QWET oil extraction

[Sforza]

A long time ago, I was a chemistry major in college. I made it through both organic chemistry courses and their associated labs and calculus 3, but I went to school during turbulent times and I was more interested in chasing girls, getting high, and raising hell than studying so I dropped out. But I do miss having all the fine lab equipment that we used in our labs. A nice vacuum filter, using nothing more sophisticated than a venturi vacuum produced by the water flowing into the central sink, sure did filter product quickly.

I should have paid more attention. Believe it or not, one of our first projects in organic lab was to make a batch of barbiturates. I forget which one, perhaps it was Seconal. I doubt they have students make that as part of the curriculum these days.

 

[FuturePharma]

Why is my oil dark

Why is my oil dark

Thanks for the helpful information. I completed the process, but my amber oil turns brown when I add 10x 190 proof ethanol back in the still. Are we looking for a lighter color?

The practice starting material was a low oil sugar trim with a few buds. Am using the stainless mega home essential oil (version) still and Cuisinart fondue pot. It has 300 something watt elements vs 500 and a vent. They are working on seals to withstand 200 proof, High quality from Taiwan. BTW they are under $200 with a 2 year warranty from the Water Guy in BC. Cheaper if you buy with USD because their currency is leading the way to the bottom.

 

[Sforza]

Thanks for the helpful information. I completed the process, but my amber oil turns brown when I add 10 x 190 proof ethanol back in the still. Are we looking for a lighter color?

The practice starting material was a low oil sugar trim with a few buds. Am using the stainless mega home essential oil (version) still and Cuisinart fondue pot. It has 300 something watt elements vs 500 and a vent. They are working on seals to withstand 200 proof, High quality from Taiwan. BTW they are under $200 with a 2 year warranty from the Water Guy in BC. Cheaper if you buy with USD because their currency is leading the way to the bottom.

I don't worry about the color. Mine is fairly dark. I took a look at the Megahome still. What advantage does it have over the fondue pot and worm? How are you using the megahome still and the fondue pot? It looks like the megahome still has its own power and heating element.

I like being able to switch from a larger glass canning jar to a small beaker when I have removed almost all of the alcohol. That way, as GW mentions, it minimizes the oil left sticking to the side of the beaker.

I use a system very similar to the one GW posted pictures of on the first page. I had a little bit of trouble with it though. I had some mason jars that were wide-mouth and as tall as a normal quart mason jar, but they were narrower.

I noticed that GW put a towel over the top of his mason jar, presumably to hold the heat in the jar and keep the vapor from condensing on the top of the jar, since the top of the jar is not as hot as the bottom of the jar in the hot oil.

Even with the towel as insulation, as I was doing the distillation, I noticed large drops of liquid dropping down from the top of the jar from the metal lid back into the liquid at the bottom of the jar.

When I was almost done evaporating off all the alcohol, I noticed that there some water in the with the oil. Water and oil do not mix, so it was pretty obvious. I wondered where in the hell the water came from.

After thinking about it for a while, I realized that by using the tall and narrow mason jar, I was basically refluxing the mixture to the point where the ethanol vapors were making it out of the jar and down to the worm to be condensed, but the water, what little of it there was, was getting up to the top of the jar, and due to the higher boiling point of water compared to ethanol, the water vapor was condensing on the lid and then dropping back down into the jar.

I checked and found that copper stills for making alcohol like to have tall reflux chambers on top of the pot, because moonshiners like to keep the water in the pot and have the alcohol that makes it to the worm be as concentrated as possible.

I switched out the tall narrow mason jar for a short wide mason jar and the problem pretty much went away, although I still noticed a few small drops of condensation falling back down into the liquid in the bottom of the jar.

In any case, once the volume of the alcohol/oil mixture is greatly reduced but still thin enough to pour readily with little residue on the glassware, I pour it into a little beaker and don't try to reclaim the remaining small amount of alcohol.

Keeping the oil bath at about 250 degrees Fahrenheit, as recommended by GW, both the alcohol and any water are driven off.

It seems like if you are using the essential oil still, you do not have as much flexibility and it is also more expensive than using the fondue pot with oil bath.

 

[LostTribe]

RU guys reclaiming your Everclear????

F'N A should have thought of that before!

How do you know when to shut that thing off? what kind of oil are you using and is that required or can you just use a hotplate on a lower setting?

Air Guitar*

 

[Sforza]

RU guys reclaiming your Everclear????

F'N A should have thought of that before!

How do you know when to shut that thing off? what kind of oil are you using and is that required or can you just use a hotplate on a lower setting?

Air Guitar*

Read the first couple of pages of this thread by Gray Wolf. He explains everything step by step and shows picture of his setup.

I am just using cooking oil in the fondue bath. The garage smells like a I am cooking french fries when I make oil.

Gray Wolf recommends using the oil bath and a thermometer so that you can keep an eye on temperature and keep the oil at about 250 degrees so that you don't over cook your oil.

 

[Gray Wolf]

https://skunkpharmresearch.com/alcohol-reclaim-still/

 

[LostTribe]

so with going the ethanol route vs iso is it possible to simply allow the alcohol to evaporate if you don't care to reclaim? With iso I normally just put a fan on it for 24 hours or so and its done. What would the difference be using ethanol other than it smelling like someone was having way to much fun with a handle of ever clear??

Also is it possible to do the quick strain and then freeze overnight and then run through the filters before evaporating the ethanol off? Any drawbacks?

 

[Gray Wolf]

so with going the ethanol route vs iso is it possible to simply allow the alcohol to evaporate if you don't care to reclaim? With iso I normally just put a fan on it for 24 hours or so and its done. What would the difference be using ethanol other than it smelling like someone was having way to much fun with a handle of ever clear??

Also is it possible to do the quick strain and then freeze overnight and then run through the filters before evaporating the ethanol off? Any drawbacks?

EtOH evaporates away from an open dish just like ISO.

The solution won't care if you freeze it overnight, and then filter and evaporate.

 

[LostTribe]

EtOH evaporates away from an open dish just like ISO.

The solution won't care if you freeze it overnight, and then filter and evaporate.

Any subtle differences compared to using the ISO? Will it taste more of buds this way? I only used pretty old cindy buds 5 years maybe older on previous qwiso attempts. Was thinking to try this since I have some ever clear and the rest of the stuff handy.

I would do the open BHO for a trial but don't have a pump or vac chamber....

It will be fore smoking purposes as well.

 

[Gray Wolf]

Any subtle differences compared to using the ISO? Will it taste more of buds this way? I only used pretty old cindy buds 5 years maybe older on previous qwiso attempts. Was thinking to try this since I have some ever clear and the rest of the stuff handy.

I would do the open BHO for a trial but don't have a pump or vac chamber....

It will be fore smoking purposes as well.

Usually winterizing lowers the monoterpene content, so it tastes more diterpene "hashy."

 

[LostTribe]

Usually winterizing lowers the monoterpene content, so it tastes more diterpene "hashy."

How do monoterpenes affect the end taste?

 

[Gray Wolf]

How do monoterpenes affect the end taste?

The monoterpenes are most of the aroma and taste. Without them, the diterpenes taste hashy.

 

[LostTribe]

The monoterpenes are most of the aroma and taste. Without them, the diterpenes taste hashy.

GW if you were running qwet would you winterize? Why?

 

[Gray Wolf]

GW if you were running qwet would you winterize? Why?

I wouldn't bother, because the 0F ethanol doesn't pick up than many non polar plant waxes to start with.

Winterizing is technically extracting with a non polar solvent and then redissolving it in a polar solvent, before dropping the temperature so that the marginally soluble components fall out of solution.

 

[PDX Dopesmoker]

Can anyone tell me why there aren't any QWET oils for sale commercially anywhere? Or maybe I just missed them all, but I've never seen it. All my comrades tell me my QWET dabs taste great and it seems to be as potent as any other dabble extract and the returns are about as good as winterized BHO if not a little better (depends on how good you can squeeze the juice out of the flower) so why it the technique only exploited by home extractors?

 

[Digital Man]

Can anyone tell me why there aren't any QWET oils for sale commercially anywhere? Or maybe I just missed them all, but I've never seen it. All my comrades tell me my QWET dabs taste great and it seems to be as potent as any other dabble extract and the returns are about as good as winterized BHO if not a little better (depends on how good you can squeeze the juice out of the flower) so why it the technique only exploited by home extractors?

Was sort of wondering the same thing after I made a batch of this last week per GW's tek.. Classic hash taste is how I would describe it.. wonderfull in fact.

 

[Gray Wolf]

Can anyone tell me why there aren't any QWET oils for sale commercially anywhere? Or maybe I just missed them all, but I've never seen it. All my comrades tell me my QWET dabs taste great and it seems to be as potent as any other dabble extract and the returns are about as good as winterized BHO if not a little better (depends on how good you can squeeze the juice out of the flower) so why it the technique only exploited by home extractors?

Ummm, some of it is simply that a butane extraction is so quick and cheap by comparison, for the average extractor.

Another is that 190 proof isn't uniformly available, plus it is seriously over sin taxed.

The process requires greater skill and attention to detail to achieve good results. Because of the higher solvent polarity it is more prone to pick up undesirable polar elements like Chlorophyll, though less prone to pick up non polar plant waxes.

Because of the tax on EtOH, it is more expensive per gram than BHO from a closed loop system, even if you recycle it, because of the cost of time.

I personally enjoy a nice QWET and it always got high raves from the students, after making it in class!

 

[Digital Man]

Yes indeed the overiding negative is the cost of EtOH. I paid $200 per gallon of Grape last time I ordered.

GW ......... I'm sure you've used most of the EtOH out there. Any differnce in Grape, Cane, Corn or Wheat in your opinion?

 

[Gray Wolf]

Yes indeed the overiding negative is the cost of EtOH. I paid $200 per gallon of Grape last time I ordered.

GW ......... I'm sure you've used most of the EtOH out there. Any differnce in Grape, Cane, Corn or Wheat in your opinion?

Too subtle a difference to make any difference in extraction, as far as I can tell.

 

[Digital Man]

Thanks .. was wondering if the extra cost of the grape (for some reason), is worth it.