Hey Everyone… I have been dabbling in edibles for a little while…started with maikng my own magic butter and baking brownies and cookies… moved on to canna-caps…then extracted from my homegrown northern lights with everclear and added the remains after evaporation to a sour patch type gummy recipe …( my favorite so far)
(1) Next I would like to make a tincture but I can’t stand the taste of alcohol… basically it is the same thing as my canna extract like I used in the gummies but that one had “all” the alcohol removed and it was a sticky goo I mixed with coconut oil… From what I understand I am to stop evaporation when it still has alcohol ( thus still being a liquid)
Is there anything else to use as a base for my tincture other than the everclear or glycerin? I was thinking a lower proof of alcohol?..maybe one of those flavored pucker mixers you use in mixed drinks?
(2) I have no idea when it comes to potency so in your experiences…if I took 1 oz of northern lights (trim & bud ) and extracted the good stuff with everclear… ended up with a sticky goo… how much “base” or “carrier” would I use to make a decent potency tincture?..I know it has variables but ball park it?..lol
You can use lower proof alcohols but I wouldn’t go below 120 proof and I would keep it a clear alcohol.
You will have to make up for the loss of solvent by mechanically working your mixture longer and making more runs on your plant material. At 190 proof and above people normally only run the plant material twice through the alcohol, at 120 proof you will probably get more on 5 or 6 passes.
The other way you can do it at a lower proof is allowing it to basically “steep” into the alcohol for weeks to months, so instead of mechanical advantage your using time advantage.
The basic idea is if the solvent is doing less work then you will have to do more work or wait a longer time.
You can even use water but your personal workload will sky rocket
What about evaporating down to a tincture, mixing in a neutral oil (coconut) then letting the rest of the alcohol evaporate? Then you would have a concentrated oil. I would test a sample of whatever oil with some alcohol and see what happens.
thanks… I used everclear to extract the “good stuff”…and then let all the alcohol evaporate…with all the alcohol evaporated…it’s too thick to use an eye dropper…so I have to thin it out but don’t want to use everclear…I am looking for something non alcoholic to use to make it “eye drop-able”… oil would work but really looking to try something else…maybe something that tastes better…that’s where I got the flavored mixers but they are probably water based …
I have been using Everclear for years. I also don’t like the taste in edibles. My favorite is chocolate. Put a tablespoon of dry, unsweetened cocoa in a small bowl, then add enough tincture (see dosage info below) to the cocoa for a 24-piece chocolate bar. Leave it uncovered in a dry place for a day or two until the alcohol evaporates. The cannabis extract is now bonded with the cocoa, ready to use.
I melt down dark chocolate (Trader Joe’s sells a nice 85% bar made from Colombian chocolate), in a double boiler, stir in my cannabis cocoa and a couple of shakes of chipotle powder to give it some bite and cover any residual alcohol flavor and pour into a silicon chocolate bar mold. You could add some powdered sugar instead of the chili and I think you wouldn’t notice any alcohol flavor.
It’s easy to re-melt the bar to adjust potency if required.
I calculate dosage like this: 24 piece chocolate bar @ 20mg THC = 480mg total THC required. I figure my weed is 15% THC, so to make the chocolate bar, I need to start with 3-1/2 grams of herb. It’s a rough estimate, and there is loss in the alcohol extraction, but it’s a repeatable measure. Then test the result and adjust.
I don’t worry too much about waste, this stuff grows on trees!
You can allow the alcohol to completely evaporate off, then mix the remaining taffy-like cannabis oil into MCT or glycerin/etc to make a very smooth, non-burning tincture.