I2KanGrow
Active member
High-ho!
So, I have this really nice Northern Lights bud that I harvested in July, quite a bit of it, actually, so I've decided on making some glycerine-based tincture with an ounce of it.
I've been researching different methods of making tincture, it really seems like the perfect way to take your meds in a stealthy manor; portable, no smoke, no flame - perfectly stealth.
I chose glycerine as my solvent, because I'm not interested in dealing with high-octane alcohols, which I understand will tend to burn the underside of the tongue, glycerine is a sweet, gentler solvent & a food additive, this I can deal with.
I've also chosen to make this tincture following a cold process, a combination of different methods I've read about, here's what I've done, & plan on doing:
1) I Hand-cleaned this premo-bud, not leaves & shake. This bud had been in jars since the beginning of August, and was very easy to clean by rubbing gently. 1 ounce of buds yielded about .8 oz of cleaned-up bud, sans wood.
2) I baked the cleaned bud for 5 minutes in a 325F oven, to enable decarboxylation of THCA into THC. There's a whole lot of debate over this, some feel that one needs to heat for several hours in at least a crock pot, others recommend hot solvent processes in order to achieve decarboxylation, others still say that it really isn't necessary to heat at all - I chose what I felt to be the most gentle method, I spread my cleaned cannabis into a square glass casserole, and baked it - man, did the house smell good!!!!
upon putting it back into the curing mason jar, I discovered that what was once 3/4 full is now only about 1/2 full - this surprised me, and I'm accounting to moisture released upon heating. I discovered also, that the bottom of my casserole was coated with resin, which I removed by squirting some glycerine on and scraped-off with a spatula, that went right into the mason jar, also.
3) I purchased 100% vegetable glycerine - this is food-grade glycerine, why mess-around with something that may be non-food & dangerous? So I start dumping glycerine in the 1/2 full mason jar of cannabis. Glycerine is rather thick, so I took maybe 10 minutes of filling/settling-&-absorbing, to the point that it looks like this:
4) I'm placing the jar into a paper bag, and placing that on top of my furnace. I've been monitoring temps of the inside of a mason jar, sitting on top of the furnace for several days now - temps range between 84F - 95F, not hugely hot, but warm enough to keep the glycerine nice and viscous.
5) I plan to roll the jar for 10 minutes/day for at least 10 weeks, which would bring us up to the 23rd of December - a pretty neat Christmas present to myself!
THINGS I'VE NOTICED/QUESTIONS I HAVE:
- The pot doesn't settle to the bottom, but instead floats to the top. I have maybe an inch of glycerine on the bottom of the jar - I used maybe 10-11 ounces of glycerine total. I'd rather have a less potent tincture, then a hardened-blob, does anyone feel I should add more pot to this?
- referring to above, I've read several posts where people end-up with a hardened blob, the question has been asked but never really answered: Is it OK to add glycerine to the mix later-on down the line, if it starts to get too hard to roll/mix? I'm not interested in a pot-lollipop!
- I've noticed that I get more mixing action if I roll the jar, as opposed to shaking. Does rolling-alone mix the stuff up enough, or do I really need to shake the jar also?
Well, that's all that I have for now, I'll post progress throughout this process, and a taste-test @ around Christmas. As always, any advice offered or questions asked are happily welcome!
Peace!
So, I have this really nice Northern Lights bud that I harvested in July, quite a bit of it, actually, so I've decided on making some glycerine-based tincture with an ounce of it.
I've been researching different methods of making tincture, it really seems like the perfect way to take your meds in a stealthy manor; portable, no smoke, no flame - perfectly stealth.
I chose glycerine as my solvent, because I'm not interested in dealing with high-octane alcohols, which I understand will tend to burn the underside of the tongue, glycerine is a sweet, gentler solvent & a food additive, this I can deal with.
I've also chosen to make this tincture following a cold process, a combination of different methods I've read about, here's what I've done, & plan on doing:
1) I Hand-cleaned this premo-bud, not leaves & shake. This bud had been in jars since the beginning of August, and was very easy to clean by rubbing gently. 1 ounce of buds yielded about .8 oz of cleaned-up bud, sans wood.
2) I baked the cleaned bud for 5 minutes in a 325F oven, to enable decarboxylation of THCA into THC. There's a whole lot of debate over this, some feel that one needs to heat for several hours in at least a crock pot, others recommend hot solvent processes in order to achieve decarboxylation, others still say that it really isn't necessary to heat at all - I chose what I felt to be the most gentle method, I spread my cleaned cannabis into a square glass casserole, and baked it - man, did the house smell good!!!!
upon putting it back into the curing mason jar, I discovered that what was once 3/4 full is now only about 1/2 full - this surprised me, and I'm accounting to moisture released upon heating. I discovered also, that the bottom of my casserole was coated with resin, which I removed by squirting some glycerine on and scraped-off with a spatula, that went right into the mason jar, also.3) I purchased 100% vegetable glycerine - this is food-grade glycerine, why mess-around with something that may be non-food & dangerous? So I start dumping glycerine in the 1/2 full mason jar of cannabis. Glycerine is rather thick, so I took maybe 10 minutes of filling/settling-&-absorbing, to the point that it looks like this:
4) I'm placing the jar into a paper bag, and placing that on top of my furnace. I've been monitoring temps of the inside of a mason jar, sitting on top of the furnace for several days now - temps range between 84F - 95F, not hugely hot, but warm enough to keep the glycerine nice and viscous.
5) I plan to roll the jar for 10 minutes/day for at least 10 weeks, which would bring us up to the 23rd of December - a pretty neat Christmas present to myself!
THINGS I'VE NOTICED/QUESTIONS I HAVE:
- The pot doesn't settle to the bottom, but instead floats to the top. I have maybe an inch of glycerine on the bottom of the jar - I used maybe 10-11 ounces of glycerine total. I'd rather have a less potent tincture, then a hardened-blob, does anyone feel I should add more pot to this?
- referring to above, I've read several posts where people end-up with a hardened blob, the question has been asked but never really answered: Is it OK to add glycerine to the mix later-on down the line, if it starts to get too hard to roll/mix? I'm not interested in a pot-lollipop!
- I've noticed that I get more mixing action if I roll the jar, as opposed to shaking. Does rolling-alone mix the stuff up enough, or do I really need to shake the jar also?
Well, that's all that I have for now, I'll post progress throughout this process, and a taste-test @ around Christmas. As always, any advice offered or questions asked are happily welcome!
Peace!
...but not for a few days yet...you can see pics of the harvest in my albums...Vader's Visit.
