Need advice, so I come to the experts!

[JColtrane]

Well let me just say that I have been a lurker for some time now, and have gained so much from this forum! I have been playing around with the absolutes, and have a question on the finishing process.

So I've extracted oil from cannabis using typical BHO techniques, added 190 proof grain alcohol (which was frozen), let oil dissolve in grain alcohol and let sit in the freezer. After a couple of days in the freezer I poured the mixture through an unbleached coffee filter, removing the waxes and fats (I guess?). I than have a warming plate warm a pot of water, which creates steam. Place the pyrex dish, which collected the filtered oils, over the steam but do not let it touch the water. Now this is where I need a little advice. First how do I know when the alcohol is totally gone from the oil? Am I changing the THC to CBD or CBN's by applying heat? (I'm still a little unclear how this works) And finally, once completely refined, is this better to be used with cooking or tinctures and not so much to be smoked?

 

[jump117]

Hey JColtrane!
No need to freeze the alcohol to dissolve BHO, it only slows down the process without benefit to us,
do it at room temperature or even warmed, it will dissolve faster.
And then freeze the solution to further filtration.

I evaporated a small amount, no more than one gram of resin dissolved in 30 - 50 ml of alcohol.
At this scale the end of evaporation is evident, the appearance of the solution and the melt is very different,
puddle of ethanol decreases and disappears, leaving a spot of molten resin.

Collect the ready absolute in the melt, when cooled it becomes hard and brittle, like amber.

Heating a thin layer of molten resin in the air, of course causes partial degradation of THC and CBD in a CBN,
but this will have to accept if you can not provide an inert atmosphere.

Amber is good for smoking or evaping.
If you want to make tincture it has to be decarboxilated by heating until it bubbles off CO2.
When bubbling stops it is ready for eat.

 

[Gray Wolf]

What Jump said!