ethanjones3004
420 Member
Thanks for this well structured detailed guide.
How To Make Concentrated Cannabis Oil
- Thread starter 420 Motoco
- Start date
MimiEMU
420 Member
Hi everyone,
This past Feb, I discovered a simple holistic hack in making RSO that really cleans up the oil, effectively doubling the potency. It's very easy, so if you know how to make RSO, you will get this.
Here's the magic - When making RSO, add distilled water to the wash before boiling out the alcohol. The water absorbs the water soubles that normally get boiled into the oil. By cleaning out the polar and semi polar compounds, winterization can be done in under an hour.
So now, you can take 2oz cured plant and have vapable decarbed winterized oil in under 2 hours. I have multiple lab test reports showing Total Cannabinoids in the high 70's. Given this is such a cleaner oil, I call it Refined Cannabis Extract, aka RxCE.
Why would I do this? I've lived my life in the shadow of a miracle. This is my Pay-It-Forward to help home bound MMJ patients by cost reducing the process. Turns out, it's also faster, cleaner and more potent compared to making RSO/FECO.
This past Feb, I discovered a simple holistic hack in making RSO that really cleans up the oil, effectively doubling the potency. It's very easy, so if you know how to make RSO, you will get this.
Here's the magic - When making RSO, add distilled water to the wash before boiling out the alcohol. The water absorbs the water soubles that normally get boiled into the oil. By cleaning out the polar and semi polar compounds, winterization can be done in under an hour.
So now, you can take 2oz cured plant and have vapable decarbed winterized oil in under 2 hours. I have multiple lab test reports showing Total Cannabinoids in the high 70's. Given this is such a cleaner oil, I call it Refined Cannabis Extract, aka RxCE.
Why would I do this? I've lived my life in the shadow of a miracle. This is my Pay-It-Forward to help home bound MMJ patients by cost reducing the process. Turns out, it's also faster, cleaner and more potent compared to making RSO/FECO.
oldoak
420 Member
Hello, buddy!!! Thanks for sharing your method! If it’s not difficult for you, could you describe your method in more detail, preferably, step by step? Thanks in advance for your efforts!!!Hi everyone,
This past Feb, I discovered a simple holistic hack in making RSO that really cleans up the oil, effectively doubling the potency. It's very easy, so if you know how to make RSO, you will get this.
Here's the magic - When making RSO, add distilled water to the wash before boiling out the alcohol. The water absorbs the water soubles that normally get boiled into the oil. By cleaning out the polar and semi polar compounds, winterization can be done in under an hour.
So now, you can take 2oz cured plant and have vapable decarbed winterized oil in under 2 hours. I have multiple lab test reports showing Total Cannabinoids in the high 70's. Given this is such a cleaner oil, I call it Refined Cannabis Extract, aka RxCE.
Why would I do this? I've lived my life in the shadow of a miracle. This is my Pay-It-Forward to help home bound MMJ patients by cost reducing the process. Turns out, it's also faster, cleaner and more potent compared to making RSO/FECO.
Kapncannabis
Well-Known Member
Im wondering the same thing. I have a turbo distiller to extract the alcohol from the cco. Hmm where would the H2O go? In the alcohol? Not sure if that would be good for me. I extract and reclaim, never any vapors escape, just clean clear everclear comes out of the distiller.
At what temperature do you boil it all down? Ethanol boils around 170°F but water at 212°. And when you boil off the water, doesn't anything absorbed into the water stay behind in the oil leaving you where you started before you added the water?
MimiEMU
420 Member
Hi Everyone,
So sorry for the lag, I guess I have weekly notifications setup, will change that to be more responsive.
Okay I am here to answer questions!
OldOak: Here's the 'recipe' for a 2oz run. This scales, but for example simplicity, I'll stick with 2oz.
1) Wash. Wash the plant with multiple 1 minute shakes using 95% Ethanol or 91% Isopropyl. Repeating until the alcohol is clear. Use enough alcohol to cover the plant on each wash.
2) Distill. Use a quart pot on electric heat*. A moonshine still and water distiller can be used as well. Refer to the RxCE Shop Manual for in-depth instructions on moonshine stills and water distillers. The following instructions are for an open boiler.
Add 1 cup distilled water,
Add 1 teaspoon non-iodine table salt.
Pour in the wash, boil to 96c/205f. Use a thermometer to know when to quit.
Place pot in ice water and add a few ice cubes to drop the temp to 10c/50f.
Use a fork to smear the floating stiff oil to the sides of the pot.
Pour out the waste water through a nylon coffee filter basket.
Add 1 cup hot water and stir the oils loose to free up any remaining salt.
Place back in the ice water to cool down to 10c/50f.
Use the fork to smear any floating oil to the side of the pot.
Pour out the waste water. Leave the fork in the pot. Place the coffee filter into the pot.
Dissolve the oils with 1-2 oz of 95% ethanol. Easiest to place the pot momentarily on heat to warm up the alcohol.
First swirl the filter till clean, then stir with the fork to liquefy the oils.
Pour this alcohol into a small metal bowl. Metal freezes faster than glass. Use a silicon spatula to clean up.
3) Rapid Winterization. Place the bowl holding the liquefied oils in the freezer.
Setup an unbleached paper coffee filter in a funnel, set that in a capture jar and place in the freezer.
Place 1oz ethanol in a separate metal bowl into the freezer.
After a half hour, pour 1 half of the now cold ethanol in the liquefied oil and swirl.
Pour the liquefed oil into the coffee filter. Use a silicon spatula to clean the bowl into the filter.
After all the alcohol has drained leaving waxes, pour in the 2nd half of the alcohol to bleach out any remaining oils.
4) Reduction.
Pour the capture jar back into the bowl.
Place on stable 250f heat till the reduction and decarbing complete. See the attached illustration when to stop.
Alcohol boils out from 81c/178f upto 100c/212f.
Water boils out starting at 100c/212f up to about 107f/225f. You can see it in the bubbles..
C02 takes over the bubbling and will go to exhaustion. 121c/250f is the sweet spot for decarbing.
5) You are done!
*For electric heat sources, use an electric skillet, griddle, fondue maker, any cooking appliances that uses an adjustable control thermostatic power cords for the heat source. I use a cuisinart skillet for everything.
MimiEMU
420 Member
Hi Panacea,
Yes, You want to cover the distiller with 1/2 inch of water, plus a teaspoon of non-iodine salt. The salt breaks the water emulsion and it's easy to remove. There is a trick to using moonshine stills and distillers. For distillers, make two passes. The first, set the ending temperature to 84c. When it switches off, swap capture jars. Restart the distiller with 96c ending temp. You are done when it turns off. Your first capture jar holds 91% ISO or 95% EtOH. The second capture jar is like 70% ISO and I don't know on EtOH, don't use it for bulk washes.
The easiest way to cool down the water distiller is to add a couple handfuls of ice. Once the temp reaches 10c/50f, you can literally drag the oils with a fork. Smear the oils against the metal walls. Dump the waste water thru a coffee filter basket which saves any sediments. Place the fork and basket in the distiller, add 2oz 95% EtOH, power on for 15 seconds, then power off. This will warm up the alcohol. Swirl the basket to clean it first. Use the fork to liquefy any solid oil.
Follow the instructions in the above post to OldOak. There is more information in the RxCE Shop Manual covering devices that can be used. If you can make RSO with your electric pot, you can make RxCE.
MimiEMU
420 Member
Hi Kapncannabis,
The water stays. It performs two functions. First it absorbs the polar and semi-polar compounds - sugars, acids, phospolipids. The second thing it does is act as a heat buffer so your oil never rises above 212f. This is important if you want to keep the acidic state. Using water keeps the oil from spiking on bare metal. The standard water distiller has a 750w power supply to boil water. It will incinerate what little oil remains after boiling out the alcohol.
For recapturing alcohol, I can give you some tips on setting up a water distiller for optimal recapture, if you wish.
It's easy to deal with the water. Check the 'recipe' above in the reply to OldOak. Oil freezes solid at 10c/50f. Temperature is one of the tools we can use in the kitchen. My last reply to panacea gives details.
MimiEMU
420 Member
Hi InTheShed,
Good question! You run it up to 212f and stop. Actually, you can quit at 205f, that works fine. There is almost no alcohol left in the water at that temp. It boils away in a linear slope from 178 to 212f.
And another great question! Yes! The trash gets left behind. Water is the most polar solvent in the world. So all polar and semi-polar compounds stay in the water. Unfortunately, phospholipids which are made into cooking lecithin, are present in the trichome cell walls. The alcohol dissolves not only the oil we want, but the unwanted lipids as well as the fats and waxes. If you can get oil out of a trichome, it's because the phospholipids have melted and are present in your wash. After the alcohol boils off, the first order emulsion is broken - the miscible alcohol/oil and water emulsion - leaving floating oil. The second emulsion is the hard one. This emulsion is created by phospholipids and denatured proteins made up of stronger hydrogen molecular bonds. The way I found to break this emulsion is with a teaspoon of non-iodine table salt. The salt interferes with the hydrogen bonding of water so the heavier emulsion breaks free. The yield losses dropped to the noise floor.
Now , i wonder if i could “Dumb” it down to any benefit? Would there be any quality benefit if i was to soak, strain & cook off as i normally do to maybe down to a inch of Alcohol/CCO mixture then Add a couple TBS of distilled water and a pinch of Table salt , then continue to evaporate the rest if it off , then put into a double boiler method and evaporate the remainder of Alcohol/ water off. Would this have any benefit?
gr865
Well-Known Member
Made 39 grams of CCO this week used 200 grams of buds and 50 grams of trim. Decarbed at 235, the made the wash with 190 proof that was kept in the freeze. After straining the wash I put it back in the freezer for 24 hours and strained through double coffee filters. Adjusted the temp on my distiller, set it at 180 F. and cook this down until the wash if about 1 inch deep.
Used 4.5 gallon of alcohol for the wash and recovered about 3.5 plus gallons. After distillation I pour the oil with the remaining alcohol into a silicon container and place it on a coffee warmer, which removes any remaining alcohol. After this I added 1.5 tablespoons of Sunflower Lecithin and added 280 grams pf Avocado oil and put in the oven @ 180 F for about an hour. Whisk this all together and put it in a jar.
7 to 1 is fairly strong, I normally take three ml of this oil a night but will be backing off to 2 ml for a while.
I have been making and using CCO made this way for 12 years now, I call it my wellness dose.
Used 4.5 gallon of alcohol for the wash and recovered about 3.5 plus gallons. After distillation I pour the oil with the remaining alcohol into a silicon container and place it on a coffee warmer, which removes any remaining alcohol. After this I added 1.5 tablespoons of Sunflower Lecithin and added 280 grams pf Avocado oil and put in the oven @ 180 F for about an hour. Whisk this all together and put it in a jar.
7 to 1 is fairly strong, I normally take three ml of this oil a night but will be backing off to 2 ml for a while.
I have been making and using CCO made this way for 12 years now, I call it my wellness dose.
MimiEMU
420 Member
So sorry for the lag everyone,
@panacea I don't see a benefit because you end up at the same finish line either way - you still have water and salt to deal with at the end. Actually adding a bit of water at the end is what Rick Simpson did early on. He just added 10 drops of water, didn't really go in depth using water. He was that close to this approach.
Hello I am a new member but have been a lurker for quite a while.
First I would like to say RIP to 420 Motoco and CajunCelt. I haven't finished this thread yet but I have already seen how much they contributed. Also thank you to SweetSue who initially took over the reigns, please forgive me I am sure there are plenty more people to acknowledge but like I said above, I have yet to get to the end.
I am interested in making CCO for my mum, she had lung cancer a few years ago and had surgery, now it seems the same initial symptoms have appeared again.
I have been trying to follow the instructions on the first page but I am falling at the first hurdle
.
I am doing a QWET however the alcohol I am using barely seems to be extracting anything. From all the pictures I have seen it should be a pale pee like colour (sorry I couldn't think of a better description). When I do it however the alcohol has a slight tint but isn't as dark as I expected. My method is freezing the buds and alcohol in separate jars for at least 24 hours before I combine and agitate the mixture for no more than 6 minutes then strain. I use an ounce of cannabis and just about cover the buds with alcohol, I also repeat twice. I have made CCO a few years before (using a video I saw on YouTube) and it worked, however I have tried it two different times since I have been here and the same issue has come up. Could it be the cannabis, the alcohol or maybe both? live in the UK but I am currently in Jamaica so getting cannabis is pretty straightforward however I don't truly know how good it is. The alcohol on the other hand is a lot trickier to source and I am literally praying it's as pure as they say.
Funnily enough even though the UK has made cannabis illegal I have been much more confident on my cannabis source and use a polish alcohol that states the proof. I have made it several times and don't seem to have this problem there either. One thing though is that as well as the plant materials being different, I also did a bigger batch so not sure if the amount I use will make a difference in the colour.
Does anyone have any ideas? I am at a loss here
First I would like to say RIP to 420 Motoco and CajunCelt. I haven't finished this thread yet but I have already seen how much they contributed. Also thank you to SweetSue who initially took over the reigns, please forgive me I am sure there are plenty more people to acknowledge but like I said above, I have yet to get to the end.
I am interested in making CCO for my mum, she had lung cancer a few years ago and had surgery, now it seems the same initial symptoms have appeared again.
I have been trying to follow the instructions on the first page but I am falling at the first hurdle
.I am doing a QWET however the alcohol I am using barely seems to be extracting anything. From all the pictures I have seen it should be a pale pee like colour (sorry I couldn't think of a better description). When I do it however the alcohol has a slight tint but isn't as dark as I expected. My method is freezing the buds and alcohol in separate jars for at least 24 hours before I combine and agitate the mixture for no more than 6 minutes then strain. I use an ounce of cannabis and just about cover the buds with alcohol, I also repeat twice. I have made CCO a few years before (using a video I saw on YouTube) and it worked, however I have tried it two different times since I have been here and the same issue has come up. Could it be the cannabis, the alcohol or maybe both? live in the UK but I am currently in Jamaica so getting cannabis is pretty straightforward however I don't truly know how good it is. The alcohol on the other hand is a lot trickier to source and I am literally praying it's as pure as they say.
Funnily enough even though the UK has made cannabis illegal I have been much more confident on my cannabis source and use a polish alcohol that states the proof. I have made it several times and don't seem to have this problem there either. One thing though is that as well as the plant materials being different, I also did a bigger batch so not sure if the amount I use will make a difference in the colour.
Does anyone have any ideas? I am at a loss here
If the cannabis gets you (or anyone) high then it's not that, which means the alcohol probably isn't a high enough proof to do the extraction. Normally the QWET is clear with a yellow or green tint, where what you have is cloudy.
You can test the proof of the alcohol using a Hydrometer Alcohol Meter (available on Amazon for about $10 in the US), and you can raise it using a distiller with a settable temperature on it or a stove-top still if you're feeling brave. I used an electric distiller with the temp set around 174ºF and with two passes raised 120 proof alcohol to 178.
and I hope your mum gets back to her old self!Thank you so much! I have ordered the Hydrometer Alcohol Meter. Getting a distiller in Jamaica is a bit trickier because it's over $50 and will weigh quite a bit and I'm not brave either for your other suggestion haha. I will try again to source the alcohol once the meter arrives and then make a decision. Thank you again!If the cannabis gets you (or anyone) high then it's not that, which means the alcohol probably isn't a high enough proof to the extraction. Normally the QWET is clear with a yellow or green tint, where what you have is cloudy.
You can test the proof of the alcohol using a Hydrometer Alcohol Meter (available on Amazon for about $10 in the US), and you can raise it using a distiller with a settable temperature on it or a stove-top still if you're feeling brave. I used an electric distiller with the temp set around 174ºF and with two passes raised 120 proof alcohol to 178.
Hi NicheJA,Hello I am a new member but have been a lurker for quite a while.
First I would like to say RIP to 420 Motoco and CajunCelt. I haven't finished this thread yet but I have already seen how much they contributed. Also thank you to SweetSue who initially took over the reigns, please forgive me I am sure there are plenty more people to acknowledge but like I said above, I have yet to get to the end.
I am interested in making CCO for my mum, she had lung cancer a few years ago and had surgery, now it seems the same initial symptoms have appeared again.
I have been trying to follow the instructions on the first page but I am falling at the first hurdle
I am doing a QWET however the alcohol I am using barely seems to be extracting anything. From all the pictures I have seen it should be a pale pee like colour (sorry I couldn't think of a better description). When I do it however the alcohol has a slight tint but isn't as dark as I expected. My method is freezing the buds and alcohol in separate jars for at least 24 hours before I combine and agitate the mixture for no more than 6 minutes then strain. I use an ounce of cannabis and just about cover the buds with alcohol, I also repeat twice. I have made CCO a few years before (using a video I saw on YouTube) and it worked, however I have tried it two different times since I have been here and the same issue has come up. Could it be the cannabis, the alcohol or maybe both? live in the UK but I am currently in Jamaica so getting cannabis is pretty straightforward however I don't truly know how good it is. The alcohol on the other hand is a lot trickier to source and I am literally praying it's as pure as they say.
Funnily enough even though the UK has made cannabis illegal I have been much more confident on my cannabis source and use a polish alcohol that states the proof. I have made it several times and don't seem to have this problem there either. One thing though is that as well as the plant materials being different, I also did a bigger batch so not sure if the amount I use will make a difference in the colour.
Does anyone have any ideas? I am at a loss here
Thanks for your pointing out the contributions of our Mentors. Like so many, 420Motoco, Tim, took me under his wing and taught me how to make RSO and the equipment needed. I've upgraded almost all that equipment now to better and more easily do the job. I'll always remember and love Tim. He saved my life and the people I've treated as a cannabis caregiver these last 8 years.
The question is ......how much oil did that jar of wash produce ?
Also, pardon my ignorance......what is QWET ?
You seem on the right track. It's probably the alcohol.
You need 99% Alcohol and High Quality cannabis for QWET to be efficient imo..I tried many methods over the years and i find a 4 hr soak with high grade Alcohol & Cannabis was the best for medicinal oil… Qwet you do 3 runs .. each run your oil will be less potent .. waste imo , especially for ppl who have a hard time finding quantity & quality cannabis . If you have plenty access , go ahead. But the 3rd run i would only use for topicals
Quick Wash with EThanol! @Grandpa Tokin did a great thread on it here:
Grandpa Gets Oily! Everclear Extracts For Shatter Or Oil!
Hello everyone! Grandpa’s making some killer oils and I want to share the process I go through. The goal with this particular batch is to get the best I can from the material I’m using. I’m in search of trichome heads and as little green (Chlorophyll) as possible. We want the Everclear to do...
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