Oil, my 2nd try

[Brian420pm]

Back in April I made some oil using some Colorado dispensary GG4 and everclear 190, then mixed it up with some carriers and put in capsules. This time I'm back for more using my first grow harvest of Northern Light from Nirvana Seeds.

The current plan...

THC Batch #1 (183g decarbed)
Capsules:

- Olive oil​

- Lecithin​

Topical Roll-On:

- Grape Seed Oil​

- Pumpkin Seed Oil​

- Peppermint Oil​

- Lavender Oil​

- Menthol Crystals​

Body Cream:

- Undecided Ingredients​

​

THCA Batch #2 (61g not decarbed)
Supplement to Batch #1:

- Add THCA to Capsules, Roll-On and Creams​

Dabbing Products:

- Budder​

- Shatter​

​

Decarbing:

- Flower in mason jars in Instapot on high for 40 minutes​

Distiller:

- Using the Megahome distiller to reclaim the Everclear​

Buchner Filter:

- Winterize/filter to remove fats​

Vacuum Chamber:

- Purge last of Everclear from the oil​

​

I've come across multiple videos from GreenFlower talking about benefits of THCA, so I'll add some to every product. Once I grow some CBD flower I can add CBD and CBDA as well... the truest sense of FULL spectrum!

The fats I collect from the winterize step will be used for some speriments, like mixing in with the Shatter/Budder to see what it does to the consistency and taste, and also will try some added to the body cream.

Today I'm decarbing the 6 THC mason jars in the IP while the THCA flower and everclear are in the freezer.

Thanks for watching!

 

[Old Salt]

Have a look at Cream & Cheese CBD by Seedsman. That's my heaviest producing strain to date. In addition it's 18% THC / 20% CBD.

 

[Brian420pm]

The Wash and first filter:

I decarbed the bud, one sealed mason jar at a time, by putting them into the InstaPot in 1/2" water, on high for 40 minutes.

Then the jars and everclear went in the freezer for a couple days. Today I poured enough everclear in the jars to cover the bud and soaked and lightly agitated for 3 minutes, then poured the everclear back into the bottles. A second wash was then done with fresh everclear for 6 minutes with a bit more aggressive agitation.

Filtering through coffee filters...

it's sparkling now!

Back in the freezer until tomorrow when I will winterize through the buchner filter.

 

[Old Salt]

Looks good already. There's very little green,

 

[thecannabisalchemist420]

What does the color difference mean? I always thought the darker it was, the stronger it was. Is it just from removing the wax? Does that have all of the cannabinoids that were in the bud or does the filter take out some of those? Sorry I have a lot of questions, and would rather get info from someone who's experienced than the government controlled studies and stuff I find on google

 

[Old Salt]

This is an intermediate step. The extraction with ethanol has been done. Depending on the strain, and temperature the extract can be anywhere from brown to honey colored to green. Green indicates the presence of chlorophyll, and is not desired. Putting it out in the sun, or under a grow light will remove the chlorophyll.

The next step, winterization, removes most of the waxes and lipids. Doing this ensures the end product flows much easier.

After winterization the alcohol is removed. This is safely done with a still, but can be done in a rice cooker. At this point the oil can be anywhere from a light honey color to dark brown. In my opinion the light honey color indicates higher quality.

There are several good articles in the forum on how to do this.

 

[thecannabisalchemist420]

This is an intermediate step. The extraction with ethanol has been done. Depending on the strain, and temperature the extract can be anywhere from brown to honey colored to green. Green indicates the presence of chlorophyll, and is not desired. Putting it out in the sun, or under a grow light will remove the chlorophyll.

The next step, winterization, removes most of the waxes and lipids. Doing this ensures the end product flows much easier.

After winterization the alcohol is removed. This is safely done with a still, but can be done in a rice cooker. At this point the oil can be anywhere from a light honey color to dark brown. In my opinion the light honey color indicates higher quality.

There are several good articles in the forum on how to do this.

Thank you

 

[Brian420pm]

Thanks Old Salt for filling in the details!

...does the filter take out some of those <cannabinoids >?

I've not come across anything saying that the coffee filter and/or buchner filter steps remove THC, so I think we'll be ok there.

When the winterization step is used to remove fats and other undesirables, many people no longer consider it a "full" extract cannabis oil. I've yet to come across anything compelling though that addresses the usefulness of these fats, lipids, etc. The most effective winterization involves colder temps than what I'm using in the kitchen, so some will linger behind I'm sure.

 

[thecannabisalchemist420]

Thanks for the info. I'm trying it now. Also gonna experiment with some ideas I've come up with, and study the fats under my microscope. Also, while looking at the leftover plant matter, I notice there's still a lot of trichomes left. It's mostly just the type that keeps bugs away which contains very few cannabinoids. But I also see some capitate sessile and capitate stalked trichomes. It looks like all the bulbs have been dissolved, so the majority of the cannabinoids are in the ethanol. (obviously. we already know that) But there are parts that contain cannabinoids that are still on the cannabis. Is there anyway you know of to dissolve those trichomes?

 

[thecannabisalchemist420]

I really appreciate the help by the way. thanks again to both of you

 

[Brian420pm]

... see some capitate sessile and capitate stalked trichomes.
... dissolve those trichomes?

Good timing, I'll be scoping my left over flower tomorrow.

Please share your future oil results here, it's good to have someone to bounce this around with, especially if you are doing similar steps.

Hmm I imagine the capitate sessile heads have a thick upper membrane and not easily penetrated. I have a high speed wand mixer I wonder if pulverizing the material and one more wash would get those... and LOTS of other plant material, but since I'm winterizing to remove that stuff why not?

Ha, we're both gonna have containers of cannabis FATS/LIPIDS in our fridges. We need a word for that material, I'm getting SO tired of saying, "fats/lipids/waxes/undeisrables"!

 

[thecannabisalchemist420]

I'll for sure share, and I'll come up with a name after I see it under my microscope. But the high speed mixer sounds like a good idea. I was trying to crush them with a butter knife but I don't think it did much. It was all I could find. I also tried boiling it for a few minutes before I did the first filtering. I'll take a look at it under the microscope when it dries to see if it did anything

 

[Brian420pm]

Maybe pulverize some in hot water, let it sit and see if any oil separates. I read elsewhere that someone tried to mega-crush material but it clogged their filters and wasn't worth the effort.

 

[thecannabisalchemist420]

So I tried treating it with a really strong light while the cannabis was still in the ethanol. Not only did it take out most of the green in the tree and turned the liquid golden. It also seems to have gotten some of the trichomes off. There's way more sand at the bottom than what's in the normal one that's been sitting in the dark. And the sand is the parts of the trichomes that aren't cannabinoids. So, I'm gonna do more tests but my theory is that light is helping break down the cannabis and dissolving more trichomes. Just gotta figure out how

 

[Brian420pm]

I'm gonna do more tests

The decarbed, spent flower really stinks and I have to manage smells, so in the trash it has to go. I'll be using the buchner today on the oil, no hoses were shipped with any equipment UGH, so hopefully the desktop vape hose will work.

 

[Brian420pm]

Nothing was in the buchner, so I'm guessing the coffee filter and the glass frit in the buchner filter are a similar 20 micron size. I'll order some 10 and 5 micron paper to put in the buchner and try again another day.

One thing about the buchner it is FAST! What took me hours yesterday with coffee filters and gravity would have taken me minutes with the buchner.

Ahh I'll need a few days more:

If you only have a standard freezer, you’ll need 36-48 hours to fully precipitate the lipids/waxes. You will know your extract is ready for the next step when you have a layer of lipids/waxes formed on top of the ethanol solution. ​

 

[thecannabisalchemist420]

Thanks I was literally about to buy 100 20 micron filters. I think I'll try the 5

 

[Brian420pm]

Nothing still is precipitating from the solution in the freezer! From reading elsewhere I can reclaim some of the everclear and place back in the freezer... this will increase the saturation of the solution which will cause the fats to crash out easier/sooner.

The 5 and 10 micron filter papers will be here tomorrow so I'll run some through the 10 and if still nothing I'll reclaim 50% of the everclear and freeze again.

 

[thecannabisalchemist420]

Nothing still is precipitating from the solution in the freezer! From reading elsewhere I can reclaim some of the everclear and place back in the freezer... this will increase the saturation of the solution which will cause the fats to crash out easier/sooner.

The 5 and 10 micron filter papers will be here tomorrow so I'll run some through the 10 and if still nothing I'll reclaim 50% of the everclear and freeze again.

I just bought everything I need to distill and filter my oil. I went with the 2.5 micron filter. Also got some bigger filters to try refining kief. And some other stuff. Gonna have about 15 different experiments going on

 

[One Of These Days]

Decarbing:
- Flower in mason jars in Instapot on high for 40 minutes

Are those just amber jars full of cured buds in the ip for 40 mins?