Maximum amount of kief I can dissolve into Everclear

rimelame

Active Member
I have 750ml of Everclear 190. I'm curious what is the maximum amount of kief I can dissolve into it to make the strongest possible sublingual tincture. In theory I can add around 40g of kief into the mixture every few months.
 

tslonige

Well-Known Member
I am not sure what is meant by what is the maximum amount you can dissolve. It is like adding salt to a glass of water, you can keep adding and adding but what is the reason at some point. If you are wanting to make potent tinctures then I have attached a couple recipes. I would decarb the kief first to speed up the time.

 

cannabineer

Ursus marijanus
190 proof ethanol and cannabis oils are miscible. This means they’ll mix in any ratio. No saturation phenomenon.

in terms of extracting kief, my advice is to extract with small portions of alcohol; this maximizes recovery. Then, if needed, evaporate some alcohol to arrive at high recovery and high concentration.
 

mysunnyboy

Well-Known Member
190 proof ethanol and cannabis oils are miscible. This means they’ll mix in any ratio. No saturation phenomenon.

in terms of extracting kief, my advice is to extract with small portions of alcohol; this maximizes recovery. Then, if needed, evaporate some alcohol to arrive at high recovery and high concentration.
You said “high” :-)
 

cannabineer

Ursus marijanus
You said “high” :-)
One issue is that the alcohol extract won’t be decarbed. Only good way is to cook off the alcohol and allow the extract some time at 110 degrees C.
~edit~ I remove all solvents (heat, then heat and vacuum) then decarb the lot t 110 degrees C/ 10 minutes. Then I can redissolve to a chosen weight/volume of diluent and have a guaranteed active and fairly potency-predictable oral-dosing solution.
 
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Fadedawg

Well-Known Member
We've gotten about a 70% yield extracting essential oils from bubble hash. As CBN notes the essential oils are 100% miscible with ethanol, but when extracting with them, as the oil content builds, the solvent's ability to dissolve new resin drops, so saturation above around 50% would be slow without serious agitation to keep boundary layers removed.

Easy to just add too much and after pouring off the saturated solution, add more alcohol to glean what remains. It will also give you an empirical answer.

As noted, an tincture in carboxylic acid form won't readily pass the blood brain barrier to reach the CB-1 receptors, so if you are using it orally you will need to decarboxylate it. A couple ways to do that.

The first is heat, but to do that you have to first remove the alcohol to get to the optimum decarboxylation temperatures.

The second is time. CAT Scientific did some test setting the alcohol solution aside to decarboxylate naturally, aided by the alcohol. I don't remember the time for 70% decarboxylation, but I do remember that it was surprisingly short. I just sent an email asking for an update on the study and will share what I get.
 
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rimelame

Active Member
I'm decarbing the kief before adding it to the alcohol. Currently it takes 0.3ml of the solution to get me high. I'd like to get that down to 1 drop (1/20 of a ml).

So I can add another 100g or so of kief to my current solution?

There must be some point where the alcohol is totally saturated, no?

190 proof ethanol and cannabis oils are miscible. This means they’ll mix in any ratio. No saturation phenomenon.

in terms of extracting kief, my advice is to extract with small portions of alcohol; this maximizes recovery. Then, if needed, evaporate some alcohol to arrive at high recovery and high concentration.
 

cannabineer

Ursus marijanus
I'm decarbing the kief before adding it to the alcohol. Currently it takes 0.3ml of the solution to get me high. I'd like to get that down to 1 drop (1/20 of a ml).

So I can add another 100g or so of kief to my current solution?

There must be some point where the alcohol is totally saturated, no?
No. All ratios, but very concentrated solutions are syrupy.

You can add more kief. Be sure to wash the kief solids with another portion of alcohol. You can set that aside to evaporate.

In fact, if you evaporate your solution down to constant weight, you have pure extract. You can then dissolve that in an arbitrarily small amount of alcohol. That way you can determine and control the percentage (weight/volume) of your tincture.

There is a tradeoff: less viscous (concentrated) solutions absorb better. It also helps a whole lot if you chase your dose with a fatty snack. I use a scrambled egg or two practically floating in butter.
 

rimelame

Active Member
My plan is to continue to add kief from every grow. Letting it dissolve for a few days, strain through a coffee filter and then wait till the next grow where I'll go through the cycle again and again. The goal being tincture that is very very potent.

I get around 40g-60g of kief every 3-4 months

No. All ratios, but very concentrated solutions are syrupy.

You can add more kief. Be sure to wash the kief solids with another portion of alcohol. You can set that aside to evaporate.

In fact, if you evaporate your solution down to constant weight, you have pure extract. You can then dissolve that in an arbitrarily small amount of alcohol. That way you can determine and control the percentage (weight/volume) of your tincture.

There is a tradeoff: less viscous (concentrated) solutions absorb better. It also helps a whole lot if you chase your dose with a fatty snack. I use a scrambled egg or two practically floating in butter.
 

cannabineer

Ursus marijanus
My plan is to continue to add kief from every grow. Letting it dissolve for a few days, strain through a coffee filter and then wait till the next grow where I'll go through the cycle again and again. The goal being tincture that is very very potent.

I get around 40g-60g of kief every 3-4 months
If you use enough alcohol, the extraction is done in seconds. If you can rig a columnar filter, run pure alcohol in from above and watch ‘til the brown color switches to clear or a pale yellow-green.
Alternatively stir your kief in enough to form a mobile slurry and filter it.
Resuspend your solids in another portion of alcohol.

You’ll get much better recovery and final concentration control if you are somewhat generous with the alcohol up front. Then let the alcohol evaporate til you get a thick material. Then you can dilute with as little alcohol as you choose. Warming it helps at this stage.

My experience is that using not enough solvent in the extraction step causes far more problems than it avoids. Is there any reason you would not choose to do a quick extraction with say a 200-ml portion of alcohol followed by two 100-ml portions for the 40 to 60 grams of kief? A quick multiwash like this gives you more and cleaner extract.

Evaporate this down to 100 ml, ideally in a container of known empty weight - or as far as you can get it, then redissolve to a known weight/volume for your strong tincture.

I recommend this sort of procedure over trying to jam much kief into little solvent. There comes a point (for me at least) where a few bucks of extra solvent saves me the hassle of working with a viscous “kief mud”.
 

rimelame

Active Member
I'm starting with 750ml of Everclear. I don't want to dissolve and add more later because it costs me 90 dollars a bottle. The kief comes from my trim anyways, so I'm not wasting my good flower. To be honest, it's all just bonus at this stage. My main concern was just that eventually I'll put the kief into the solution that I have and it won't dissolve....which would be a waste. But if you're saying that won't happen then I'll just keep adding more until it's potent enough. At that point I'll make another 750ml from a fresh bottle...

The liquid goes through a coffee filter so it's not thick at all. Will it eventually get thicker?? If so, should I start straining it through a filter with a higher micron size?

If you use enough alcohol, the extraction is done in seconds. If you can rig a columnar filter, run pure alcohol in from above and watch ‘til the brown color switches to clear or a pale yellow-green.
Alternatively stir your kief in enough to form a mobile slurry and filter it.
Resuspend your solids in another portion of alcohol.

You’ll get much better recovery and final concentration control if you are somewhat generous with the alcohol up front. Then let the alcohol evaporate til you get a thick material. Then you can dilute with as little alcohol as you choose. Warming it helps at this stage.

My experience is that using not enough solvent in the extraction step causes far more problems than it avoids. Is there any reason you would not choose to do a quick extraction with say a 200-ml portion of alcohol followed by two 100-ml portions for the 40 to 60 grams of kief? A quick multiwash like this gives you more and cleaner extract.

Evaporate this down to 100 ml, ideally in a container of known empty weight - or as far as you can get it, then redissolve to a known weight/volume for your strong tincture.

I recommend this sort of procedure over trying to jam much kief into little solvent. There comes a point (for me at least) where a few bucks of extra solvent saves me the hassle of working with a viscous “kief mud”.
 

cannabineer

Ursus marijanus
I'm starting with 750ml of Everclear. I don't want to dissolve and add more later because it costs me 90 dollars a bottle. The kief comes from my trim anyways, so I'm not wasting my good flower. To be honest, it's all just bonus at this stage. My main concern was just that eventually I'll put the kief into the solution that I have and it won't dissolve....which would be a waste. But if you're saying that won't happen then I'll just keep adding more until it's potent enough. At that point I'll make another 750ml from a fresh bottle...

The liquid goes through a coffee filter so it's not thick at all. Will it eventually get thicker?? If so, should I start straining it through a filter with a higher micron size?
As @Fadedawg says, you reach a point where the extraction gets slow and dirtier.

Chemists have a technique called countercurrent extraction. If you have batch 1 of kief, add portion A of alcohol and filter, then wash your solids with portions B and C of alcohol. When batch 2 of kief comes, wash it as well on the filter with portions A, B and C in order. I’d push it to wash batch 3 with A, B and C and maybe alcohol portion D.
Portion A should now be over 50% goodies.
Batch 4 of kief gets washed with B, C and D.
Batch 5 gets washed with C, D and E in order.

lather, rinse, repeat

If you get kief batches often enough, and store the letter batches on the freezer in the mean time, you should have a simple and alcohol-sparing “system”. It is important not to lose track of your letter portions of liquid. If you maintain the order, you’re doing a simple and efficient countercurrent procedure.

Your coffee filters should be good for every filtration.
Does this method sound useful?
 

rimelame

Active Member
That's a great idea. I'll get another bottle ordered before my next batch of kief!

Thanks for your wisdom.

As @Fadedawg says, you reach a point where the extraction gets slow and dirtier.

Chemists have a technique called countercurrent extraction. If you have batch 1 of kief, add portion A of alcohol and filter, then wash your solids with portions B and C of alcohol. When batch 2 of kief comes, wash it as well on the filter with portions A, B and C in order. I’d push it to wash batch 3 with A, B and C and maybe alcohol portion D.
Portion A should now be over 50% goodies.
Batch 4 of kief gets washed with B, C and D.
Batch 5 gets washed with C, D and E in order.

lather, rinse, repeat

If you get kief batches often enough, and store the letter batches on the freezer in the mean time, you should have a simple and alcohol-sparing “system”. It is important not to lose track of your letter portions of liquid. If you maintain the order, you’re doing a simple and efficient countercurrent procedure.

Your coffee filters should be good for every filtration.
Does this method sound useful?
 

TevinJonson

Well-Known Member
I have 750ml of Everclear 190. I'm curious what is the maximum amount of kief I can dissolve into it to make the strongest possible sublingual tincture. In theory I can add around 40g of kief into the mixture every few months.
ive done about 50/50 but what i do is let it sit with water a few times until its clear than do it with alcohol it is alot cleaner
 

tslonige

Well-Known Member
I'm starting with 750ml of Everclear. I don't want to dissolve and add more later because it costs me 90 dollars a bottle. The kief comes from my trim anyways, so I'm not wasting my good flower. To be honest, it's all just bonus at this stage. My main concern was just that eventually I'll put the kief into the solution that I have and it won't dissolve....which would be a waste. But if you're saying that won't happen then I'll just keep adding more until it's potent enough. At that point I'll make another 750ml from a fresh bottle...

The liquid goes through a coffee filter so it's not thick at all. Will it eventually get thicker?? If so, should I start straining it through a filter with a higher micron size?
Where do you live that Everclear is $90? Holy crap!! It is like $25 or $20 for off brand here.
 
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