Alcohol extraction

[Stefan]

Hi all, today I did my first alcohol extraction.
 

I used larf and trim of my friends poorly outdoor grow. Helped him trim and got it for my time  

1. I grounded up the weed by using a blender. 

2. placed weed in a Pyrex dish and in the oven for 30 min at 110*c to decarb.

3. then filled two mason jars with half of the weed and 500ml of herbasol each.

4. Let the alcohol extract for 15-20min.

5. used a sieve, cheesecloth to separate bud from liquid. 

6. with the remaining liquid, I let it stand outside in direct sunlight for 30-45 to remove the chlorophyll. The liquid changes from green to amber colour.

7. then cooked the alcohol at a low heat until the bubbling stopped which indicates all the alcohol has evaporated. 

my final result was 4.5grams of extract. The purpose was to make Vape juice with it so mixed it with 80 ml (60/40 vg/pg) base. In theory, I believe each ml is about 55-60mg of THC. Tried it out now and got a nice little buzz from it. 
 

safe to say the method is quite simple and easy. Possible issues that I’ve noticed was:

1. Not 100% sure all the weed had decarbed.

2. When evaporating the alcohol it’s uncertain that my mixture went over 150*c thereby burning away the THC. Next time I’ll make sure I use a thermometer to be certain.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[highchome]

22 hours ago, Stefan said:

2. When evaporating the alcohol it’s uncertain that my mixture went over 150*c thereby burning away the THC. Next time I’ll make sure I use a thermometer to be certain.

I think using a bain-marie is easier than watching a thermometer. I.e. water in a pot with another container in the water, then the max temperature can't be above ~100C

 

I see that https://ethanolsashop.co.za/ has a similar product for extracts. I'm still not sold on denatured / Iso for extracting. One day I'll create a thread so we can all argue :) 

[SAgrower]

I think using a bain-marie is easier than watching a thermometer. I.e. water in a pot with another container in the water, then the max temperature can't be above ~100C
 
I see that https://ethanolsashop.co.za/ has a similar product for extracts. I'm still not sold on denatured / Iso for extracting. One day I'll create a thread so we can all argue :) 

I actually wanted to start a thread here last week regarding denatured ethanol. I want to make a tincture but not sure if you can ingest the denatured ethanol.

[Stefan]

3 hours ago, highchome said:

On 5/26/2021 at 6:18 PM, Stefan said:

 

I think using a bain-marie is easier than watching a thermometer. I.e. water in a pot with another container in the water, then the max temperature can't be above ~100C

I had that dish in a pot with water boiling underneath, similar to how you would melt down chocolate.

my effort was very make-shift but plan to get beakers, magnetic stirrer hotplate and distiller for a more controlled extraction. Just really wanted to try it out and had the perfect testing bud. 
 

I initially tried contacting ethonalsa but couldn’t get in contact and found https://enterpriseethanol.co.za/herbasol-plant-extraction-solvent/?gclid=Cj0KCQjwhr2FBhDbARIsACjwLo1e_AWaxQP0uB2Rm_GmN58IFvak2uoldZZpeUZoysync9LVydQY-tMaAk17EALw_wcB which is situated Ndabeni, Cape Town and cost 120 per litre which can extract roughly 100g of bud if not more. 

1 hour ago, SAgrower said:

 

[Stefan]

1 hour ago, SAgrower said:

I actually wanted to start a thread here last week regarding denatured ethanol. I want to make a tincture but not sure if you can ingest the denatured ethanol.

When heating and your mixture bubbles, there’s alcohol present. I also take a pin and dip it into the mixture and try lighting it for indicators of alcohol remaining. If there’s no sparks or doesn’t ignite I’m happy. 

while I can’t test it, using those two indicators I’m pretty confident that there’s is no alcohol present in my final extract or at the very least too little to be harmful in micro doses.