Hi all. posted the text below on my current grow journal but though may be of interest to some in this forum.
Over the last few days i had my first attempt at making a tincture. Had a look at quite a few recipies.
Some leaf (kept in the freezer) from this grows defoliation rounds ( about 50g wet) to which i added 13g of bud from the last grow(dry).
Cooked that @ 120 degrees C for an hour for decarboxylation, finely chopped it. Split between 2 small jars and added 150ml of ethanol to each jar.
Ethanol high purity, AR grade stuff. No significant benzene, methanol or other crap as found in the technical grade.
Shake shake shake and into the freezer. Jars wrapped in alfoil to exclude light.
Shake hard 2-3 times per day. 3 days in the freezer.
Poured through cheesecloth then a coffee filter. Took the extracted plant material and did a second run only leaving in the ethanol for 4 hours.
Filtered, very green ethanol at the end of this about 420ml volume.
??Just realized that's a weird coincidencle wot?? A good omen from the doGs above??
In a fume hood, (not wanting to blow myself up) had this in a double beaker setup (inner ethanol, outer water) on a lab electric hotplate, with a temp probe in it for about 3-4 hours. Got it up to 85 degrees C max, evaporating the ethanol nicely down to just under 100ml. Poured roughly equally into 6, brand new and clean, 25 ml brown dropper bottles, then used 50ml of clean ethanol to wash out the beaker used for evaporation and divvied that up over the 6 bottles.
Hmm.......no idea of this will work but fun to try.
Anyhow, now home, settled in with a coffee, and will NOT be driving anywhere tonight.
Put 3 drops under the tongue 30 minutes ago.
Definite effect. No probs with taste, not unpleasant or too bitey. Would not swig it out of the bottle though.
Feels a bit like the brownies i made at the moment but has come on faster and a bit more intense.
Not the fast rush you get from smoking which is good. Interesting.
If it turns out to not be strong enough i will recombine whats in the bottles and reduce further.....but think i may have done ok.
(slightly later
)
Interesting. Nice buzz from tincture, and 1.5hrs later, there, but wearing off. Useful timescale i think, that does not leave me blitzed on the couch all night or totally gaga incomprehensibly shitfaced..
My conclusion...tinctures are great for all the reasons in the opening posts of this thread. I like the sociability of the odd joint to share among friends but for day to day use i think i would rate tinctures before edibles.
Definitely pleased with this result. May not suit everybody, but does me nicely.
Have enough in storage now ( 5x 25ml lots) that i can go back, combine two of those to 50ml, and then evaporate back to 25ml to double the concentration. May try if i get the urge to be evil.
Editing:
Now over 3 hrs since 3 drops. Actually, still feeling a nice effect. Have survived munchies and eaten well without xs.
I will definitely use the method above again, but, would probably let it stew and shake for 2 weeks instead of 3 days. First try at this kind of thing there is always the temptation to get it done quickly to try out. no urgency for next time as now have plenty in the fridge.
Query for people more familiar with this. Have read that an alcohol extract tincture like this can last a long time in the fridge if you exclude light. Any opinions or experience on this people can share??
Thanks!