Watercuring ABV for use in brownies - a pictorial from start to finish

[vtac]

I can't help but think that a good deal of the "sediment" you are throwing out is valuable trichomes. part of the reason bubble hash.. bubble bags.. etc, work is because the trichomes will settle to the bottom. I think there are better ways to "clean" your herb, like the butter and water in a crockpot method, where the trichomes will be dissolved into the butter and the water soluble garbage gets discarded. The only true way to tell would be to try both methods side by side with the same batch of abv and compare the results.

I think intact trichomes are long gone when you're dealing already vaped cannabis. Even if there are some remaining, the coffee filter being used is at least as fine as bubblebag mesh. The goal here is to remove the unpleasant-to-some "ABV" taste and smell from the herb, which can then be used in butter, etc. afterward.

I'll be drying it tonight when i have time.

Getting exciting now! Keep up the good work. Important research.

 

[Spin-out]

Very interesting post! Looking forward to what the end results produce

 

[herbgirl]

Day 8 water change

the lightest water yet, barely any color, still a faint bong-y smell. the herb looks gross, but smells way less gross than when i started.

got tied up with some grown up responsibilities last night, so i just tossed it into the dehydrator a few minutes ago. Set it at the lowest temp the fan will run at, somewhere below 95 f, i think it's more like in the low 80s.

it's pretty wet, so I'm expecting it to take at least overnight. when it's dry, I'll weigh it to get a good idea of dosage.

then on to the infusion! Was going to use the leaching method with oil, vinegar and salt from the cannaoil thread, but I've decided to just heat the abv with the butter for a while and use the butter as per my recipe without straining. I will be knocking back the flour in the recipe by the weight of the dry ABV i will be putting in it.

I'll have to find a good recipe using oil that i could use that method with. i have some ideas. ABV Blueberry muffins perhaps? snickerdoodles or PA dutch sugar cookies maybe?

yum.

 

[herbgirl]

on a side note, usually by this point in the drying process a few hours in, the odor of whatever is drying is completley permeating the house. I even left or 40 minutes or so and smelled nothing but 'home' when i came back. That never happens, everything I have ever dried in this thing has smelled up the whole house - for better or for worse. That surprised me enough that i had to make note of it.
Even in the basement with the ol excalibur, even right next to the damn thing, there is no detectable odor at all. I have to open the front of it and stick my nose close to the pie pan to be able to smell it. That being said, I usually am not drying things that are this wet, so that may have something to do with it.

Really the whole process stinks up close, but not so much that i could smell it from any great distance away. The only times i really smelled it was when i was actually doing the water changes, and that dissipated quickly.
so if nothing else, I've successfully removed most of the odor.
just an observation.

 

[herbgirl]

it's all dried, heated with butter and the brownies are in the oven as we speak. love that my crappy cell phone decides to give me a fit with the pictures as i am trying to upload them. so no pix until i figure that out.

I could not get over the fact that the simmering butter/ABV mixture did not stink up the house. Same deal as when it was drying - had to get right on top of it to smell it. it does have a weedy odor, but not very strong.

the batter we licked tasted a little weedy, but not burn-y.

as they are baking right now, with 10 minutes left, all i smell is brownie with the tiniest hint of weed.

so, if nothing else, i have definitely managed to cut the odor down significantly.

 

[herbgirl]

Oh, yeah. the biggest shocker of all is that water curing took the weight down from 28 grams to 16!
i did spill a bit, maybe 1/4 tsp, but I am assuming that the rest of that weight was made up of undesirable compounds that leached out and the sediment that collected.
I never would have thought that it would lose that much weight.

 

[herbgirl]

the brownies are finished and beautiful. cooled overnight, OK now, tonight comes the fun part. self titration!

9 brownies from an 8x8 pan
16 grams of ABV = just shy of 2 grams water cured ABV per serving. I really hope that is enough, as dh and I both have pretty high tolerances. I'm not really looking to eat a whole pan of brownies either.

I am curious as to the effect it will have, if any at all. I gotta tell you though, I'm not expecting much - I've never had more than moderate success with edibles in the past.

pix later if i can beat my phone into submission if not, this will be the shittiest pictorial ever

 

[herbgirl]

Here's the rest of the pix...

fully dried, fresh out of the dehydrator

get yur shit together before you bake

holy crap only 16 grams???

butter and ABV in the double boiler - gently heated ABV for 30 minutes

then add unsweetened chocolate and melt with the butter, just like in the recipe

then, once it's good and melted, it's into the ol' kitchenaid bowl lift mixer (fondly nicknamed 'the mangler' because if you try and stir while she's running she'll rip your fucking arm off) with the sugar, vanilla and kosher salt. then the eggs one at a time, then the flour/cocoa mixture until just mixed. my recipe yields an almost dough like batter that has to be spread in the pan.

and then into the very well greased 8x8 pyrex and into the hotbox @ 350 for 35 minutes

skewer comes out with a few crumbs, and then thru the magic of the internet, done!

I'll be cutting them soon... stay tuned for pix and comments as we test the dosages!

hope you enjoyed my little post.

 

[Lo]

Can't wait to hear your report!! Been following along and the brownies look divine

Fingers crossed it's a great trip!

 

[Vapenstien's Monster]

I am certainly intrigued by this whole process. If that worked as well as it looks like it worked,.. I doubt we will be hearing back from you today HAHA.
Seriously, I look forward to your findings

 

[greystr0ke]

This is a great post. I really hope your hard works pays off.

 

[herbgirl]

thanks, guys.
glad i can share my findings with someone. maybe somebody can improve on the technique.
posting all this stuff makes me wish i had a better camera though.
anyway
Now for the food porn, the reason to get out the fancy cake stand...

TA DAAAAA!
Chewy brownies with watercured ABV!!!

EDIT: Snuck some crumbs. barely barely barely noticeable herb flavor or texture, and that's probably because i'm looking for it. they taste the same as they normally do otherwise.

grinding abv in the blender before chucking it in the butter was a good idea after all and so was knocking back the flour by 16 grams. it kept the texture consistent.

 

[momofthegoons]

Great job with your posts herbgirl. I think your phone did just fine taking the pics.

The only thing I think you might want to do differently in the future is have the oven at a little lower temp and cook longer if needed. I've found that when I do that, the brownies are stronger than if I cook at regular temp. I usually set the oven around 310 - 325 degrees, depending on the oven.

I'm looking forward to hearing how they turned out!

 

[herbgirl]

mom, I was wondering if 350 was too hot. I am assuming that most of the THC is gone and I am mostly dealing with compounds that can withstand higher temps, so i figured i could work from there.

I'll probably lower it next time around though, i'll try to only change one variable at a time.

i think hard candies are next on the list so it may be a while before i get around to brownies again. gonna have to get crackin' to make more ABV! Also going to have to convince more of my friends to vape and save their stuff for me!

 

[hemp;)goofy8cheerio]

dunno about temps like cookin oven can b 3 or 400 but what ever cookin may b 140-170 after 30 min so anyways 280-300 sounds safe low temp

 

[Spin-out]

Herbgirl how were the brownies in the end as far as potency is concerned?

 

[momofthegoons]

I've been wondering that myself!

 

[CombustionJunction]

Seeing as how she hasn't been around since yesterday, I'd say they were pretty potent

 

[herbgirl]

I wish they were good enough to knock me out for a whole day! Unfortunately, they were not that powerful. not bad, pretty much what i expected, just not exactly what i was going for. very tasty, excellent texture though, the tiniest hint of weedyness. the perfect brownie, actually

I ate 1 and then another 2 hours later (empty stomach) to very little 'high' effect save some sedation and relaxation. Had a few moments where i thought they might be kicking in more, but they never did. vaped a trench and that boosted it a little bit. reminded me of the same kind of feeling that you get from Kava Kava, but different somehow.
Part of that 'fail' was probably when i gave DH the remote and he selected a show about 9/11. not that that is not important, but it certainly was a buzzkill, not the type of thing i want to watch when i'm trying to enjoy a brownie.

anyway he put South Park (The one where Butters is a pimp-classic!!) on after that and it was freakin' hilarious.

DH ate his 2 within an hour of each other and reported feeling sleepy and relaxed. he did mention that when the dog shook on the couch next to him that he felt all 'vibratey' and he could feel it to his core.

Had to get up very early for football today and if it weren't for the drunken assholes raising a ruckus outside my window last night, I would have slept like a baby, they were that sedating. This morning before we left DH mentioned that "I would like to spend the whole day at home in my underwear" because he was just that slow feeling. I napped when we got home.

So now that we know two does at least something, we will each be eating 2.5 or three tonight, vaping and possibly having a glass or two of wine.

May not have been that successful as far as the buzz, but it was ABV after all. The big discovery out of this is the smell reduction. You could probably do the whole process under someone's nose and they wouldn't even be able to smell it.

The next time I try this, I will be reducing the oven temperature while keeping as many of the other factors the same as possible.

I had set aside some to smoke, but DH got a bug up his butt and decided to do the dishes last night after I went to bed. Wonderful, sweet, and earning brownie points redeemable for *****, in his enthusiasm, he threw out the stuff on the pie plate that i was saving. so next time i'll be able to try that.

 

[herbgirl]

OK, so i underestimated those brownies.
Last night 2.5 each eaten over the period of 45 minutes or so on an empty stomach. heavy duty sedation, relaxation and general can't-wipe-the-smile-off-your-face-gigglyness ensued within about 1.5 hours and lasted until this afternoon. The setting last evening was also much more conducive to relaxation so I feel that had a great deal to do with it.
both of us have taken the obligatory nap today as well.

it's a very nice effect, albeit a little too long lived for my taste. Tricky to fit into our schedule, but definitely on the table for camping trips!

It's a good, relaxing feeling, but i don't always want to have to eat 2.5 brownies to get there. perhaps tincture or capsules may be the way to go if I am looking for that effect.

Final observations...

Brownies with water cured ABV have such a small trace of weed smell/taste/texture that it would be virtually unnoticeable if you weren't looking for it. Water curing the ABV also makes for a cooking/baking process with significantly less odor than i've experienced using fresh bud. Never baked with ABV before so i have no standard for comparison there, but i'm willing to guess that it has way less odor than not water cured, just judging from the odor of the water changes.

This could open up possibilities when baking with ABV for using bases other than chocolate or mint to mask the weedyness. You could use it in more delicately flavored recipes without it overpowering.

Very nice sedating/muscle relaxing effect with some good solid pain relief too. a nice bonus from vaping and a fun little experiment.

now onto a tincture!

 

[momofthegoons]

Great review herbgirl. I'm looking forward to seeing what else you come up with!

 

[VWFringe]

I tried a couple gallons of water and have little cloudiness on the second day. I vigorously agitated it several times yesterday (wonder what all the foam's about?). So, maybe fewer days with more water...?

I hope you're happier with tincture than I - i found it was not potent enough, tried using BHO instead of herb, so did not get the heady esthers from the herb (wanted to get as much THC, but wish i'd gone the full route with herb).

thanks for this! can't wait to try eating ABV again now!

 

[dxmxgxd]

I read somewhere about watercuring that it was done to fresh herb before drying to get rid of all the chemicals that were used during growing. And that is was best not to agitate it as this could lead to trichome loss, but for ABV i think this shouldn't be a problem.

But from what Herbgirl did it looks right. Keep up the good work

 

[Tuck]

If your objective is to reduce the taste of bud, rather than water-curing, you could also do a quick wash with everclear. Or even do it 2 or 3 times. Then pour that into your warm butter/oil and evaporate the alcohol. It will save you time and you don't risk losing as much of the goodies.

 

[herbgirl]

VW, I'm not sure about the agitation, i just stirred it a bit to ensure even saturation.
Perhaps fewer days with more water changes would work just fine, but I just don't have the time to be changing water multiple times in a day. I thought the same thing a few times during the process just because i'm a pretty antsy person - i just knew i wouldn't be able to stick with it. If it works for you - great, I'm curious to hear the results - it would be nice to be able to streamline the process a bit and have it not take a whole week.

dxm, you are correct, water curing is used to remove fertilizers, but it will also remove any water soluble components like chlorophyll which apparently tastes nasty. It is also supposed to be good for bud that is very harsh. My understanding is that if you smoke water cured bud, it will only leave a pure white ash, as all of the components are combusting and there is nothing left behind. I figured at least some of the things that make ABV stinky would be removed this way, but it was purely a guess.

tuck, would that be considered QWEVER? OR QWABV?
so you are saying make 2 or three quick everclear runs through the untreated ABV, add that to the butter and evap it down? so this will pull out the goodies leaving the burnyness behind?
cool. sounds like it would work.