Tincture: freezer vs room temperature methods

Well, I just finished my first batch of room temperature tincture......am I disappointed!

I make the tincture for nausea (& pain, if it's good enough). The first couple of times, I made it in the freezer, leaving it there for a week, shaking it once a day. It worked for the nausea, but didn't seem particularly strong. I don't get "high" from edibles, and that's why I like them vs smoking during the day.

When I had a batch that truly wasn't very good (it didn't help the nausea but for about an hour), I made a thread, and someone suggested that for tincture made in the freezer, that it was mostly used for smoking??? (I don't really understand how, with all the Everclear). I also admit I don't understand the chemistry of the THC/CBD's getting in the mixture. And, that the room temperature method was used for the tincture/ dropper method. So, for 2 months, I shook that jar twice a day, 2 1/2 minutes each time (suggested)......a lot of work..

AND, bottom line, the ONLY difference I see from 1 week and 2 months is the taste and color. It's green instead of brown and tastes a little better, but doesn't work any better. I did use a different strain, AK47, instead of Afghan, which nausea was mentioned, but I thought all cannabis helped nausea. It's definitely not any stronger.

Any help for my brain to understand?

thanks!

If your goal is to have an end product that is psychoactive. You must decarboxylate your cannabis material, be it flower , concentrate, or hash. You can look that up. However, you can have a wickedly strong tincture in less than 2 hours. You can decarb your flower by placing it inside a mason jar and heating in an oven at 240f for an hour or so. Then take your flower and make your tincture. For example you can start with 4,5 grams of flower and end up with a tiny bottle( 30ml )of active tincture.

You can experiment with the amount of time you decarb your material. If at 60 minutes of decarb your end product is too heady and the effects dont last long, try a longer Decarb.

There is an amazing thread on another site called, “another tincture thread”. It has some of the most complete info you can find.

I should mention that alcohol tictures have different effect than when it is absorbed in the body with fat like butter, olive oil, coconut oil. Alcohol tincture come on quicker and dont last as long.

Lately i prefer taking my tincture and boiling off all the alcohol and adding 30ml of olive oil instead. This way i have olive oil based “tincture”. But in-effect its essentially an edible. For that 30 mil bottle i start with 7,8 grams of flower.


Edit: i forgot to mention, when you decarb in the oven, important to have a temp guage in the oven, a few buck at a grocery store. For example i have to set my oven to just under 200 to hit 240 ish.

What is the final volume of your alcohol, im assuming you are boiling it down to concentrate it? I just assumed you are not decarbing since you dont mention in your post, but if you are, for how long, temp?

I do decarb, 27 minutes at 250 degreees in the oven( a formula found online. I found so many, I just use this one).
But, none of the recipes I found mentioned boiling down the alcohol. I use it as tincture, not making hash (yet). SO, I need the liquid, but maybe not as much? If I boil it down it would be stronger, but how much should I boil off if I want to keep liquid for the tincture?
thanks for the suggestions. And, I forgot to mention about decarbing, just thought it was a natural thing to do .

Yes, you have to reduce the final volume of your alcohol in order to concentrate it. For example if you start with 7 grams of flower, you can end up with 30 ml bottle of tincture. Thats a two tablespoon bottle, which for my tolerance level would be about 14 doses.

I reduce the alcohol by placing it in a bain marie pot ($10). Place this pot in a larger pot of simmering water. I like to place a small towel inside of the larger pot and place the bain marie pot on top. This should allow the alcohol to boil off and keep the bain marie pot stable and not tip over in the larger pot. Keep an eye on your tincture as its final volume reduces. If you end up boiling off too much of the alcohol, simply add a bit more to get to your final volume.

Again i highly recommend checking out that megathread i mentioned earlier, over a 1000 pages long. Highly recommend using the search button to find keywords in the thread to find the pertinent info you may be looking for. That thread has helped countless people. Even helped be refine some of my methods.

Good luck!!

And ofcourse, i recommend an electric stove or griddle of some kind when boiling off the alcohol. Having said that i use my regular gas powered stove with an open flame. I do have an open window next to the stove and plenty of ventilation. Alcohol is pretty flammable so take plenty of caution and best not to be heavily medicated when making it the first few times.

@Susanne- I decarb 11-13gr. whole bud (no grinding), because that's what my Nova holds. I place decarbed material in a 250 micron MaxLoom stitchless rosin extraction bag, which I place open end first into a second bag. This is my filter. Into the freezer it goes for 24hr. Also in the freezer is a pint Mason jar containing 8oz. Everclear. After 24 hr., insert bag into jar and shake vigorously 2 min. Back into freezer, laying horizontal to keep material saturated. Repeated this 3-4 times over the next 4 hrs. then after final agitation, stick thin skewer through middle of bag and suspend across mouth of jar to drip dry and place in a dark cupboard. Before I purchased a Source Extractor to reduce and reclaim the Everclear I would let the ETOH evaporate down to 4 oz. Took 10-14 day in my house. Cupboard really smelled great during and after evaporation. I may deve lope this fragrance.The stripped flower still packs a punch and I combine with the Tinc an a little yogurt every night before bedtime. It's what I call my whole plant approach to better health. Best of life to you Susanne

Why is it that none of the tincture recipes include ANY of this? They just say to decarb, put in Everclear, and either for 7 days in freezer or a month or more room temp; shaking daily. That's as far as they go. No wonder what I have isn't very strong. Now, what you are mentioning doesn't make as much, of course. I've got 35, 1/2 oz tincture bottles from the last batch of 1 pt Everclear & 2 oz bud & trim/sugar leaves. But, it's just not as strong as the tinctures I've read about. Now, I see why.
It's a lot more work but looks like it's worth it.

Thanks for all the information. I'll give it a try and let you know.

Definitely come back and let us know how it turned out.

BTW, I found the thread you mentioned, and am starting to read it now. thanks.

Susanne said:

BTW, I found the thread you mentioned, and am starting to read it now. thanks.

Click to expand...

I realize its over 1000 pages, but that search button is priceless. I was able to learn plenty from that discussion without ever needing to comment or even sign up there. Ill probably sign up there just to thank the author of that thread.