[jim_w]

There seem to be a lot of homebrewers here - do any of you make your own spirits too?

Homegrown weed + homemade booze... ;-D

[jim_w]

Wow, I'm surprised that no-one's into moonshining... Seems to be the ideal combination of hobbies!




That's my still in operation - the smaller jar on the right is full of finished booze at about 80%ABV.

This stuff is plenty strong/clean enough to make hideously potent green dragon or even 'iso' style oil. The still herself cost only about twenty quid because I got a lot of the bits for free. Can you tell that the big copper plate used to be something else? ;-P

The wash is pretty much just sugar, so five gallons at 15-20% costs about a fiver and it'll make around a gallon of booze at 70-80%. With alcohol tax as high as it is over here, that's hugely cheaper - the cheapest nasty vodka is about a tenner a quart for 40%.

[The Bastard Brewer]

Hey Jim W you are just the person I've been looking for. I need some info on indoor distilling or freeze distilling. I see from your set up you use a small indoor still on your stove ,how dangerous is this and what ventilation do you use?
I agree about it being a great thing to do to compliment growing,as a fermenting barrel in full pelt pumps out CO2 which is great for grow rooms.It also can help disguise the smell ,but only in small scale grow rooms.
Also in 1995 I started making Ice-o-later hash without knowing it as I was using fruit mash bags and ice cold water to extract the THC and keep the oil solid for brewing with. It shows what can be learned from taking other skills/techniques from other trades.
I am trying to make Budka at the momment and would be more than interested in sharing info on this or other similar projects.
All the best and keep dancing in the moonshine

[jim_w]

Ahoy Brewer!

Freeze distillation: It works, but it's not a terribly good idea. Water boils at 100C and freezes at 0C; ethanol boils at 82C and freezes at about -100C. Actual distillation works because the ethanol boils off before the water (sort of...), whereas freeze distillation works becuse the water freezes before the ethanol. The problem is clear - freeze distillation concentrates everything by removing water, whereas real distillation extracts the ethanol from the wash.

If you've got a bit of weak booze and you want to up the ABV a bit, freeze distillation works fine - put the booze in the freezer, take it out to shake it every now and again, then seive it when ice crystals start to form. Repeat 'till it's as strong as you want it. All the flavour will remain, as will the hangover-causing chemicals. If you're just boosting some cider from 5%ABV to 10% then there's no serious problem, but if you're trying for a much higher ABV - real spirits - then you're taking a big risk from methanol and freinds.

As you can see from my setup, actual distillation isn't hard at all. I scrounged almost all the parts for my still - the condensor was made for me by a kind plumber (the boss pays for the copper, so he didn't mind doing it for free ;-P), the big copper tray thing came from a freind who was chucking it out and the pot is standard kitchen equipment.

Danger: it's not very dangerous - the worst thing that can happen is sudden release of the vapour. This sucks, but with an electric stove and no smoking it's not a big deal. In normal operation there's no need for ventilation, but it's a good idea to do it near a window/door/fan just in case the vapour escapes. A test run with water helps.

This is turning into a bit of an essay...

Using the CO2 from fermenting to help plants is a very good idea - it's been suggested to me before, but I'm afraid the coolest thing I can grow at the moment is chilis. I live in a rented house, so it's not really safe to grow weed. One day...

Making Budka (good name!) is pretty easy if you've got good moonshine - 80% is plenty strong enough for a good extraction - the best I've made needed about 10ml to get wasted. The key seems to be baking the weed before putting it in the booze, to de-carboxylate the THC (or something...).

If you're interested in distillation check out https://homedistiller.org/ - they have all the info you need, but most of the people there are more high-tech than me - they like reflux still that produce 96% ethanol in one pass. Reading that site gives the impression that it's really hard, but it's not.

Must run now - I've got some distilling to do!

[The Bastard Brewer]

Hey Jim W great to talk. You got me thinking already
Unfortunately I have gas stove. But an electric hot plate can be bought. I was worried about the still pressure and escaping vapour exploding!
My adivce to you for getting a good THC mash for brewing/distilling purposes is
Use a brewing Mash bag and place your weed in there. Stick this into iced water and mash. Removed the bag after a good mashing and use the solution that left during secondry frementation.This guarentees the maximum amount of THC(High) and the minimum of cannaboid oils(Stone).This also stops the weed from overpowering the taste.Also avoids your brew from tasting like rotting vegitation.
For freeze distilling the problem I always run against is trying to remove the methenol from the freeze distilled solution.Had to chuck a couple of barrels already
But I think I'll give your still I try.
Hope I have been of some help to you as well. If you have any questions I am more than happy to help if I can.

[jim_w]

I like your beer technique - I've been trying to work out how to get weed into the beer without having it tase 'green'. Do you use trim or actual weed?

I was thinking of using a normal beer kit - something light and hoppy, I guess - and adding the weedy water to it then brewing as normal. Is that how you do it? I suppose if you had enough weed you could make 100% weed brew...

I'm not sure what distillation would do to the brew - I think the THC would stay behind it the wash, but I'm not sure. It's certainly worth a try...

[The Bastard Brewer]

I usually use trim and the best way to get the weed into the brew is to wash it. I have been doing this since 1995 nowadays its call making Ice-o-later.
Unfortunately beer yeast is not strong enough to react with the THC.If you pour in the mash solution and brew the beer normally it should still effect you BUT I believe you will loose a lot of the Mash as it settles on the bottom and has a little reaction with the yeast and alcohol.
If you read the 'Hi to the Bastard Brew crew' thread I have just put up a detailed recipe for making Cycocyder.
I am hoping that during the distillation process that the THC has combined with the alcohol during the fermenting process and will be distilled along with the alcohol.
Someone also suggected an alcohol vapouriser to to enfuse weed and alcohol. I will keep experimenting .

[jim_w]

The Cycocider sounds good! I'll have to try some of that next apple season. My folks have more apples than they know what to do with, so I can easily get ten gallons or so of fresh pressed juice.

Next 4/20 I'll have to come to Amsterdam and taste some of your brew...

As for distillintg it, I don't think the THC would come through - I'm not 100%, but my understanding is that anything in solution with the ethanol will stay behind when it's boiled off. Think ISO oil - the ISO boils off, leaving the THC in the dish. Freeze distillation would get around this by simply removing water, but methanol becomes a big problem - cider has very high methanol levels, so concentrating it any more could be dangerous.

I haven't really had enough weed to experiment properly, but a lot of things I've read have suggested that the weed needs to be heated to about 120-150C for a while to convert as much THCA as possible to THC. I've certainly noticed a big difference in budka with baked/un-baked weed. When the finished product is green it's not very strong, but if the weed is baked enough to give a brown product then it turns out very strong! The magic number seems to be about 1oz/pint - at that strength 10ml is very fun indeed! One guy on the web says his is so strong that 1ml is a hit... If I had loads of weed I'd experiment and work out how to do it best, but I hate to waste any with the drought we've been having...

The alcohol vapourizer idea sounds like a gin still - they pass the alcohol vapour over botanicals to make a delicate, subtle infusion of the botanical essenses in the product. An essential oil still works in a similar way but makes a much stronger product by using steam distillation. This: https://mojo.calyx.net/~olsen/HEMP/IHA/jiha4208.html suggests that steam distillation wouldn't exctract the stuff we want from weed.

From the research I've done, the key elements in making budka are:

- Very strong alcohol. Not just to make a stronger end product, but because ethanol is a better solvent the higher the concentration. Good budka requires at least 70%; the best I've made was with 95%.

- Baking the weed. With shitty commercial this is definately needed, but this: https://cannabisculture.com/articles/2794.html suggests that really well cured weed won't need it. Still, it can't hurt to bake it. That link says that 106C is the best temp, but you can get much higher without damaging the weed.

- Boiling the weed with the booze. Just puttintg weed in booze takes months for a good extraction. Putting weed and booze in a jam jar with foil over it and gently boiling it in a pan of water gets a good extraction in a few hours.

The main problem I found was that strong alcohol is very expensive in the UK. Other places have cheap strong booze (everclear!), but over here a litre of 95% is about sixty quid! Now I've got my still working nicely I'll be able to start experimenting again.

We should organize a big weed-booze party! ;-P

[The Bastard Brewer]

Wow Jim W we really need to meet up and bang ours head together. Maybe organise a wine and booze tasting session for the next 420?
I need to look more in the THC baking chemistry.
I have heard that deep freezing weed is also good for strength and aroma.
Yes you are right its a gin still vapouriser but what I'm trying to do is ferment an alcohol THC and then distill it not get strong alcohol and stick bud in it which is an old recipe and also good for making hash oil. I have been looking into Cold distilling BUT as you say removing the menthenol is proving the BIG problem
It is imperative for the experiment to continue.
Look forward to trying your CycoCyder

[jim_w]

One way to keep the methanol under control would be to use a different base for the mash. Methanol is produced (partly...) from fermenting fruits, especially fruits high in pectin (like apples!). I'll do a bit of research and see if I can find a low-methanol wash recipe...