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Decarboxylation of Cannabis (time and temperature question)

Thomas Davie

Thomas Davie

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240 degrees F/ 115 degrees C for 50-70 minutes is what I have been using. I don’t know how optimal this is, but it is what I’ve been using for a while. If I’m doing this sub-optimally I’ll gladly take advice.

I cook in a shallow glass baking dish, not covered with foil (don’t care about odor or loss of terpenes), then let the dish cool at room temperature. Pick out any stems (save em) and then hand crumble into dust. Have calibrated my oven but am unsure about the timing or best temperature.

Thanks for reading.

Tom
 
@pupnik Thank you. And bugger me, but I got impatient and cooked 60 minutes @ 240F. let it cool down and crumbled it, removing only 2 small twigs. Then cooked it for another 30 minutes (no idea why), let it cool down and then made a peanut butter sandwich with approximately 1/16 of 3.5 g of probably non optimally baked ‘Pineapple Paradise’ @ 20.0% THC.

I had no scale, so I cut the pile of weed in 1/2 > 1/4 > 1/8 > 1/16 which I figured would give me ~40-45 mg in the dose. seems close, but I definitely want to get a scale.

Tom
 
With green you should be safe by grinding, decarbing at 125°C for like 30 minutes, then cooking in fat at low setting for another 30-60 minutes. I usually make cookies/cake so that's another 20 minutes in the oven mixed with other ingredients.

With brown i usually skip the first part and just dump the whole bit into butter. It dissolves very fast, and i've come to assume that some decarboxylation has already taken place in processed and aged material.

I don't claim to be a scientist but never noticed a difference, even without first decarb step on green stuff. It's easy to get caught up in this decarboxylation business, but any oral preparation with fat and heat and time works and it's always stronger orally than smoked from my experience and everyone i know.

Splitting up by 2/4/8/etc is a good idea and a sufficient manner of dosing imo.

YMMV ofc.
 
I prefer diffusing it into some oil/fat at high temps because it gives you a visual indication (bubbling = decarbing) and you can tell when it's at peak efficiency and when the bubbling slows down you know for sure it's done.

Then either it can be put away for later (e.g. ghee for toast) or baked into brownies, cookies... etc
 
I've experimented with different times / temps.

At one end of the spectrum, you can decarb weed without applying any heat. Only time. Slow decarbs work a bit better, in my opinion. The slower the better, although I've never been patient enough to do a time decarb.

There is this product called DecarBox that I bought which allows you to monitor the internal temperature of the container you are decarbing in real time. It's overkill, I know. It was an indulgence.

Turns out the temperature my oven runs at is 20 degrees colder than what I set it to. Adjusting for this helped. The process is less confusing (more consistent with online stuff) generally, but I have an old shitty oven. It's probably not worth it if you just renovated your kitchen.

There isn't a huge difference between long decarbs and short decarbs (110C - 130C).

decarboxylation-cannabis-temperature-chart-thc.jpeg


You can see that THC content goes down more rapidly after peak at higher temperatures. You are more likely to bake the weed and ruin it the more heat you apply, which makes sense.

I usually do a 120C decarb for about 30 minutes. Long decarbs (without heat) take many months. I will do one, one day. My experiments are not over.

homesteadandchill.com

How to Decarboxylate Cannabis to Use in Oils, Edibles & Salves

Interested in making cannabis edibles, oils, or salve? Come learn about decarboxylation, and how to easily decarboxylate your cannabis in the oven.
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yeah i've heard of people making green dragon tincture just by dissolving the thc into liquor and letting it sit by a window for a while. i'm frackin impatient so it's gotta be cooked up in a spoon like i'm jonesing
 
I've made hempshine. Hemp flower in about 110proof alcohol overnight. THe only thing, it's not decarboxylated. It's CBDa in the shine which is fine with me. But I would do THC weed, I'm just worried it would be an off flavor due to the stuff I get. But I got some edibles the other day. I'm set.

Ideally for extracting in alcohol you want 190 proof. But that shit is so nasty. The stuff I make has flavor and is medicinal. YOu just won't get nearly as much cannabinoids in a lower proof alcohol. What you don't want are the chlorophylls porphyrins and such in the solution. But that's what gives it a green color. So the greener the color, means more chlorophyll. I'd have to run a test on CBD or THC in 100proof vs 190proof. GC/MS analysis.
 
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You should be decarbing before adding the alcohol, but there are ways to decarb after adding it.

ions said:
What you don't want are the chlorophylls porphyrins and such in the solution.
Click to expand...

It doesn't detract from the high. If you do an insanely long alcohol wash, you will have the same THC content along (maybe more, not less) but it will just be a bit darker. I've never understood why people try so hard to avoid extracting chlorophyll, etc?

190 proof
Click to expand...

I have done the test. I made weed infused gin (100 proof). I did a long wash. Multiple weeks. Then I used the same strain in some Polmos Spirytus Rektyfikowany (190). The latter was maybe three - possibly four - times stronger.
 
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