Making tincture

I got the book "Ask Ed: trash to stash" and it talks about processing MJ to Kif, hash etc. One of the process is a tincture. I plan to try both the "fast" and the "aged" methods to make tincture. The one thing the book does not specify is whether to use dry of fresh buds or if it matters. I was thinking that I need to used dry bud and trim because of the changes in thc when it is dried converting it to its psycoactive form. Anyone know if I can use fresh wet herb for alcohol tincture? Or if I did use wet herb would I get the cannabinoids (CBN- CBD whatever) without the thc active, which could be useful itself.

The THC activates with heat, not moisture...but it activates at temperatures above the vapor state of water...so if you are going to activate using a recipe that specifies a certain time in the oven, at a certain temperature, this would need to be adjusted as it will not reach over 100c/212f until water is gone.

It may be beneficial for taste to let it dry...or not

The conversion with alcohol is not super efficient...make sure you use lots

I would use dry buds myself......but I am not experienced.... I have made it once and we used dry cured buds and it was awesome

use dry buds. i've made tincture a few times and dry buds work best.

Chlorophyll should give your tincture a green tint and an awfull taste. The tincture should be a golden brown color when done properly. I know it can depend on the herb and what affect you want from it for whether it should be fresh or dried. From what I've read there can be a different result between fresh and dried based on the herb but I'm not sure what the would be with cannabis. I don't know anyone that would want chlorophyll included in their tincture but it might be worth trying just to see what happens. I would think the solvent should break down the THC and activate it but that would be a long experiment to wait for if it didn't work.

Canna Tinc

Thanks. The books I have only say "use x amount of trim and y amount of bud". They don't specify wet or dry. The flavor argument makes perfect sense to me. I'll use dried. Starting a batch of aged and a batch of "fast tincture" today.

any health food store will most likely only have the 4 ounce bottles for around $6 dollars. For a gallon you need to order online or try aromatherapy/massage stores. Some times they carry it to use as a base message oil and it only costs $30 for a gallon. If you do this I can not stress enough how important it is to use vegetable food safe glycerin but some times message places will have food safe and can't advertise it as such since they are selling it as a mixing agent. I've only been making tinctures for several months but I tend to make several batches a week. I found a post online listing 160f as the temp to use for the heat cycles and I've had excellent results with it. In between the heat cycles, try secruing the jars to a ammo tumbler used to polish brass by vibrating the cases in crushed walnut shells. This vibrating action works great for mixing the tincture 24/7 and more efficiently than shaking it by hand. A tincture can be finished within a week using heat cycles and a tumbler and be incredibly more potent. I am constantly experimenting with tinctures and right now I'm looking into using ultrasonic cell disruption to break down the cell walls of the plant material allowing the resins and oil to leach out. The high frequency creates small bubbles on anything within the liquid which explode with great force and rupturing the cell walls. The problem is I would be spending close to 2 thousand on something just for making tinctures and I'm not sure how it would work in the first place. I'm going to get one and try it any way and I will post a new thread with the results when I do.

Try using the same plant material and making a second batch to use as a bath soak which will be plenty strong if using heat cycles. I have a severe failed spinal fusion where the screws broke and moved down and out a 1/2" away from where they should be. Last week I couldn't hardly take more than a 1/2 breath since my back was acting up. I was able to notice a differenc in minutes and I felt much better for most of the day but it returned later. I took a bath again the second day and the same thing, but when I woke up on the third day I felt much better and there is no way my back would have gotten better that fast any other time. I had something similar happen 2 years ago and it never went away so now it feels like an elbow in my back while I breath. Without the bath soak there is a good chance with me it could have never gone away. It can be very expensive if making it solely for the purpose of a bath but using the expended herb is just getting your moneys worth. also take the actuall herb itself after the second batch for the bath and it can be used as a compress for injuries or be made into tea which can drank or added to the bath with about an ounce or two of glycerin bath tincture.

Canna Tinc