Small-Scale Concentrated Cannabis Oil Production

SweetSue;2875664 said:

Time To Make It Happen

Time to take the plunge and try a batch of oil. I don't have any critical health issues other than some minor problems with psoriasis that I'm hoping will begin to heal once I begin using CCO. Before that can happen though, I need to suck it up and make my first batch of oil.

Stage One: Decarb and Freeze

I began by weighing out an ounce of plant material. This batch will be made with a half ounce of Fatasmo Express and a quarter ounce of both Tikal and Zamaldelica. This is going to be a wicked sativa-dominant high THC oil that I'll use, at least initially, in place of my regular brownie doses. I'm pretty fond of those brownies, so I may keep them for one part of my personal protocol.

I broke it up lightly, just to get it to a more uniform size for the decarb step.

Into the oven bag and into the oven at 225 degrees Fahrenheit for an hour.

After cooling in the freezer for an hour I took the time to crumble it by hand. I'm selfish about my trichomes.

Into the jar and into the freezer with the wash jars and the solvent. Tomorrow afternoon I'll do the washes and Saturday I'll make oil.

Deep breath girl. I've thought through this process forwards and backwards and have even talked a couple guys through the process to success. I can do this.

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SweetSue;2876594 said:

The Adventure Continues

Step Two: The Washes

After acquiring an adequate amount of plant material, decarbing and freezing everything in advance of beginning it's on to the washes, the systematic dismantling of the trichomes from the plant material. The high proof alcohol will strip the trichomes right off. The higher the proof the better. Unfortunately, I can't get the preferred highest proof and had to settle for Everclear 151.

Three washes of three minutes each will suffice. The timing is critical here, so being prepared means doing a dry run, if only in your mind. In the end it was simplicity itself.

Get the solvent and plant material out of the freezer and combine. You want enough solvent to cover the plant material. I went with about an inch deeper.

Hit the timer for three minutes and start gently swirling the plant material, envisioning all those trichomes breaking free and washing away into the vortex.

Quickly grab the drain jars and dump the contents of the wash jar into the coffee filters.

Split it up over the three jars and let it drip through. The hardest part was waiting for this process to work through on its own. When it stopped dripping freely I very gently squeezed out just a bit more.

Chilling in the freezer while things drain and strain.

The plant material gets dumped back into the wash jar, which has been waiting in the freezer, so the whole wash process can be repeated two more times. I squeezed the last drops of liquid out of the filters into this jar. The thrifty Scot in me hates waste.

The first wash.

Second straining.

Final wash.

Letting it drip on its own time.

I believe the green tint may be due to my having to use the lower proof, higher water content Everclear??? Am I correct in this? If so, can faster washes be done to counter this tendency? This oil's for my own personal enjoyment, so it doesn't matter. This is my initial run. From here in out they improve.

Combine it all into one.

One last straining to catch the fine particulate matter I can see in the bottom of the jar. This time I used the fine screen strainer under the coffee filter. I'd have been better off with just the coffee filter. Keep it simple Susan.

I ended up with 14 oz of wash.

Into the freezer at 5:30 PM. It needs another 24 hour deep freeze.

Time to start the oil for the next batch of brownies. I over indulged for the holiday. Many thanks to my own angel.

Tomorrow at 6PM I start the end run.

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SweetSue;2877501 said:

OIL!!! Look at how easy that was.

It was a fairly straightforward process. Not much chance for failure here. If you can boil water and have ventilation, you can make oil this simply. Have respect for the boiling water. A good double boiler with this nice ceramic coating would be perfect. Already on the list.

Start off by retrieving the wash from the freezer. Typing that in was when I realized I hadn't reset the freezer. If this were something I did with regularity a small freezer would be a smart investment. Where's that list?

Empty the wash into the non-stick ceramic-coated pan and set it over boiling water. This part I wasn't as prepared for as I thought. The pot I'd intended to use is missing. I had a couple misses trying to find a suitable replacement. I eventually improvised and used the cast iron skillet, which worked wonderfully, so simplicity still won out.

All that messing around warmed the frosty wash up.

I did the reduction in the living room in front of the open window with a cross breeze pushing the fumes right on out. Couldn't have asked for better weather. The location is out of the way and I was very cautious with the boiling water.

About 4 minutes in the wash heated up enough to start bubbling. I changed out the water for fresh boiling and left it alone.

When I thought of it I switched out the water again. I probably did that about six times through to the end, but I was obsessive and impatient.

After 20 minutes I noticed an oil sheen beginning to appear on the surface. It was like watching some exotic ballet, little swirls breaking off and drifting away to bump into a member of the greater attachment and be pulled back in.

Oil beginning to collect. 34minutes in.

I kept the water hot and watched as the solvent evaporated. Here we are at 90 minutes.

When I got down this far I took it into the kitchen, set it on the pan of now briskly boiling water and sped the process up. Low to no flame, depending on my mood.

3 hours in.

You notice the pan was cleaner than the previous picture. Let me tell you, I quickly learned this is some of the stickiest stuff on earth. I'm stingy about this concoction. I thought about it a minute and reached for a cup of solvent (Everclear) and an eye dropper. Problem solved. I got to be really good at dissolving it with a drop and then using a string of drops to lead it back to the puddle without ever having to use another tool.

It was great, obsessive fun. Lol! Look how well it worked.

Time to start corralling it in. 3 hrs, 45 min in.

Right after this picture it was ready. Suddenly, all the bubbles were a uniform size. I grabbed the syringe and pulled up the oil.

I was finished with the oil by 10:00. All that was left to do was clean up the residue in the pot. I drizzled in a bit of Everclear, thinking about a suggestion by Cajun to use this in the bottom of a pan of brownies, so I thought why not?

I already baked brownies, so instead I soaked one for a treat tonight. It was appropriately yummy and is the reason this post is so late getting done.

Nothing left. I licked it clean to be sure.

Mmmmmmmm..........

The prize. Three grams of tasty sativa concentrated cannabis oil. Took me about four hours, start to finish. I took a break in there to pick up dinner, but I also took the lowest tech approach to see how easy it could be. And it was. Once I figured the syringe out it sucked the oil right up. Straight down into it. Simplicity itself.

I'll be deciding the best use for it soon.

The experience was mesmerizing and not at all as intimidating as I'd assumed. Pretty straight forward. I'll be searching for a nice double boiler. I have a distiller for a larger batch, but this time I knew I'd benefit more from watching it up close and personal. First time I spent an afternoon watching bubbles and vapors. Pretty fascinating, actually.

Alright, the mellow Motown saxophone jazz is done, the buzz was epic and ongoing and I need to call it a night.

Goodnight everyone.

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