Refine Your Cannabuter: Better Taste, Simple

Hobbes said:

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Karri0n Dr Jay's Black out bud butter recipe uses a crock pot, it keeps the butter just below or around simmer and makes a very potent, if nasty, cannabutter. Doc's recipe is in the cooking chapter of Weed Science, download link at the bottom of this post.

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annette malto said:

we made our butter for the first time in the crock and ,it seems like the thick stuff is all on the bottom ,it hasnt cooled 8 hrs yet but it looks watery on top

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Hobbes said:

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regrets I MacGyvered an Alcohol Reflux Extractor last night, I think if you used that on the remaining plant matter you will get out the most resin possible, then you can refine that with the Extractor to remove virtually all chlorophyll and terpin taste and distill out the alcohol if desired.

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DIY: crock pot Alcohol Reflux: resin Extractor, tincture Refiner, alcohol Distiller (and now cannabutter refiner)

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Crock Pot lid with hanging coffee basket

1 hour of reflux extraction (started with clear vodka solvent, 40% alcohol):

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I followed a forum link to the Cold Finger Extractor by Eden (diagram and link below) and three things came to mind very quickly:

1. The diagram brought up an instant image of the evaporation/rain cycle poster in my grade 4 class 35 years ago;
2. I figured I could make one in less than an hour from kitchen items;
3. They were charging $395 for the equivalent of a Pyrex coffee pot, Pyrex cone shaped dish, and a metal coffee basket. About $385.05 more than I paid for a much tougher 16 cup Pyrex measuring cup at Canadian Tire and $389 more than i paid for the crock pot above.

http://www.edenlabs.org/home_light_commercial.html

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A reflux extractor is very simple:


In a closed system the alcohol is heated above it's boiling point (79C) but below water's boiling point (you gotta look that up yourself);

1. the heated alcohol rises as steam until it hits the ceiling of our reflux system (upside down crock pot lid), the water stays liquid in the heated reservoir below;
2. we put ice/snow/cold water on the top of the reflux apparatus (crock pot concave lid turned upside down) so when the alcohol steam hits the cold glass/plastic it condenses and gravity pulls the water droplets down the convex upside down crock pot top until;
3. the alcohol droplets collect at the bottom/center of the upside down cover and drip downward to the metal coffee screen basket hanging from the cover;
4. The dripping alcohol (still warm), which is a higher percentage than the alcohol in the reservoir (but not 100% alcohol), drips through the marijuana in the coffee basket carrying: dissolved resin, terpins, chlorophyll and some plant matter into the heated reservoir below.
5. As well, alcohol steam will rise and work through the marijuana in the coffee basket. (the same way water steam in a coffee maker will rise and go through the coffee grinds and drip bitter coffee after a pot is done, so we remove the coffee grinds as soon as the hot water drips through).

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Now we can: refine the alcohol tincture; remove the honey oil for use elsewhere; and/or distil alcohol. This step couldn't be simpler:

1. Change the coffee filter for a sold metal cup. Done.

The alcohol (and some water) will collect in the cup, most of the water will stay below in the heated reservoir with the resin, water, chlorophyll, terpins and plant mater. If you are refining or extracting honey oil remember to add hot water to the reservoir after the alcohol is extracted to the cup, you want to keep the chlorophyll, terpins and plant matter in solution while letting the non water soluble resin sinks to the bottom. Put things in the fridge until the water is cold before pouring the water out so all the resin falls out of solution.

The alcohol collected in the cup will be of a higher percentage than what you started with and will be much cleaner than the reservoir but you may want to distill it again, after cleaning out the reservoir, to make it taste better and to raise the percentage of alcohol. After several reflux distillings we can take 40% vodka up to 60% or 70% - a higher percentage will take a more complex reflux device.

I'm going to refine my tincture and do a butane extraction on the remaining grinds in the basket to see how efficient the reflux extraction was. I'll post some results later today. Anyone who gives this a try please post your results, pics and any advice you can give us.

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Items needed: (substitutions can be made, don't go out and buy anything until we go over what you can replace items with ie crock pot coffee pot with screw off handle and spout (flat rimed); flat rimmed Pyrex bowl, plate, cooking dish; stove)

- Crock pot
- Coffee basket
- Wire / screws to connect coffee pot to basket
- Floating kitchen thermometer Fill your crock pot with water and check the temperature at the different levels - we need 80C+, the higher we go the quicker the extraction; if we go too high we evaporate more water.
- Ice
- Towel (to remove the melted ice water from the lid, stay low tech)
- I'm adding an I-bolt for a handle for the concave side, the screw has to hang below to hold the basket.
- Rubber washer to ease tension on the glass cover if you reverse the handle. If you have a glass knob handle just make a wire noose to hang the coffee basket.

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Explosion, Fire, Disaster beyond Saving Private Ryan's beach scene warning!

Alcohol is flamable in it's liquid form at 50%, or 100 proof that the press gang isn't watering down the crews rum. It is explosive in it's gaseous form - the alcohol steam we are refluxing. If a flame hit's that gas - or any gas escaping from the extractor - you are going to have an explosion. No smoking, no flames, no other heat sources, no electric sparks, no wearing wool on a dry day.

Don't become a statistic.

This is a relatively safe reflux apparatus because - very little pressure can be built up (the lid will pop up), there is no open flame, there is very little alcohol gas produced in the volume of a small crock pot. BUT operator recklessness will cause a problem.

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I'll be back with results from refining, distilling and running a butane extraction on the plant matter to see how efficient the reflux extraction was. I'll post design improvements and cooking dishes we can substitute for the crock pot and lid - the deeper the "cold finger" comes into the heating reservoir the quicker the extraction (more cold surface area for alcohol condensation). Anyone who has suggestions, advice or a better design please contribute all you can.

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