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

Yeah, doesn't it though? I've been eyeing it for a while. I was a hobbyist gourmet cook and of course butters were a key part of that. I get tired of making just cookies and brownies and sweets so this will be good for other kinds of things. While everyone raves about coconut oil, I find that butter is better in a lot of recipes. When I make brownies or anything with coconut oil it has a heavy coconut taste because of the solvent transfer and sometimes that coconut taste just isn't suited for everything.

 

Solvent Transfer to Glycerin for Tincture

This guide has been removed because it no longer meets P'Sam's Quality Standards determined by Lab Tests and Feedback.

 

Welcome, LUUUUUUUUK3! I'll be happy to answer your question. First of all, yes, high grade bud works great with the freezer method. Before I started getting the trim and popcorn buds, I used medical grade top shelf buds because that's what I had. Your tincture will be even more psychoactive and is well worth the extra bucks. If you're using freshly cured dank, you might want to decarb it first after grinding if you're able and before freezing. Let me recommend a quarter ounce for a first time try. That way, if you don't like it you won't have used all your weed. I'm sure you'll like it but better safe than sorry.

As far as potency is concerned, I round off my dosing to a dropper just to make it easy, but if you have your potency at 2.25g per fluid oz, or 30ml, not per bottle, your actual titrated dosage may be just a few drops. I dose by eye dropper usually, but for my flavored GD I use those euro-droppers that just release a drop at a time. You should be able to get sixty to eighty GD doses per 30ml as a tincture.

I hope this didn't confuse you more but if you have other questions, please feel free to ask. There's a lot of words to this process because I'm trying to cover all the bases, but once you do it you become an expert.

 

Solvent Transfer to Butter for recipes - Cannabutter Fudge


The canna butter in this recipe was infused by the solvent transfer method from a Green/Gold Dragon as described earlier in this thread. The difference is an alteration in the preferred potency. When I made cookies earlier, I used too much GD for the number of servings I had. I should have used half as much.


The fudge recipe makes as many servings as the cookies I made but are about half the strength. I used 2fl oz of GD in 4fl oz of clarified butter in the previous recipe and this time I used 1fl of GD in 1fl oz of clarified butter. I used this ratio for the fudge because it is an extra ingredient added to the main recipe. When adding additional liquid (butter) you have to be careful to keep the integrity of the recipe. If I were to put 3 or 4fl oz of butter in the recipe, it would be soupy and not set up very well. So, in order to get the potency you want, you have to concentrate it into as small a package as you can, within reason, of course.


The basic recipe here is from Ghiardelli's chocolates, word for word, kind of, except for a few differences.


1 fluid ounce/2 tablespoons Cannabutter of desired potency

2 ounce(s) 60% Cacao Bittersweet Chocolate Baking Bar

2 cup(s) Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips

1/2 cup(s) sweetened condensed milk

2 1/2 teaspoon(s) pure vanilla extract

1 cup(s) chopped pecans or walnuts

Line an 8-inch square baking pan with waxed paper. Place chocolate chips, bittersweet chocolate, cannabutter and sweetened condensed milk in a double boiler over hot, but not boiling, water. Stir the mixture occasionally until the chocolate has melted. Stir in the vanilla extract and nuts. Spread fudge evenly in prepared baking pan. Refrigerate for 2 hours, or until firm. Cut when cool and firm. Store uncovered in the refrigerator.


Now, the differences with this batch is the type of chocolate. I use what I have on hand. Today that meant I used 2 ounces of unsweetened chocolate, 1 cup of 62% Cacao Dark chocolate chunks and 1 cup of Milk Chocolate chips. That gives me a nice dark chocolate fudge. I also use another sheet of wax paper to compress the fudge before refrigerating to give it a harder consistency, kind of like hash.


You can infuse your fudge with any tincture or elixir or oil or butter made from the solvent transfer method with no cannabis flavor or smell being infused along with it. The butter will be butter flavored, coconut oil coconut flavored, glycerin and honey as well with no cannabis taste. Glycerin would be a good additive if someone doesn't want the fat that comes from oil or butter.


I have tried the missing piece of fudge in the final picture and am very pleased with the results. I now have the right strength for a really nice buzz but it's not knocking me out, yet, and that's what I like for daytime usage. I can eat my cookies for bedtime.


1) Ready to make fudge! 1fl oz each of GD and Ghee (clarified butter) for the solvent transfer; sweetened condensed milk and chocolate.

2) 2oz of unsweetened chocolate pieces.

3) 1 cup each of milk chocolate chips and dark chocolate chunks.

4) Cannabutter ready.

5) Half cup of sweetened condensed milk.

6) All ingredients except vanilla and nuts (not shown) into the double boiler.

7) Cannafudge setting up

8) Final Cannabutter fudge. Made 25 single servings.

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Attn: As mentioned earlier, the cannabutter in this recipe can be substituted by a corresponding amount of any of the following: glycerin tincture and coconut or other oils.

 

Thanks for participating, Tihspeed! I'm honored. I have read a number of your posts about tinctures and other things and have learned quite a lot. You have a good working knowledge on how to use the tools available in the kitchen as well as knowledge of the ins and outs, pros and cons of a lot of different processes. I imagine a lot of that is gained by trial and error. I have a friend who is a commercial grower and he has so much sitting around that he doesn't blink an eye if he throws a couple ounces away in a failed experiment. He freezes his and we don't decarb then, but do with fresh.

The post I made about a concentrated coconut oil came from BKS's thread except that I didn't concentrate it as far, yet. I basically wanted to show how it's done with a transfer. I do intend to make a batch of very strong coconut oil soon, but I only had enough this time to do small batches of a lot of things for this tutorial. Even at just double strength, 2 "0" caps at night has helped me kick over 20 years of sleeping pills. I have taken the GD made with top shelf cured buds all the way down before, on my 3rd batch, and it was really too strong. It only took a dab in a cap to do a number on me. After a few days trying to figure out how to use it recreationally, I gave up and reconstituted it to a GD and made honey instead.

I'm not sure if I would measure as much if I had a bunch of trim sitting around, but I come from a cooking background and am accustomed to using measurements. Plus, it's a way to measure potency and give others a solid base from which to learn. Once you've done it a few times, like any recipe, you should have a good idea of what works and wouldn't need to measure as much. Here's a pertinent example: For this thread, I'm using precise measurements so that everyone has the same starting point and these measurements are different ratios than I personally use which is why I made this recipe myself to check the measurements. When I make my personal batches, I use an ounce of good trim with mostly popcorn buds or even cured buds. Using the ratios in this recipe, I would use a full pint of Everclear. However, since I use pint jars, after adding the reefer, the jar will only hold about 12fl oz of alcohol so I just fill the jar and may wind up with a ounce over/under and adapt. But, if I were to use a quart jar for that ounce, I would use the full pint and then reduce to the desired potency. With measurements, it's easier to figure how much to reduce to get the desired potency. That's why I added the reduction/potency scale.

My decarb is just as you described, a pyrex plate in the oven without foil. There are times when my disability doesn't allow me to make fine hand movements and I can get pretty klutzy. Using the foil adds more stumbling blocks for my fingers to overcome and the pyrex could end up in a bad spot. I searched for hours and days for decarb info and this is the one that I chose. In this thread, I try to allow for the various ways that people are familiar with and as long as they aren't destroying the pot instead. I do use the foil over a smaller dish for my hash. Didn't have my camera then. Also, I made a raw or no decarb batch to show that it isn't absolutely necessary for good GD. The next batch, though, I'll try a side by side comparison with the foil like I did the raw. Of course, it will mainly be a subjective opinion but it would also show another way to decarb. The strain will make a difference, too,which is why a side by side is needed. Thanks for the idea. I'm trying to make this as adaptable as possible. Personally, though, I like the smell of the terpenes as it permeates my apartment.

Let us know how it turns out when you do it and any suggestions you might have. That's what this is about. I am not God and this is not Divine Scripture. The more options we have, the better. Thanks again.

 

***Concentrated Coconut Oil Picture Update***


This picture update came to mind while I was conversing with Tihspeed earlier. He suggested an extension of the concentrated coconut oil posting that would take it to the next level. That is a highly concentrated cannabis coconut oil like BKS makes in her concentrated cannabis oil post and is meant for seriously ill people. That takes the same 4fl oz of GD I used but transfers it into only about 1 tablespoon of coconut oil. Just to give you an idea of how dark and thick that may be, I took a picture of two batches of frozen thc caps. I had a few left from the previous batch at regular strength and some I just made of the double strength batch illustrated earlier. It's the same comparison batches as seen in the pictorial, just frozen. You can clearly see how dark the ones on the right are. Those are the double strength. I use "0" gelatin caps. The lighter ones of standard strength I use 1 for a buzz. The darker ones I use for pain and sleep. 1 for pain is better than my narcotics and 2 for sleep at bedtime has allowed me to stop sleep drugs after 20 years cold turkey.

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There is no lecithin in these caps so the difference in shade is due solely to the thc concentration. I made this pic larger so that the color diff could be seen better. Click on the thumbnail to get a good look.

 

Someone was asking me about how this was going and I'm sorry to say that it hasn't been implemented yet thanks to the State of Arizona. Although they have issued dispensary licenses, they aren't allowing them to open. The co-ops and patient to patient donations are still being tolerated but only buds are allowed to change hands, no edibles, tinctures or other forms of thc. So, when I took my inventory down there last week, they couldn't take it. The staff likes the honey a lot and traded some bud for a couple of bottles for their stash. I still provide it to a lot of friends at no charge but this would have allowed me to offset my expenses. Oh, well, what can ya do?

 

I was gonna pass out samples at the monthly "Farmers Market" next week but now they won't allow that either.

 

Have you ever tried it without the foil? BKS uses foil specifically to retain some of the more esoteric compounds for her patients, as well as to keep in the smell. I'm glad you made that connection with the dehydrator. It's the same with open vs. covered. The temps and times are really the important keys. And the net will tell you anything you want to hear if you look hard enough, so that's why I research so much and then use logic to determine the way for me. I know it's stupid but I always smoke a joint of my decarbed weed when it comes out of the oven. It's a superstitious manifestation to show the pot's still good, but it seems to work. Go figure.

"Have you ever tried it without the foil?" I must have been a little stoned when I wrote this. You clearly said that you had tried it without covering and it didn't work as well. So this question was a little stupid. Thanks for not calling me on it. I periodically go through here to see if I missed or misunderstood something so that I can clear it up if possible.

 

I already did do an experiment to determine whether there was a need for decarboxylation with this method. It has been posted in comparison shots throughout the process. I used the exact material and ratios for each, and processed them simultaneously and then documented the differences per stage. It took me a few days to try the "raw" batch because I wanted to be clean when I did try it. I determined the potency was the same but was unable yet to tell if the buzz was more cerebral and uplifting like BKS suggests. Yesterday I used the last 2fl ozs of the raw GD with honey and am going to use that for an "intensity" trial. I'll have those results after a good test. I feel now that the decarb isn't necessary whether it's covered with foil or not. That is, unless you're trying to decarb down to get certain compounds for special needs.

The photos I have of the pyrex plate of reefer were a before and after visual comparison. Unfortunately, my photography isn't good enough to show that the post oven dish was a darker green than before the oven. The pics actually look just the opposite but in real life that's not the case. I have also tried to show the visual difference during the process. The way the material breaks down, how the layer of tric husks manifests, the kind of stuff that may have no meaning at all but at least there's a visual record. If I had a fancy hydrometer I could figure out the exact moisture differences but that ain't gonna happen soon. I really need a good Sativa to measure cerebral intensity but I can't get my hands on that, just Indicas. It's hard to tell cerebral intensity when you're couchlocked.

 

I refer to droppers all the time as my means of measurement for potency. Not everybody has a good dropper laying around so titrating can be hit or miss. Lovely Lady provided a great alternate means of dosing. When I first started smoking all those years ago, small scales weren't available except for the little postal scales that weren't very accurate. Now, it seems that everyone but me has a digital scale. So weighing is now an option.

She could only find a 5ml dropper so she thought of weighing out a dose. She didn't know how much a standard dropper weighed so she just used grams as a measurement. When she told me about it, I thought it was a great idea so I got out my cheap WallyWorld digital scale that just goes down to grams and weighed up some droppers. Since I can't read decimals on my scale, I had to use some reckoning to figure it out. You know, like I "reckon" that's enough to do something with. Here's my dropper to grams ratio:
1 dropper of water = 1g
2 droppers of water = 2g
1 dropper of canna coconut oil = 2g
1 dropper of glycerin tinc = 1g
1 dropper of GD = 1g

As I said, I have a shitty scale that doesn't go lower than a gram so these are "reckonings". If I ever get a more accurate scale, I can figure it down to drops if needed. Anyone who has a scale can update this info with my blessings. I included it here as another means of measurement.

Now I have to utilize all these droppers I measured out, so I guess I'm going to be out of it for a while. At least I won't feel any of the pain that's been killing me the last few days and that's a good thing since I have no smoke.

 

Syringes would be easy, too. However, syringes are harder to get in some states due to narcotic issues. Of course, one could always use a flavor injector syringe

I have included cc/ml amounts throughout and 1 standard dropper is 1cc/ml. This is just another alternative for those who may not have a dropper or syringe. I know people who weigh everything instead of using other methods. I have a friend who is a real-life chemist (legal) and for him, weighing is second nature. So, since different people do things differently, I added this, too, and I can see where I might use it at times. I like to use a syringe to fill caps.