I’m old at growing but this is the first I’ve ever tried extraction?
For a poor amateur, what is the best way to extract the thc of decarbolized?? flower?
I’m particularly concerned about loss.
My first attempt was a dismal failure. I’d say the result was less than 10 times less potent than smoke.
I tried this:
blend flower until reasonably broken up.
Bake @ 220 F for 20 minutes to decarbolyze???
Put flower in jar, fill with Everclear 151 proof.
Put jar in pan of water and boil water.
I let it boil for about an hour, frequently stirring thoroughly.
I took it off the heat and let it sit over night.
I poured the flower/alcohol into 3 coffee filters into a glass bowl.
I poured the cloudy brown mixture of alcohol into a jar.
I put the jar into a pan of water and boiled it again.
This time I let the alcohol level drop very low and added distilled water.
I continued to boil the water in the pan until water in the jar was significantly lower that it had been when I added the water.
Now I’ve got a mixture of thc (and a little dirty) and water.
I used enough flower to last me 2 full days if I’m smoking.
And I smoke WAY too much!
I drank 1/3 of the mixture and almost immediately felt it.
BUT - that was as far as it went.
There are a number of ways to extract but boils down to pressing, butane and ethanol. Of the 3 I prefer ethanol or ‘QWET’. Gotta use 190 proof first. Then it’s technique and equipment. I have a tabletop distiller to recover the solvent for reuse.
Source Turbo is the machine I have. Look it up and you should get good information. I like QWET because you can extract based on your use. If smoking yoe wash differently from edibles.
Some states don’t carry 191 in liquor stores but is available from some sources online. I live in a state where it is available (though not cheap). A bit of research should get you what you need.
BHO extraction might offer more availability of solvent but is a more expensive option.
We do oil for dabs and make gummies and cookies: the cookies have zero weed taste. Dab oil is 90% THC so takes very little to get you where you want to be.
So far no place will ship 190 proof to me. I’m stuck with 151.
I’m thinking BHO Extraction would be great - if I could afford it.
I’m very curious about loss.
If I smoke a bowl I get a certain amount of ‘high’.
If I extract the thc from the flower (quantity 1 bowl) will I get as high as if I smoked it?
So far not anywhere near as high and for a much higher quantity.
Apot420: thanks for your responses.
I’ll look into the KP4 rosin press but I’m sure it’s way over my budget.
The length of a string:
I’m thinking you think ‘high’ is subjective and therefore not measurable.
If so, next time you consume, since it’s subjective, don’t be high
My point of course is, it’s measurable. Just how high did you get?
I fill a bowl, I smoke it, I get x amount of high (by the way I feel).
I extract the thc from same amount of flower and consume it 2 days later (so no residual from the smoke).
How much less high will I be than I was when I smoked it.
That’s the real question.
Failure is part of the process
Accepted decarb temp and time is 240f (115c) for 40 minutes
Decarb is the most important step
Check your oven temps with oven thermometer
They are cheap and ovens can fluctuate a bit
Decide what you want to do with your extraction
If its for edibles then all the extraction processes are open to you
If you plan on vaping/smoking concentrate then the solvent free is the best approach unless you want to buy expensive equipment to purge the solvent
Apot420: Rozin Press (efficiency? here we go again lol) $300 is over my budget but foreseeable. I’ll keep it in consideration for future. Thanks.
Tincandtoke:
Thanks. It’s possible that I failed the decarb.
I learned 220F for 20 minutes. Also I didn’t use a thermometer.
Looks like edibles is my best choice if I don’t lose much potency.
“purge the solvent”: why couldn’t you just add water and then boil the solvent water mix until the solvent boils off. Wouldn’t you be left with the chemicals in the water?
?
cheap is a challenge, oil and hash will be more costly than smoking flower.
still, I use methyl hydrate, I dont decarb, and I safely remove all the alcohol with no heat or equipment. that’s probably the cheapest. gets me really stoned too, oh yeah that’s for5 smoking not eating
You can do a weed ‘cook’ in coconut oil to make budder. The downsides are: hard to manage correct dosing and a ‘weedy’ taste. All you need then is a small crockpot. Don’t use butter as it extracts oils less efficiently than coconut oil. Add a bit of sunflower lecithin to improve uptake and you will be good to go. Budder can be used same as butter in recipes and you can also whisk some into a cup of tea or coffee to get you there as well.
There should not be any loss in terms of potency , unless it isn’t fully decarbed.
The loss might come in the form of lessened yield depending on how clean of a wash you’re trying for. The cleaner the wash the more oil you are leaving in the weed. I usually do a clean wash, then save the weed for a second wash that is dirtier that can be used in different types of edibles.
Head over to extractcrafter.com
This guy has some amazing and insightful info on extractions!
Jaysittinback: I’m seeing, cheap is a challenge.
I’m interesting in taking a look at your method.
Does any documentation exist explaining what I need and how to do it?
weed ‘cook’: This looks like the least expensive of all I’ve seen so far.
Thanks, I’ll look into it. Coffee’s OK, I drink it too fast and write code so wasted right off the bat wouldn’t work too well :-/
Gummies I think would work better because I can control dosage and timing better.
I really am just going to have to solve the MONEY problem lol.
I don’t and won’t sell so that’s not an option for me.
A friend got several cases of 3.2% beer that was way expired from a bar that went out of business and distilled it to 190. Take any alcohol and distill. All youre doing is evaporating off the alcohol that boils way lower than the water. Its an extra step to do this but sometimes its what ya gotta do to get what ya want
Rockdog62: Thanks for your response.
More ‘dirty’ is OK. I’m just trying to avoid smoke/vape.
I’m not crazy about the taste of flower but . . .
Gummies appeared to be most favorable.
I did find lab - food grade 190 proof ethanol. It was about $140.00 per gallon that I could get; 200 was more - YOUCH!
Allinherhead: Thanks I’ll look into an alcohol distiller.
