Anyone in the mood for an oil-making pictorial for the Monday update? Anyone?
Well I'm going to plow ahead anyway with many pics of the process!
I ran out of CBD oil last week (which I make with my Candida), so it was time to whip up another batch. This is my process, which works just as well for making THC oil. I use a Magical Butter machine (MB), and though they're not a sponsor here anymore, I still
highly recommend one if you will be doing this often.
If you just need occasional small batches, you can do that in a jar in the oven (a few pics down
in this post), or a crock pot with a good temperature control. Some folks use the instantpot but I don't have one. If you want to see that process it's
here.
Also, note in advance that I use extra virgin olive oil (EVOO). Sue always taught us the EVOO is for medical uses and coconut oil (or butter) is for recreational...not that there are recreational uses for CBD!
Let's get started. First up is to measure out the flowers to be decarbed. I wanted to end up with about 50g so I went with 55g:
Some of that weight is moisture so it will be lighter when decarb is done. Speaking of decarb, I set the oven for 240ºF (116ºC):
While it was heating up, I put the flowers in a foil pouch:
I don't completely seal it because I want the moisture to escape, but it's a trade off between that and terpene retention.
And when the oven hits temp, in goes the pouch:
I do 90 minutes to allow the buds inside the foil to reach temp and stay there for about an hour. While that's cooking I get the MB machine ready, starting with 16 ounces of EVOO:
In it goes:
That's the minimum you can make in the MB so for smaller batches, see above!
When the buds are done, the pouch goes in the fridge for a quick cool down to allow the terps to settle back into the flowers (allegedly). Then they go into the MB:
Where they just sit on top! That's no good, so grab an implement:
And start smashing the buds into the oil. The more bud there is the more smashing needs to be done:
That's better! Then the top goes on the MB where time and temperature is set:
If you are running this in the oven, grind your flowers after decarb and get as close to 160º as you can (my oven starts at 170ºF) and shake periodically. The MB machine has a spinning blade at the bottom so it grinds and mixes in the oil every so often.
After 8 hours, the machine goes off (or the jar comes out of the oven) and I let it sit for 24 hours. Why? I'm doing a loose approximation of what
@Derbybud described
here. Short but interesting read!
After a 24 hour rest it gets another 8 hour run as before.
As soon as it's done (and well before it cools), it's time to mix in the Liquid Sunflower Lecithin (LSL). It's mixed at 1 tablespoon/cup of oil and it's very thick, so it will really only mix while the oil is hot:
LSL is an emulsifier that evenly distributes the cannabinoids throughout the oil and increases their availability to the body. And why
after infusion? Because
@Cannasavvy ran tests adding it before and after, and after was
much better. Her posts on it start
here.
Now, let's go back and get the oil from the MB. The grinding throws bits of plant up the sides, so a flexible spatula will push it all back in:
Then I pour it through the included straining bag, twist it closed, and use the silicone heat-proof glove to squeeze the oil out of the mash
If you really want to get as much as possible, you can use a homemade press like this for extra squeezing (this mash was in cheesecloth):
Here is the mash after I got as much oil out as I could:
I guess you could find a use for it (apparently you can put small amounts of oil in a compost pile), and Sue used to actually use her THC mash when she cooked brownies!
Anyway, here is the oil after stirring:
There is still plant matter in the oil that makes it through the mesh (from all the grinding), which you could re-filter through a tighter mesh if it matters. This oil is going into 1ml capsules so it's not a concern.
It gets covered and put in the fridge overnight for the LSL to work its magic, and here it was this morning, transferred into a jar for longer-term fridge storage:
I have 4 bottles of oil in the fridge so labeling is important.
By my rough calculations, this oil should be around 13.7mg CBD/ml, and I use
@Oldbear's spreadsheet to run my numbers. PM me if you're interested in how that's done.
That's it for me today. I hope it's helpful even if you don't have a Magical Butter machine!
for stopping by.
Just stopping by to say howdy!
