Post your decarb method here!

[LeveragingCannabis]

Here is my favourite way of Decarbing! (Best results based on my own testing)

Preview Notes:
1. This method will take up your whole day but the end product will be rewarding.
2. There is a lot of patience involved so I recommend vaping while you execute this process
3. This method involves hot objects so please becareful. (Hot glass will break easily when exposed to quick temperature changes)

Decarbing and Binding Directly To Lipids
1. Grind Herb and wrap in either cheese cloth or tea bags (don’t wrap it too tightly as you want to maximize surface area so that the maximum amount of herb is coming into contact with the butter)
2. Submerge in a mason jar of butter (1/2 cup of butter/oz)
3. Heat a pot of water to boil ( whcih will be at 100 celcius or higher)
4. Once the water starts boiling place the mason jar full of wrapped herb and butter into the boiling water
5. Once the butter has completely melted, decrease the heat to 95 celcius (this will cause the water to simmer instead of boil)
6. You will now have to simmer this for around 6 hours (or more if you want) replacing any evaporated water every so often (you want to ensure that all contents inside the mason jar is submerged in water) The point here is that you want to heat the butter and herb indirectly at a steady/constant temperature for a long time in order to extract as much of the active compounds as possible.
7. Now you will reap the rewards of your labour. Remove the mason jar from the boiling water.
CAUTION: There is quite a bit of pressure built up inside the mason jar and given that it is hot on the inside, the jar will shatter easily. Please be careful when setting the jar down on a not heated surface.
8. Open up the jar and squeeze out as much butter as possible from the wrapped herb.
9. Now you should be left with a jar of butter (it will probably be cloudy and greenish) with little to no leaves inside. The butter won’t have too much of a cannabis taste, which I personally like.

I recommend making brownies with this butter! Let me know how it went!

 

[Vital]

For those interested there's an excellent deal on a Anova sous vide with Bluetooth at BB today only!

$69

https://www.bestbuy.com/site/anova-precision-cooker-bluetooth/5550900.p?skuId=5550900

 

[virtualpurple]

That is a great deal folks.

I’m a big fan of the Anova, though I will say that pressure cookers like say the Instant Pot ultra routinely go on sale on amazon for around 99 bucks and for our purposes I think that it is overall the superior device due to its ability to pressure cook as well as sous vide functionality (minus air circulation).

At 69 dollars though I wouldn’t hesitate for this bad boy if I didn’t have the need filled.

 

[Vital]

That is a great deal folks.

I’m a big fan of the Anova, though I will say that pressure cookers like say the Instant Pot ultra routinely go on sale on amazon for around 99 bucks and for our purposes I think that it is overall the superior device due to its ability to pressure cook as well as sous vide functionality (minus air circulation).

At 69 dollars though I wouldn’t hesitate for this bad boy if I didn’t have the need filled.

Unfortunately the sale ended at midnight...but if I see it on sale again I'll let everyone know.

 

[Vital]

For those interested the Anova sous vide with Bluetooth is on sale at BB again today only!

$69


https://www.bestbuy.com/site/anova-precision-cooker-bluetooth/5550900.p?skuId=5550900

 

[steama]

Here is my favourite way of Decarbing! (Best results based on my own testing)

Preview Notes:
1. This method will take up your whole day but the end product will be rewarding.
2. There is a lot of patience involved so I recommend vaping while you execute this process
3. This method involves hot objects so please becareful. (Hot glass will break easily when exposed to quick temperature changes)

Decarbing and Binding Directly To Lipids
1. Grind Herb and wrap in either cheese cloth or tea bags (don’t wrap it too tightly as you want to maximize surface area so that the maximum amount of herb is coming into contact with the butter)
2. Submerge in a mason jar of butter (1/2 cup of butter/oz)
3. Heat a pot of water to boil ( whcih will be at 100 celcius or higher)
4. Once the water starts boiling place the mason jar full of wrapped herb and butter into the boiling water
5. Once the butter has completely melted, decrease the heat to 95 celcius (this will cause the water to simmer instead of boil)
6. You will now have to simmer this for around 6 hours (or more if you want) replacing any evaporated water every so often (you want to ensure that all contents inside the mason jar is submerged in water) The point here is that you want to heat the butter and herb indirectly at a steady/constant temperature for a long time in order to extract as much of the active compounds as possible.
7. Now you will reap the rewards of your labour. Remove the mason jar from the boiling water.
CAUTION: There is quite a bit of pressure built up inside the mason jar and given that it is hot on the inside, the jar will shatter easily. Please be careful when setting the jar down on a not heated surface.
8. Open up the jar and squeeze out as much butter as possible from the wrapped herb.
9. Now you should be left with a jar of butter (it will probably be cloudy and greenish) with little to no leaves inside. The butter won’t have too much of a cannabis taste, which I personally like.

I recommend making brownies with this butter! Let me know how it went!

I had an older hippie friend about thirty years ago used this exact method on a stove top.
Very potent cookies he had.

 

[kilo]

I like to use water-cured weed for edibles, ointments, and balms as it leaches out the chlorophyll and dissolves or rinses off dirt, insect remnants, pesticides, etc. It also concentrates the product a bit. I measure out one ounce of cured weed and cram it into an 8 ounce canning jar. Then I put a few inches of water in the bottom of my pressure cooker, bring it up to a boil, and place the jar(s) on the rack. Then I put the cover on the pressure cooker — but I leave the vent open. You don't want to pressure cook the weed. (You can but I haven't experimented with it enough yet to give accurate timing info.) The temperature inside the vented utensil will be close to 212º — I simmer this for an hour and twenty minutes to fully decarboxylize the material.

The decarbed weed is then shredded and mixed with 8 ounces of melted coconut oil in a quart mason jar. I then put the covered jar into a container of 185º water with a sous vide immersion unit and let it cook at that temperature for eight hours. (I use a weight to keep the mason jar(s) from floating in the water bath.) When done, strain the mixture as usual. If making a balm, now is the time to add beeswax or shea butter — put the jar(s) with the hot oil in a pot of hot water — a double boiler is safest — and slowly stir in the measured amount of wax until it's fully melted into the coconut/cannabis oil. Take the jar(s) off the heat and add a few drops of essential oils if you like. Cover the jar(s) and let cool.

By the way, here's the patent for a decarboxylizing machine invented by Laurence Mckinney in 1979:

Method and apparatus for processing herbaceous plant materials including the plant cannabis

United States Patent 4279824

 

[Daijyobudave]

Dudes, get the Ardent Nova Lift: https://ardentcannabis.com/

If you make a lot of edibles, you won't regret it. Just dump in your weed and press a button. It's decarbed in around an hour. Don't even have to grind it up.

Available in Australia at: mediblesaustralia.com.au

 

[Concupiscient]

Air fryer to decarb.
Sounds doable ... More details available?

Air fryer decarb experience with 3qt nuwave brio ???

 

[Daijyobudave]

The Ardent Nova is great. Just fill it up with herb and press the button. Decarbs in around an hour and then you can use the decarbed herb for any kind of edible. You can even just put it in capsules or eat it !

 

[chaos_theory]

I really like the idea of the Ardent and it makes sense on what it's doing there, but I do think its a bit steep for what it's doing.

Right now I am looking at the ability to DIY this with an arduino and 120v controller that controls a silicon rubber heat pad. The idea would be the same, but do a small rectangular stainless box glued to the pad and then insulate it around the box with sealed lid. Same thing they have there but with a steel cup and what looks like a double walled cooler cup.

++++ On the sous vide method for infusion, its idiot proof, more gentle on extraction and provides consistent results. I have an Anova but recently had to get it replaced because the wireless and display started to go in and out. Customer service was a bit slow but exceptional in getting a replacement out to me, which was a brand new boxed unit. No complaints if a company backs their warranty so well.

 

[Wiired]

I have tried many different methods of decarbing over the past few decades, but for the past 5 years or so I have been decarbing in a water bath with a Sous Vide immersion heater. This method produces zero smell (useful if you live in an apartment or have family members who don't appreciate the overpowering aroma), is fine tuneable, and gives me excellent results.

I typically water cure my flower first to remove all the water solubles. This gives me a much cleaner end product; oils and tinctures that have no green tinge to them at all and no grassy taste. Also gets rid of all the other stuff that might be hanging around that you cant see, like chemicals, mold spores, insect carcasses, etc. This part usually takes over a week, so skip if you are in a hurry.

Decarboxylation occurs with the application of heat over time. The more heat applied, the less time is required to perform this reaction (oven method). Conversely, lower temperatures can be used over an extended period of time to achieve the same results (Sous Vide method). The lower heat produced by the Sous Vide method will never burn or scorch your flower like an oven typically will.

Using lower temperatures also helps minimize volatile terpene loss during the heating process, giving you a much tastier final product without the toasted taste of weed that has been oven baked. For anyone worried about overcooking and converting THC to CBN, I will also mention that I have tested cooking at this temperature for 24 and 48 hours consecutively and measured average THC->CBN conversion rates of only 0.04% - 0.15% with an average of 0.06% conversion in 24 hours. For me, that's not a concern at all.

The Process

Leaving the buds whole, place your flower into a Vacuum Seal bag and vacuum seal it. Leave a few inches of extra bag at the top for expansion.

Place the bag into your water bath and set your immersion heater to just under boiling. I live in higher altitude Colorado, so at my house water boils at 196 degrees, not 212. Not a problem, just means you need to cook for a longer time. Thanks to a whole lot of lab testing over the years, I have determined that at 196F I achieve 95+% decarboxylation in 4 hours. The exact times seem to vary by strain (as well as bud size/density), with some achieving the same decarb level a full hour earlier, but 4 hours seemed to be a good spot for 99% of the strains I have tried.
If you are at sea level, you can bump up the temp to 210F. I can't tell you exactly how long at that higher temp (I can'd reach it to test), but my guess would be around 3 hours

You will need to weight the bag down good, as it will start to float once the decarb process starts releasing gas in the bag. If you dont have clip on Sous Vide weights, you can place something heavy in the bottom of a large zipper bag, then place your vacuum sealed bag inside that and seal it up. This will keep it at the bottom where it needs to be.

I set the timer on my Sous Vide for 4 hours at 196F and walk away. I like to do this before going to bed, letting the herb naturally cool down with the water, but you dont have to; just let it cool for an hour or so.
Cut open the bag and transfer to your preferred storage container. **NOTE** Opening the bag will immediately make your entire house smell like weed, so if you are trying to maintain some degree of stealth do it outside. The flower may appear slightly damp when first removed from the bag, this is normal depending on the water content in the flower. Just lay it out on a tray until its dry again before storing.

Now you can use it in a variety of ways! I like to grind up some strong earthy strains like Hindu Kush and create a spice mix that you can sprinkle on anything. If you make tinctures or oils with this method and also water cured, your end products come out a beautiful golden color.

 

[chaos_theory]

Awesome detailed explanation of your process @Wiired, thanks!

I might try this next and give it a go. I have done a good few batches with my pressure cooker recently and the results have been stellar. I think the only issue is I have to crank the temp up very high for the pressure cooker compared to typical cooking. Just seems more dangerous than sous vide, maybe just me being overly concerned.

 

[virtualpurple]

@chaos_theory is your pressure cooker electric or stovetop?

I began posting a little about Sous Vide decarbs with the Anova awhile back. After my Anova broke (apparently so old they wouldn’t offer any sort of repair because there’s been a change in components or it just wasn’t worth their time) I started doing decarbs and making oil in my instant pot. Only a few batches so far but it’s worked like a dream. It’s not necessarily any simpler than Sous Vide, but it is definitely speedy!

 

[Chezgreendream]

Hello everybody, I am alittle confused as there are so many decarb methods out there. I wanted to make marijuana infuses olive oil, so I recently grinded up an 1/8 and decarbed it at 245° for 60 mins. Supposedly it supposed to decarb it for a high cbd content.

I mixed left it in a cool dark space for a month, then when I took the infusion, I noticed I as alittle buzzed, but it was also short lived. The bud is supposed to be potent? But I dont smoke weed, so I cant tell if it really is, although it does look and smell potent enough. I do have a low tolerance. Any suggestions are welcome.

 

[chaos_theory]

@virtualpurple it is electric, one of the 8 qt instant pots.

I have been using this method for a few months now and the results are stellar! No complaints at all and literally set it and forget it easy.

@Chezgreendream even for olive oil you need to apply heat for a full extraction. If you use no heat and just let it sit, it will absorb minimum cannaboids and really just take on flavor. I would do a similar cool but lower temp as we have described here for the best results.

We did a dinner tasting party and made coconut oil, olive oil and infused gin. Everything came out great. There are also great cooking tips and shows around YouTube and VICE

 

[Chezgreendream]

@virtualpurple it is electric, one of the 8 qt instant pots.

I have been using this method for a few months now and the results are stellar! No complaints at all and literally set it and forget it easy.

@Chezgreendream even for olive oil you need to apply heat for a full extraction. If you use no heat and just let it sit, it will absorb minimum cannaboids and really just take on flavor. I would do a similar cool but lower temp as we have described here for the best results.

We did a dinner tasting party and made coconut oil, olive oil and infused gin. Everything came out great. There are also great cooking tips and shows around YouTube and VICE

Thank you for your reply. I read somewhere a double boiler or crock pot method after decarb to infuse the olive oil. Will try that next.

I have read many different opinions here on the correct time and heat. What would you recommend the optimal time and heat?

 

[chaos_theory]

Never go over 240 temp and cook for 4 hours to infuse. If you cook at that temp, you might be able to get away with not having to decarb but I still do it anyway beforehand.

This is a pretty standard guideline for infusing into oils. I would say also that the lower in temp you go you will have to increase time a bit.

 

[sousweed]

Put weed in mason jar or thermos, seal lid tightly, put in oven 240F/40min, let cool completely in oven
Grind decarbed weed in blender until it's powder
Scoop single serving or more into pot of butter and simmer on low heat for an hour
Eat

There's also the citric acid extraction where you put herb in water and citric acid and wait a few days

I've also had success in using decarbed weed as dip/sublingual, it kicks in pretty quickly too, but not as potent

 

[chaos_theory]

Does grinding it like that into powder create too much of a grassy taste?

I always strain it out with a nylon bag and then rinse the butter into a tub. After chilling in the fridge I cut it out of the tub and dry it out more.

 

[sousweed]

I don't mind the taste.

I'm going to try the citric acid method soon. I know that the citric acid is going to kill the flavor, but it's interesting because it's a heat-free decarb.

 

[Techmob]

@Wiired have you done this with CBD strains, just wondering if you had to change your cooking time.

I have tried many different methods of decarbing over the past few decades, but for the past 5 years or so I have been decarbing in a water bath with a Sous Vide immersion heater. This method produces zero smell (useful if you live in an apartment or have family members who don't appreciate the overpowering aroma), is fine tuneable, and gives me excellent results.

I typically water cure my flower first to remove all the water solubles. This gives me a much cleaner end product; oils and tinctures that have no green tinge to them at all and no grassy taste. Also gets rid of all the other stuff that might be hanging around that you cant see, like chemicals, mold spores, insect carcasses, etc. This part usually takes over a week, so skip if you are in a hurry.

Decarboxylation occurs with the application of heat over time. The more heat applied, the less time is required to perform this reaction (oven method). Conversely, lower temperatures can be used over an extended period of time to achieve the same results (Sous Vide method). The lower heat produced by the Sous Vide method will never burn or scorch your flower like an oven typically will.

Using lower temperatures also helps minimize volatile terpene loss during the heating process, giving you a much tastier final product without the toasted taste of weed that has been oven baked. For anyone worried about overcooking and converting THC to CBN, I will also mention that I have tested cooking at this temperature for 24 and 48 hours consecutively and measured average THC->CBN conversion rates of only 0.04% - 0.15% with an average of 0.06% conversion in 24 hours. For me, that's not a concern at all.

The Process

Leaving the buds whole, place your flower into a Vacuum Seal bag and vacuum seal it. Leave a few inches of extra bag at the top for expansion.

Place the bag into your water bath and set your immersion heater to just under boiling. I live in higher altitude Colorado, so at my house water boils at 196 degrees, not 212. Not a problem, just means you need to cook for a longer time. Thanks to a whole lot of lab testing over the years, I have determined that at 196F I achieve 95+% decarboxylation in 4 hours. The exact times seem to vary by strain (as well as bud size/density), with some achieving the same decarb level a full hour earlier, but 4 hours seemed to be a good spot for 99% of the strains I have tried.
If you are at sea level, you can bump up the temp to 210F. I can't tell you exactly how long at that higher temp (I can'd reach it to test), but my guess would be around 3 hours

You will need to weight the bag down good, as it will start to float once the decarb process starts releasing gas in the bag. If you dont have clip on Sous Vide weights, you can place something heavy in the bottom of a large zipper bag, then place your vacuum sealed bag inside that and seal it up. This will keep it at the bottom where it needs to be.

I set the timer on my Sous Vide for 4 hours at 196F and walk away. I like to do this before going to bed, letting the herb naturally cool down with the water, but you dont have to; just let it cool for an hour or so.
Cut open the bag and transfer to your preferred storage container. **NOTE** Opening the bag will immediately make your entire house smell like weed, so if you are trying to maintain some degree of stealth do it outside. The flower may appear slightly damp when first removed from the bag, this is normal depending on the water content in the flower. Just lay it out on a tray until its dry again before storing.

Now you can use it in a variety of ways! I like to grind up some strong earthy strains like Hindu Kush and create a spice mix that you can sprinkle on anything. If you make tinctures or oils with this method and also water cured, your end products come out a beautiful golden color.

 

[YayVap]

I apologize if my decarb method has already been detailed far better by someone else.
1 plug in Ardent Nova
2 put herb in Ardent Nova
3 push button on Ardent Nova

 

[Krazy]

I apologize if my decarb method has already been detailed far better by someone else.
1 plug in Ardent Nova
2 put herb in Ardent Nova
3 push button on Ardent Nova

Sounds complicated.

 

[YayVap]

I just looked back on this and it seems like I killed the thread. I'm sorry I didn't mean it as a mic drop.