too thick when cooler, I wait to cool off and collect it with the plastic syringes. Off topic tip: the markers of plastic syringes will wear off quickly when in contact with oil, so I put a clear adhesive tape on the markers to protect them.



My objective with FECO is to give it to my husband 1ml a day (for cancer and seizure control), so I add 0.5ml of MCT per 1ml of FECO, and collect it in a way that he’ll take 1.5ml a day. I hope my rationale is right with this - if not I’d appreciate some suggestions!

Here are my concerns:

1- From what I’ve read, the reclaimed 94% or 95% alcohol won’t be lower in alcohol volume after the distilling process, right? It could just stay the same or higher in volume? Just a fear of not having a good reclaimed high proof alcohol to use in the next batches.

2- I also don’t know, as I said, if the second long-soak will make my FECO less potent. Do anyone could answer that for sure?

3- Should I measure the MCT the way I’m doing or could I been making FECO less potent by mixing it the way I do? (0.5 of MCT per 1ml of FECO then collecting 1.5ml to have the same dosage)

Hard to go on a certain direction without questions if we don’t test the final product in laboratories.

I decarb my weed with the decarb kit from magic butter. . At 240° -for 45 ... you have to preheat everything kit and all and use the temp probe that came with it .. trick is to make sure the weed is at 230 or so before. Timing it .Also . Let it sit in the container for 30 min to kind of cool of and absorb the remains tris and other goodies . Trick is to keep it covered no matter what uou use. ,let it cool. Put it in a sealed container untill ready to use for rso or whatever .
Do you used fresh or clean everclear for each rinse/wash ? I usually don't use the same when I wash a second time . You will never get a "clean wash" if you do. I try to wash in a Mason jar. Drain and lightly press out the remaining everclear ... repeat with second was with clean ever clear .. if you use the same everclear it's like washing your clothes in dirty water . .they will never be clean . On the third wash I make sure it is pure un used ever clear . . It don't take much but you'll see the difference between the first and last wash
I usually take a wooden spoon ot piece of wood and mash the weed. Shake it up and let it sit .. I also use the butter press from magic butter to press out the ever clear ,which has a filter system in it . It also has a attachment that attches to the top of a wide mouth mason jar .that way everything presed out is kept in the jar . After the last wash the everclear will have a slight tint . I take a large coffee filter (commercial) and strain it gravity fed to get out the rest of thr impurities. You'll be amazed what you get out . Last but not least... I rinse out the remaining jars that were used with some clean everclear . And remaining goodies are washed out. And you have clean jars filter that to and your ready to distill. I lose 5 - 15 % total of ever clear
After you cook it off I take you can tell approximately what's left in the pot. ... usually a gram of oil I use 100 grams of coconut oil. Melt it up and swirl it around. Mixing well. . Pour it I a small madon jar to be used for gummies . You can use butter also . When all said and done the oil or butter deglazes the put . Like a chef does to get the real flavors frome a saute' pan . . Keep in mind the potency will be different go slow. Stay low. Untill you figure it out... the beginning product will affect the end product. I've been doing this for a long time ... NEVER HAD AN ISSUE. .. would compared it to final medical grade. Any day
Good luck

 

[MotaMan420]

Hey all , gotta ask - why not use the Magic Butter Machine to run the alcohol and weed and render a tincture that you can then distill the alcohol out of leaving the oil ? MBM grinds your bud to a fine matter maximizing surface area to solvent rendering more initially on 1st wash - can strain using mason jar attachment (great device) and rewash on second tincture cycle.

Just started making oil again - have alot of trim and some excess bud and lots of time on my hands.. What I am looking for is a filter that doesn't soak up too much solvent and good stuff and still gets out the micro bits that the MBM produces.

Happy Cookin

MotaMan