How to Process High CBD Hemp Flowers into Tincture Oil
Supplies /Materials/Equipment Needed
Kitchen Scale
Bullet Style Grinder (like Nutribullet etc)
Oven-Safe Baking Dish/Pan
Package of Cheesecloth
Package of Coffee Filters
Aluminum Foil
Four 1-Quart Mason Jars (with lids)
Pint Mason Jar with Lid
Thermometer Gun (Infrared laser temperature gauge)
Hot Plate or Stove
Oven
Double Boiler
Spatula
3 Rubber Bands
Large Funnel (optional)
Gloves (for a handling hot jars)
Wire Pasta Strainer
Pyrex Glass Measuring Cup
Frying Pan
Spoon or Whisk
Refrigerator with Freezer
Ingredients:
100 grams of High Quality Full Spectrum CBD Hemp Flowers
Half Gallon of Everclear (Food-Grade Grain Alcohol)
MCT Oil (100 or 150 Milliliters)
This recipe shows you how to extract CBD cannabinoid oil from Hemp flowers using Everclear alcohol. This process will separate the oil compounds from the water-based compounds. There are many ways to achieve this result, but the method outlined here is simple, it is not dangerous and it is legal. It does not involve butane, hexane or any super volatile compounds. This method uses alcohol (specifically grain Everclear to pull oil compounds from solid compounds and then evaporates leaving just the oil compounds for use in tinctures.
Important Note: If you get enough particulates in the air of just about anything, it can become combustible, so it is very important to have adequate ventilation in the room where you are conducting this process.
Directions:
Step 1. Weigh out the material (raw hemp flowers). It is very important to weigh out the materials so you know what you are getting so you know how to dose it. This recipe is based on using 2 -4 ounces of material.
Step 2. Put flowers into a grinder/mixer and pulse the grinder a few times to chop up the flowers (not to much, or you can damage the cannabinoids) .
Step 3. Spread out the ground flowers in a baking pan
Step 4. Once the pan is filled, cover it with a sheet of aluminum foil.
Step 5. The oven should be preheated to 200-215 degrees. You can check to make sure you have the right temperature by opening the door and checking the temp with the laser temperature thermometer. The goal is get the material up to 180 degrees for 20-30 minutes. (The process of heating the hemp flowers so it can be used by the body is called decarboxylation. The heat changes CBDA into CBD. It activates all the cannabinoids so they can be processed by the body).
Step 6. While the material is being heated in the oven, you can set up a double boiler on the stove or hot plate. Fill the bottom pot about half way with water. Then fill the top pot about half way with water. Turn on the heat and get the bottom water boiling, that should get the top pot of water to about 150 degrees (you can check using your laser thermometer).The top pot of water will be used to heat up the alcohol in the jars.
Step 7. Set up four 1-qt (32 ounce) mason jars on a counter or table. The jars are going to be 1/3 filled with alcohol and then each jar will be getting ¼ of the material (approximately 25 grams) put into the alcohol.
Step 8. Set up cheesecloth (you can buy this in a grocery store and each package usually comes in a long strip of cloth). Cut the cheesecloth into three approximately 7” squares and cut two more squares of about 10”.
Step 9. Put the smaller cheesecloth squares one each on top of three of the quart mason jars. Push the material down a little to make an indentation then secure the cheesecloth in place by putting a rubber band around the neck of the jar (the cheesecloth will be used to filter out plant material)
Step 10. Use the one jar that is not covered with cheesecloth and fill it about 1/3 full of food grade Everclear alcohol (about a cup to a cup-and-a-half of liquid)
Step 11. Put the lid on the jar but only tighten it lightly (because when liquid is heated it expands and you don’t want it to blow the lid off, but you also don’t want all the alcohol to evaporate) put the jar in the top pot of the double boiler and heat approximately four minutes till the alcohol reach approximately 150 degrees (you can again check with your thermometer gun).
Step 12. Take jar of warm alcohol out of the hot water. Open the lid and put a wide funnel in the top and put 5 heaping scoops of heated material (ground hemp flowers) into the alcohol. Close the lid tightly and shake vigorously for 10 seconds (this is called quick wash alcohol extraction).
Step 13. Loosen the lid a little and put the jar with shaken material and alcohol back into the water in the top of the double boiler. Heat the jar for about a minute.
Step 14. Remove the lid and use the lid as a strainer pour the liquid into jar #2 with the cheesecloth on it. Goal is to pour out all the alcohol from jar #1 into jar #2 trapping as much material in the cheesecloth as possible. Keep pouring until just small drips are all that is coming out. Take the cheesecloth off jar #2 and pour in a little extra alcohol so that the level in the jar is still about 1/3 full. Put the hemp plant material into a Gallon baggy. Put holes in the bottom of the baggy. Squeeze the material until the remaining alcohol stops coming out of the baggy when you squeeze it. You should use a dish like a glass pie pan to catch the alcohol. Put the alcohol into the new jar along with the alcohol that came out of the previous jar. There should be two sources of alcohol going into the new jar. Use a new gallon baggy for each jar.
Use this process for every jar.
Step 15. Seal up loosely the CBD infused alcohol in jar #2 and put the jar back in the double boiler.
Step 16. Dump out the dry contents left in jar #1 as well as the dry material in the cheesecloth from jar #2 into a trash bag.
Step 17. Put 5 scoops of material into the warmed contents from jar #2 then tighten the lid and shake for 10 seconds. Loosen the lid a little and put the jar back in the double boiler for a minute. Take the jar out of the water.
Step 18. Remove the lid and use it to help strain contents into the cheese cloth of jar #3. Take the cheesecloth off of jar #3 and put the lid back on slightly loosened and put the jar in the double broiler for a minute.
Step 19. While heating up jar #3, take the two larger squares of cheesecloth and place them double layered in the bottom of the wire strainer and place on top of glass measuring cup.
Step 20. Pour into the mixer container some alcohol and shake it to get the residue of the oil off the sides (make sure you are all done with your grinding) pour that alcohol into the final cheesecloth covered jar.
Step 21. Take the heated contents of jar #3 and also strain it into jar #4 covered with cheesecloth.
Step 22. Dump soggy materials and cheesecloth into the trash bag
Step 23. Add the last of the material into jar#4 tighten lid and shake for ten seconds. Loosen the lid a little and put it in the double boiler for a minute.
Step 24. Remove lid and use it to strain contents, while you pour it into the wire strainer lined with cheesecloth. It should fill the glass measuring cup to approximately 1 2/3 cups of liquid.
Step 25. Pour the contents from the measuring cup into a jar. Take out the soggy cheesecloth from the strainer and throw it away. Now put a coffee filter into the bottom of the strainer and pour half the contents of the jar through the filter and back into the measuring cup. The filter is used to remove small husks from the oil. Note having the oil be warm with help keep it from congealing and it will go more quickly through the filter. Once half of the liquid goes through the filter into the measuring cup, replace the filter with a new one and do the same thing with the remaining half of the oil.
Step 26. Pour the contents of the measuring cup (alcohol cannabis oil) into a frying pan and heat the pan to about 150-180 degrees to start a slow boil on the liquid. It should take about an hour to boil off the alcohol. Be careful to come back occasionally make sure you are not burning the oil.
Important Note: At this stage you are burning off the alcohol so ventilation is very important so you don’t get light headed.
(Alternate to cooking off the alcohol. You can put the pan with alcohol and oil in it near a window and in about 24 hours the alcohol will evaporate without any heat.)
Step 27. For 100 grams of hemp flowers you want to use 100-150 milliliters
Of MCT Oil. Once the alcohol has been cooked off or evaporated, add in the MCT Oil – mix it with the CBD oil using a spoon or whisk.
MCT Oil (Medium Chain Triglyceride) can be found naturally in foods like coconut oil and can be purchased in health food stores and big chains like Wallmart and Costco or online). MCT Oil is used to dilute the cannabis oil (ratio 10 or 12 to 1) because if you take straight concentrate without dilution, even a tiny amount can lead to over dosing. The second reason for using MCT Oil is because it is a “mid chain” oil and CBD is a long complex chain oil so the MCT Oil helps encapsulate the CBD and make it more absorbable in the body making it more effective.
Step 28. Once the material (CBD oil) and the MCT Oil have been blended and heated for about 30 minutes at 180 degrees then pour the mixture into a pint mason jar, leaving room at the top of the jar (liquid expands when it is frozen) seal the lid and put the jar in the freezer.
Step 29. Freeze for 4-6 hours
Step 30. Reheat in the oven for 30 minutes at 200 degrees. The more you repeat this freeze and heat process the more it makes the oil body-effective.
Once you are ready to use the oil, thaw it so the tincture can be put in capsules, tea etc.