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How to extract THC with alcohol.

Discussion in 'Weed Edibles' started by Wingman Bill, Jul 2, 2012.

  1. #1 Wingman Bill, Jul 2, 2012
    Last edited by a moderator: Jul 2, 2012
    I will explain the process to you :p

    These instructions wont handle every detail but it is still worth listening to as this is the most efficient and healthy way to extract THC with the use of alcohol.

    First of al the ingredients:

    Your weed; There is no need to buy expensive weed or to select the best cuts. Although a high THC% is preferred because there will be less sugars and other shit mixt in your end result. Leaves and stems can also be considered usable, but it has pretty much the same downside.

    Alcohol; The alcohol is a more important part than the weed. What you want is Medicinal 99% alcohol. And if you cant get it, try to find something similar. What you are looking for is the least possible amount of colour and flavorings. Moonshine does the trick, but it contains a bit more "invisible" organic material in comparison.

    Ratio; It depends on the prize of the weed and the alcohol in your country. If weed is hard to get, use more alcohol for a little more result. :p

    Why the purity is so important is because you want to end up with nice white crystals or a solution that you can keep in a waterbottle without being noticed.

    Step 1 (skippable, repeatable) "Cleaning the weed": This is the process of cleaning out the stuf you dont want in your solution. This is actually quite simple. You put your weed (dont grind it yet) in a pan of warm/hot water. Dont boil it because it loosens the structure of the weed. Keep the weed in the water for a while like a bag of tea. What this does is, it removes the coulors, sugars, aroma from the weed. This sounds stupid but THC wont be wasted if done well because it doesnt dissolve in water. Now, when the water changes colour you can seperate the weed from it. This process is repeatable until the water doesnt get any colour no more.

    Step 2 Extracting: In this process you will dissolve the THC into the alcohol. First of all you dry your weed a little so that it doesnt need to be in the alcohol that long for the THC to get out. If you are using both stems and buds, separate them now because you want to extract from the stems first to get more efficiency. Chop/grind the weed into very small pieces but large enough to filter out. (You do not want to use a blender). Now, we first do the stems and leaves. After that you repeat it with the buds. If you didn't separate them from buds, don't care too much about it. Put the chopped weed into the alcohol, and heat it up. DOnt let it boil YET. Keep it warm with a lid on the pan for like 10-20 minutes. Afther that is done, poor it through coffy filters (or T-shirts) multiple times until it is a clear solution. This solution contains around 85%-90% of the THC that was inside the weed. Reed step 3 or have fun with it :p

    Step 3 Processing: What you have left is basically a solution of nothing more than the alcohol and the THC. It is quite nice to drink pure, like a very strong vodka with a minty(Weed) flavor. And it can also be mixed with other drinks. If you do not like the alcohol and only want the THC you can boil the alcohol out. IF you do that, eventually this thick solution will get a slightly brownish tint like icetea. This can also be mixed or consumed directly. There is No need to boil it further. IF you want the crystals there are 2 ways to get them. For both of them you need wooden skewers :p.

    The first way is to put the product in the freezer with these wooden sticks in it. Make sure the freezer is on max power, and the THC will crystalize on the sticks in nice white crystals. You can wait a few days and take these sticks out to dry. The solution still contains a little THC, and can be re-used by pouring it in "step 2" the next time. The crystals can be scraped of and kept in a small container. THere will be more than you think if you did everything right!

    The other way is to poor water into the solution and boil out the remaining alcohol. Bring it just above freezing point with the sticks in it and the THC crystalizes. I dont really know which is the most efficient way.

    You can also soak a piece of paper with the solution and let it dry. This paper can be taken to school or work without being noticed. And it is realy cool smoking those "Hollow joints" that contain way more THC than a normal one. ^^

    People who use oil instead of alcohol leave a lot of THC in the plant, evaporate a lot and destroy a lot creating a crappy nasty resin that isnt worth it at all.

    Please feel free to ask if you have questions. I will come with my pics (or vid) soon if you guys are interested
     
    • Like Like x 1
  2. i am all ears bro. Did u get a crystal extract like amber glass? or was it oily. I have 25gms of stems and shake. been water curing it but now its giving a funny and shitty smell.
     
  3. How much bud do you need to use
     
  4. i like this.

    i think i would like to throw out there also...its best to go get some sort of really good thermometer, like a candy thermometer or something along the lines, those other simple ones used for cooking dont really work. though.

    you dont want it to get to the 170 degrees F area, or higher. that will boil the alcohol out and you wont have anything for the shit to bind too
     
  5. I find the longer the wash/extract, the more oily the end product.
    The less time the more dusty/hash like it comes out.

    I'm assuming you're using 99% isopropyl
     
  6. do you know if you can use any alchohal other then iso? i did and what i ended up with didint look like somthing i could smoke...:mad:
     
  7. I've actually been doing some recent work with this. I would not recommend the use of isopropyl alcohol. Like the original post said get something like moonshine. What I use is just your standard high proof grain alcohol, EverClear 190 Proof if possible. This is as pure of ethyl alcohol as you can get without chemically separating it from water using drying agents. This is because at 95% Ethanol/5% Water the solution boils as an azeotrope.

    Anyways. I've done this before without washing the plant material first and only used the buds. I've found a ratio of about 20 mL of 95% ethanol to about 2 g of product will be very effective at removing the THC, though I haven't played with this ratio very much to attempt to optimize it yet.

    After about an hour of boiling I strained the solution though a tea strainer. I was left with a nice green solution (remember I didn't clean and boil out the color as the original poster said), and in the strainer I had some dull green-brown product.

    To do a self check since, I wasn't ingesting the alcohol extract right away, I wanted to see if the plant material still contained any THC post extraction. I dried the plant matter overnight on a plate covered in aluminum foil atop a hot water radiator, and smoked it in the morning. I didn't feel any significant sensation after smoking the dull brown-green product so I'm assuming all the THC is floating around in my alcohol solution.

    I wouldn't recommend drinking the extract straight if you do not clean the plant first. I've tried it. It'll leave your throat coated with a sticky prickly sensation. However, I've mixed it with Mt Dew for a killer time. I have yet to do any significant work in boiling the THC solution down to the crystals.

    Let me know if you have any questions or comments.
     
  8. #8 rob_xv, Nov 13, 2013
    Last edited: Nov 13, 2013
    I've compiled everything everyone has said into a PDF. What do you guys think? It's far from perfect but I don't know what else to add, any suggestions? Regarding point a, how long should it take for the alcohol to boil off? 
    Thanks too Wingman Bill, Kiefsweat, Thom Cruz and MenaceChemist. <span> </span>
     
     

    Attached Files:

  9. Hey what do you do if you mixed too long and your liquid has turned dark green?
     
  10. Wingman Bill great tek. Swim have also experimented with alcohol extractions, except he would use it to collect reclaim from dab rigs, using isopropyl. Swim usually evaporates the alcohol away, I have noticed when i rush it it becomes less potent. But if i do a slow vaccuum distilation, home made version, alcohol boils over at lower temp and left with potent product. Also regarding your crystals and final solution that is clear. Would that solution include all the terpenes that make the bud flavorful? why is it clear when other porducts have a more or less brown color to it. thanks and aloha
     
  11. just read your pdf, nice. i see you added evaporation. am still wondering why the solution  is clear.
     
  12. #13 mmjc, Sep 13, 2014
    Last edited by a moderator: Sep 13, 2014
    The main thing is to freeze everything! The weed, the tools the alcohol, usually overnight, or at least for a few hrs. If you do not the alcohol will pick up unnessecary chlorophylls from the plant. This will make it honey oil if done with the right product.
     
    I was just talking with these guys and apparently they have perfected the method with bud oil and alcohol extraction and are offering it to canadians for pretty reasonable prices, $80 for 1.5g of shatter. not bad
     
    http://www.bcmedipens.ca
     
  13. Does it need to be decarboxylated? i am wondering because i don't really have the means to decarboxylate it.
     
  14. No, you don't have to decarb.
     
    What do you mean you don't have the means to decarb? Do you not have a heat source?
     
  15. I meant i dont have a stove.
     

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