Shatter from winterised BHO - realistic?

Usually I have no problems to get shatter from BHO. I have done some experimenting on winterizing to get a more "healthy" medicine. I dissolve the BHO in 100% anhydrous ethanol. After freezing, a reasonable amount of wax gunk is extracted from the BHO. The ethanol is evaporated at 33C (91 degrees Fahrenheit). The final product is vacuum purged at 33C for 2-3 days.

I am not much into smoking but when I try, it burns of with no residues at all, no harsh dark smoke, and it is way more potent than I appreciate. Living abroad in a non-legal nation I have nothing to compare with. (Weed and hashish only). I hope that this is a healthy alternative for medical users.

Problem is:

1. It takes forever to evaporate the ethanol
2. I find it difficult to get shatter when winterizing.
3. The product stucks into anything and is very hard to scrape of the purging vessel or silicone mat.

Question: Is it a bad idea trying to get shatter from winterized BHO? I am considering distilling it under reduced pressure keeping just enough ethanol to make it possible to scrape off the vessel. Again, my idea with this extract is to make a product for medical use. What would you do? Please advice.

More surface area and vacuum is how we speed up ethanol removal. You can do it in the oven in a casserole dish, if your vacuum pump will tolerate it and you cover the dish with a sheet of glass to catch the bump bursts.

We typically remove most of our ethanol using a rotary evaporator, under about -28" Hg vacuum. They increase surface area, by creating thin films on the side walls of the evaporator vacuum.

91F is pretty low to try and get rid of ethanol under vacuum, because it isn't a liquid at that temperature. I have the best luck melting the concentrate and then pulling a vacuum. Usually around 110 to 120F, but ethanol and concentrates have a serious love affair and I usually go up to 125F to purge ethanol under vacuum, because it blows humongous bubbles that resist bursting at lower temperatures.

It doesn't take much residual ethanol to turn shatter into pull and stick texture, but on the other hand ethanol is GRAS and not a medical issue at those levels. It also adds a sweetness to the other flavors that appeals to some.

Cannabis concentrate that is both decarboxylated and contains trace alcohol, produces long strings when stretched and is a contender for the stickiest substance on planet Earth at room temperature.

Water can also be an issue and lowers the viscosity. You're using anhydrous ethanol, but what is the relative humidity where you are processing? Water and alcohol form an azeotrope under 5%, adding to the difficulty of removing.

Your information helped me a lot. Thank you for explaining!

I'm not sure what the relative humidity is but it is exactly like you describe. I dry the ethanol with molecular sieves but the percentage drops from 100% to 95-96% within a short time.

A rotavap is way to expensive for me, and my vacuum pump don't tolerate solvents. But I will try a DIY vacuum distillation with an aspirator pump connected to the water faucet. Hopefully it speeds up the process and perhaps also save some ethanol.

I will try again, this time following your recommended temperatures and the rest of the procedure if possible. Also, it sounds great that the end product is considered safe to use with or without small amount of ethanol. That's my main concern.

Finally, your description of the product is totally true: " is a contender for the stickiest substance on planet Earth at room temperature." It sticks to just about anything. How does the medical marijuana dispensaries offer the product to the end user?

MikeGanja said:

Your information helped me a lot. Thank you for explaining!

I'm not sure what the relative humidity is but it is exactly like you describe. I dry the ethanol with molecular sieves but the percentage drops from 100% to 95-96% within a short time.

A rotavap is way to expensive for me, and my vacuum pump don't tolerate solvents. But I will try a DIY vacuum distillation with an aspirator pump connected to the water faucet. Hopefully it speeds up the process and perhaps also save some ethanol.

I will try again, this time following your recommended temperatures and the rest of the procedure if possible. Also, it sounds great that the end product is considered safe to use with or without small amount of ethanol. That's my main concern.

Finally, your description of the product is totally true: " is a contender for the stickiest substance on planet Earth at room temperature." It sticks to just about anything. How does the medical marijuana dispensaries offer the product to the end user?

Click to expand...

Usually as a tincture or with most of the alcohol removed, so as to make snap and pull shatter.