What a great thread.
I've been lurking for a while and have registered, so that I can ask some questions and get advice on what I'm doing.
I've followed Psycro, Sue and have been looking Magnus' butters and lotions thread.
I have read most threads a few times, but I'm struggling a bit to figure out what the best known method is today.
I've tried 2 fresh extractions -
Extraction 1
200g of popcorn, bud and trim (Cannatonic) in 500ml of olive oil with additional 200ml of water to help the immersion blending.
This all went into a beaker with a magnetic stirrer onto my hotplate, where it took about 3 hours to get the water out and then I ran between 100C and 110C for another 2 hours to decarb.
The stirrer struggled due to the thickness of the mush, but got better as time went on.
After cooling for a while, I strained and squeezed through a jelly bag.
I added LSL after some time in the fridge and made some 00 capsules.
I can't say I felt much when I used drops under my tongue, but the capsules helped me drop the amount of benzodiazepines that I have to take before bed to stop spasms/cramps.
Extraction 2
234g of Cannatonic and Northern Lights bud, trim and leaf in 250ml of olive oil with 400ml of water.
This was all chopped up with the immersion blender and all went directly into the steel bowl of the instant pot.
I ran high pressure for 2 hours in the morning and then left to cool.
In the evening, I ran the same recipe again.
The next morning, I strained and squeezed again and then separated the oil and water as best I could.
I then put this on the stirrer hotplate to get rid of the remaining water.
After this, I wanted to see if it was still decarboxylating and was surprised to end up doing 100C to 110C for another 2 hours.
I would stop the stirrer periodically and could see the bubbles still coming out until I got to about 2 hours.
It surprised me a little as I thought the instant pot would do the decarb.
On decanting into a clean beaker, I found hard sediment welded to the outer rim of the beaker, which needed soaking in water and dish soap for a couple of days before it came off.
I obviously have to add another finer filtration step and the jelly bag.
This oil with the LSL was stronger, but still nothing that would knock my socks off, which is fine because the Cannatonic is 1:1 and pretty low in THC:CBD to begin with.
So, for extraction 3, I like to try and piece together the current best known method (BKM) for a fresh extraction and to try and make it as strong as possible.
I'll probably try and use grapeseed oil because in interested in making a topical for pain.
I like the idea of keeping as many of the terpenes and flavonoids intact as possible.
Does my 110C decarb for 2 hours evaporate all of these off?
Also, why would you have the vent open in the instant pot ?
Doesn't this just mean that you never get to pressure?
Ideally, it would be great to get as close to CCO as possible using the fresh extraction.
If I used something like 100ml of oil and 200g of fresh bud and vastly increased the water to something like 1000ml, would we be confident that all the goodies would get out into the small volume of oil, assuming that it doesn't saturate?
Many thanks,
D