Quick Tinctures: A SweetSue Picture Tutorial

[SweetSue]

Hi all, I just purchased an instapot and am trying to sort out a tincture recipe. I see plenty of cannabitter ones but is there one for tincture? And, can I make a tincture with MCT oil and not alcohol? Total newbie here. Thank you, Paula

Paula, I’m so sorry this was missed for so long. If you’re still with us, I’d do a tincture some other way. The MB2 is set up for alcohol tinctures, or you can make one with a series of quick washes with ethanol alcohol and simply evaporate off.

And yes, you can make a tincture with a carrier oil. That’s essentially what we’re doing with our Instant Pots. Dosing with drops under the tongue makes tears oil’s into tinctures.

We recently learned that MCTs aren’t efficient carriers for cannabinoids. The molecules are not as effective as EVOO or coconut oil.

 

[hedzenmedz]

One of the easiest dosing methods is an alcohol tincture. It’s a quick and easy process to wash the plant material with a strong ethanol alcohol and gently reduce the wash to a tincture concentration.

This tutorial will walk you through the process of making a small-batch tincture. I started with about 4 ounces of alcohol and reduced it down to 1 ounce.

As in all things cannabis, the quality of your produce will greatly determine your outcome. I used spiced rum for this batch at the request of the patient. Use the highest alcohol content you can get for the most efficient extraction.

Enough words. I’ll let the pictures say the rest.

Tincture supplies

• SweetSue
• Nov 26, 2018

Dry bud
Ethanol alcohol
Jars
Scale

Weigh out buds

• SweetSue
• Nov 26, 2018

Decarb at 235° F

• SweetSue
• Nov 26, 2018

Decarb for 110 minutes

• SweetSue
• Nov 26, 2018

Weighed bud awaiting decarb

• SweetSue
• Nov 26, 2018

Place into roasting bag on baking sheet or pan

• SweetSue
• Nov 26, 2018

Decarbing without the overpowering smell.

• SweetSue
• Nov 26, 2018

After decarb pop into the freezer for an hour to let things settle.

• SweetSue
• Nov 26, 2018

Bud after decarb

• SweetSue
• Nov 26, 2018

Hand grind to keep from becoming powdery.

• SweetSue
• Nov 26, 2018

Place ground bud in a jar.

• SweetSue
• Nov 26, 2018

You’ll have a jar of bud and a jar with slightly more alcohol.

• SweetSue
• Nov 26, 2018

Buds and alcohol awaiting winterization

• SweetSue
• Nov 26, 2018

Winterizing (freezing) keeps the waxes and chlorophyll out of the alcohol. Get it all good and cold.

Into the freezer overnight.

• SweetSue
• Nov 26, 2018

Don’t forget the straining glass too. Get everything good and cold before beginning the wash.

• SweetSue
• Nov 26, 2018

Set the freezer to its coldest setting.

• SweetSue
• Nov 26, 2018

Frosty ingredients ready for the wash.

• SweetSue
• Nov 26, 2018

Empty alcohol into bud jar.

• SweetSue
• Nov 26, 2018

Stir vigorously.

• SweetSue
• Nov 26, 2018

Cap jar, put back in freezer and shake every 30 seconds for 3 minutes time.

• SweetSue
• Nov 26, 2018

Note that the straining glass is still in the freezer.

After 3 minutes strain, leaving the whole thing in the freezer to drain.

• SweetSue
• Nov 26, 2018

Then squeeze the plant material to get everything out, then discard it.

Completed wash

• SweetSue
• Nov 26, 2018

Empty into a clean jar.

• SweetSue
• Nov 26, 2018

If you have a finer filter material this is the time to pull it out and use it.

Reduce the wash to your desired concentration.

• SweetSue
• Nov 26, 2018

I used a hot water bath. The trivet keeps the jar off the bottom of the pot.

You don’t need to use a hot water bath. There are many ways to evaporate, for example you can pour it into a glass dish and let it evaporate on its own (takes longer) or heat the dish and speed the process up.

Reducing.....

• SweetSue
• Nov 26, 2018

Reducing......

• SweetSue
• Nov 26, 2018

Reducing.......

• SweetSue
• Nov 26, 2018

You get to decide how powerful you want the tincture to be.

Pour tincture into jar.

• SweetSue
• Nov 26, 2018

Cap and label.

• SweetSue
• Nov 26, 2018

Determine your individual dose and dose appropriately.

Dosing is an individual determination. Start with one drop and wait 15 minutes before trying another. Keep doing that until you’re feeling the effect you desire. Move slowly. You’ll never know how little can be effective if you jump right up to a high dose.

Your endocannabinoid system will thank you for this patience with improved healing potential.

Now you know the dose that works for you. Allow yourself to be flexible. Tinctures make great medicine for breakthrough pain, anxiety, and muscle spasm. A bottle can be discreetly carried and medicine stealthily dosed with a tincture in your pocket or purse. Consider a sample bottle that holds a mere 1 ml for emergency use.

The alcohol tincture will burn if taken on its own, but it’s easy enough to add to a drink or drip onto some food.

Thanks for posting this Sue. We've been wanting to try this for a while now. One question, I have an alcohol distiller. Should be able to use that instead of the water bath et al? I've been looking for a chance to use this appliance! Namaste - hedz

 

[SweetSue]

Thanks for posting this Sue. We've been wanting to try this for a while now. One question, I have an alcohol distiller. Should be able to use that instead of the water bath et al? I've been looking for a chance to use this appliance! Namaste - hedz

Is the alcohol distillery similar to the water units hedz? If so then yes. Keep an eye on what came out so you don’t get too low and burn the oil on the bottom. The more you distill the more concentrated it becomes. Of course you already know that.

Take pictures please. We love pictures.

 

[hedzenmedz]

Is the alcohol distillery similar to the water units hedz? If so then yes. Keep an eye on what came out so you don’t get too low and burn the oil on the bottom. The more you distill the more concentrated it becomes. Of course you already know that.

Take pictures please. We love pictures.

If all goes well, I will post pics this evening of the process. Coming up on 1 year (March 21st) since my wife was able to completely stop fentanyl (75 mcg patch every 48 hours). Most of our success was due to the use of decarbed, dry cannabis (indica) packed into size zero caps. H

ere is a photo of our distiller - good for both alcohol and water.

 

[SweetSue]

If all goes well, I will post pics this evening of the process. Coming up on 1 year (March 21st) since my wife was able to completely stop fentanyl (75 mcg patch every 48 hours). Most of our success was due to the use of decarbed, dry cannabis (indica) packed into size zero caps. H

ere is a photo of our distiller - good for both alcohol and water.

I have the same unit. It’ll work.

 

[hedzenmedz]

I have the same unit. It’ll work.

Hi All,
We followed Sweet Sue's recipe and method up until the 23rd photo of her tutorial. At that point, the mixture was put into the distiller. took about 15 minutes in the unit before it shut itself off (I should add that I put and extra 1/3 cup of 151 proof vodka along with the mixture to have what I perceived to be too little liquid in the unit). When the distiller was opened, there was still some liquid and some sludge which was scraped into a small glass dish - see photo. Looks kinda like the proverbial turd in the punch bowl! At that point, I added a teaspoon of liquid sunflower lecithin and emulsified the two together. Then a tablespoon of EVOO was emulsified in to the mixture.

You need to have some patience mixing. It took about 5 minutes to fully incorporate the mixture. It was such a small amount that I mixed it with a Demi-tasse spoon. I was wishing that I had a small wire whip which would have made the task much more efficient. Next time I'll make a larger amount and when it comes to the final mixture a stainless steel bowl and wire whip will be used.
The only complaint that I have is that there was some product baked on to the bottom of the distiller. I just distilled some plain water for a few minutes, then emptied the unit and clean it with a soft scrub brush. To prevent this form happening and losing a significant amount of product, I am thinking about using a small stainless or glass bowl in the bottom of the distiller so nothing gets all cruddy in the unit. What does everyone think of that idea?
So, as to the effect - very quick & powerful, relaxed, body stone (this from licking the demitasse spoon which did not have much on it). In fact, I had to vape some CBD to settle out a bit.
We used the Gorilla strain which was grown by us with the no-till method. This morning, I put a small amount in my wife's tea (see amount on spoon photo). This proved to be a little strong for her (should have used a "smidgen instead of a pinch") and she also had to vape some CBD.
All in all, I feel this was a success and we will continue to use this method. Thank you Sue - you have been an inspiration to my wife and I since we joined 420. Also, Sue you requested that we post the regimen that my wife followed to get off the fentanyl patches. I'm happy to do so - where on this site would you prefer that I post this? Namaste. hedz

 

[onewarmguy]

Sweet Sue every time I read your posts I learn something. I've been extracting resin with alcohol for a while and just learned that decarboxilating my material is recommended THANK YOU.

Two things I should point out regarding boiling off the alcohol:
1) Ventilate! Always Always ventilate! Even in small volumes alcohol vapour can be explosive in high enough concentrations Think fuel/air bomb in your face.

2) If using a proof alcohol like 100 proof bourbon or 151 proof rum (my personal favorite) keep in mind that the 100 proof alcohol is 50% water and alcohol will always boil off faster than water (@ 79 C vs 100 C) if properly distilled, the process leaves nothing but water, resin and an interesting flavor behind. If you're using 151 rum and reducing volume by boiling at 4 to 1 there will be little if any alcohol left behind in your tincture. This is not true for everclear, it's pure alcohol no water at all.

 

[SweetSue]

You guys inspire me.

@hedzenmedz, this is where we drop those Regimen notes others find so invaluable. A special hug to the wife.

The Personal Regimen - Our Community Speaks

And thank you for the input @onewarmguy

It can be tricky getting the distillation times down to avoid burning the concentrated oil. I do my best to calculate what 80% of the alcohol volume would be and mark that measured level with a piece of tape on the carafe capturing the distilled alcohol.

This saves me expense and protects the CCO.

151 rum was all the solvent-useful alcohol I could find on the shelves when I was in PA and learning to make CCO. When they went medical they pulled all the Everclear. I figured they were afraid we’d start blowing up our houses. Lol!

And thank you for the warning. One of our members, an experienced grower and producer of CCO, had his flash one day. Thankfully his wife was standing right there and reacted swiftly, but he still got serious burns on his arms and legs that took quite a while to heal.

Safety first. Always. You all mean so much more to me than the products and documentation.

 

[onewarmguy]

We all owe each other SweetSue, I try to live by the golden rule. Thought I'd pass along my own thoughts and experiences with distillation. At least you can get 151 in PA, up here in Ontario our government seems to think we can't handle anything over 120 proof. The 151 rum that I use I (or some kind friend) have to bring back from south of our border.
I'm thinking as a kitchen chemist and someone please correct me if I'm wrong. Here's the way I judge distillation and why. Fundamentals first
- boiling point of alcohol is between 78 - 80 degrees C
- boiling point of water is 100 degrees C.
- softening point of cannabis resin is around 20 C (in my experience)

I generally put my mixture in a mason jar on a trivet in a pot of water like you and bring it to a boil, when the water temperature is around 80- 90C I start to see bubbling on the surface of my CCO mixture. This is alcohol vapor being released as it comes to a boil (lower boiling point than water, remember?) , once the mixture stops bubbling stir it with a long handled spoon to bring up any alcohol trapped in the CCO, (CAUTION initially the trapped alcohol bubbles out in a high volume foam, wear gloves or at the very least watch you hands) keep doing this until the mixture barely foams when stirred. I think this indicates that little if any alcohol remains in your mixture because of the lower boiling point of alcohol. Remove the mixture and let it sit at room temps for a few hours, then put in a fridge overnight, no need to freeze. In the morning, remove mixture from the fridge and you'll see that it has separated into two layers; the top layer is water, the layer on the bottom is highly concentrated rosin that gets stiffer with colder temps. Carefully draw or pour off the water, (I've never been brave enough to taste it) What's left in your jar is CCO (it's still pretty cold from the fridge right?) .

 

[SweetSue]

Well that was a lovely bit of sharing Onewarmguy.

The softening point of CCO, is your temp of 20°C correct? If so, I’m not certain I understand what you mean.

 

[onewarmguy]

Well that was a lovely bit of sharing Onewarmguy.

The softening point of CCO, is your temp of 20°C correct? If so, I’m not certain I understand what you mean.

The 20C temperature is my own estimate of when my CCO extract starts to flow/drip, below 20 it's like soft butter above 20 and it starts to behave like grease. The higher the temperature gets the more fluid or less viscous it becomes. Keeping it cool while removing the waste water makes the extract thicker and a little easier to handle when processing and results in less waste.

 

[hedzenmedz]

We all owe each other SweetSue, I try to live by the golden rule. Thought I'd pass along my own thoughts and experiences with distillation. At least you can get 151 in PA, up here in Ontario our government seems to think we can't handle anything over 120 proof. The 151 rum that I use I (or some kind friend) have to bring back from south of our border.
I'm thinking as a kitchen chemist and someone please correct me if I'm wrong. Here's the way I judge distillation and why. Fundamentals first
- boiling point of alcohol is between 78 - 80 degrees C
- boiling point of water is 100 degrees C.
- softening point of cannabis resin is around 20 C (in my experience)

I generally put my mixture in a mason jar on a trivet in a pot of water like you and bring it to a boil, when the water temperature is around 80- 90C I start to see bubbling on the surface of my CCO mixture. This is alcohol vapor being released as it comes to a boil (lower boiling point than water, remember?) , once the mixture stops bubbling stir it with a long handled spoon to bring up any alcohol trapped in the CCO, (CAUTION initially the trapped alcohol bubbles out in a high volume foam, wear gloves or at the very least watch you hands) keep doing this until the mixture barely foams when stirred. I think this indicates that little if any alcohol remains in your mixture because of the lower boiling point of alcohol. Remove the mixture and let it sit at room temps for a few hours, then put in a fridge overnight, no need to freeze. In the morning, remove mixture from the fridge and you'll see that it has separated into two layers; the top layer is water, the layer on the bottom is highly concentrated rosin that gets stiffer with colder temps. Carefully draw or pour off the water, (I've never been brave enough to taste it) What's left in your jar is CCO (it's still pretty cold from the fridge right?) .

Hi OWG - Not sure which part of Ontario you’re from, but here in Timmins you can buy at the LCBO Spyritus which is a Polish vodka that is 76% alcohol which converts to 152 proof. Cheers. hedz

 

[onewarmguy]

Thanks for the tip Hedz, I'll see if I can find it down here in Georgina.

 

[Groundtop]

When you say hot water bath, are you placing the mixture that needs to be evaporated in a pot of water on a burner and just increasing temp slowly? Keeping it below boil?

 

[RedZedHead]

super bookmarked. can't wait to try this when I have more bud. However, I feel like I'm gonna mess it up somehow. I better study this thread like the bible. Thanks, Sue!

 

[onewarmguy]

When you say hot water bath, are you placing the mixture that needs to be evaporated in a pot of water on a burner and just increasing temp slowly? Keeping it below boil?

I don't think it matters Groundtop, I try and keep the water at a low simmer. The alcohol boils off first and that change of state (alcohol to vapour) requires energy (heat) to break the chemical bond and release the resin, because of that requirement most of the heat transferred to the mixture is absorbed by the alcohol and the remainder water doesn't get to the boiling point.

 

[Tincandtoke]

Hi, New to the board. I have a different method for ethanol extraction. I decarbed at 240 for 40 minutes. Freeze 190 everclear and decarbed cannabis for 24 hours. I pour enough etoh to cover the ground cannabis and shake for 5 minutes. Back in the freezer for two hours and then a strain. I follow up with a rinse by pouring fresh etoh on the previously washed cannabis to get as much as possible out of the material. A second shake for 5 minutes and combine with the first wash. I reduce this down for my needs. Right now I am infusing simple syrup, just working out the wrinkles. Curious about what other people are doing. I'm kind of a disciple of Bad Kitty Smiles and Psychedelic Sam from grass city.

 

[Virandell]

What decarboxylation time and temp would you reccomend for high CBD and low THC strain ? (20:1) CBD>THC?

 

[SeniorMoments]

Hello sweetsue .
Not sure if this is the correct thread for me to ask my questions ?
If not send me a link and I will go there.
I just ordered the Magical Butter Machine from one of our sponsors.
I am finishing up my 3rd grow in the next couple weeks and will try to make some
pain meds for myself ( old age arthritis , joint discomfort ) and a close friend suffering from MS.
She has never smoked cannabis nor tried any CBD products but is now open to some mild treatments .
Am I in the right place or do I need to go somewhere else ?

 

[DarkAgdistis]

Some people are allergic to alcohol and to lecithin ( for example : I am ) ... so if you extract from cannabis using alcohol and you're serious about getting all the alcohol out of it, you need to invest in a winterization/vacuum purging machine ...

Those devices start to be at decent prices compared to 5 years ago ( I am a medical cannabis user for 25+ years )

Otherwise, you just prepare your best flowers, you decarb them and you put that in a olive oil bottle with ... some olive oils. You cap it and leave it in the dark, in a tray of your apparement, garage, whatever : the idea is that you dont touch it for a long long time .... like one year.

Trust me : my ratio is 2 gr of oil for 1 gr of hash ... and the end product, once filtered with a coffee filter is strong ( huge understatement ), and it is a tincture.