Green Dragon Tincture

That ratio doesn't quite sound right if you only use 1oz of alcohol for 2oz of bud. 1oz of alcohol won't even moisten that much material. It just wouldn't work. Other than that, you're description of the effects you get from your method sounds reasonable but the other one is not. A good Green Dragon tincture should last hours. The speed of onset can be variable depending on method of dosing.

Check your ratio again. If you have 2oz of flower that's 56g. 1oz of alcohol is only 30ml. As soon as you poured it on your dry, decarbed material it would be absorbed immediately and you'd never get it back. You'd need more like a liter of alcohol for that much.

 

Sams right bro!! If your trying to keep potency you can evaporate some alcohol off afterwards and can make some very strong gummys. I tried one the otherday a buddy made almost black tasted so strong i couldnt chew it after a bit and just swallowed the rest. But very very intense. Was like smoking after not smoking for a few months. Chest pressure. Great though

Sent from my LM-Q710(FGN) using Grasscity Forum mobile app

 

No need to let it sit for those 8 weeks.The THC should be dissolved by the ethanol in very short order. I believe Sam's recipe, and what I use, is 2 hours for the initial wash, and a 15 minute shake for the subsequent second wash. By letting it soak that long, you're pulling out the polar compounds, chlorophyll, proteins, waxes, and starches in the plant matter that you don't really want or need. Chlorophyll in particular, imparts a really unpleasant flavor...and let's face it 190p isn't exactly "tasty" on its own.

Your tincture could be ready to use same-day...however, I find it takes on a more pleasant character over time, so I like to let mine "age" anywhere from 1 week to 1 month, but that's not necessary.

 

No, that doesn't work, either. You're not getting anything with 60ml. You might get your material wet but I doubt you'd get any of that back from absorption. That might be sufficient for 7g but not 28 for a good extraction. If you did get some to strain out then for sure it would be fairly strong I would think.

 

My typical runs are 14g of source material with 120ml of 190p per wash. After squeezing everything quite thoroughly through a potato ricer, I end up with about 225ml of diluted tincture. I reduce to 30ml and age for 1 - 4 weeks. That's assuming a pre-decarb.

PSam tested a run and verified it will decarb in the bottle after 4 months if you can be patient with it that long.

I have 2 bottles aging out to 4 months in May which I'm eager to test in contrast to the heated treatments.

 

Sorry, yeah the measuring standards do make it a little difficult. For my standards, I assume 28 grams to an weighed ounce, and 30ml for a fluid ounce.

Most people do a heated decarb. That's driving off that carboxyl group from THC-A converting it to our much more desirable THC. The standard for that is 40 minutes at 240F, but that's just a function of efficiency. You can "decarb" at almost any temperature, provided you hit the right combination of temperature and time.

Now the down-side of a heated decarb is that there are a lot of compounds in the plant that aren't THC, but are likely to have some very favorable impacts, collectively these are your terpenes. I've been told the first of the terpenes start to boil off at just above 100F. One of the reasons a heated decarb is so aromatic is for this very reason. You're boiling off a good portion of the terpenes. Granted, your THC is staying behind, as its vaporization temperature is higher still than that 240F.

But a lot of people absolutely want to retain all of those compounds. There are studies which purport to show the "entourage effect" where it's not just the THC but it's the THC in combination with various terpenes together that provide both a "better" high, or just better all around therapeutic benefits when used medically. Some people just think it tastes and smells better, and therefore is a more pleasant experience.

So in the ideal world, your tincture wouldn't ever see even the faintest hint of heat. No heated decarb, skip that step entirely, and just make your tincture as you ordinarily would. Now, if you're using my ratios, you'll end up with ~225ml of undiluted tincture. PSam has shown with lab tests that this will decarb naturally over ~4 months...if you can be patient and afford to wait that long.

Since 190p is going to evaporate at room temperature, and since you're already committed to 4 months it's safe to say you can just leave it sit and slowly evaporate down to whatever your target volume might be...in my case it's 30ml...but you can do whatever suits.

Use a rubber band and put a thin layer of cheese cloth or something similar over the jar when you do this so as to minimize the dust that would otherwise land in the liquid, as it could be several weeks depending on the humidity and temperature of your local environment.

Label everything with dates, since 4 months is a long time to remember exact details, but after 4 months, open, sample and enjoy!

I started a project back at the first of January, where I'm making a batch every month as I just described. That puts me at May 1, 2020 before I can sample my first bottle created on January 1, 2020...but every month thereafter I'll have a bottle for general consumption.

FWIW, I did just open a bottle I created in February...I did do a heated decarb in my Ardent, but I did the reduction phase without heat...and wow, the taste and flavor profile, considering it's still 190p, was remarkably better. The stone was comparable, but it was remarkable how much more of a positive flavor profile came through.

Anyway, hope that helps, I'm still learning and refining my processes here, so please share your experiecnes and together we can all benefit. This place is a remarkable resource with some really smart people, I'm grateful for the chance to return some of that knowledge wherever possible.

Kind Regards,
Pol

 

We won't get picky on the measurements since you obviously got some results. Most of us try to be versatile. I often use the metric system these days since most of the world uses it but the US. I'm not sure how much half a jar weighs but I believe it's pretty close to an ounce/28g. That's really only important when trying to calculate dosing.

 

Absolutely nothing wrong with a heated decarb, it's perfectly fine as long as the temps and times are obeyed...240F for 40min is the defacto standard around here. Just be sure to get a good oven thermometer and maintain the temps as close as possible throughout...or if it's in the budget, consider an Ardent Lift/Nova device to take all of the guesswork out of the equation. Money well spend, IMO.

But to be clear, you're not doing it wrong if you use a heated decarb...most folks do...as most folks don't want to wait 4 months to consume...so heated decarb is by far the standard that most follow. I don't even know I'm going to notice or care about the difference after 4 months myself, but I'm a tinkerer by nature and wanted to run the experiment. Even if it doesn't knock my socks off, I should still end up with some pretty good tincture at the end of it, so nothing wasted other than time.

You'd mentioned overheating, the THC does degrade after peak decarb into CBN, which is a powerful sleep-inducing effect. It's a wonderful sleep aid, for those in need of such things. Some folks run their decarbs long just to achieve more of that. I don't like it myself, too much couch-lock for me, but to each his own

 

Hello Polamnus and P Sam,thank youse for all the info! sam its been a while ,i kinda got my name from you bout a year ago, so i just finished one of 2 harvests for my year 777 grams! and im getting ready to make my natural decarbed green dragon,let it go 4 months also, last year i made the decarbed no heat evap, my favorite so far, i put it in an atomizer sprayer, and its alot less burn,do you think putting in some mint leaves would work?

 

Oh, yes, mint is good for that. In fact, here's something that works pretty well.
Shatter/Dragon Cannabis Mint Oral Spray

That's a great yield. And you've still got another to go. Cool.

 

Thanks sam,I'm gonna make that today! how have you been sam? I've got both my boys and wife home for a month, it'll be a good time for some yardwork!

 

Exactly what I was looking for. I just made my first tincture 4 days ago, and was wondering why or if I needed to wait 3 weeks to strain it off and try it. So if aging makes it more pleasurable then I’ll wait. Kind of like curing buds properly... Thanks.


Sent from my iPad using Grasscity Forum

 

How are you making your tincture if you haven't strained it yet? Did you decarb first?
The alcohol works very fast to strip the trichomes and a three week soak is not necessary and can result in a poor tasting tincture.

 

Echoing @Joker1121 above, I'm curious...did you decarb it ahead of time? And how long did you wait before straining it off?

My standard process has become:
1) Pre-freeze 14gr source material and 190p everclear for >24hrs
2) Soak 14gr source in a jar of 200ml 190p everclear, shake for 5 minutes put in freezer
3) After 1 hour shake for ~5 minutes, replace in the freezer for another hour
3) Shake 5 minutes at the end of 2 hrs
4) Strain through potato ricer, squeeze the heck out of it, you'll get back ~190ml (or more) of the original 200ml
5) Place material back in original jar, add ~100ml of 190p shake for a full 15 minutes
6) Re-strain through potato ricer, squeezing out as much liquid as possible.
7) Filter the resultant liquid through coffee filter, squeezing out the very last bit as best you can.
8) Save the remnants for a future "depletion run"
9) Place jar of filtered GD in a warm water bath (Crock-pot left on 'warm', about 90F) to reduce to whatever volume you desire...I take it down to 30ml so it fits in a medicine bottle.

The differences I incorporate are to run a heated decarb ahead of time or not. The ideal would be to skip the heated decarb, letting it decarb on its own, naturally over 4 months. If you can wait 4 months, you'll be glad you did. It's not necessarily stronger, but it's better in almost every measurable way.

If 4 months sounds crazy, then you'll want to run a heated decarb ahead of time. In that case, you're able to sample things right away as soon as its bottled. However, I have noticed that a 30 day aging time, even with the heated decarb, mellows out the burn every so slightly, and provides a better, more enjoyable experience. Still, for the ultimate Cannabis experience, skip the heated decarb. This maintains all your terpenes up through the end product.

 

In reply to you and Joker, there are about 6 zillion different recipes on the Internet, so I went for an easy one. I decarbed 14g of material by sticking it in a 225 degree oven, between two sheets of crinkled aluminum foil for 45 minutes, after cutting it up into rice size pieces. Then put that and a half bottle of Everclear in a mason jar, shook it and put it on a shelf. The instructions said to shake it everyday for three weeks, then it would be ready.
Then I read the thing about freezing the mixture so I put it in the freezer and I shake it a couple times a day. That’s where I am now. The next step was supposed to be to strain through a coffee filter, squeeze the material with a garlic press, restrain then call it good to go. Perhaps I’m mixing up two techniques? Even if this isn’t going exactly as it should, please don’t tell me that I’ve ended up with nothing...


Sent from my iPad using Grasscity Forum