Hey all, just a quick question for those that decarb their weed before pressing, extracting, grinding for pills, etc…
I’m now starting to try my hand at some extractions into oil and rosin/resin for infusing. So I took a couple of my vacuum sealed 1 ounce bags and weighed them again just for reference before starting the process. Each bag weighed a little more than 1 ounce, about 29-30 grams without the bag, 58-60% RH. I went ahead and chopped it up into a coarsely fine size per the instructions, and did a decarb on it through an imitation Magical Butter Machine as it has a preset just for doing that. However, when I took it out after it cooled and weighed it to start with the different processes, there was only about 65% of the weight from the beginning weight, or about 20 grams from each ounce. Both bags had hygrometers in them and they were reading a steady 58% RH before opening them.
Has anyone else ran into this problem? I ended up having to open and decarb a third bag just to make up the weight difference in the recipes. Instructions would say 1/2 ounce decarbed flower to 1 cup of MCT oil or add 2 cups of Everclear to 1 ounce of decarbed buds. I do understand losing some of the weight to the decarbing process, but it just seemed like a lot to me. Any thoughts? Thanks for any info that you have.
I’m like @StonedCold13 and never checked weight before and after. It probably is water evaporating from the buds. I used to decarb my weed ahead of making alcohol extractions but now do it post extraction. Either way works. Good luck.
The heat from decarb plus very dry oven environment sucks what moisture that was in them out, decarbed weed is crispy dry. I never considered it, I just used dry weight as cured and went with it. I use an ounce of bud and an ounce of kief in each batch, plenty of horsepower in a pint of that oil!
How do you do it post extraction? Interesting thought for sure. I thought it had to be done pre-extraction? But, as said, I am brand new to this. Thanks!
Thank you for the information. Just because I break everything down into 1 ounce bags of dried and cured bud, it never occurred to me that it would lose so much weight. And if the butter, gummy, MCT oil, or wax/dab recipe calls for 1 ounce of decarbed bud, I am presuming that it means weight after decarb, not prior, for proper dosing. Always something new to learn and experiment with.
There are 2 ways I have done it. I dry my oil on a silicon mat a few days, then I put the mat on a cookie sheet in pre heated oven for about 40 mins or so to decarb ( different opinions depending on what video you watch). You will see lots of bubbling, that is decarb happening. When it slows down it is done. The other way I decarb if I make a big batch is in an oven safe sealed jar in a 240 oven for an hour.
I guestimate my dosing as follows…If I start with an ounce of dried cured bud that’s roughly 20% THC, then there is 0.20 x 28000 of THC available for extraction (20% of 28000mg). Each ounce should have 5600mg of THC in it. During the decarb process you will lose between 15% to 20% of that, leaving you with about 4500mg, regardless of its current weight.
If I make QWET and use a bottle of Everclear, that works out to about 175mg per ounce of Everclear. I never get to squeeze it all back and lose 2 or 3 ounces of liquid to waste. You also lose that percentage of THC too, so still about 175mg per recovered ounce of Everclear.
I don’t let mine evaporate, rather pour the green mix into a glass (maybe a tablespoon, maybe an ounce!) and add orange juice. It makes the OJ go a little darker, but makes it bearable to drink mixed at 1:8 or so!
I’ve also decarbed kief. Kief is about 60% to 80% THC depending on the quality. Again, lose 15% to decarb process, but not as much weight as decarbing flower. I guess that each gram of decarbed kief is going to be between 500mg and 600mg. Can “confirm” that as I had 1/4 in a smoothie last Sunday and got pretty messed up, and it takes me about 120mg of store edibles to get not-as-stoned as I did!
