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WHOA.... im suddenly into wine

Discussion in 'Weed Edibles' started by Tihspeed, Apr 17, 2012.

  1. #1 Tihspeed, Apr 17, 2012
    Marijuana-Laced Wine Grows More Fashionable in California Wine Country - The Daily Beast

    Marijuana-Laced Wine Grows More Fashionable in California Wine Country

    Apr 14, 2012 4:45 AM EDT Wines fermented with weed were a novelty in the early 1980s, but now quite a few California winemakers are producing cannabis cuvées on the sly-with cabernet the variety of choice.


    Last year, at a Burgundy dinner in New York, I was given a wine that smelled like no Burgundy I'd ever encountered. Instead, it had a pungent herbal aroma that called to mind a college dormitory on a Saturday night-that, or a Grateful Dead concert. The devilish grin on the face of the friend who offered me the mystery liquid confirmed it: what I had in my hand was a glass of pot wine-yes, as in marijuana-laced.

    In the spirit of inquiry, I took a sip, and while it neither got me stoned nor made me want to ditch the glass of 1985 Roumier Bonnes-Mares that I was holding in my other hand, it was certainly a novel experience. But it turns out that pot wine isn't such a novelty in California wine country; there apparently are quite a few winemakers surreptitiously producing cannabis cuvées.

    Curious to learn more about this weediest of wines, I recently spoke with a California vintner who makes it on the side. For obvious reasons, he didn't want his real name used, so I will refer to him as “Bud.” He told me pot wine holds an important distinction: in his view, it is “the only truly original style of wine created in the New World.” Bud said he is just one of a number of winemakers on the Central Coast who are blending two of California's most prized crops. The recipe for pot wine, such as it is, consists of dropping one pound of marijuana into a cask of fermenting wine, which yields about 1.5 grams of pot per bottle; the better the raw materials-grapes and dope-the better the wine.

    The fermentation process converts the sugar in grapes into alcohol, and alcohol extracts the THC from marijuana. Bud goes for maximum extraction: he keeps his weed wine in barrel for nine months before bottling it. He said he and other winemakers produce pot wine in small quantities, to be shared in “convivial moments with like-minded people.” Those who enjoy it evidently enjoy it a lot: Bud said that at certain wine events in San Francisco, New York, and Las Vegas, “I can't show up unless I have some with me.”

    Drugs have been on the periphery of the California wine scene going back a long time. In the late 1960s, Ridge Vineyards, located in the Santa Cruz Mountains above Silicon Valley and one of California's most storied wineries, was something of a magnet for counterculture types. In his 2001 book, Zin: The History and Mystery of Zinfandel, David Darlington wrote that on “spectacular Monte Bello Ridge, psychoactive drugs proved quite popular; one Ridge acolyte-a full-bearded, red-headed individual named Jerry-reportedly ate LSD 64 days in a row, and bottling was frequently performed by someone who held a 750-ml glass vessel with one hand and a joint of primo sinsemilla with the other.” Having tasted Ridge wines from that period, I can tell you that they have aged beautifully and that I have never found any decayed roaches in the sediment. I can also tell you that this sort of thing no longer happens at Ridge.


    [​IMG]


    It is unclear when pot wine originated, but Bud told me that it was being produced in California as far back as the early 1980s. At the time, the Reagan administration was ratcheting up the war on drugs, and marijuana wine had a whiff of danger about it. Bud said it typically was made then with rosé wines and that because of the legal risk involved, bottles were selling for more than $100. (Bud recently tasted a bottle from 1985 and found that it had held up amazingly well and was still very aromatic). These days, though, the marijuana is typically blended with robust reds such as cabernet sauvignon and syrah, and because cannabis has largely shed its illicitness in California, there is not much of a paying market now for pot wine; it's really just a party drink that winemakers break out whenever the mood strikes.

    Crane Carter, who is president of the Napa Valley Marijuana Growers, an organization he founded and which two years ago was granted membership in the Napa County Farm Bureau, says pot wine is increasingly fashionable in wine country. He told me that in Napa, much of the marijuana used for wine comes from Humboldt County, which is California's weed capital, but there's also plenty of locally grown grass. Carter said cabernet, Napa's main grape, is the variety of choice for marijuana-seasoned wine, and that fruit from the Stag's Leap district is thought to pair particularly well with pot. According to Carter, pot wine delivers a quicker high than pot brownies, and the combination of alcohol and marijuana produces “an interesting little buzz.” He believes cannabis wine has a bright future in Napa. “People love wine,” he says, “and they love weed.”
     
  2. #2 Deleted member 457210, Apr 17, 2012
    Interesting i need to get my hands on some of this wine :p
     
  3. #3 Ajd0003, Apr 17, 2012
    That sounds like some true coniossuer shit

    Very informative great post
     
  4. #4 BadKittySmiles, Apr 17, 2012
    This comes up every few weeks :)


    Unfortunately, as I've mentioned in several different threads, they are either not being honest about their methods to prevent people from reproducing their product, unintentionally (or perhaps not unintentionally) encouraging patients and recreational users to waste and ruin their own meds on a wild goose chase or 'snipe hunt' of a process..... or, their wine just isn't very good, in taste OR potency!



    Dropping even activated herb into the mix, pre-ferment, does not work for extraction purposes as, even by the time the wine is finished and ready for bottling, there isn't NEAR enough alcohol to perform the extraction in the finished product.



    To make this easier to understand...


    Imagine trying to make green dragon, in a beverage containing less than 20% alcohol!



    And most fermented beverages, without distillation, top off around 12% - 18% once bottled depending on the yeast, sugars, and methods used.



    It can take years to encourage much bioavailability in even standard shelf-strength liquor (ie 40% - 45%, or 80 - 90 proof alcohol).



    What it does extract when adding simple cannabis flowers, in terms of chlorophyll, bitter plant salts and waxes, spoils the flavor of wine, beer and similar beverages, incredibly.

    And unless you sanitize the herb first, it can invite in unwanted pathogens which can ruin the process entirely, sometimes resulting in something closer to vinegar once finished (and that's if you're lucky!). :(



    This is coming from decades of personal experience, and trial and error making cannabis infused: wine, sake, wheat ales, mead, miodomel, hippocras and others, in my own (and some other, much larger) wine cellars. ;)



    Now for something less negative, and more helpful :p :hello:




    You need to add an already activated, already bioavailable extract!


    We use a citric hash extract ourselves, but at the very least you should be water-washing your herb to remove inert plant matter you don't want, and then treating the remains with citric acid and trace amounts of lecithin before fermenting.


    Here are a few past threads on the topic of canna wine and beer;





    http://forum.grasscity.com/marijuan...nemakers-infuse-wine-weed.html?highlight=wine


    http://forum.grasscity.com/incredible-edible-herb/1017441-canna-beer.html?highlight=wine


    http://forum.grasscity.com/incredib...ulled-wine-using-cannibus.html?highlight=wine


    http://forum.grasscity.com/incredib...ers-making-marijuana-beer.html?highlight=wine


    http://forum.grasscity.com/pandoras-box/992120-any-home-brewers.html?highlight=wine


    http://forum.grasscity.com/incredible-edible-herb/1017441-canna-beer.html?highlight=wine


    http://forum.grasscity.com/incredible-edible-herb/981770-weed-mead.html?highlight=wine


    http://forum.grasscity.com/incredible-edible-herb/963833-cannibeer.html?highlight=wine


    http://forum.grasscity.com/incredible-edible-herb/829535-hemp-ale.html?highlight=wine






    And an excerpt....




    ---------------------------



    Disclaimer :)p):

    We're not allowed to discuss the process of brewing, or distillation here. [​IMG]


    Before you ask why, please: Don't turn this into yet another 'why not' thread!

    Once the search feature is back, and if you're really still curious, you can easily find a dozen or so threads explaining why.
    Among the reasons, there's the fact that even with the numerous tutorials and threads dedicated to them, many members here often can't seem to follow instructions for making a simple firecracker properly. People frequently get ahead of themselves, get 'creative', and sample their product before even asking if it's a good idea. [​IMG]


    If you get creative in the wrong way, when brewing on the other hand, the consequences can potentially be as simple as drinking harmless bacteria and vinegar, or, the consequences can be substantially more severe.



    If you over-consume cannabis, or make an oil based edible wrong entirely, the worst that happens is you get very, very stoned, maybe a little nauseous or anxious, and sleep for an extra 5 or 6 hours. Medically, health-wise, you are fine after the fact and there are no long term side effects. If you screw up an edible entirely, nothing happens at all, and you're just left disappointed! No one has ever died, or suffered permanent harm, from cannabis over-consumption. A glass of high-proof red wine on the other hand, directly off the top of a 10 - 20 gallon carboy, can potentially be deadly.
    Brewing is certainly and absolutely easy to get right, if you know what you're doing and you understand the importance of sanitary tools, but if done improperly or if the novice brewer gets over-excited and 'creative', then confuses simple brewing with distillation, it can potentially cause harmful, long-term health effects. For instance, even some 'adept' brewers are often unaware that particularly high-proof wine and some beer can produce toxic or harmful levels of methanol, which needs proper purging/evaporation... this is why even some store-bought brews and (especially) red wines, can cause terribly harsh inebriation, devastating hangovers, and blackouts, even after only light consumption.

    When brewing wine or beer, it's formed by fruit pectins, and to a much lesser extent, by grains. A small batch *shouldn't* be deadly, but it can still produce permanent liver and pancreas damage, and reduce their ability to function properly in the future.


    A cheap wine known as 'Buckfast Tonic', for instance, has been reported in an unusually high number of violent incidents. In other countries, with less scrutiny and little to no pre-sale testing or analysis, or where illegal wines are sold openly in store-fronts while the authorities 'look the other way', hundreds of people have been killed at a time by single batches of poorly brewed beverages. :(




    We should be grateful that we're still allowed to discuss alcohol/hash extractions... if people abuse the rules (which is why the discussion of other substances was banned), the discussion of alcohol based extractions will very likely be the next to go!
    It wasn't all that long ago that I had to explain, painstakingly, to an insistent younger member, why he shouldn't drink an Iso-alcohol hash extract. [​IMG]


    It's also just a courteous gesture to respect the rules of the forum, and the wishes of the owners who are kind enough to provide it. [​IMG]



    There are a TON of forums and websites dedicated specifically to brewing, feel free to check some of them out. [​IMG]



    ----------------



    Now that the above is out of the way, I will also say this:


    You need to add an activated, and already-bioavailable concentrate or extract, either before the ferment, or after bottling and at least a few weeks prior to consumption. I recommend using a citric acid (powder, not simple lemons!) and lecithin extraction. You can also make a golden or green dragon, but adding excess alcohol before the ferment can potentially hinder the actual alcohol production that you're trying to encourage.
    Without adding a properly made, activated, bioavailable concentrate, the amount of alcohol you create is simply not sufficient to break down cannabis glandular material, nor is it enough to promote efficient bioavailability.


    Adding cannabis flowers or leaves, as they are, just washed of chlorophyll, or just boiled, only serves as a flavoring/bittering element!

    You will not create sufficient alcohol to perform an extraction, and the flavor is not very palatable unless the plant matter has been properly cured, and often even water-washed beforehand.. and again, it would be for flavor alone with virtually no transfer of active potency.

    I'll add the link from the 'not-tutorial' in the CannaPharm... [​IMG]


    Simple: Triple Berry Hash Wine


    [​IMG]


    [​IMG]


    edit - Vids of the fermentation...

    http://forum.grasscity.com/photopost...wine3&cat=3362

    http://forum.grasscity.com/photopost...wine2&cat=3362

    http://forum.grasscity.com/photopost...wine4&cat=3362




    Bear in mind, that these were made for a tutorial for simple, cheap home-made 'carboys', best for short-term use, so folks can decide if this is a hobby they really even want to pursue, before they invest a lot of time and money...



    We have several 5 - 10 gallon standard glass carboys going, especially during bloom, in the grow rooms (concealed in wrapped, light-proofed cardboard); they provide fairly adequate CO2 [​IMG] )


    We regularly make hash infused sake, mead, miodomel, hippocras, wheat ale and more. [​IMG]




    ----------




    Sorry for the long post! Hopefully it was useful or entertaining for someone. [​IMG] :p



    Good luck! [​IMG]
     
  5. #5 Tihspeed, Apr 17, 2012
    as always bad kitty i cant rep you... I just wish you would sit down and spell things out... you loose me your write ups are so awesome and im so simple minded.... i wish you had a shop i could come by and check out your stuff.... maybe consider making videos for purchase or something.... i don't care how much they would be i'd get them

    guess ill have to seek out the pre-made stuff rather than trying to make my own...
     
  6. #6 BadKittySmiles, Apr 17, 2012
    Hello again :)

    I'm in the kitchen right now making some chocolate frosted golden cupcakes, for this weekend (tutorial for 'Super Simple Canna Cupcakes' either tonight, or tomorrow, in time for the holiday!), so I'll try to be quick.. I haven't even checked the CannaPharm for the last day or two, I know there are a few new responses there.


    We're not allowed to discuss brewing here, unfortunately, or any part of the process. But the citric hash extract which I've shared in a photo tutorial, is as simple as taking dry sift hash, and powdered citric acid, in a roughly 3 : 1 ratio in that order, a pinch of lecithin, with a few drops of; high proof alcohol, vinegar, or water if it's all you have, then heating for 10 - 20 minutes at 180 f, depending on the thickness of the dish or tray... after a few days resting it's ready to be used for anything from drinks, to sour candies!! :hello:

    Many fruity wine recipes call for citric acid, in larger quantities than required to overload a bottle of wine with more canna-potency than you'd probably ever really want, or need. :)


    I've been simplifying most all the other recipes, while sharing photos with each individual step to make the guides easy to follow, but the only way to be sure folks can 'pick up' on how to brew their own wine, is by alluding to the process in a more long-winded way, telling them what to avoid, and by then letting them find the MANY brewing forums, information and other tools available on the internet via google. :)


    Home brewing and fermentation is legal in *most* areas, just so long as you're not distilling after, so there are a ton of resources available and it's surprisingly simple.. the most crucial aspects are that you need to be 100% sanitary, and you must use good/stable supplies.
     
  7. #7 PeacefulStoner, Apr 17, 2012
    Gotta spread some rep around before giving it to you bad kitty, but let me just say your posts are always informative, well written and just awesome!:smoke:
     
  8. #8 eatingthepair, Apr 17, 2012
    i have never heard of this people always have said the THC becomes less effective in alcohol or does that only apply when smoking through high alcohol content bong liquids?
     

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