First, I want to let you know that I do have prior experience making infusions, tincture, and oils. Yes, I do. I have made many of them but that, unfortunately, was Long Ago and Far Away. Although I know I have The Basics down when it came to finally being able to do this with Cannabis without fear of Certain Death….it got a little complicated for me. It should have been just so damn easy but my old brain turned it in a Hard Science Project.
In case, you don’t know, I squeaked by every single year of science with a D. I did. Couldn’t get any of it to save my soul. I’ve stayed away from anything and everything that my brain considers ‘Sciency’ all of my life.
No, that doesn’t include cooking and baking.
Yes, I know those are technically ‘sciency’ things.
Moving on….
With our very lovely harvest this year which hubby tended so lovingly and painstakingly dried and trimmed to the tune of a few dozen mason jars of various sizes from this one
to several the size of cookie jars of the ‘good stuff’. Trust me, in my wildest dreams I never thought I’d be able to openly display a jar of Mary Jane right on my nightstand and just freakin’ leave it there!
Have I told you yet that I think this whole Legalization Thing is downright awesome?
Needless to say, in all of the oils, tinctures, and infusions, I used to make, weed was not among them because it was not financially feasible. At all. No, never enough money to just play with the weed–other than when preparing it for a joint anyway.
Other than those jars, we ended up with about 4 1 gallon Ziploc bags of what is known as ‘popcorn’ weed. Tiny buds. Well, not so damn tiny but more applicable to this use than smoking.
Four. One Gallon. Ziploc bags.
That’s a lot of weed…as I found out today.
Ok, so I did a lot of research. A lot. I’m not kidding. This whole thing, for as joyous and wonderful as it should have been, really kicked my Anxiety into High Gear for some strange reason. I found past science teachers laughing at me in my head. Telling me I couldn’t do it. I was ‘too dumb’.
Fuck them, they were lousy teachers.
You can find a ton of very expensive equipment out there. Yep….far too ‘sciency’ for me and those nasty voices. You can find a ton of articles and information on how to make this stuff. You can read all about Cold infusion vs. The Old Fashioned Method. Yep, once more, just a tad bit too ‘sciency’ for me. This is terrible, I know. I’m working on it.
But…this is the Internet. Lovely place, really, but I never like to rely on too much for advice concerning things I’m going to put into my body. So I tapped my brother for information which he happily provided. Here is the link I used.
That stopped my research cold. This came from my brother. My brother is a knowledgeable and trustworthy source who would not lead me astray. End of Story.
Besides, it’s pretty much what I had been reading and process is nearly exact to the one I had used previously. With one major exception which doubled that High Gear Anxiety.
Decarb your weed.
In other words, go against everything you’ve ever known your entire life about weed….grind the fuck out of it and toss it into a low oven for an hour.
I looked and looked for something…anything…out there in the Ether that would agree with the utter screaming in my soul of; NOOOOOOOOOOO!
Couldn’t find a damn thing.
I gathered all necessary materials a week or more in advance which, yes, included my first trip to a package store in more than four years! I think hubby was nervous about me going in there but I wasn’t. Look, I admit it, I was a very picky drunk. My booze was like my cigs and my coffee…if they didn’t have at least one of my two brands (Southern Comfort or Smirnoff Whipped Cream Vodka) I moved along to another package store…yep, amid all those thousands of bottles of other booze….I just left.
Hey, I had my standards. 🙂
Anyway, the smell in the place hit me full in the face as soon as I walked through the door and it was enough to bring back Old Memories and put me right the hell off at the same time. I did walk by and say ‘hello’ to a few old friends sitting on their shelves.
All my research said to use Ever Clear pure grain alcohol.
(At this time please see the two liquors mentioned above!)
GROSS!
DISGUSTING!
ASK ME TO MAKE IT WITH JAGERMEISTER, WHY DON’T YOU?
NO F’N WAY!
The tinctures I made in the past were either Vodka or Brandy but those are not particularly recommended here. Sources say you can certainly use them but……
The higher the proof the better the product. I wanted to use Bacardi 151 rum because it has the chance of producing not just a potent but a palatable product and was informed….it’s not made anymore. Even for me that’s a bit of a bummer.
Hubby asked the lady at the counter. Told her he wanted to make tinctures and what was the best booze. She brought us over to the pure grain with the same explanation of ‘the higher the poof the better the product’.
Well, that shit was kinda expense.
Right next to was a blue and white bottle that read; GRAVES Pure Grain 190 proof.
Same as the Ever Clear but a bit cheaper.
I asked the difference and why the Ever Clear seems to be most highly recommended. She informed me that Ever Clear is a Nation Wide Product so you can get it in nearly any liquor store but the Graves is not.
That’s the big diff.
I bought the 750 ml of Graves. They tried to convince me to buy the handle but this is a first time out so let’s not get crazy. Although, now in hindsight, yes, I should have bought the handle. Oh well.
For the moment all of our new Outdoor Projects are on Hold…it’s raining. Finally. A day off from everything. I am beginning my week off from work–oh damn that is entire blog in itself!
Moving on….
Today we bit the bullet.
Aunty Moon has a bone to pick for a moment. In all of the research I did. In all of the articles I read. As similar as they were–almost as though they’d been copied from one single article written years ago–are ALL MISSING a CRITICAL step.
Before you start doing any of this….for the love of whatever you consider Holy and Sacred….START WITH A CLEAN WORKING ENVIRONMENT.
Not one of those articles said anything about it…at all.
So please, sterilize your tools and equipment first. Don’t just rip open the box of Mason jars and start filling them.
If your dishwasher has a Sanitize mode just use that. Uncap the jars, separate the lids, put them in with your tongs and probably a large spoon, measuring cup, and small plastic container. If the dishwasher doesn’t have that cycle, use the old Sterilize the Baby Bottles method. While they’re washing or boiling, get all the crap off the counter, brush it off first then wipe it down fully with a disinfectant wipe (we all got cozy with those during Covid) or whatever you use to actually clean your kitchen like company is about to arrive.
People are going to ingest this. Yes, even though we’re working with High Proof alcohol (for tinctures) we still have to clean the fuck out of shit before we start so no one gets sick. When the dishwasher is done or they’ve boiled for three to five minutes, place them upside down on cake racks covered either with a very clean cloth or paper towel so they can dry while you’re mixing up your tinctures, infusions, oils, or other potions.
At this point you may see the link above and follow the directions offered. As for me…the rest of the process went like this:
Today I put 2 ounces of perfectly good weed into a blender.
I still can’t get over that.
A freakin’ blender!
Directions say to use a grinder, knife, or spice grinder, but hubby said; “Pooh-bah, that’s a lot of weed, you’re going to be here all day with a coffee grinder.”
So, another bullet was bitten, the blender was hauled out.
One ounce of weed was sort of carefully measured on a scale and put into a bowl.
Then another one.
Then…..I feel like I should being playing ‘Taps’ or something now.
Into the blender it went as I apologized to it profusely and hubby neared tears.
Once it was ground up we put we lined baking sheets with tin foil…DO NOT DO THIS! I repeat…DO NOT DO THIS! Your final product will stick to it. Instead, USE PARCHMENT PAPER…no, NOT Wax paper…Parchment Paper.
Don’t forget to scrape, scrape, scrape, scrape the hell out of whatever you just used to grind it. Because if you got some good stuff…it’s gonna stick! Don’t worry if you can’t get all of it because hubby came up with a ‘hack’ for that.
Even it all out on the sheet.
Try not to cry.
Put in an oven at about 230 for an hour.
Your house will be very fragrant. Like…really potent.
Here’s our hack…while it’s baking, take whatever you used to grind with and put some alcohol in it. Shake well, pour into prepared Mason jar.
Yep, we ended up with something that looked a lot like Absinthe. But the blender didn’t have anything sticking to it anymore. I poured half of that concoction into each prepared Mason jar.
Sit. Watch TV.
Ding!
Remove weed from oven while trying to navigate through the contact high you’ve been baking in for the last hour.
Cool.
Remove from baking sheet to small…or large…bowl. (Just fold up the PARCHMENT paper and pour it in.)
Measure.
Or not.
There is a mathematical equation you can use to find out just how potent your product is. I’ll tackle it one day but it was not this day.
I put a small plastic container on the scale, zeroed it out, added weed until it came out to about 3/4 ounce each jar. That’s not the actual potency because, well, a few tasty looking nugs were added in after the initial measuring process but before The Blender. I didn’t do the math.
Yet.
Using a large spoon…because I wasn’t using Wide Mouth jars, which I highly recommend, BTW, I scooped the baked and battered weed into the jars.
I covered two of them with Graves.
The last with Extra Virgin Olive Oil.
Now…shake it baby! If you have a paint mixer…..
Dance around with it. No, really, it’s fun.
Then…..
Mark the lids. My method will be different from yours. Use whatever shorthand you like. For those ‘O’ means ‘oil’ and ‘T’ means ‘tincture’. The 3/4 is the (rough) amount of weed. The 10/29 is the date.
Now…store in a cool dark place. A cabinet you rarely use.
And…shake it baby! Every day for the next six weeks.
When I get to that point, I’ll come back and let you know how it went.
Next time around, provided this comes out well, I’m going to add flavoring to the tinctures. I bought Orange and Lemon especially for them but I also have Vanilla and Almond. Pure extracts, of course, no funky imitation junk.
Well, today I got to scratch something off my Bucket List. At least one thing because the day is young and I’m on vacation and I finally bought myself some candle making items. Yes, I did. I’ve made them in the past, usually from the remains of expended candles, but going to try again. With any luck, these Bucket List Items of mine could turn into a Side Gig….I’m also trying my hand at scented bath salts and the like. One that, if advertised and marketed correctly, could help out quite a bit in the Financial Department.
Just an idea, floating it out there to the Cosmos that’s all.
Anyway, Stay Tuned. Update on this particular project will appear around December 10th.
Lisa Beth Darling 