Another Tincture Thread - Try it, You'll like it

Those here in the good ol' USA 65 and over can start to try to make an appointment for the Covid vaccine. My state just approved the new guidelines, about an hour ago, so I got online to schedule mine right away. The appointment times were rapidly being taken as I was filling out the form. I got the last spot for the day. It's not until early February but at least I have it scheduled. I can already feel some relief.

 

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I finally got a mortar and pestle so that I can work on that citric acid decarb project which I hope to do today unless something comes up. I had originally planned on using different kief but that stuff was too good to waste on a project when something else will work. So, instead of 80%, I'm using standard dispensary dry sift that averages 35%. 5g will still be about 1750 mg, over 17 100mg doses if it works right.

It's a good mix of strains. The New York Sour Diesel and Afgani are the major ones then a couple of "Lemons", Lemongrass and some other, one Sativa and the other Indica.

I call this a citric acid decarb instead of a citric acid extraction. The citric acid doesn't extract. It generates the heat for the decarb but it's the vinegar or the ethanol that actually does the extraction. In fact, you can make a tincture with vinegar but it's not as good as an alcohol tincture. I've never made one but it might be interesting to try it out. BKS says that because of the citric acid, water can be used as well. It generates the heat to pull the oil but I expect that to become an emulsion instead.

Since others have recently made the vinegar version of this, I'm going to do the ethanol version and because I expect it to be a better extraction. This is about the decarb and the ability to use it in dosing. Gotta read up one more time then I'll tackle it. It's a several day project.

 

You know, that all depends on what you're planning to do. Some of us do use lab equipment but nearly everything here can be done with household adaptations. Beakers are really nice and a dedicated work area and a few tools come in handy but spoons, knives, glasses, jars, etc. work just as well.

You had been discussing making rso versus dispensary and how it was so much easier to buy it and the difference in dosing, from nada to green out. The burner and beakers will make a big difference. If you look through the pictures at the beginning of this thread you'll notice I used jars, a coffee warmer, rice cooker, crockpot and a metal bowl for the double boiler setup.

One thing that I wish I had is a tabletop alcohol distiller. I sure wasted a lot of alcohol.

 

You can go ahead and add the lecithin now. You don't add lecithin until after the solvent transfer to your oil. I personally don't use lecithin except as an emulsifier but if using for your caps then BNW's 1/6th ratio is the accepted amount.

Don't use water in the processing of your oil and don't use vegetable caps. I've have to see those powdered caps to offer any opinion of what they are and how it was done. I've seen various caps around including decarbed shake capsules so there's no telling what they were. Did they work?

 

Yep, that's the way to do it. The refrigerator and not the freezer.

 

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I'm a couple of days into this project with maybe 3-4 more days according to BKS' notes but she doesn't really say why. There's a heated version and a sit and wait version. I'm doing the latter. The heated version is 180°F for 10 minutes and accomplishes what normally takes 5-6 days. Again, she doesn't say what that does. I expect it has to do with the citric acid decarb but that might also push the decarb because of the heat. She seems to say that the reaction can be tracked by the color or the mix but not what it indicates.

There are 4 strains of kief averaging 35% potency or about 350mg per gram, 1750mg total. It's interesting to note the different colors between the strains.



I added 1 teaspoon of soy lecithin granules and 2 tsp of citric acid powder to the kief and began to grind all the dry ingredients together.



I then slowly added 6ml of 190 alcohol and started mixing it together as it turned into a gritty paste and darkened considerably.



At this point I'm supposed to cover it and let it sit overnight. I don't know why because at that point you're just transferring it to a jar to finish up. Part of that is allow the glandular material (trichomes) to dissolve. At this point it's pretty gritty. This is the following day.



So, I transferred it to my storage jar and am waiting for it to finish "curing". I do not know if it is activated. I haven't tried any yet although I have cleaned out the mortar and have a "drink" that looks pretty nasty with the fine particles of kief floating around in it. For some reason I expected it to dissolve. I'm afraid to drink it but I guess it's something I need to do in the name of science. I'll be back with more on that once I can build up the courage.

 

That's one of the good things about it.

 

It's good to hear from you again, dannya.

I'm glad that you've been enjoying the sugar, but yeah, it can mess with blood sugar. The same goes for using honey, agave and syrups but fortunately with a solvent transfer you're not limited to those. You can also transfer to oils, butter and as you mentioned, salt. Salt doesn't seem to be a good choice to me. I've never made it although it's exactly like the sugar.

Here's a little video I made showing how to transfer to coconut oil. It used GD but it works the same with concentrate like you've been doing with the sugar. Decarb, dissolve in alcohol then evaporate until all the alcohol bubbles are gone. Very simple.
Solvent Transfer from Green Dragon to Coconut oil w/video

 

Greetings, anonarcissists, and welcome to our conversation.

You know, they say great minds think alike although I'm not sure I quite fall into that category. There actually is three of us here at GC that set upon this around the same time along with tapioca maltodextrin and we've been comparing notes. The others have used the vinegar tek and I wanted to see how those turned out first before I did mine using ethanol instead of vinegar.

You're actually quite a bit ahead of me. I'm still in the curing stage. That's an interesting concept that you're working on there. I like the idea of the extended release. I've used that concept some with my double and triple whammy projects and with modern techniques you should be able to come up with a pill. I don't know much about the interaction with your delivery system but I would wager that the citric acid has something to do with that breakdown.

I would be interested in discussing it further. I'll respond to your pm in a bit.