Question about newly discovered infusion machine....

You don't need Levo.
Save your money if you haven't bought it yet.
For people who want to conserve herb, making butter first is wasteful and unnecessary.
A much better use of your money would be the Ardent Nova/Lift decarb device.
Strained butters strong enough to use can be anywhere from 30-80% efficient.
Using whole herb in any recipe is 100% efficient.

Here's a recipe to make 30 cookies using any box mix:
1. Decarb 1/4 oz flower @ 240 F for 40 min using a verifying thermometer.
2. Grind to fine powder.
3. Combine herb, a roughly equal amount of lecithin, and the recipe oil in a bakeable container.
4. Preheat mixture to 220 F on a stove top, then bake at that temp for 20 min.
5. Use the mixture in the cookie recipe.

Most good herb is 15-20% thc, so using the average yields
THC = (0.175)*(7000 mg) = 12225 mg
When split among 30 cookies, each cookie will have about 40 mg thc.

I've made thousands of these, and they are just as potent as oils, tinctures, capsules, etc made with the same amount of herb.
There might be slight herb taste.
Snickerdoodles hide it very well.

 

Putting ground decarbed weed into capsules will work just fine. I used that method for a couple of years. It's an easy foolproof process for beginners. Later when you have plenty of weed you can make hash oil and drop that into capsules.

 

GIGO= Garbage in Garbage out.
You get back what you put in. Use crap low grade trim and trash and expect low grade results.

I use the best of the best of my grow for my edibles.

Lecithin = is primarily used as a homogenizing, emulsifying agent. It's now found in many foods and medications as it makes less seem like more. Less sugar seems just as sweet, Less medication acts as well as a full dose.
With Cannabis I feel it doubles the perceived effects and stretched the duration as well.

Most of the tabletop infusing machines have the same major drawback. Way to much oil is needed to run a batch. 2 cups with many of them.
I work in Teaspoons and tablespoons of oil. Not cups and quarts. I want strong meds, not Laxative and that is what you'll have with huge amounts of oil and small amounts of cannabis.

Decarb 240 F for 40 minutes

5 grams powdered decarbed buds
2.5 teaspoons Coconut oil
1/2 teaspoon Lecithin
Heat 220 F for 20 minutes
Freeze
Heat 220 F for 20 minutes
Done.



BNW

 

I can attest to this. The Ardent has a nice benefit of being able to do small quantities, and infuse into oil at the same time something most of the bigger machines don't handle well. But I can also attest to the fact that you absolutely don't *need* an Ardent or any fancy machine at all...it's just a product of convenience and consistency. If that's worth it to you, and you can afford it, then have at it, but a toaster oven works just as well.

You run it a single cycle to decarb. Then add your oil and lecithin, run it back through the ardent on a second cycle. I use granulated soy lecithin at a ratio of 1:6 by volume. If you're going for maximum reclamation, meaning you will leave the plant matter in the capsules, which I recommend, then you might want to grind the plant matter to as fine a powder as possible...it will help when you go to fill those capsules later. But you can just as easily strain out the plant matter if a more pure oil is to your liking, but you may want to hold on to that strained plant matter as you'll still have some active ingredient in there.

After the second cycle in the Ardent, you just fill your capsules and you're done! But you're not limited to capsules, your infused oil is perfectly well suited to any recipe which calls for it, so you can get creative with cookies, brownies, put it in coffee/tea, etc. And once again, you can achieve this without the purchase of an Ardent, it's just a function of convenience and consistency.

I like the capsules though, they're discreet, convenient, and shelf-stable for a long time if kept well. I keep mine in the refrigerator, and haven't noticed any degradation even after several months. You can experiment with different oils, but I've found, and I believe the consensus is that coconut oil is preferable. Just make sure to keep stirring it as best you can as you're filling capsules to try to keep the per-capsule dosages as consistent as possible.

Best of luck!
Pol

 

Lecithin is an emulsifier (makes oil and water mix better) that most people say improves the quality of their medicine.

A couple of coments:
1. My toaster oven was a nightmare. I don't think they work nearly as well as Ardent for decarb.
2. Toaster ovens do infuse well, where exact temp is unimportant, and I prefer a shorter, more controllable infusion using a toaster oven.

 

Levo makes a personal machine. I believe that I posted that you need at least 40 to 50 grams of weed to work in a magical butter machine I use a hundred + 2 cups of coconut oil

Sent from my SM-N960U using Grasscity Forum mobile app

 

I own 2 MagicalButterMachines, 1 Infusium (MBM Killer), and a ButterBrewer.
I enjoy experimenting with these things, and consider trying them as entertainment.
They are difficult to get the oil out of, and to clean, and the minimum volume is a problem.

Much simpler, and easier is to simulate what these devices can do with the following:
1. Coffee grinder (or magic bullet) takes the place of the grinding blades that MBM and Infusium have.

2. Beakers do the job of the containers of these devices.

3. Magnetic stirrer hot plate allows continuous mixing instead of the intermittent mixing of these devices.

Unfortunately, the temperature must be calibrated thru trial and error.
4. Stirring thermometer


These all add up to about $128.
I just finished making some infused oils to test Magical Butter Machine's suggested 160 F infusion temp.
I made 5 different batches using 160 F for infusion times of 1 hr, 2 hr, 4 hr, 8 hr, and 8+ hr.
These were all done using the above equipment, and 2.25 g decarbed herb powder each time.
Cleanup is easy.
Testing with small amounts is impossible using MBM or Infusium.
Don't know about Levo.

 

Decarbed herb will get you high without any other processing.
Infusing is thought to increase the amount of medicine that makes it thru the digestive system obstacle course to the blood stream.
That's been my experience.
I've tried un-infused herb, and it doesn't work nearly as well for me as infused herb.
But everyone's different, and you should compare.

 

I believe the reason for infusing, either with alcohol or oil, is that it severely enhances bioavailability. While you can just eat raw decarbed plant, and it will work somewhat, you will see vastly better results when it is "carrried" with a medium that has positive bio absorption qualities. Alcohol is obvious in this regard for its ability to get into your blood. Oils are protective of the canabis and act similarly, though more slowly.

Think about how hostile your stomach is, it's designed to break things down and make them ready for digestion. Only a fraction of the raw, unprotected plant will make it through to the liver where it gets to do its thing.

However, best of both worlds, powdered, decarbed plant infused in oil but not filtered means maximum retention, and I'd argue in capsule form it doesn't matter, but depending on your use, the plant matter may be distasteful...or stomach upsetting to some.

The other nice thing about infusions are that you can target your dosage based on the size of your caps versus the volume of oil. You can do some basic math to get an approximation of dosages per capsule. I use 000 caps which are 1.37ml per cap, but I scale my oil volume to try to make each one about 10mg per cap... but you can go up or down from there based on use case.

 

I have seen estimates as low as 8% for the amount of thc that actually makes it into the blood stream from edibles.
Getting at that missing 92%, or whatever it is, is the most fertile area for research.

I hate to say it, but maybe the drug companies can figure this out.