Mistake in making a tincture?

[Doctor Trevor]

Yesterday, I added an ounce of buyd into 11 ounces of Graves. Just now, a friend told me I had to decarb it first, otherwise there is no THC in the alcohol.

Is this true? If so, can I fix it?

 

[Rayi]

Yep it's true. Some people will tell you it will slowly decarb it's self over 4 to 5 months

 

[Doctor Trevor]

Well, I was planning on leaving it in the alcohol for a few months. We'll see what happens.

 

[Doctor Trevor]

I found this piece in another site. Has anyone used this method? Or has any opinion on it?

Cannabis Tincture - Non-decarboxylated Alcohol Recipe | OhioCannabis.com

This is a tried & true 30+ year old method for easily creating an effective cannabis tincture using only grain alcohol and cannabis. Because heat is never applied to the flower, this is a raw & cold method of extraction and never activates the THC in the traditional sense. Chemically speaking...

www.ohiocannabis.com

My plan was to fortify some homemade wine with it.

 

[Tincandtoke]

From what I have read from other sites 3-4 months does a natural decarb. A lot of folks sample early with mixed results. A person I trust on one board stated never go longer than 4 months. I have read a lot of positive reports that it is a full extraction with all the goodies intact. I want to try it sometime but I detest cannabis taste (ok, start hating).
I do a decarb at 240 for 40 minutes. Freeze the decarbed cannabis with a bottle of 190 everclear for 24 hours. Pour enough etoh to a little bit above the top of the ground cannabis and shake for 5minutes. Back in the freezer for two hours and another 5 minute shake. I then strain etoh off (wash) and put the material back in the jar and cover with fresh etoh. Shake immediately for another five minutes to strip off any remaining goodness and strain (rinse). Combine the wash and rinse and reduce if you want a more potent tincture. I am curious about all methods of extraction. Folks in these forums are unbelievably creative, respect!!!!!

 

[Doctor Trevor]

I'll be adding the tincture to the wine in mid-September. The batch should be ready around then.

 

[skirk]

I found this piece in another site. Has anyone used this method? Or has any opinion on it?

Cannabis Tincture - Non-decarboxylated Alcohol Recipe | OhioCannabis.com

This is a tried & true 30+ year old method for easily creating an effective cannabis tincture using only grain alcohol and cannabis. Because heat is never applied to the flower, this is a raw & cold method of extraction and never activates the THC in the traditional sense. Chemically speaking...

www.ohiocannabis.com

My plan was to fortify some homemade wine with it.

This recipe would be functional if the cannabis is decarbed before etoh extraction, but not at dosage the writer suggests.
I ingest 2 ml (60 drops) every night two hours before bedtime and that's after reducing my starting volume by half. The writer's dosage of 3 drops wouldn't affect an infant.

 

[skirk]

This recipe would be functional if the cannabis is decarbed before etoh extraction, but not at dosage the writer suggests.
I ingest 2 ml (60 drops) every night two hours before bedtime and that's after reducing my starting volume by half. The writer's dosage of 3 drops wouldn't affect an infant.

I made an error in the above post. Should read, 2 ml = 40 drops.

 

[MehGreenThumb]

@Doctor Trevor

I'd turn your "tincture" into Rick Simpson Oil (RSO). Basically, cook your tincture (outside, NO FLAME) to boil off all the Graves alcohol (How To Make Concentrated Cannabis Oil). You'll be left with a small amount of "oil" / sludge.

Doing this will decarb, and you'll be left with an extremely potent end product.

 

[Doctor Trevor]

I've been thinking about this.

What I can do is make a double boiler, using my induction burner for precise temperature. I can set it for 170 degrees, which is the boiling temp for alcohol.

I assume that I would remove the bud first.

 

[MehGreenThumb]

Yup. Strain it, FILTER IT, and then boil off all the alcohol.
That link I sent above details everything, as do a million articles and videos. Your double boiler idea will definitely work. Just NO OPEN FLAMES. Obviously.

Strain:
I like to take some cheese cloth and put that over the top of my mason jar and hold it in place using the metal rim or some rubber bands. Then pour out the liquid into a pyrex. This just filters out the big materials. You can also just pour it through a strainer.

Normally, you'd pour a small amount of additional solvent over that material (a 2nd wash) to extract a bit more material. In your case, since it's been sitting... don't do this. You've already extracted everything. So, instead, just squeeze the cheese cloth to get out the last drops of goodness.

Filter:
Toss the waste product, or compost it. It's done. Wash our your mason jar, and put a coffee filter over it. Pour the tincture liquid back into the mason jar - through the filter. It'll take quite a while. You probably want to filter it twice to get out all the small impurities.

Cook:
Then... you cook off the alcohol. You should do all this in a well-ventilated area, but especially this part.
NO OPEN FLAMES, so electric hot plate, don't light-up a joint, etc.

Add about 1/4 teaspoon of water. That way, you can boil off all the alcohol and you'll still have a tiny amount of water remaining, which you'll evaporate away later.

You can use a double boiler, or good glass pyrex on a hot plate, or instapot, or rice cooker. The alcohol boils off at a low temp, so it'll start boiling quickly. Lower the temp, but let it go at a good boil for a while to reduce it down. Lower the heat once you've boiled almost all of the liquid away.

When you're down to a very small amount, but before it's too thick to pour, you should transfer it to a pretty small container. Then continue to heat it on a very low heat. This is the step where people watch the bubbles percolate out of the "oil". This is the decarboxylation stage. Watch it slowly convert to THC. Once the bubbles stop, you're done.

Anyway, others have explained it better. Those are the crib notes.

 

[Doctor Trevor]

I understood them. Thanks.

 

[Doctor Trevor]

I realized that I don't want to boil it down until it's thick. My plan is to add it to a homemade wine.

I'll have to do it long enough for the decarb.

 

[Homer Simpson]

I realized that I don't want to boil it down until it's thick. My plan is to add it to a homemade wine.

I'll have to do it long enough for the decarb.

If you do boil it down to a tar-like oil to decarb it, you can always just add a small amount of 95% alcohol to turn it back into a liquid and then add it to your wine.

 

[Doctor Trevor]

That makes sense.

 

[Homer Simpson]

That makes sense.

I just did it today and it works perfectly. It's amazing how little alcohol it takes to turn it back into a liquid; you can make tinctures extremely potent and they will still flow just like alcohol. I started out doing olive oil extractions and it works well enough but you can't concentrate olive oil plus it gave me a terrible anxious feeling and I find the buzz much more enjoyable with tinctures. I'm trying to figure out the most efficient and cleanest ways to make my tincture and I found a pretty good article here about how they do it in the industry.

Proper Cannabis Filtration - ErtelAlsop

Cannabis Manufacturing: Proper Liquid Filtration for Professional Quality Cannabis Extracts and Oils Filtration for Cannabis Manufacturing Whitepaper by ErtelAlsop A Growing Industry in Botanical Extraction Extracts of the active ingredients from the Cannabis sativa plant are now common options...

ertelalsop.com

 

[Doctor Trevor]

I did it.

I took what was originally eleven ounces and brought it down to four. I'll be adding it to my batch of wine this week.