Tips For the Tincture Curious

About Marijuana Concentrates
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I have been experimenting with making/consuming tincture for about a year now, and wanted to share some things I have discovered. I prefer the high from tinctures to smoking, it lasts longer and feels a bit different. I have found sativa dominant strains in a tincture can be a psychedelic high (I used Island Sweet Skunk). Indica dominant are definitely more of a relaxing body high, not unlike smoking these strains.

Decarboxilation- The first few times, I used a sous vide to decarb, and it turned out ok. I bit the bullet and bought a Nova decarber, and that took the tincture to a whole new level. I believe the Nova is more efficient at converting the THC-A into THC.

Everclear- I use 190 proof (95%) grain spirits. The best ratio has been 1 oz dried bud (weight before decarb) to 18 oz everclear. I grind the buds after decarb, and mix into a mason jar with the alcohol, shake it for 5-minutes, and then put into the freezer. I shake it for a minute or two, twice a day for several days, returning to the freezer. Some people strain it afterwards, I just leave the plant material in it until it’s all used up, then toss.

Dosing calculations- If you know what your THC % is, that helps tremendously. The last batch I made is supposed to have 22-24% THC. I will use this batch’s math as an example.
28g buds at 23% THC 28*.23=6.44g THC
6.44g THC=6,440mg THC
18oz = 532ml
6,440mg THC divided by 532ml = 12.1mg THC per 1ml

How much to take- It has taken trial and error, but finally figured out that taking 2-3ml on an empty stomach is good for me. The empty stomach part is what took awhile to figure out. There were evenings I took 3ml and didn’t get high, just mildly felt relaxed. I have even taken 6ml, trying to get that great high, and the high dose worked after awhile. Taking with food, or having already eaten prior, just mutes the onset and full possible effect. It also made me wake up groggy. Taking on an empty stomach, not eating for at least 30-minutes after is THE trick. 2-3ml gets me where I want to be, fairly quick onset, and wake up fully refreshed the next morning. I can tell you it was frustrating trying to figure out why sometimes 3ml was bliss, and other times a dud.

Everclear is harsh at full strength, yet it’s best for extraction. Since letting the tincture sit under the tongue before swallowing speeds up onset, you can add some water to your dose to make it not burn your mouth. I usually mix it in a shot glass, 1 part tincture to 2 parts water.

I hope this helps anyone looking to experiment with making/taking tinctures.

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Thank you. I’m going to try, but not that strong of THC.

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A few years ago, I made some oil tinctures but never alcohol. I used olive oil and steeped forever on a low heat. Had to use a pollen press to extract all the oil.

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Done a lot of cannibutter, love my cookies and brownies​:grin::heart_eyes:

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Surprised no one mentioned MCT oil, or even coconut oil.

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I’m trying that next! Save 1/2 and use the other 1/2 for honey

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CBD Honey for them rainy days :yum:

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@GardenGrove Can I use fresh harvested bud to make tincture since I’ll be doing the decarboxylation step anyway? I understand that I’ll probably lose some potency from the bud not being cured and at its full potential, but should still work to make a pretty decent tincture, correct?

Reason I’m asking is because I have a collapsed lung right now and I don’t want to rush back into smoking/vaping weed for a while.

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@Caligurl knows alot about this maybe she can shed more light on it. Hope you heal soon

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Thanks for the help :+1:

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Hey @Caligurl, would you have any helpful advice about using fresh uncured bud to make tincture?

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@Classybanana "Curing isn’t necessary for edibles, but your material does need to be dry enough to jar to ensure there’s not a lot of excess moisture (water tends to pull out undesirables).

I recommend gently breaking up the nugs for decarb, to ensure even decarboxylation. See above for my advice on making infusions" from this:

I also have my own experiments brewing lol:

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@Caligurl

Just checked out that blog post. So.many questions lol

This may be a stupid question but what are you making by drying out the everclear over night and then scrapping the thc(?) left behind in the pan? Is that like a different kind/more potent rosin /live resin? Or what would you call it?

And if i was to adopt that method of extracting THC using ever clear and then drying it out, would it be the same thing (and maybe cheaper over time without having to purchase ever clear every time) if I just pressed my bud instead of extracting using alcohol?

Since I’m looking to make tincture and not any smoking material, could I follow your decarb process with freshly harvest weed and then jar the bud with ever clear and shake when required, and then end up with the tincture I am wanting?

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So many answers LOL!

That gooey stuff left in the pan after evaporating the Everclear is wax or dab. Since I do edibles, I decarboxylate it first.

When done like that, no matter what % thc your plant is, every gram will be about 750mg THC so yes, very potent and very easy to calculate dosing!

I haven’t tried pressing my bud yet, but I plan on trying that soon! Yes, the Everclear can get expensive but not too bad really. I just bought the Source Turbo which is a closed loop recovery system and I should be able to re-use my Everclear about 10-12 times. I’ll post that soon but I’m waiting on a replacement for my Buchner Filter which arrived broken.

I’ll tag @emgoldslo for more info on making a tincture from pressed rosin… I imagine you would have to re-liquify is somehow…

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Thanks for the tag @Caligurl

You would need to liquify it somehow for a tincture. You could use vegetable glycerin or and oil to liquify it.

Why a tincture? As long as it’s decarbed you could also just measure out whatever dosage you want and fill capsules.

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Cali girl! You got me scared lol. I purchased the Onkono infusion machine and it came today. I was excited and poured in 2 cups everclear with 2.5 grams of top shelf indica bud ( I didn’t like to smoke it )

The guide says the dosage breaks down in this way.

1 gram of bud = 1000 mg. The bud I got was 20.65% thc. 20% of 1000mg is 200 mg. 200mg *2 + 1/2 gram = 500 mg, give or take. I don’t account for the .65%

So I have 2 cups of everclear for my tincture with 500mg bud. So the max it can be is 500 mg with 2.5 grams of bud.

I eat roughly 60 mg of medical grade edibles for sleep every night. Else no sleep for me.

500 mg / 8 pieces equals 60 mg. This allows me to eat one serving where as the medical store grade forces me to eat 3 pieces, 2 if I’m lucky . If all they have is rec then 6 pieces which I’m not doing. It’s incredibly expensive when they don’t have the right dose available.

I will be making my own medicine for this reason and with that being said I’m nervous because if it’s 750 or stronger, it’ll be too much. Let me know why my equation would be wrong so that I can figure this out.

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So you’re talking tinctures, correct? Tinctures aren’t evaporated down all the way… that is why I really like doing the QWET and evaporating it down ALL the way… the dosing is accurate. You don’t have to worry about what % thc your plant is (because you wouldn’t really know unless you had it analyzed).

So when making a QWET into a wax or dab… it doesn’t matter the thc content of your plant. whether your plant is 10% or 25%, the lower % will yield less gram of wax/dab than the higher %.

For purged Extracts that have not been thoroughly filtered, such as RSO, you can reliably estimate: 1 ml/gram=600 mg Cannabinoids

For purged Extracts that have been thoroughly winterized and filtered, evaporated to 0 alcohol, you can reliably estimate: 1 gram=750mg Cannabinoids (up to 850mg)

Once yo know what you have, then dose appropriately.

Example.
I am making 16 cookies and want them to be 20mg each…
16 x 20 = 320
320 / 750 = .426
So you measure out .426g of wax and infuse that into your recipe.

check out my blog the link is above

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I want an alcohol tincture because I like how easy it is to medicate. I can take a few drops under my tongue, or I can make a mixed drink and incorporate a few drops into it.

Im not looking to get any oil extracted from the process. I just want an strong alcohol infused tincture.

I think I’ve found what I was looking for…
I’ve found some recipes online, basically decarb 1-2oz of bud. Put into mason jar then pour enough everclear to cover the grinded bud. Close and shake, freeze for an hour, shake again,(recipes vary in how much and how often to shake) this recipe said to shake every 3-5 mins for an hour. Then store for 2-10 days. Then strain out the plant material and you’re left with a green alcohol infused tincture. The user can then dose with a medicine dropper to their liking.

Is anyone experienced in medicating with this method or even heard of it before?:sweat_smile:

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Look up recipes for green dragon.

I started making my tinctures that way. Still make some occasionally. Think it’s exactly what your looking for.

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Just remember that the longer you soak it the more chlorophyll that you pull out which can make it taste kinda gross

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