View Full Version : The Definitive Green Dragon (Revised, Updated, Combined)
Master Wu
09-13-2006, 06:38 PM
Hi Friends,
Since I first posted the Definitive Green Dragon 6 months ago, I have received many great comments, answered many questions, and gained more expertise with the extraction myself. I decided it's time to update my recipe and combine my other posts. The biggest change is increasing the extraction temperature from 150-165°F to 170°F.
Below is the original recipe (updated). Tips and techniques follow.
Thanks for all the feedback and interest.
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The Definitive Green Dragon (Revised)
Here is the very successful result of a considerable amount of research into the elusive and magical Green Dragon.
This is a simple and efficient 4 Step process.
Ingredients:
1/8oz high quality cannabis
2 oz Bacardi Rum ?? 151 proof
Process Summary:
1. Chop cannabis very fine (coffee grinder works great)
2. Place in a shallow pan (a sheet of aluminum foil works great) and bake at 325°F for 5 minutes.
3. Remove from oven and place cannabis in 2 oz of 151 proof rum (use a small wide mouth mason jar)
4. Simmer in a water bath for 20 minutes. Maintain temperature of the rum/cannabis mixture between 170°F.
5. Strain the mixture and store.
Dosage:
One milliliiter (one full eyedropper) is very nice. Two puts you in space. But you must self-titrate (test it on yourself) as each batch will be slightly different. Effects take up to 1.5 hours to begin (at least in myself) and lasted for 5 hours (1 dropper) to 7-8 hours (2 droppers).
I place one eyedropper (1ml) of Green Dragon in a small glass. I then add a small amount of water (1-2 ml) and drink. Do this on an empty stomach for best results (about 20-30 minutes before eating a main meal is good).
Process details??references and rationalizations:
1. Chop the cannabis
More surface area gives means a faster and more efficient extraction.
2. Bake the cannabis.
This converts THCA to THC via a decarboxylation reaction.
In whole-plant cannabis, THC content is expressed as THCA (tetrahydrocannabolic acid) prior to decarboxylation into THC, which takes place when cannabis is heated during cooking, and smoked or vaporized ingestion. THCA is a mild analgesic and anti-inflammatory but does not have good affinity with our CB1 receptors, so in order to make a THC-rich tincture that has many of the same therapeutic effects as smoked ingestion (including rapid absorption, quick relief and ease of self-titration), we must convert the THCA in the plant matter into THC prior to extracting it through an alcohol soak. (from Vancouver Island Compassion Society http://thevics.com/cannamist.htm)
THC vaporizes at about 380°F. We want to heat the cannabis to convert THCA to THC, but keep the temperature under 380°F. That is why 325°F is used. Between four and five minutes your oven (and house) will start to smell very strong. This is the time to remove the cannabis from the oven.
Notice also that there is considerable misinformation regarding heating the cannabis. It is true that you don't have to heat it to extract both THC and THCA, but the amount of THC in whole plant preparations is relatively small compared to after decarboxylation of the THCA. So if you want to maximize the strength of your tincture you must heat the cannabis prior to extraction.
3. Use the highest proof alcohol available.
Where I live this is Bacardi 151. The more alcohol the more efficient the extraction will be.
4. Simmer the mixture.
This is one of the areas that seems to be most debated. Many recipes call for placing the cannabis (unbaked of course) into the alcohol and waiting 2 ?? 6 weeks. The main concern with heating the alcohol is that it is ??explosive? (not exactly true...it is however flammable).
The purpose of the simmering is to heat the alcohol mixture to improve extraction rates and efficiencies. Heating during extraction increases the motion of the molecules (basic physics/chemistry) and drastically decreases extraction times. The boiling point of pure ethanol is 173°F (78°C). We will use the water bath to heat the rum/cannabis mixture to just below the boiling point of ethanol.
Heating the alcohol mixture can be done very safely using a hot water bath. You will need an accurate candy or quick read thermometer. Place about 1 inch of water in a wide, vertical-edged pan (9? diameter x 3? high). Bring the water to a low simmer. The rum/cannabis mixture should be in a small (1 pint) mason jar. Do NOT cover the jar.
Put the thermometer into the mason jar and place into the simmering water bath. Bring the temperature of the rum/cannabis mixture to about 170°F. The alcohol should be just barely boiling.
You should have the oven fan on high. You will notice that any alcohol fumes are mixed with water vapor from the water bath and vented out the fan. This combined with the fact that you are trying not to boil the ethanol makes the process quite safe.
5. Strain and store.
When you are finished with the extraction you will be left with about 1oz of green dragon tincture after you have strained the extract. Notice that one ounce of the alcohol has evaporated. See the tips below for a good way to strain the tincture.
A standard eyedropper will transfer about 1ml (or 1 gram) of liquid. There are 29 milliliters in one ounce. So you should end up with about 30 or so full eyedroppers (30 milliliters) of Green Dragon.
The liquid should be dark brownish-green and smell like cannabis.
6. Dosage. Titration.
Everybody is different. It takes me between 30-90 minutes to feel the effects of Green Dragon (depending on how much food is in my stomach).
I had tried a tincture someone had made using the cold extraction method with the same amount of cannabis and found that 5 ml (5 full eyedroppers) did pretty much nothing.
Using my Green Dragon technique I find that one dropper will bring effects on in 30-90 minutes and last 5 hours with 1.5 hours of lingering aftereffects.
Two droppers gave me a "spiritual dose" (as strong as any brownie I ever had). Effects lasted 7-8 hours with lingering effects for 2 more hours.
This means that 1/8oz of good cannabis yields about 30-34 doses of tincture (1 dropperful is really all I need). For me it is much more pleasant than smoking (I've stopped smoking entirely).
This link might be helpful.
Metric Conversion: http://www.worldwidemetric.com/metcal.htm
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Combined Tips and Techniques
Below are the combined tips and answers to questions that have accumulated over the last 6 months.
1. Baking Temperature/Time.
I use 325 Farenheit for 5 minutes. Although this will change depending on the type of pan you use. With a gas oven and aluminum foil (no pan cookie sheet) 5 minutes was fine. However with an electric oven, a cookie sheet, and baking parchment, I needed a few more minutes. Keep a close eye on it.
Note that OKSmokey uses 20 minutes at 200°F. I haven't tried this but he has had good success with this temperature.
2. Double the Recipe?
Sure, why not. It should be fine. But I prefer to err on the side of caution and would probably do the extraction twice with a self-titration in between runs.
3. Dosage
You will have to figure dosage with each batch. And you must test it on yourself. The way to do this is through titration (a fancy chemical term that means to determine the concentration of a solution). The concentration of GD will change based on the strength of the starting material, the amount of alcohol you boil off during the extraction, the efficiency of your pre-bake, etc.
Start with one or two full dropperfuls (not drops!) and swallow them down. Check the time and note when you first feel effects, when you peak, the intensity of the peak, and how long it lasts. Make sure you can reproduce your titration (empty stomach, time of day, diluted in water?, etc). If you like what you feel, great. If too much or not good enough try again tomorrow with a different amount. With two points (high and low) you should have a pretty good idea of how it works on your body. Of course it might be different on someone considerably bigger or smaller.
For instance one batch I made was unbelievably strong--1 dropperful and I was flying. The next one took 3 dropperfuls for same effect (but the solution was more dilute as I ended up with 1.75oz instead of 1oz of final GD, the pot wasn't as good, and my pre-bake was a bit too short since I was using an unfamiliar oven and a baking pan instead of just aluminum foil).
4. And as always--don't put the stuff in your eye ;-). And don't put it under your tongue because it burns. I now place the GD in a tablespoon (or so) of water--yum. I actually like the flavor as it is sort of floral. I also store mine in the fridge, but don't really know if this matters.
5. How much is in an Eyedropper
An eyedropper holds about one milliliter of liquid, depending on how hard you squeeze the little bulb. For water based solutions one milliliter weighs about one gram. Thus each full eyedropper contains about one gram of liquid. Since there are about 29 grams in one ounce, you get about 29 full eyedroppers in every ounce. The eyedropper I initially used measured 34 full droppers in an ounce.
Also I use the nice blue two-ounce dropper bottles from the health food store that are used for essential oils, tinctures, and/or other extracts.
6. Leaf vs. Bud
I have not tried the extraction with leaf. But you would obviously need loads more. The problem is you will also need much more alcohol. My guess is you should use somewhere on the order of 10 parts alcohol to 1 part leaf. Then once you are finished you will want to remove the spent leaf, and then concentrate the alcohol by boiling off most of it (using the water bath of course) until you have one ounce of GD remaining.
7. When is it Ready
Right away. That is one of the nice things about this extraction process.
8. Taste
I find that after a week in the fridge (that's where I store mine) the flavor seems to mature into a heady, slightly floral elixer with bud overtones. I find it rather pleasant.
9. Isopropyl Alcohol
DON'T USE IT!
10. Using an Ounce
The recipe should scale nicely from 1/8 to whole ounce. But, unless you have experience with smaller batches I'd recommend sticking with the recipe as written. It would be a shame to have something go wrong with a large batch. I strongly recommend making the GD a couple of times before trying to scale up.
11. Pre-Baking the Pot - Color Changes and Vapors
Bake the pot at 325 degrees Fahrenheit for 5 minutes. I chop mine in a mini-prep (or chop by hand) until it is quite fine. Then I spread it out on a piece of aluminum foil which is placed directly on the oven rack. If you place the foil on a baking pan you will need to account for the additional mass of the pan which will increase your baking time. Pre-baking should stink up the house. I turn on the stove vent fan. I also do all my cooking at night after neighbors are in bed.
I look for two indicators that the pot is properly pre-baked. First, I look for the pot to change color from it's initial shade of green to a much darker greenish-brown (or brownish-green). I assume this represents not browning (burning) of the leaf but rather the denaturation of the chlorophyll in the leaves.
Second, I look for a slight amount of vapors to rise off the pot. Since the temperature is well below the vaporization temperature of THC, these vapors probably consist of compounds that vaporize at lower temperatures (like water).
12. Extraction Temperature (revised)
I've had good success with extractions at 170 degrees fahrenheit. You'll note that my initial recipe called for maintaining temperature between 150 and 165. At 170 the alcohol mixture will be slightly boiling. Note that this is alcohol boiling not water boiling. Alcohol boils with very fine bubbles as opposed to the rolling boil of water. After 20 minutes the alcohol should be reduced by about half.
13. Green Dragon Final Color and Smell
The green dragon should be a greenish-brown color (more brown than green). If it is emerald green and smells like grass (from the cholorphyll), it will be weak. Emerald green indicates that the pre-baking was not sufficient. The GD should smell like bud, somewhat floral.
14. How To Recover The Green Dragon
When you are done extracting you will have one ounce (or so) of GD. But it is mixed up with the 1/8 oz of spent plant material. Here is how I recover the maximum amount of my extract.
First, I strain it through a regular kitchen mesh strainer. I use the back of a spoon to force out as much GD as possible.
Next (this is the cool part) I use a garlic press to squeeze the remaining leaves. My preference is a Zylis Garlic Press because it has a plunger mechanism, but any press should do. I then put the squeezings into the plunger in batches, and squeeze the holy GD out of it. This trick has increased my overall recovery by about 15%.
There ya go Green Dragonsters. Good luck and Enjoy.
Master Wu
The Alchemist
Oksmokey
09-13-2006, 06:58 PM
Very Nice Dragon Master Wu!
I feel honored to be mentioned in your recipe, thank you. :)
I also Really appreciate you taking time and posting your findings for others.
I have really enjoyed studying, making and using green Dragon. The coming together of yourself and the GreendragonSoda Master has been great for everybody. Really easy to tell my friends and guest to go to http://www.greendragonsoda.com for the information.
I am down to a few doses so it is about time to cook again YEAH!!!
A coffee Grinder does work great but is harder to clean for privacy reasons.
I use a Magic Bullet. LOL they left that feature off the infomercial! It works great and is dishwasher safe.
I love taking my dragon dose in a 2oz shot of Jack Daniels. The jack has some woody and earthy flavors and the two really compliment each other well. Taking it in a shot also makes it a easier for the virgin dragon drinker to handle the taste and high Alcohol content of the Dragon. But I think drinking to excess is a waste of a dose of greendragon so watch you alcohol consumption and stick to the dragon.
If you haven't tried this yet just follow Master Wu's way and you will be enjoying the Green Dragon in no time!
ghettoBlunt
09-14-2006, 12:45 AM
will this work with ground up stems...i have a copious amounts of stems and this sounds interesting
this might sound like a stupid question but if you put three dropperfuls into a can or beer or something it would be about the same as just dropping them right down your throat would it not?
Fan o KmK
09-24-2006, 03:23 AM
man you are truly a genius. well maybe not i duno but this recipe sounds amazing and im definatly going to try it, only thing is i live with my parents so i was wondering how the smell is when the entire process is complete.
also, this part doesnt make any sence to me
4. Simmer in a water bath for 20 minutes. Maintain temperature of the rum/cannabis mixture between 170°F.
what does this mean? after roasting the cannabis in teh oven you said to put it in a glass jar with the alcohol but then what?? im really confused...
I just love weed
09-24-2006, 04:35 AM
Im confused as to what a water bath is so I was wondering if you could explain what it is and maybe a little more detail once youve covered the basics. I was also wondering if your method was somewhat flawed. I was thinking about the water bath process and you said that nearly half the alcohol burned off. During your process the thc absorbs into the alcohol but then it burns off. So does this mean that the alcohol takes some of the thc that it has disolved with it? or does the thc seperate and then stay when the alcohol burns off. Is it essential that the temperature is right below boiling or coudl you put it down to 10 or so degress below so that not as much would burn off.
I havent taken chemistry in school yet so its simply a theory i really have no idea.
i think that the alchohol that hasnt absorbed thc will evaporate and the alchohol that has wont
it means you use boiling water to heat up the alcohol. the oven heated up the bud, the water heats up the alcohol and you leave it in there for 20 minutes at 170. the need for the water bath is because it isnt safe to cook alcohol over an open flame or electric stove as the flame or coil will get really really hot, and when cooking a highly flammable substance that isnt a good thing
and also "Pre-baking should stink up the house."
hammertime
09-27-2006, 06:26 AM
damn i think im gonna try to make this. Im gonna check the package store for a small bottle of 151. I might try to make a half batch using a half 8ter. I think i might make it a drink of choice for party nights and mix it with cherry coke or mountain dew.
hammertime
09-28-2006, 06:37 PM
someone should do a step by step run through with pics so for each step.....to help even the dumbest of us stoners.
canieatit
10-08-2006, 05:58 AM
Thanks for all your info as i want to give up smoking but not the dope its great to know other ways of enjoying dope. thanks.
MastaChronic
10-08-2006, 08:14 AM
dude, great recipe, me and my friends drink two shots of green dragon every once in a while and it knocks us on our ass, i use monarch rum 151 tho
Kwali
10-08-2006, 11:27 AM
For sure gonna try this
4NIK8R
10-08-2006, 12:21 PM
If you use something like Everclear or Moonshine would you get better extraction?(because of higher alc. content)
Kwali
10-08-2006, 01:06 PM
yummy moonshine :dance:
horror business
10-12-2006, 04:05 AM
One thing, that I've never known, is does Green Dragon get you drunk, as well as high? Is the high more intense than eating cannabis?
horror business
10-12-2006, 04:10 AM
Also, how do I make a water bath? Do I do it on top of the stove, or... in the oven?
ThuggishRuggish420
10-17-2006, 06:32 AM
so wait, im confused... do u boil the alcohol and weed, or do u take the weed out of the alcohol and boil it in water?
iwantagoodtincture
10-23-2006, 09:58 PM
ok i have tried making GD with mixed results. I imagine that my mistakes have been during the extraction because i have pretty much mastered the pre-baking. I have the time to wait so could i possibly just skip the extraction or will this decrease potency?
Oksmokey
10-24-2006, 08:08 PM
don't skip the extraction! I have tried the 30 day method and extraction method & a combination of the two.
The extraction process is critical to maximum potency! I have yet to get a 50% reduction I usually end up with about 1 1/2 oz of dragon when I am done.
Now I make it in batches of 6 oz - 10g herb.
DrugleyDoRite
11-01-2006, 06:08 PM
What a great method!! I have seen many and tried many but this one is the best so far.
Master Wu, I liked it so much that I re-organized it in Word for my own purposes. But I think it should be spread around the community. I want to send you a copy of it, but as I have just registered I can't send you a PM. I would like you to read it and give me permission to post it on other boards.
Is there another way for you to receive it? I could post it here but you may not want this.
ny2casports89
11-16-2006, 10:30 PM
I attempted to make some green dragon, and my finished product wasn't what i hoped, but i know thats jus cause of mistakes i made........ anyway i was wondering if anyone knows if it would be safe to smoke the left over weed, i know most if not all of the thc is gone but if somes left i figure an 8th blunt will get me faded. My only concern was that the bud was saoking in 151 for some time so if the blunt doesnt just go up in flames i'm concerned it will be unhealthy to smoke any fumes that result from the 151
ghettoBlunt
11-16-2006, 10:41 PM
I attempted to make some green dragon, and my finished product wasn't what i hoped, but i know thats jus cause of mistakes i made........ anyway i was wondering if anyone knows if it would be safe to smoke the left over weed, i know most if not all of the thc is gone but if somes left i figure an 8th blunt will get me faded. My only concern was that the bud was saoking in 151 for some time so if the blunt doesnt just go up in flames i'm concerned it will be unhealthy to smoke any fumes that result from the 151
i assume it wouldnt get you too high, as the recipe is quite potent, and also the alcohol will have evaporated, as alcohol has a tendency to do that
ny2casports89
11-17-2006, 04:23 AM
well the bud is still moist so i'm not convinced that all the alcohol has evaporated, but i dont really care that much if it doesnt get me high i fiugre its worth i shot, i'm just more concerned that it will be extrememly unhealthy to smoke fumes from the alcohol
misfit26
11-19-2006, 04:23 AM
I just finished making my first batch of GD. It turned out very dark brown, but when I add water to dillute the dose and hold the glass up to a light it has a very rich emerald crown .
Bottoms up...;)
Master Wu
11-20-2006, 01:25 AM
Hi Friends,
In my continued search to help you be happy and improve the sublime Green Dragon, I'm pleased to disclose this good news.
Green Dragon put in a single beer speeds up GD onset at the same time dramatically decreasing the need for having an empty stomach. It may even remove the necessity for an empty stomach entirely, but I have yet to confirm this.
If I place a dropperful of GD in a beer (Dragon Brew), I am able to experience effects within 15 to 20 min. I can also eat a meal with a glass of Dragon Brew with no apparent delay of onset. I've even been able to eat high fat food, cheese for instance, and have a glass of Dragon Brew within 45 minutes after eating, again with no significant delay of onset.
Note. I don't use any more GD than usual, so dilution does not seem to be any issue.
Here is what I think is happening. I noticed that even with a full stomach or with food, I am still able to perceive the effects of even a single beer. This means that the alcohol in the beer is able to go through my system quicker than food still being digested. Since THC and cannaboids are alcohol soluble (more than they are fat soluble), then the increased alcohol of a beer must be keeping them in solution and moving them on through.
Enjoy,
Master Wu
-------
The Alchemist
What is "GD", and how do you make it?
do more than read the title of the thread and youll probably know this thread itself is probably the best resource for it online or maybe anywhere
do more than read the title of the thread and youll probably know this thread itself is probably the best resource for it online or maybe anywhere
Oops, i didn't realize there was a first page. sorry ;). I thought this 2nd page was the first, so i was confused about what it was.
I was just wondering what the approximate % rate for failure would be for someone who tried Master Wu's recipe for the first time?
Also, how precise is one required to be in the finer aspects of the recipe?
Knotter
12-09-2006, 12:14 PM
Master Wu, your post about taking GD with a beer is confusing.
To start with the GD is made with 151 proof alcohol, so whether you dilute this tincture with beer or water shouldn't make any difference as it is already being 'carried' by a strong alcoholic medium. I don't see how taking GD with a beer could significantly alter the absorption rate.
Not doubting your findings, just a little unclear on the logic.
Peace
Knotter
Master Wu
12-11-2006, 06:40 PM
Good question Knotter,
Here is my logic re: GD with beer or wine (both work equally well). BTW--I have equally good success with just 1/2 a beer.
You are correct that we use a concentrated alcohol (151 proof rum) to extract. You could probably do the extraction with a more dilute alcohol, but you would need a much greater volume and probably more time. Think about the probability of an ethanol molecule interacting with a cannaboid. The higher the alcohol concentration the more ethanol/cannaboid interactions occur per a given amount of time. The more interactions the quicker and more efficient the extraction. This is why we use a very concentrated alcohol.
Now when we actually ingest the GD we are using only a very small amount of a very concentrated solution--typically less than 1 ml. By comparison, a 12oz glass of beer (or 5oz wine or 1.5oz hard alcohol) contains 22ml of alcohol compared to the 1ml of GD.
So here is what I think is happening. There is not enough ethanol in the 1ml of GD to efficiently (and quickly!) carry the dissolved cannaboids through your system if there is anything, like food, in the way. Using a greater volume of solute (ethanol) helps keep the cannaboids in solution and mobilized. This is very similar to chromatography, if you remember your high school chemistry.
I initially came to this conclusion when I observed that, if I drank a beer after peaking (sometimes hours later), I would experience a second, smaller GD peak. This made me think that the alcohol in the beer was mobilizing any cannaboids that got stuck.
At any rate, I almost always put the GD in at least half a glass of beer or wine now. The onset is much more controlled and consistent. I also am able to use less GD to achieve the same result! Presumably this is because there is less loss.
Hope this helps...cheers,
Master Wu
---------------
The Alchemist
I have attempted to make a batch od GD going along with your recipe twice now. The first time, I did not get a good batch at all, having to consume prettywell the entire thing to have any type of an effect.
The 2nd time, I had a better extraction, a darker looking dragon, and it took about 5ml of the 2nd batch to bring forth a result.
I am wondering how to maximize the extraction of the THC from the alcohol. For the measurements, should it be exactly 2oz (measured)? or just 2 shot glasses full?
I have had great success with smaller batches, I just have yet to get the large to work well for me. Any tips would be a great help.
One more thing... as far as the temperature of the mixture during the water bath... should the temperature be maintainted as closely to 170 as possible? or is a little hotter to ensure that the solution doesnt stop boiling ok?
Toker4LifeVT
12-12-2006, 03:10 AM
Ok here is what he is saying you do.
Step #1
Take 1/8th ounce cannabis. Grind it up in a blender or coffe grinder into a fine powder.
Step #2
Take a pan and line it with aluminum foil.
Step #3
Pre-heat oven to 325 degrees (f)
Step #4
Cook it in the oven for (5) minutes. Depending on your oven time may vary slightly.
Step #5
Take cannabis out of oven and let it cool.
Step #6
Take 2 ounces of 151 proof or higher alcoholic beverage (151 bacardi for example) and put it in a small mason canning jar along with the ground up cannabis. 1 pint jar works well.
Step #7
Take a small cooking pot and fill halfway with water and bring to a boil on the stove.
Step #8 Place canning jar in water with a thermometer in the can and boil for about 20 minutes until the alcohol and ground cannabis reaches 170 degrees (f)
Step #9 take canning jar out of water and let cool.
Step #10 extract green cannabis liquid and press ground cannabis to get all liquid out, store in a small 2 oz dropper bottle.
Master Wu
12-12-2006, 05:28 PM
Nice summary Toker4lifevt.
Only two edits.
#5 No need to let the cannabis cool.
#8 Boil the alcohol at 170 degrees (f) FOR 20 minutes. (the summary says until it reaches 170 but that isn't correct)
Toker4LifeVT
12-15-2006, 01:45 PM
Ok here is what he is saying you do.
Step #1
Take 1/8th ounce cannabis. Grind it up in a blender or coffe grinder into a fine powder.
Step #2
Take a pan and line it with aluminum foil.
Step #3
Pre-heat oven to 325 degrees (f)
Step #4
Cook it in the oven for (5) minutes. Depending on your oven time may vary slightly.
Step #5
Take cooked,g round up cannabis out of the oven. DONT BURN YOURSELF! :stoned:
Step #6
Take 2 ounces of 151 proof or higher alcoholic beverage (151 bacardi for example) and put it in a small mason canning jar along with the ground up cannabis. 1 pint jar works well.
Step #7
Take a small cooking pot and fill halfway with water and bring to a boil on the stove.
Step #8 Place canning jar in water with a thermometer in the can and boil for 20 minutes @ 170 degrees (f).
Step #9 take canning jar out of water and let cool.
Step #10 extract green cannabis liquid and press ground cannabis to get all liquid out, store in a small 2 oz dropper bottle.
If you like my simplified guide, or it helped you out please rate me up. Thanks :stoned:
hazetwostep
12-15-2006, 08:55 PM
i am excited to try this... i really hope i dont blow something up!
do you think using duff (vaporizer leftovers) would work to make GD with or should i should stick to making butter with it?
E Man
01-03-2007, 10:20 AM
Yeah it works, but it takes a loooooong time. I presume you mean doing it without heat. It'll take a month or so to finish and you'll have to use more to get less of an effect. Try the above mentioned recipe and you will get absolutely sideways :yippee: The last batch I made, I used honey to flavor it. By the time I got the flavor right, I had inadvertenly injested enough to put me on Mr. Toad's Wild Ride, if you know what I mean. Damn near psychedelic. Way different than smoking:rasta:
Later
E
gerodent
01-16-2007, 08:49 AM
First and foremost, Master Wu, This is great! Many thanks.
My first batch, being a little flush with bud (great harvest), I used 20 g. of good bud, no stems, branches, or leaves, ground real fine, and used 10 oz. of 184 proof shine I had available. I tested it myself using a Widder alcoholmeter - 92%.
Everything went exactly as you said, and your tip about the garlic press is great. I ended up with 8 oz. of deep emerald green high proof gd, which is the very best way I've ever used shine or bud. Thanks again for your recipe.
Now, the reason I'm writing is b/c of what happened while making my second batch using 32 g. manicured bud, 12 oz . 184 pr. shine. Everything was perfect until I lifted the Mason jar from the hot water (about 10 oz. gd).
Just as the bottom of the jar cleared the water, the bottom of the Mason jar fell out, dumping my gd into the 6 cups of water in my kettle. I had a very accurate test thermometer in the Mason jar at all times and used it to stir during the 20 min. extraction period.
Does any one know why this happened? I have idea, but I'm not sure. Any ideas or reasons would help b/c this could have been a nasty burn if it happened 1 second later.
Best Regards
mr_vega
01-21-2007, 03:12 PM
can i use lemon extract instead of rum (like on greendragonsoda), but still follow this method? is lemon extract less effective?
Podge_Boro
01-23-2007, 06:12 PM
cnt wait to try that
i think im in love
Stoney21
01-25-2007, 10:00 AM
I am not sure what yall mean by high quality bud. Where I am from high quality bud is either hydro or exotic, which can sell for between $20-$30 a gram. So this would be quite expensive for me. I get regular wich is swag. This is not too bad, and is cheap. It has redish hairs, and it gets my mother and me high with about a joint. But to get me stoned it would take 2 joints (I smoke all day every day). So could I use this, and if so how much should I use? Please help me with this.:jointsmile:
Stoney21
01-25-2007, 10:06 AM
:jointsmile: I am sorry for double posting, but I just thought of something to add to help yall answer my question. I made about a dozen cookies with an ounce of this pot, and I ate 3 plus , and I was so messed up that I could not control myself. This was my first and last time eating cookies. So can you please tell me if this is good enough to use.:jointsmile:
MOBABN
01-26-2007, 04:18 AM
I am not sure what yall mean by high quality bud. Where I am from high quality bud is either hydro or exotic, which can sell for between $20-$30 a gram. So this would be quite expensive for me. I get regular wich is swag. This is not too bad, and is cheap. It has redish hairs, and it gets my mother and me high with about a joint. But to get me stoned it would take 2 joints (I smoke all day every day). So could I use this, and if so how much should I use? Please help me with this.:jointsmile:
well you basically answered your own question, the recipe calls for high quality bud. If an 8th of "dro, exotic" is too much for ya to part ways with then this isnt for you.
DeepFriedBrain
01-29-2007, 12:42 PM
I can see something wrong here. THC starts to boil at 250c-300c(strain dependant)
All the THC acid will decarboxylate to active THC if you bake it at 100c, you'll keep more flavour and more THC in your dragon.
The measuring display on my stove isn't that accurate to show 325 temperature... would an oven work?
nvm. just wonder if it would work without catching my stove on fire.
some questions:
can the temperature be placed at 310 to 320 for heating up the bud at the beginning for five minutes..? and afterwards you want the mason jar in the preheated oven for 20 minutes or wait for it to boil for 20 minutes? Can 21 minutes be done?
can you boil the water in the oven? and then put the jar in the water that's in the oven and let both sit in the oven at 170 for 20 mins?
Black Castro
02-16-2007, 01:08 AM
Bow down to the master! Do you have a temple where I can carry water up the steps?
Black Castro
02-16-2007, 01:09 AM
Seriously though are you a scientist or what?
well Im going to get the thermometer so I can use the stove...
I just want to know if THC can actually be extracted through heating the mixture instead of having to wait 2-3 weeks and if it's the same high. I don't want to have to wait so long. if I do this perfectly when I get my thermometer I hope I don't waste my bud... :P I'm going to try it tho. Master Wu you've tried this yourself numerous times huh?
um I hope meat thermometer works...
my green dragon is fully complete. I used a meat thermometer..
only thing that crosses my mind now is that I did a bit longer than 20-21 minutes to make sure it really gets absorbed because I wasn't sure if the temperature was correctly 170 for 20-21 minutes.. and at the end after I removed it from heat to check how it did, I put it back in the water bath for it to get to 170 degrees again and hold it there for some good amount of time to make sure it all gets absorbed, and found that I may've put the stove on for too high and waited too long to check the thermometer (was busy at the time) to see if it was 170, and it was at like 175-80. At that point I just removed it from heat finally and let it cool for it to be stored..
Im going to try it out tomorrow to see if it works.
I used about an eighth of schwag in case anyone was wnodering what kind of bud I was useing..
good and righteous marijuana consumption ya'll
Im really hoping this works..
peacepipe36
02-16-2007, 02:46 PM
Has anyone tried to make GD with hash/pollum/ice-o (real hash, not soap)? Just wondering if it might make the process a little easier since you don't have to strain it.
it's been about one hour already and I don't feel a thing...
is there a way that I could've burnt away the thc after heating it up for longer?
or maybe my thermometer wasn't right? it was bubbling finely for a good 20 minutes..
well not as strong as I expected.. I took 2 dropperfuls... I may take some more but Im going to wait 1hr and 30-45.
well after 2 hours I felt nothing. so I just finished taking double the dose about 4 1/3 dropperfuls. Putting them in tablespoons of water to taste it. Tastes strong or pungent but hopefully its the right kind of taste..
I might try making another batch today.
well lets see, I've made another batch, this time paying attention to the smell, while the bud is in the oven , 'activating it's thc' or w/e, and then trying to as quickly as I can transfer it to the 151 on the stove already being at 175-80 degrees tho so I took it out of the pan and then put the bud in then put it back.. thing rose again to 175-80 all fast and I took it out like 2-3 times. then it lowered to 170 or lower and Im keeping it there for 20 minutes.
I noticed a smell that was gone in my last batch when I was making it , the alcohol didn't tingle my nose anymore when I came up to smell it. I thought maybe by going too high in temperature, I might've lost that smell which may be whats needed for the alcohol to activate the thc..
I'll let ya'll know how it goes..
k I took 4 dropperfuls of this stuff...
hopefully it worked even tho I let the temp be a little lower than 170 but since I read that you had done 160-65 before so I thought it may work. I just didn't want to go over 170 at all. If it's necessary to be 170 then in my next batch I won't start counting down the 20 minutes until I reach a steady exact temperature of 170.
I also thought maybe the tingly smell of the 151 should be more of a 'well done' heated smell, instead of just smelling tingly as if there was alcohol left not heated up thoroughly enough to 'activate' the thc. I was left with more alcohol 'tincture' this time, more than 1 ounce.
Next time I'll try to exact 170 temperature for exactly 20 minutes. If this works I want to master it. I just hope I can be a little flexible.
well this last one did not work well either...
so the decarboxylation should leave it looking a bit brown? I sometimes think I might burn it and the thc into the air. should it be browned a bit or can I leave some color, I just notice how much my bud smells from warm to burning and it smells nice just being heated and not looking too burned or brown and dry. so I take it out of the oven from 4-5 minutes still having a little green left.
browned a littled charred or what?
I really want to find a way to extract thc into alcohol to make tincture without having to wait weeks... this green dragon method hasn't worked for me and I tried all variations...
Bob the Awesome
02-18-2007, 05:28 PM
Try using some higher quality bud possibly, if you're using 'schwag' or something similar, that may be why. Unluckily, almost every recipe you'll read will call for an 8th of 'fine quality bud', meaning you need something better than you're using, most likely.
yeah. I was using lots of twigs and leaves (schwag).. "shake" you know.
I wanted to add some facts here I found on decarboxylation which some may find useful.
Heating dried marijuana makes the carboxyl group convert into water (H2O) and carbon dioxide (CO2). When marijuana is smoked, the burning eliminates the carboxyl group. There are several ways to decarboxylate marijuana for use in extracts. A layer of marijuana buds or leaf can be placed in an oven at 150 degrees for 15 minutes. This is far below the boiling point of THC yet warm enough to evaporate the carboxyl group. Another method of releasing the COOH is by placing a bowl of buds in the microwave for 2 minutes. The waves will boil away the water. The boiling point of marijuana's active cannabinoids ranges from 260-392 degrees F.
Decarboxylation (http://cannabisculture.com/articles/3037.html)
and
The liquid THC and other cannabinoids have a boiling point of between 180-200° C (355-392° F). Before they turn gaseous, at around 106° C (220° F), the carboxyl group is released from the molecule as carbon dioxide and water vapor.
Decarboxylation (http://cannabisculture.com/articles/2794.html)
I bought a better non meat candy thermometer with the bulb at the bottom for this recipe..
Cannabisaurus
02-23-2007, 09:45 PM
I made a couple batches of this stuff using schwag and Everclear. The first batch I made I had to take 3 doses before I felt a little bit of a body high. The second batch I made I think I might have knackered. I got a little distracted and let the alcohol boil for a little too long so now I just have some damp stuff at the bottom of the jar. Is there any way I can maybe add some more Everclear to this to rescue some of it or should I just try and squeeze what I can out of it?
Also, does the mixture have to boil at 170F or would it be possible to decrease the temperature a little (say 160F or so) and boil it for longer? My stovetop sucks.
ucesq
03-06-2007, 02:20 AM
I just made my first batch of GD with Everclear and an eighth of Trainwreck. I tested it out and it takes about 2 droppers to work as oposed to Master Wu's one dropper full.
My question for Master Wu is:
How important is it for the simmering temperature to be 170 degrees for 2 minutes?
As I see it, since the vaporization temp for THC is around 380F, does it really matter if you go over 170F? So long as you dont get anywhere near 380, I would think the THC would remain in the mixture and not degrade.
I ask the question because I was a dummy and used 4 oz. of Everclear instead of 2 oz. (I filled a measuring cup to 1/8 line but later realized that I was using a pint based measuring cup!). Anyhow, I simply boiled off 3 oz. of Everclear instead of only 1oz. It took me about 50 minutes of boiling the mixture at 170-175 degrees to reduce the mixture down to a little more than 1 oz.
So I'm wondering if the reduced potency of my mixture is due to: (a) increased simmering temperature and time; (b) inadequate decarboxylation; (c) poor quality bud; or (d) a combination of a,b or c.
Thanks for your guidance and advice Master Wu!
I think I've been burning the bud in the decarboxylation process because of my oven. I just set it at the lowest temp 170 for about 17-18 minutes and the bud is really aromatic :smokin:
Weedhound
03-06-2007, 04:10 AM
Guys I don't get it....what's wrong with eating it? It's GOT to be less work than all this.
sleepless
03-06-2007, 11:08 AM
whats wrong with using isopropyl alcohol, the strongest stuff i can get around here is 40% whiskey. is it harmfull in any way?
sleepless
03-06-2007, 11:30 AM
ok, i just read upon isopropyl [rubbing] alcohol. it acts as a poison on the human body so dont use it.
E Man
03-07-2007, 12:58 AM
Yesterday I needed to make a batch but only had about a gram of bud. So I added about half a gram of keif. I also realized from reading this thread again that the last 2 batches I made, I baked at way too cool of a setting on the oven. 250 for 5 min. instead of 325 for 5 min. really makes a difference. No wonder it didn't get as brown as all the previous times.:stupid: *NOTE TO SELF* Check the recipe before making it!!
Now back to what I was saying. I ground up the herb and spread it out on the foil then sprinkled the keif on the herb then baked it. That pile of THC rich organic material and a couple of glugs out of the jug of EVERCLEAR went into a pint Mason Jar which I set into a couple of inches of boiling water in a saucepan. After I started heating it in the water bath, my wife needed to go to the store right now. I just turned off the fire and left it. When we got back I turned the heat back on and when the thermometer read 170 I timed 20 min. then turned it back off. I got this cool little strainer bag that I use to strain and press out all the GD but a ladies' knee high nylon stocking (Preferably new, but whatever you're into...:wtf: lol) works good and they're like 99 cents at Walmart. Then I add honey and adjust to taste. This time it took about 4 dropperfuls to get the taste right. Now I'm 6' tall and 220 lbs and with this batch 1 dropper would have sufficed. I finished the taste test at 5PM and started to make room in the garage for the new washing machine. At 7PM I noticed I was feeling it and over the next couple of hours it was a fucking cresendo man. By 10 I was wandering around in the garage trying to remember what in the hell I was doing. It was fuckin-a near narcotic, and at 4AM when I got up I was still too high to drive 'til after breakfast. If you follow this recipe it will work but you need an eighth of good weed, bake it at 325 for 5 min., and don't let it go over 170 when you are double boiling it.
Later
E
Cannabisaurus
03-07-2007, 04:59 PM
While heating the alcohol mixture would the THC evaporate away with the alcohol if you boiled it for too long? Or would it be possible to just add more booze and start over?
man I don't know why this never works for me. Today I tried again, half of the bud was set at 250 for 5 minutes for decarboxylation and the other half at 170 for 17 minutes.
Also I used Kind Bud for the last batch.. thankfully I guess I can still smoke it. Is it my oven or what? Should I try one last time decarboxylating at 170 for lesser time like 15 minutes or less?
Cannabisaurus
03-08-2007, 01:14 AM
Non, are you using an oven thermometer as well? I used one since my stove/oven is rather old and found out that it was about 50F hotter than it should be.
joetwitch
03-08-2007, 01:37 AM
man im goin to make some right now
i love trippin like that
:jointsmile: :jointsmile:
yeah Cannibisaurus my oven does the same, about 30-50 degrees higher and then it goes down lower than the set temperature.
Master Wu
03-08-2007, 09:14 PM
Hi Friends,
Happy to see so many of you are having success with GD. Let's see if I can answer a few questions and help you get even better results.
1. Increase the Amount of Ethanol for a Better Extraction
It occurred to me that maybe I could improve the extraction efficiency by using a larger volume of solvent (the ethanol). Think about dissolving salt in water, if you use a larger volume of water you can dissolve more salt before the solution becomes saturated and the salt falls out. Shouldn't the same properties apply to cannaboids in ethanol? So for my most recent batch, I started with 3oz of Everclear instead of the 2oz of rum (a 50% increase in volume as well as a more pure ethanol). After extracting for 20 minutes I had 2oz of GD remaining instead of the normal 1oz.
If my previous extraction method was perfectly efficient, you would predict that the new GD would only be half as strong as the old GD since the same amount of cannaboids were now dissolved in 2oz instead of 1oz. Happily, the new GD was almost as strong as the old GD. This means that by increasing the amount of solvent (ethanol) for my extraction, I was able to extract more cannaboids (goodies).
Thus, it is okay (probably even preferable) to use more ethanol for your extraction as this seems to improve the efficiency of the extraction. It would be great if someone with a good deal of GD experience should test this out (how about you OKSmoky).
2. Boiling Temperature
Ethanol boils at 172°F. It is really hard to make the temperature go above 172 without doing something really dangerous. Just use the water bath, let the ethanol boil, and it should stay right on 170°F-172°F. Relax, float downstream??if it is boiling, you are doing fine.
3. Green Tea
Following up on the idea of Green Beer (aka Dragon Tail Ale for you microbrew fans), I have invented Green Tea. Put your dropper or two of GD into a nice cup of your favorite tea, add honey if you like, and sip away. Have a tea party. Personally I prefer a nice black tea like Darjeeling (and I like calling black tea green tea). It hits slower than Green Beer, but faster than a dropper alone. BTW??this also means you can now make lollipops or other happy confections.
4. Boiling Off the Alcohol
If it looks like you have boiled off too much of the alcohol, you can probably just add more. If you were to boil off all the ethanol you would probably be left with some sort of resin (hmmm). The THC should not evaporate unless the temperature goes over 380°F (vaporization point of THC) if the solvent evaporates.
5. Non??what do we do with you?
You must follow the directions.
Don't be high when you do this.
Don't ever put the ethanol in the oven??BOOM!
Bud NOT schwag.
Have a friend help you. Preferably someone who did pretty good in chemistry class.
Master Wu
the Alchemist
TX Girl
03-09-2007, 04:48 AM
Master Wu,
I made this per your instructions the other day and it worked great, just wanted to say THANKS!!
I was nervous about boiling it so I did it in a double boiler. Couldn't get it to a high enough temp in the db so I ditched it and went bk to your instructs. Easy to follow, great results! I love having dosing options!
well I'm jealous. I did follow instructions. I've tried decarboxylation with all the recommended temps. Why oh why does simple cause and effect not work for me...
ucesq
03-09-2007, 06:37 PM
You are a genius.
kwijibud
03-10-2007, 08:46 PM
here i go.... just made a batch. used 2g of chronic, 2.5oz Everclear (which in CA you can get if you go on base!), and just finished making it. gonna sit here and see what happens. ill get pictures of what my final product looked like. Wu, do you have pictures of what you call "green-brown" vs. "emerald green"?
Master Wu
03-11-2007, 02:16 AM
Kwijibud,
Thanks for reminding me about the color. When I said the color of GD should be green-brown I was using 151 Rum (dark of course). Now that I have switched to using Everclear the color of the GD is a much more lovely deep emerald green.
So don't fret if you get a nice green colored GD when using clear spirits.
Master Wu
------------
the alchemist
kwijibud
03-11-2007, 06:03 PM
woah. woah woah woah!
okay, so i ended up w/ about 1.5oz of GD. it was emerald green in straight light, little darker (forest green) on a dark background. i wasnt sure how much to dose so i just started scooping it out w/ a flat spoon into a cup. (i need to get a dropper for more consistency).
so i didnt smoke (obviously) to see if this stuff really works. im a pretty big smoker so i thought i would need a lot to get faded. i also hadnt eaten in a long while. pretty empty stomach.
1/2 hour later i was like "um... i think im feeling something. it could be the everclear i guess"
1 hour later i was like "boy im sitting here at my computer not knowing what to do." so i stood up and was tipsy.
1.5 hours later i was walking around aimlessly like "What the fizuck??!~?!?" i was stoned off my ass.
2 hours later i was laughing hysterically for no reason. i was toasted. toasted toasted toasted!!
the whole thing lasted about 5 hours (6 hours after consumption) and lingered for another hour or so.
let me just say i was pretty skeptical about the whole thing but now im a firm believer! this is great especially since ive been having some coughing problems lately. this totally eliminates smoking. however, it does require a full day of being stoned (im not complaining!)
thanks Wu. awesome recipe. awesome results.
i just gave my Girlfriend a hefty dosage on an empty stomach, so we'll see what happens.
thanks
Cannabisaurus
03-13-2007, 12:11 AM
Last week I added a about 1.5 oz everclear to the mixture I had left, boiled it a little and then let it sit to cool down and ended up with about 15mL. Thursday I took about 1.5mL and was a little buzzed for a few hours, but nothing major. Saturday I woke up at 11 and took 3mL on a completely empty stomach. About half an hour later I really started feeling it and I was completely ripped until about 5 or 5:30. This mixture was made with schwag so I'm excited to see what I can do with good bud. Thanks Master Wu!
Another question that came to mind though. How long do you think it is able to sit before it separates (if it ever does)?
GreenDragonManiac
03-13-2007, 05:17 PM
Hey Master Wu, good to see you are still experimenting. Mind if I post more of your results on Green Dragon Recipes (Marijuana Drink) (http://www.greendragonsoda.com) ? I will probably update that in the next few weeks when I have some time.
Last fall I did a little experiment, and I believe I found the most convenient method for making green dragon:
1. Microwave *dry* weed on high for 2 minutes. NO ALCOHOL IN MICROWAVE.
2. Place 1/2 gram of crumbled weed in a dry, clean, empty glass bottle that is used for iodine water purification tablets. Fill all the way with lemon extract (90% alcohol). Do not use the iodine tablets, only the bottle. Make sure the lid is metal with metal threads. This prevents bursting from vapor pressure.
3. Place bottle inside a black light-proof sunglasses case or camera case. Leave on the dashboard of your car for several days in the sun. For some areas this will only work in the summertime when it's at least 90F outside.
It can be very strong! I accidentally got really high at a music festival by drinking this. :-)
ballllin
03-18-2007, 06:09 AM
what if i wrap the weed inside tinfoil (airtight) while baking it at the beginning so that it won't stink up the house? will i need to bake for an extra minute or sumthing?
also, will there be less odor if i use the microwave for 2 minutes?
great recipe tho, can't wait to try it. would it work with any kind of alochol beverage to some extent? i only have an 80 proof bacardi lyin around..
CannabisCrooz
03-18-2007, 08:55 AM
woops double post sorry
CannabisCrooz
03-18-2007, 08:55 AM
man I don't know why this never works for me. Today I tried again, half of the bud was set at 250 for 5 minutes for decarboxylation and the other half at 170 for 17 minutes.
I think this is your problem, doesn't the recipe say 325 degrees for 5 minutes?
Anyway I haven't tried this yet but plan on doing so very soon. Sounds like if its done right you really get a bang for your buck. 30 servings from an 8th :O
I've tried the temp at 325 thing, but my oven thermometer says it goes over 325 degrees. And I've seen other decarboxylation methods that call for 150 degrees for 15 minutes. Plus I read that weed starts decarboxylating at the temp 240 or so, and at the set temp of 170 to 180, it goes to 240 at times. So I set it there thinking that should be fine... I read that thc is vaporized around 340-50(?) and if I set my oven at 325 itll go higher than that, but also then lower, and higher again, then lower, etc.
Maybe 275-300 degrees could work, just need a time frame.. I guess 6-9 mins?
thecreator
03-18-2007, 09:16 PM
Damn! I went to a St Patty's day part and this would of gone over great. We all smoked but we all would have been that much more fucked up! I'm making this on Tue so thanks and I hope it turns out perfect.
anyone know a method of making green dragon in a freezer or in cold temperatures just above freezing?? like if I'm making a tincture by just letting the bud sit in alcohol for some time, except in cold temperatures.
I doubt it would do anything since, alcohol has a lower freezing temp...
I've been trying to make a green dragon tincture using about an ounce of lemon extract and half a gram to a gram of 'crippy', lots from roaches in a 2 ounce dropper bottle, sitting next to a window in an eyeglasses case.
It's been out there about 3-4 days. a lil more than 3. I wonder when it's going to be ready. and if i'd have to drink the whole thing to have an effect on me and even the bud or I can just do dropperfuls. Also i stuck it in the freezer one time for some time, wondering if that could make the extraction process faster or more potent. maybe drinking it cold would make it better too..?
pwnydanzasmokesdank
03-20-2007, 06:11 PM
i dont see how that makes any sense non considering the only reason this works would be the prebake of the buds and the simmering in the alcohol. but goodluck with it maybe something could turn out lol
ballllin
03-20-2007, 10:59 PM
anyone know a method of making green dragon in a freezer or in cold temperatures just above freezing?? like if I'm making a tincture by just letting the bud sit in alcohol for some time, except in cold temperatures.
I doubt it would do anything since, alcohol has a lower freezing temp...
wow u sound desperate
ucesq
03-28-2007, 09:14 PM
Made 2 batches for St. Patty's Day and it was a hit! All over the SF Bay Area people are praising Master Wu for the Green Dragon. Btw, young hot nurses seem to love riding the Green Dragon! :thumbsup:
well I found a good decarboxylation temperature with my oven at 225 for 5 minutes or so. doesn't go above 250 which is when some of the cannabinoids start boiling.
Could I also make large batches like master Wu's just with lemon extract?
scream
03-29-2007, 10:30 PM
Could I also make large batches like master Wu's just with lemon extract?
ok, read the package...does the extract have a high alcohol content?
now read the instructions...do the instructions say to use something with a high alcohol content?
if the answer to both of these questions is yes then i think that you can do the math by yourself
lol, yeah. damn I hate when I can't sleep. I have this back problem..
I didn't know that 75-80 percent is high alcohol content, since I thought 151 rum had more.
hm well I think I got it to kind of work with weak schwag ? except that I used some extract with propylene glycol, I bought 2 bottles of extract, one orange and one raspberry, thinking they were both the same but they weren't.
I just drank the whole thing, and I've been feeling something...
thecreator
03-30-2007, 03:03 PM
Hell yea! I know what I'm drinking for 420 lol. Anyway take care and who ever thought of this thread is a genius. Thanks Master Wu
bakedpotato
03-31-2007, 02:27 AM
lol non - u crack me up man :thumbsup:
bud luv
04-06-2007, 07:42 PM
I made a double batch a week ago and I've been in a haze ever since. Shit get's you wasted... I've been waking up high. Thanks, Master Wu.
Aristotle
04-07-2007, 04:45 AM
Bah! I baked about an 8th of good dank for exactly 5 mins until it smelled, put 2.5 oz of everclear and the weed into the mason jar for the water bath, and cooked it at about 166 or so(couldn't quite get up to 170) for 20 minutes. Strained it and pressed it out.. we only ended up getting like 9 ml of it and it wasn't potent at all =\
I feel like 'non' but it pisses me off because I followed directions perfectly! Did the 5 degrees really make all the different, you think?
FreeVenice
04-20-2007, 03:08 AM
O.K. I just finished reading this whole thread, and I would love to try it. I have a bottle of Everclear (190 proof), and enough bud. I just had a couple quick questions. First, I have read all the steps but I seem to have missed the part on storing it. Are you able to save it, or do you have to drink it often? Second, Isn't this also a process for making honey oil? What's the differance between the two???
FreeVenice
04-28-2007, 10:22 AM
ok, here it is, how does it look. . .
Cannabisaurus
05-05-2007, 06:25 AM
Has anyone tested the potency over an extended amount of time? How long are you able to keep this stuff before or if it goes bad?
jrs212
05-07-2007, 03:52 PM
My first try at Green Dragon is a success. I used 2 oz. of Everclear, 1/8 oz of good bud. At 8:00 A.M. I mixed 1 gr. of Dragon with 1 shot of Mtn. Dew. I now have a nice, maintainable buzz going on now. Tomorrow morning I will try 1 1/2 gr. The experiment goes on.
BBoyShotty
06-01-2007, 07:28 PM
damn i reallly wanan try this, but im just as curious as the people above me on storage times..how long can i keep it in the fridge before it separates? or does it separate at all?
cause damn, 30 hits of this shit sohould last at least like..30 days rite?:P i dont wanna be making a batch this size if it goes bad in like 2 days or something, you know?
anyone have personal experiences with this issue?
ucesq
06-06-2007, 07:05 AM
damn i reallly wanan try this, but im just as curious as the people above me on storage times..how long can i keep it in the fridge before it separates? or does it separate at all?
cause damn, 30 hits of this shit sohould last at least like..30 days rite?:P i dont wanna be making a batch this size if it goes bad in like 2 days or something, you know?
anyone have personal experiences with this issue?
I've kept a batch around for 3 months and it still works fine. Just make sure you store in a dark place. Also, it never separates (as far as i can tell). :jointsmile:
GraziLovesMary
06-08-2007, 12:56 AM
Ummm I didnt feel like reading past the first page, so I dont know how many times this question has been answered, but...
To the people curious of what a water bath is... Watch "Menace 2 Society" again. You get a saucepan and put a couple of inches of water in it and put it on the stove to simmer. Put your weed and alcohol in an uncapped mason jar and place the jar in the pan so that the heated water heats up the mason jar. Get it??
As far as the THC evaporating with the other vapors... substances that evaporate do so because they have been heated to their vaporizing point. Waters boiling point is 212F but it begins to steam much sooner than that. The vaporizing point of THC is about 375-380, and since the simmer is less than half that, no. The THC is safe from evaporating with the rest of the alcohol and water.
LargeToker37
06-13-2007, 05:08 AM
By water bath I'm assuming that you put the mason jar of alcohol/weed in a boiling pot of water. Am I correct about this?
Man, if this stuff is really as potent as you would make it seem I'll have to try it.
But I won't be using Everclear, even though I could. It seems too dangerous to have that much Everclear near something that hot. Everclear is 95% alcohol (190 proof) for those who don't have it where they live. Very very very flammable.
LargeToker37
06-13-2007, 05:42 AM
Crap. I thought there was only one page of this. Well, I guess I will use Everclear if this many people have had success with it.
Also, while reading this topic I thought something. Some of the people here may be having problems because they are measuring the temp. of the water during the water bath process instead of the temp. of the weed/alcohol mix. It might be worth 2 or 3 degrees difference. Just a thought.
I am very surprised that no one has asked Master Wu to check his facts regarding the temps THC actually begins to vaporize.
He claims that THC begins to vaporize at 380F(195C). Well THC actually begins to vaporise from as low as 280F(140C). Hell my Volcano is set to vaporise at 360F(180C)!!!
I would strongly suggest that you should in fact use a temp below 280F to get the most out of your bud. Apart from this..It is an interesting thread.
BBoyShotty
06-29-2007, 06:17 AM
hey i dont know where i read this, but i heard that i can use lemon extract instead of alcohol..is this true? I was grocery shopping and walked by a lil bottle of it and wanted to pick it up, but i wasnt sure if it would work or not...anyone know?
Laukhyn
07-01-2007, 03:26 AM
I just made a batch of GD with 4oz. of lemon extract and an 1/8oz. of chronic. It works but I need to concentrate it more so I plan on cooking the extract a bit longer and burning off some of the alcohol. I can't seem to find if anyone has had success with this or not.
dopefiend
07-12-2007, 07:25 AM
i would like to know if you could cook the weed and then instead of cooking the mixture just let it sit for like 2 months stirring it every day?
Mandelbrot
08-19-2007, 05:42 PM
I finally tried Master Wu's recipe with no apparent results. I grinded my bud, baked it at 325 F precisely with a candy thermometer for 5 minutes. My buds got a little brown, but were still green enough to make me wonder if it was too short and/or too low temp. But according to Master Wu, 325 F, 5 minutes should be good!? Anyway, after, I put it in 2 oz of 94% alcool and let it simmers for 20 minutes at 170 F. It turned out to be 1 oz of a clean, green emerald solution after filtration on a 0,2 µM pore membrane (I work in a biotech lab, we frequently use that as a cold sterilisation method for some sensible solution).
The final liquid was free of any impurity but still ineffective with 4 ml after 1h. Damn. I think the pre-baking wasn't sufficient, the weed wasn't that brownish-green as one would expect. And i'm almost out of weed now after my two attemps at making GD. Gotta try again later this month when my weed inventory will allow me.
The first time I tryed it, I only had a meat thermometer, and 40% alcool, which wasn't ideal, but now...
bobhasbitchtits
08-22-2007, 05:07 PM
Has anyone tried this method with stems? About a month ago I placed about a half ounce of grinded stems into 120 proof tequila to cold distill it. According to the original poster, the cold extraction is less effective and since I used stems I'm afraid it will have been useless. I'm about to try it, I'll post my findings soon. In the meantime, anyone else tried this? Any good results?
deathduck
08-26-2007, 12:40 AM
Hi, I have a very important question about green dragon. How long will the brew last before it 'goes bad'. The reason I must ask this is due to my situation, a batch of green dragon is likley to last me 1year+ so I need to know if it will go bad, chemically or physically or biologically.
Also to the poster above me, yes it should work with stems but you need a lot. The reason I say this is, a friend of mine made butter out of an ounce of stems. We ate the brownies and got unbeleiveably high. There is thc in stems but not as much as bud.
Master Wu
08-30-2007, 03:53 AM
Hi Friends,
I have some GD that is 6 months old and has not decreased in potency. I do keep mine in the fridge, but I do it out of habit and have no evidence that this increases longevity.
Other herbal tinctures seem to last indefinitely. Think about echinacea extract or vanilla extract; their shelf-life is very long. Other than the fridge (which is probably not necessary), I'd keep it out of sunlight.
Cheers,
Master Wu
elewton
09-12-2007, 07:11 PM
Unfortunately, it's very difficult to get high-proof ethanol.
Citrus extracts 'round here appear to be made with propylene glycol. Has anyone had success making tinctures with this or any other organic solvent?
I'm really looking forward to this.
nicandy
09-16-2007, 02:32 AM
Green dragon, huh? Now that sounds like the right thing to do to stretch a few grams... (btw, 1/8 oz is about 3.5 grams, right?)
Correct me if I am wrong, but rhum 151 is about 75% ABV (Alcohol By Volume), right? Up here in Canada, we have "Alcohol 94", which would be about 188 alcohol proof. If that is the case, using "94" would make a hell of potent GD!!!
Mandelbrot
09-16-2007, 03:25 PM
That's what I did. I already got everything, including 94% alcool. I just need more weed to do my test. I tried 2 times yet, but failed both of them. I'll try again when my stock of weed will be good enough.
dragonrider
09-19-2007, 07:18 PM
I made a variation on Master Wu's recipe that worked really well. It was potent, tasted pretty good, and it is a little easier to measure out than the Green Dragon tincture. This variation is more of a Green Dragon Liqueur that you measure out in shots, instead of a concentrated Green Dragon tincture like Master Wu's that you measure out in droppers. But it is based on the principles that Master Wu described, and it uses a lot of the same techniques as Master Wu does.
I used about 4 grams of good bud. I didn't grind it in a grinder, but I broke it up into small hit-sized pieces. I decarboxylized it in the oven at 200 degrees Farenheit for about 25 minutes --- I was afraid of using the higher temperature that Master Wu uses. Thanks for the info on decarboxylizing, Master Wu --- it seems like that is an important step.
I used the boiling water bath and put the bud in a Pyrex measuring cup with 8 ounces of Everclear. I suggest using the Pyrex measuring cup becasue it is made to take extreme heating. It won't break. Ordinary glass is not made for heating, and it can break when there is a heat differential. I think an earlier poster mentioned having their jar break when lifting it out of the water bath. Use the Pyrex instead of a jar. Also, in California the Everclear is 151 proof, not 190 --- probably some kind of legal limit in this state. That seems to be the strongest liquor available. I used a full 8-ounce cup of Everclear, which is about 4 times what Master Wu uses. I used more because I was aiming for a liqueur, not a tincture.
I boiled the mixture for about 25 minutes, and it reduced by about 2 ounces, so there was about 6 ounces of liquid left. I strained off the extracted liquid into another larger measuring cup using a fine mesh strainer, and I squeezed out as much liquid as possible by squashing the mash with a spoon. I'm always afraid there is still some of the good stuff left behind, so I put the squeezed-out mash back in the original measuring cup and added another few ounces of Everclear. I heated that for a couple of minutes, then strained off that liquid and added it to the first batch of liquid. And then I repeated it one more time with a few more ounces of Everclear. The first press was a dark chartreuse color, the second press was a lot lighter, and the third was barely colored at all. So I'm pretty sure I got everything that could be extracted.
Side Note: Three extractions might be a little overboard, but my recipe needs the alcohol anyway, so why not? If you are aiming for a tincture like Master Wu's, maybe you don't want to do all the extractions. But I would always be concerned that there was a little left behind. If a dose of Master Wu's Green Dragon tincture is 1 ml, it seems like there could be a dose or two left absorbed in the mash no matter how much you squeezed it. One suggestion if you are following Master Wu's recipe would be after squeezing all the Green Dragon tincture out of the mash, add another shot of alcohol back to the mash and do a second extraction, but don't add the second extraction back to the tincture. Just dilute it to a drinkable state and chug it on down. If someone is making the tincture, you might try this and report back. Maybe I am worrying over nothing, or maybe there is some good stuff that can still be recovered.
OK, back to the recipe. After combining all three extractions, there was about 12 ounces of chartreuse-colored liquid. I wanted 12 ounces, so I don't actually remember if the extracts added up to 12 ounces or if I topped it off to 12 ounces with clean Everclear, but one way or another it was 12 ounces. Everclear is not drinkable. It will burn your mouth and throat. And not like, "Ouch. That burned my mouth," more like, "Holy crap! The lining of my mouth and throat are painfully scorched, my lungs feel like I inhaled fire, and now I need to spend a week healing! What the hell was I thinking?" Don't drink Everclear without mixing it with something else. My goal was to make a drinkable liqueur, so I needed to dilute it a bit and sweeten it. I added somewhere between 3/4 cup and 1 cup of simple syrup to sweeten it. Simple syrup is sugar syrup that is made by disolving 2 parts sugar in part water and boiling it until it disolves. It's good to have around for mixing cocktails. You could just use an equal amount of straight suger instead of simple syrup, but it takes a little more stiring to disolve it. Or you could use honey, which is what I am going to try next time. After adding the simple syrup, I added water to bring the total volume up to 3 cups, or 24 ounces.
Another Side Note: An interesting thing happened when I added the water. The extracted liquids were still pretty warm, and I added cold mineral water from the refrigerator. Before I added the water, the extracted liquids were green, but pretty much clear --- you could see through them. As I added the cold water, the liquid clouded and became opaque, sort of like the Green Fairy reaction that happens when you add ice water to Absinthe. Next time I think I will add warm water to see if I can keep the liquid clear. It might be fun to make a variation of this recipe that you serve by doing the Absinthe ritual, complete with the Green Fairy phenomenon.
The end result is that I have a bottle of Green Dragon Liqueur that is pretty tasty and will knock you on your ass if you are not careful. Master Wu says that his process results in 1 ounce of tincture, which is 30 ml, and a dose is about 1 ml, so about 30 doses per extraction. I would figure about the same number of doses for my variation, but mine is more diluted, so the doses are larger shots. I ended up with about 24 ounces, so if you say 30 doses is pretty close to 24 slightly stronger doses, then figure a good strong dose is about a 1-ounce shot of Green Dragon Liqueur. Following Master Wu's instructions, I "self titrated" with a 1-ounce shot. Within a half an hour I started to come on, and after an hour I was flying. I would guess maybe a 4 to 5-hour high with some lingering after effects. It was maybe a bit more than what I was looking for at that particular time, but probably OK in some settings. The next time I tried it, I tried half an ounce, which was effective, but maybe a little less than what I wanted. For this batch I'm thinking my perfect dose is about 3/4-ounce shot, more or less, depending on setting.
The flavor of the Green Dragon Liqueur is not bad. It tastes like bud, kind of grassy with a bit of a floralness, maybe some bitternes that is cut pretty well with the sweetness from the sugar added in the recipe. The most I was really hoping for was that it not be totally disgusting, and it is actually OK. I did start with some pretty nice floral-smelling bud, so if you started with something else, it might not be so nice. The basic ratios of alcohol extract, sugar and water are loosely based on recipes for other liqueurs, like Creme de Menthe --- about 1 and 1/2 cups grain alcohol over whatever is your flavoring, like mint leaves, age it, strain it, add about a cup of sugar, and top off with water to 24 ounces total volume. Becasue it was based on recipes that work for flavor, it actaully tastes decent. If you wanted to make it even better you could experiment with adding some mint extract, or maybe orange or lemon extract, whatever you thought would go with the taste of buds. I might try that. Or you can leave it as is and let the taste of the buds come through.
I figure the alcohol content of the Green Dragon Liqueur to be close to 75 proof, or 37%, maybe a little less. That is a bit strong for most liqueurs, but a little less than most distilled spirits, like whiskey or vodka. I calculated that by assuming the 12 ounces of extracted liquids were pretty close to the 151 proof, or 75%, alcohol content of the original Everclear --- they were probably actually a little lower becasue the heating would have evaporated some alcohol. If you take 12 ounces of a 75% alcohol solution and double the volume to 24 ounces by adding water and sugar, you get a half strength concentration, so about 37%, or 75 proof. I like this strength. It's not so high in alcohol compared to the cannabis content that you are going to get drunk before you get high, but there is enough alcohol to transport the cannabinoids into your system. Master Wu mentioned having good results from adding his Green Dragon tincture to a beer or wine. I believe that this is bacause alcohol is what transports the cannabinoids. I think there is a good chance that in Master Wu's original recipe, almost all of the alcohol is evaporated out of the tincture. So adding the tincture to an alcoholic beverage would help its effectiveness by adding back the alcohol needed to transport the cannabinoids. I think the liqueur variation probably has enough alcohol so that you should not need to add any more alcohol to boost effectieness.
I like how all the ratios worked out on this recipe. I started with about an 1/8th. I ended up with a full 750 ml liquor bottle of good tasting, medium alcohol content liqueur. And a nice round 1-ounce shot will send you to the moon.
One thing about the dosages --- I would guess a lot depends on the bud you start with and your own physiology. If the weed was not very good, or you have a Klingon constitution, or you have more or less weed, this exact recipe might not work out the same way. I would sugget you smoke some of the weed and try to figure out how many times you could get high on what you have. In my case, I would have guessed I could get high about 20 to 30 times on what I had, so working the recipe out to 24 1-ounce shots worked out just right. If the weed was not as good or not as much and I thought I could only get high 10 times, I would have aimed to get 10 ounces of final product. I would have done the extraction with less Everclear, topped it up with clean Everclear so that I had about 5 ounces of Everclear/extracted cannabis in the end, then added the water and suger so that it tasted right and came to about 10 ounces. Then I would have had about 10 1-ounce doses.
Thank you Master Wu for explaining the importance and technique for the decarboxylizing process. And for describing how to safely extract the liquids over heat without lighting the house on fire or having to use the wait-and-shake-for-a-month method. Your info helped me a lot.
Mandelbrot
09-27-2007, 01:07 AM
Well I did another test today. I baked it at 325 F for at 20 min. The last time I did it, I baked it like 5-6 mins and never got any result. I saw the little cloud of vapor and everything, the weed turned more brown green compared to the an unbaked sample. I did simmer it in 94% alcool for 23 minutes. What I got after straining was an opaque-green mixture. The exact color is hard to describe. If I strain it again with my 0,22 µM filter syringe I will necessarily get a green emerald mixture which is, according to Master Wu, a faillure. That's approximately what I got the last 2 times I tried and I never got any buzz. Goddam it, another 8th lost. fuck!
Mandelbrot
09-27-2007, 01:21 AM
Well thinking about that, Master Wu uses 151 proof rum which is already a little amber-light brown if I'm not mistaken. So it's probably normal if I get a greener solution since I use pure ethanol which is translucid.
Mandelbrot
09-27-2007, 03:08 AM
The final color of my GD is more like Office or Forest green according this chart http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emerald_(color) (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emerald_(color)) It's definitely not emerald.
Mandelbrot
09-27-2007, 03:23 AM
Green - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green) my mistake.
dragonrider
09-27-2007, 08:11 PM
Well thinking about that, Master Wu uses 151 proof rum which is already a little amber-light brown if I'm not mistaken. So it's probably normal if I get a greener solution since I use pure ethanol which is translucid.
I think Master Wu mentioned that when he used a differnt kind of alcohol, it came out more green. The brownness was due to the color of the rum 151.
When I made it with Everclear, it came out green, and it was very strong. I hope the same happens for you!
Mandelbrot
10-02-2007, 12:49 AM
I finally tried my new(09/27/07) batch for the first time today. 1 ml in 10 m l of water, one shot. I kind of felt a little effet, but nothing really great. After 2 hours still nothing significative. I'll try 1.5 ml or maybe 2 next time. But I think I felt something, so might just be a question of dosage.
ryemasta
10-14-2007, 11:05 AM
Chronic Peanut Butter & Green Dragon
When i got a massive stem in my weed i was pretty upset. I took it out immediately and put it in a water bottle with a little water in it.
A couple days later i was looking at tea's with chronic in it. That is when i stumbled across this forum about GD. Which i just learned about tonight.
I took my enoumous stem out of the water and cut it into little pieces with scissors. I also took about a gram from my new eighth of weed and cut that as fine as i could get it.
http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f4/ryemastafunk/DSCN2233.jpg
I followed these rules exactly but used a giant spoon like thing that made the baking a lot easier and effecient.
http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f4/ryemastafunk/DSCN2235.jpg
I also took the already baked leaves and re-heated them with this thing right over the flame.
http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f4/ryemastafunk/DSCN2232.jpg
I then took that cannibis that had been baked, been in the water chillen for 20 mins and releasing its THC, and been cooked in the little pearing spoon and put it directly into some peanut butter and made enough peanut butter for a peanut and jelly sandwich tomorrow thats gonna get me highhh.
http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f4/ryemastafunk/DSCN2240.jpg
This is what i had left of my 1/8 sack after i smoked a nice sized joint, hit my bong once, and made the GD. Its also the GD that i made for the first time:jointsmile:.
Not bad for my first time cooking with cannabis right? give me your feedback? what shall I try next?
subsonicbug
10-15-2007, 11:37 PM
Hello Cannibis.com forum readers!
I have just recently joined this forum to discuss Master Wu's Green Dragon Recipe because I love it so much!
I have tried master wu's recipe a few times with good results, but as the cheap and nerdy stoner that I am I would like to maximize our end result (THC Concentration in the Green Dragon) while minimizing initial herb amont (you know you feel me on this). To do this we need to ensure every step in this process is as efficient as possbile.
To me, the step that stands out the most is the decarboxylation process. It seems like the crucial process of decarboxylation has a variety of techniques, and I would like to join our efforts as herbal scientists to figure out the proper temperature/time for the most potent results.
As I have gathered, its seems like Master Wu uses a quick 5min bake time at 325 degrees fahrenheit, smokey uses 20 mins at 200 degrees F. Other websites have a variety of temperatures and bake times. Since the goal of this process is to remove a carboxyl group from the thc-a molecules WITHOUT vaporizing any thc and other active cannibinoids, I would assume that the best way to do this would be at the lowest temperature possible while still ensuring proper decarboxylation.
If I am mistaken and there is another chemical process taking place here apart from decarboxylation (possibly converting other less psycho-active cannibinoids to more active ones...) please tell me about it and explain why the higher temperatures accomplish that.
Master Wu, have you tried lower temperatures yet? or are you so happy with the 325 degree / 5 mins technique that you feel no need?
What information does anyone have concerning the minimum temperature for vaporization of the carboxyl group? So far the lowest temperature that I have read that remove the carboxyl group is 150 degrees F for 15 mins. I have also read that THC and other active cannibinoids can vaporize and leave the plant matter at temperatures as low as 250 degrees. This is why I want to find out exactly what temperature we can remove the carboxyl group with losing any active cannibinoids.
Moving on to other steps in the process, does anyone know of any technique that enhances the extraction rate/amount of THC from the plant material during the water-bath step? I make sure to use everclear and stir pretty often during this step as I have read that there is a thc-rich film which forms in the alcohol during this time that needs to be stirred back in.
Lastly, what methods of consuming Green Dragon yield the most complete absorbtion by the body? I read Wu's Green Dragon in Beer posts and this is what I have done for my attempts. I also assume the empty stomach is crucial. Anything else that can be added?
I would like to perfect Master Wu's technique, it's very close, but I think with everyone posting their techniques/results in a scientific way we can take it another step further. Master, please get back on this thread, I haven't seen any updated posts in a while!
Mandelbrot
10-16-2007, 12:28 AM
I finally got some interesting result with 6 ml, definetly a significative effect(but nothing like smoking) lasting about 2-3 hours, 40 mins after ingestion. I guess I skrewed the pre-baking step again. It is the sensitive step for sure. Next time I'll use 250 F, 20 minutes. I'm so exited about getting it done correctly, I don't want to loose another 8th.
dragonrider
10-16-2007, 06:20 AM
To me, the step that stands out the most is the decarboxylation process. It seems like the crucial process of decarboxylation has a variety of techniques, and I would like to join our efforts as herbal scientists to figure out the proper temperature/time for the most potent results.
I used a 200F oven for 20 minutes prior to doing the extraction step. I think that 200F is a safe temperature that will not evaporate any of the good stuff. I've only made green dragon using this decarboxylation technique, so I have nothing to compare to, but the results have been good for me.
If I am mistaken and there is another chemical process taking place here apart from decarboxylation (possibly converting other less psycho-active cannibinoids to more active ones...) please tell me about it and explain why the higher temperatures accomplish that.
I think the oven step is primarily for decarboxylation, not for isomerization (converting less active compounds to more active). I too am interested in knowing if there are any techniques for isomerization. There are laboratory type techniques, but i'm looking for a home kitchen type process that uses food ingredients, not chemicals. I'm trying a few experiments with additional heating and using lemon juice for acidity, but have not done all the comparisions yet. See http://boards.cannabis.com/recipes/134243-isomerization-process-green-dragon.html
Moving on to other steps in the process, does anyone know of any technique that enhances the extraction rate/amount of THC from the plant material during the water-bath step? I make sure to use everclear and stir pretty often during this step as I have read that there is a thc-rich film which forms in the alcohol during this time that needs to be stirred back in.
I use more Everclear than Master Wu uses. And I also do more than one extraction on the same mash, then combine them together. I think that this extracts all the THC possible.
Lastly, what methods of consuming Green Dragon yield the most complete absorbtion by the body? I read Wu's Green Dragon in Beer posts and this is what I have done for my attempts. I also assume the empty stomach is crucial. Anything else that can be added?
I think the empty stomach is important. I like having it on a day when I'm not planning to accomplish a whole lot, and I have a shot of Green Dragon Liqueur in my coffee in the morning, before breakfast!
I think that adding the green dragon tincture to another alcoholic beverage is probably important if you are making tincture. My process is a bit different from the tincture, and the end result is an alocoholic liqueur. I like the liqueur better because it already has all the alcohol it needs to transport the THC into the body, and I like measuring out shots rather than using an eye dropper --- fewer mistakes if you are measuring ounces, not mls. If you are interested, my technique for making the Green Dragon Liqueur is earlier in this thread.
Master, please get back on this thread, I haven't seen any updated posts in a while!
Yes! Where has Master Wu been? We need your wisdom, Master!
JohnnyII
10-20-2007, 07:16 PM
Warning to all those thinking of trying 1/8th of dank: If you screw up that's $50-60 down the drain. Once again something didn't go right. I have followed all the steps correctly, took 5 ml and nothing. I'm thinking of just taking a shot of the whole damn thing tonight and hoping I at least feel something. Fuck, another $60 down the drain. I'm never trying this again. With the same eighth I can make it last 35 highs (.1 gram bowls). I'm starting to believe trying to eat weed is retarded(takes so damned much). If you want to trip, just get some shrooms or salvia.
ucesq
10-23-2007, 01:11 AM
...And I also do more than one extraction on the same mash, then combine them together. I think that this extracts all the THC possible.
I too do more than one extraction from the same mash. After my first straining and pressing, I pour another ounce of Everclear over the mash and press to extract as much THC as possible. I then boil the resulting liquid down one more time to get my final ounce of GD. This has seemed to result in a more potent final tincture. I am able to get the same high from one dropper that I used to get from two (and my tolerance must have gone up!). Of course, this could also be the result of better quality produce.
I have wondered whether or not my current product is saturated. If THC is Alcohol soluble, there must be a point at which it becomes saturated and cannot be absorbed anymore. Even after I strain my mixture, I do see particles floating in the GD - is this THC that cannot be absorbed or is this just other plant material?
As far as the comments I have read regarding decarboxylation, I use Master Wu's temperature and time and it has never done me wrong. When I first started making the Dragon, I did some research and independently confirmed his temp & time on other websites (unfortunately I don't have those links anymore).
Master Wu - Please give us your thoughts on the Saturation issue.
Dragonrider, Subsonicbug & others - Your posts are very well thought out and formulated. Let's continue this "open-source collaboration" to make the best GD possible.
Mandelbrot
10-23-2007, 02:27 AM
I thought about this solubility issue of THC in ethanol. I would think, as a biotech scientist, that the amount of THC in an 8th of weed is in the micrograms range (10e-6). Solubility of compounds like THC in ethanol is most probably in the range of a couple of miligrams (10e-3) / ml. So I don't think it is the real problem here, unless you go way over the already advised 3.5 g / oz of ethanol in final product.
Master Wu
10-23-2007, 03:05 AM
Greetings Friends,
It has been a long while since I last posted. I am pleased to see the advancement of the GD technology.
1. Decarboxylation Temperature:
I have been thinking about lowering the temperature to Dragonriders 200F for 20min. It seems safer. At 350F I always feel a little stressed (and who enjoys feeling stressed?). Since DR has had such good results at the lower temperature, I'm going to give it a try. I need to make some more GD in the next week, so I'll let you know how it compares.
Also the lower temperature would make it less likely that folks would vaporize all the THC away. I'm afraid that is what happened to Mandelbrot with his 20min at 350F.
2. Saturation and Solute Amount:
I have been using more ethanol for my extractions. Dragonrider is right that the larger volume will make a better extraction. My initial 2oz was a little slim, and I think I lost a fair amount of THC because I didn't have a large enough starting volume of ethanol. I've been very successful with 3oz of ethanol to start. This leaves me a nice concentrated 2oz of GD with almost the same potency as my initial attempts. So I'm getting about a 50% increase in number of doses. You could always use a larger amount (say 4 or 5oz of ethanol) and then reduce it to a smaller, more portable volume. My neighbors made some GD with an ounce of bud and half a bottle of Everclear. They accidentally used a wide bowl for their extraction vessel and boiled away most of their solute. They called me in a panic--worried that they ruined it. We simply added more ethanol to bring up the volume and finished the extraction. We also did a wash with fresh ethanol and extracted again. We ended up with about 12oz of some very fine GD.
I'm sure that either using a larger amount of ethanol to start with or washing the mash with a second extraction are both equally good practices.
3. Ingestion:
I find the most efficient method for me is to put the GD in a little beer. About half a beer usually does the trick. Taking the GD with beer eliminates the need to have a completely empty stomach. And if things are coming on too slow, just drink a little more beer and that seems to push it on through. I also really like the absinthe effect when you drop the GD into the beer.
If I decide on a little morning GD, then I prefer to put it into a nice cuppa tea. This turns my black tea into green tea.
4. Storage:
The stuff seems to last forever. I put it in my fridge, but I know I'm just being paranoid. It should be fine a room temp just like any other spirit. This is an area that could use a little testing. It would be nice to know if the GD is stable at room temp for a long period of time. However I would definitely keep it out of the light.
To Dragonrider, Subsonicbug, ucesq, Mandelbrot, and everyone else who has worked to perfect the elusive and magical Green Dragon, thank you very much for your goodwill, intelligence, and effort. I think we are getting close to a perfect recipe.
Cheers,
-Master Wu
ucesq
10-24-2007, 06:36 AM
Thanks for your reply Master Wu. Also thanks to Mandelbrot (I forgot to mention you in my last post)
If you guys are like me, you make GD because it is a healthier alternative to smoking, it is concealable and portable (easily placed with my toiletries in my checked bags). The downside to GD is the long time it takes to take effect. One solution to this problem might be to make GD with Glycerine instead of Alcohol so it can be absorbed quickly and sublingually. Dragonrider has actually started a thread on this at:
http://boards.cannabis.com/recipes/135908-glycerine-based-cannabis-tincture.html#post1693575
I reposted a recipe on that thread for a so-called "CannaGliss" recipe that uses Glycerine instead of Alcohol for the base of the tincture. In this recipe the author does not employ decarboxylation and makes 8oz of CannGliss per 1oz of MJ. However, the author claims that only 2-3 drops will get you high. His dosage numbers are:
"Approximately 2-3 drops per dosage for a good time? equals about 6 bowls of good weed smoked in a bong, if the recipe is done properly. This means that every ounce of herb and a cup of glycerine mixture you have, you will end up with approximately 4800 drops (or 1600 doses) if strained completely. For only one gram of herb and 8.5ml of glycerine you will get about 60 doses at 3 drops each. ?This is comparable to a normal approx 97 .3g bowls that you would get out of an ounce on an average basis."
I have purchase some Food-Grade Glycerine and plan to try my first batch this week by applying many of the techniques developed in this forum. However, I still have questions I would like answered before I start.
I would ask my fellow experimenters to read recipe on the thread and post your thoughts on the process.
dragonrider
10-25-2007, 05:48 PM
Master Wu! Thanks for getting back to us! You always have such well thought out, and well explained ideas. I feel more comfortable with the 200F decarboxylization temp, and I have never tried it any higher than that. Since you have used higher temps in the past, if you do try the 200F, will you post a comparison?
Ucesq, I've got some more ideas on the glycerine-based tincture, and I will post them on that thread when I get a chance.
Master Wu
10-27-2007, 09:48 PM
Hi Friends,
As promised I said I would follow-up on my most recent extraction using a decarboxylation temperature/time of 200F / 25min.
Unfortunately this seemed to give me a rather poor extraction. A standard dose in 6oz of beer came on slowly, was dull feeling, and fairly mild. This is in stark contrast to my prior successes with the same starting material that resulted in a strong, energetic high.
I think I will go back to the 325F / 5min decarboxylation. Although it is true that there will be some vaporization, this can be controlled with careful monitoring. In fact I stop the decarboxylation if I see a significant vapor, but I will allow some small amount of vaporization in order to get the full 5 minutes. Could it be possible that the optimal decarboxylation occurs at/near the vaporization temperature?
Note that this is preliminary however it feels like prior less-than-stellar extractions I've made. I think those poor extractions were almost always due to chickening out on the decarboxylation (due to seeing vapors) and removing weed too soon.
It would be great if someone wanted to do a side-by-side comparison extraction with a small amount of weed at the two different decarboxylation time/temps.
Cheers,
Master Wu
dragonrider
10-31-2007, 02:24 AM
Sorry the 200F temp did not work as well for you, and thanks for posting the comparison. That 200F temp is the only one I have ever used, and it seems to work for me pretty well (but I guess I have nothing to personally compare it to). Next time I make a batch, I'll give the 325F a try. If I see too many fumes, I'll just stick my head in the oven and suck 'em up!
Do you know if the decarboxylization process needs to be carried out in a relatively moisture-free environment? I was thinking that if the decarb process did not complete well before the extraction, but all the THCA was extracted into the GD, maybe heating at that point could complete the process. Of courese, it won't heat past the boiling point of the solvent, but maybe holding it at that temp for awhile might still do some good?
zerocool5878
11-05-2007, 06:52 PM
ok im pretty excited about trying this out. everclear is not legal where i live but it is where my sister lives and i will have a bottle to work with next week. I am pretty new to cooking but I will say that I had made my first batch of brownies last week and OMG my brother who is a daily heavy smoker ate two and got sooo high he missing work the next morning. everyone who ate one was amazed.
so needless to say I am hooked on this cooking stuff!
I do have a couple questions that i am hoping to get answered before I give this a shot.
First is for Master wu or anyone that has had great sucess at 325 in the oven. How sure are you even though your oven is set at 325 that the inside is actually at 325. my point is if master wus oven is off by any amount at all(say +/- a couple degrees)that would be a huge factor here. Maybe if master wu or someone that had very similar results could put a thermometer in the oven and set it at 325 we could get much closer to perfecting recipe. Now this can be done even while not baking just put the therm in and set it to 325 wait and see the highest temp it gets too and then wait like 5 mins for it to remain steady.
My second question is:Is it at all possible that different strains release at different temps. Meaning lets say for agrunments sake master wu is grpwning his own and only using one strain to make this each and every time. could that be a factor here?
I understand that evaportion has a set temp but could the release happen at different temps when it come to different strains?
Again I have sometime as I wont have the everclear until next week.
I also plan on doing a test with 6 people. 2 people will have it in 6oz of beer, 2 will have it in tea, and 1 will have it in an oz of water and 1 will have it in some wine. each person will be instructed to not eat 2hrs before the test. I will make up a sheet that will have things like:
Time of consumption
What time did you start to feel the effects
What time you peeked
how long it lasted
How long it lingured
How often you smoke
was the high a body high or a head high
if anyone has anything that they would like to see added to the sheet please let me know.
I would love to see this perfected and look forward to testing this.
Mike
dragonrider
11-05-2007, 07:39 PM
I'm glad you're going to try this because I think it works great. I agree that using a good reliable oven thermometer is probably a good idea, bacause at 325 you are probably cutting it kind of close to the danger zone where you could vaporize something your don't want to vaporize. If your oven thermostat were off, you might not get the results you want.
As far as different strains being affected by different temps, I'm not sure, but I don't think so. No matter what strain you are dealing with, the compounds are the same, just in different proportions. So I think all the vaporization, decarboxylization, isomerization and extraction reactions would happen at the same temperatures, ragardless of strain.
Sounds like you have a good experiment figured out for determining the effects of different beverages. But one thing I've found is that different poeple react differently to the same exact mixture and amount, so some of the differences that the people in your experiment report might be more related to that individual's physiology than to the method of ingesting.
Good luck and have fun! Let us know how it goes.
Master Wu
11-05-2007, 11:53 PM
Friends,
I am most happy to report that I have successfully saved a ruined batch. Here's how:
1. As you may know I volunteered to do a decarboxylation at 200F for 25min to see if it is as successful as 325F for 5 min. It was not successful. The 200F was not enough to decarboxylate and the GD was very sleepy and boring (THCA has mild analgesic effects).
2. My stupid was using a whole eighth and not setting up a small scale test. So I figured I had lost the whole batch and was planning on throwing it out. Then it occurred to me. What if I rebaked the GD extract at 325F and decarboxylated it. Of course I couldn't bake ethanol in the oven--boom--so I set up a water bath and evaporated all the ethanol. This left me with what appeared to be hash oil in the pan.
Note that to do this quickly I set up a simple double boiler with a small steel mixing bowl.
3. I then baked the hash oil in the steel mixing bowl for 5min at 325F. I removed it and redissolved it in 2oz of Everclear.
4. Friends, I now have a darn fine batch of GD. And I believe we have solved the optimal temperature problem.
Cheers,
Master Wu
dragonrider
11-06-2007, 08:28 PM
Thanks for posting these results.
I'm glad you were able to revive the batch. I felt sort of bad bacause you had tried the 200F temp at least partly on my recommendation. Next time I'll try the 325F and see what happens. For now I still need to work through my last batch. I did it at 200F, and it seems pretty good, but I would like to try the higher temp for comparison. I can't use the technique you just described because I've already mixed it into a liqueur.
(BTW, I wrote this post once before, but when I came back, I didn't see it on the thread. So I posted it again. If anyone sees this post popping up on a random thread where it doesn't belong, that is what happened!)
not_the_kitty
11-10-2007, 03:32 AM
Does anyone know if this method would work with stems? I have read other methods to make GD with stems but it was one that took over a month. I have atleast an ounce of stems to work with. I know the stems have far less thc so how much should I use? Any ideas or suggestions would be appreciated.
southside pothead
11-17-2007, 11:33 AM
u must have gone to weed college were do i sign up
omahastyle
11-29-2007, 04:13 AM
Made the green dragon using the directions from greendragonsoda.com
However I used .6 gram along with a kief. Baked it at 325 F for 4 minutes 30 seconds. (smelled up the room as if I were using my vape..used candles, fans, and an air purifier to kill the smell and it worked) Next I added the weed to the pyrex in a water bath along with 1 bottle of orange extract (79% alc.)... cooked the mixture at 170 F for 10 minutes, added 1 bottle of lemon extract (83% alcohol), raised the temp back up to 170 F and cooked for 12 more minutes
I had the same effects as dragonrider when adding the water to the bath to cool the mixture...there was an instant color change from emerald clear to opaque and buttery green/yellow. I then mashed the weed as best i could and strained it..
Chugged the green dragon with a Bud Ice on an empty stomach..felt the effects within 15 minutes...still ripped as we speak over 1.5 hours later.
My GD report
So, I got some shitty weed from a friend to try this out, just so I don't waste good weed. Used 1g of grass and 16ml of Mastika (a 94 proof drink - the most alcohol content I could find).
Here's where I think I might have gone wrong. I pre-heated the oven for about 4 mins, setting it to 325-ish (erred on the less side) then after 4 mins I put the weed in a shallow baking pan. It almost instantly started stinking up the whole kitchen, like in the first minute.
Anyway, I kept it in there for about 4 mins, took it out, put in in a glass jar and put it in the water bath for 20 mins. I hope I got the water bath temp right cause I don't have any kind of thermometer. I took half the mixture (since I used shitty weed and maybe got the baking wrong, I assume half of it isn't really bad) 10 mins ago (3:20 pm local time). I'll update as things (hopefully) develop.
Did I get the baking wrong though? The end product of the baking was pretty brown ....
ummm, either I can't edit posts or I just don't realize how to, but just wanted to say that I obviously did take it on an empty stomach (and I mean empty, I haven't eaten for about 40 hours :D )
well, it had little to no effect. obviously i screwed up the weed. i'll be trying with better quality and a thermometer next time. should be soon :thumbsup:
NinjaToke
12-02-2007, 02:21 AM
thats crazy 2 mls would put u into space? thats some potent shit man... a shot is 50 mls so 1/25 of a shot = space is awesome... i can see what would make people think to put alot more.
ehokid
12-07-2007, 06:46 AM
Alright so I followed the recipe, 325 in the oven for about 5 mins, it was more like 295 or something because the oven wasnt going above that for whatever reason.
I only had maybe a half gram of some decent shit so I wasn't expecting too much. I broke it up as small as i could and put it on some tinfoil.
Then i put the bud and two oz of lemon extract (83% alc) into a glass jar, then put that into some boiling water. I kept it at around 165 F using a thermometer inside the bud/lemon mixture for about 25 minutes.
Next I filtered it through a coffee filter and was left with a little less than an oz of the dragon, which was pretty green.
Finally, I took maybe a 1/4 of a shot of tangere and put in about 1/4 of the dragon liquid that i had made. As soon I put the dragon into the shot it like fizzled up and turned the whole thing into a greenish whitish mixture. Looked reallly cool.
I drank that at about 5pm and by 615 i was flyin high... all the way to like 10pm when things started to simmer down and I still had some effects till about 12. Definitely wasnt expecting it to be that potent. Very chill high that left me totally in control but sfeeling great for a long time.
Cant wait to make a bigger batch. Thanks for the recipe.
dragonrider
12-07-2007, 07:54 PM
^^^Always good to hear a success story.
Atkeni
12-10-2007, 06:37 PM
Has anyone tried doing green dragon with Absinthe? should be easy to hide, as nobody would question a green liquid in an absinthe bottle
found a nice site in the uk, carries some 89% proof stuff
- eAbsinthe (http://www.eabsinthe.com/Rest-of-the-World/c6/index.html)
dragonrider
12-10-2007, 06:45 PM
Absinthe will work, and some people just soak a lot of weed in Absithe to make green dragon. But I would recommend making the green dragon tincture acoording to Master Wu's instructions and then adding that to the Absinthe. I've added it to Creme de Menthe before, and it comppletely disappears into the green minty liqueur --- both color and weed flavor disappear. I usually make my own liqueur by making the tincture first and then just adding more Everclear, sugar, and water to get the right proportions, but it doesn't taste quite as good as just adding the tincture to another liqueur.
Dr.Hashman
12-30-2007, 11:53 PM
I am waiting for my green dragon to finish boiling at about 168-170 for another 7 minutes. I freaked out a bit because when I baked it at 325, right when I pulled it out, vapors were coming up. They just started but then I realized that it was the water and such. I'll let you guys know how it goes.
Dr.Hashman
12-31-2007, 12:23 AM
I used not enough Bacardi 151 initially and most boiled off. I would of had maybe 3 ml of rum pressed out of about 3g of nice bud. I poured in more rum and brought it to 170 for another 5 minutes for a total time of 23 minutes.
GrowMe
01-08-2008, 09:32 PM
Great recipe!!! Thank you for posting..
I did a batch myself and it came out ok for the first time but DEF boiled the 151 at too high of a temperature (didn't have a thermometer)..My lady and i felt the effects but not for a long period of time..I have a thermometer now and plan on doing another batch this evening..
I used 2 oz. of 151 and it reduced by waaaaaaaaaaay too much..probably had about a 1/3 of an ounce by the time we finished...
ANy thoughts??
Temps were probably the problem right??
Thanks folks!
Love2Chief
01-09-2008, 12:52 AM
nice im gunna have to make a batch of this. or even better i should brew some white widow ale
KL4D4
01-16-2008, 06:05 AM
Just tried my 3rd batch, the 1st two were used with schwag and I used a meat thermometer which told the temp poorly. I bought a candy one which was able to properly read the temp with the electric coil stovetop. My girlfriend diligently stared at the thermometer for 20mins or so keeping the temp between 160-165 taking the pot off the burner if when it got to the upper ranges. Let filter through coffee filter and currently we have taken a good amount of it and added some beer 30 to our diet. We'll see what happens we report back with results.
medicinegivers
01-16-2008, 10:10 PM
u must have gone to weed college were do i sign up
Yeah. This is quite a thread.
Adrenaline Rush
01-17-2008, 07:00 PM
I am so eager to try this recipe.....I went around shopping for Bacardi 151 and the only bottle I found was about $25.00....
I will eventually try this recipe.
KL4D4
01-17-2008, 08:43 PM
You should be able to buy a pint (375) of 151 for around 10$
Well a few test subjects were used and the effects of the green dragon were very powerful. The worst side effect was the destruction of patience which lead to more or less an over dosing of green dragon, as too much goes too far and leads to whiteys.
2 of the 3 girls who tried it last night ended up puking and it wasn't just the 151. They split under an oz between the three of them. It is a very enjoyable time and even once lead to the peeing of pants due to laughter.
The effects mainly lead to a lot of laughter the silly but an over does lead to spinning and paralysis aka not really being able to move their limbs around and sickness.
Over all I would recommend this recipe to anyone and it is certainly a fun way to spend 50$ if you follow the instructions and make sure to maintain proper temperature (: It will be interesting to see how the next batch turns out!
dragonrider
01-17-2008, 11:29 PM
Success! It ain't a party until someone pees their pants and pukes! Glad to hear it worked out so well!
The dosing is hard to get right because of the patience thing. You don't want to waste your time not getting high, but you don't want to overdo it either. So when you don't feel it coming on right away, you want more, and then, "Woops! I think i just peed myself! .... BLAAARPFFFFFFF!!!!!!"
TheJuggla
01-19-2008, 01:07 AM
snap, me and my buddy are trying this tonight with a shit load of fresh BC bud
we just got all the shit today, thermometer and jazz, i'll report back in a couple hours see how it went
Outdoorer
01-20-2008, 09:50 AM
Great recipe Master Wu...
Will try it.. but wanted to ask people..
What's the success rate of doing this? Cause alot of people complain it didn't work althou they followed the instructions ...
Like Non... he tried to many time's but still couldn't make it right...
When ill first try it I will use like 0.5 grams.. and scale everything else to appropriate measures.. Will it work just aswell on a smaller scale!?
Also about the mason jar.. doesn't glass brake at hot temperature? and how can i prevent it if so?
Cheers, this is my first post btw.. ;)
Thiele
01-20-2008, 04:11 PM
I tried making green dragon yesterday, following directions to the tee. I did it the safe way -- 200 for 20 minutes and making a batch and then the higher temperature for 5 minutes and making another batch. I think they both had some worth -- if you mixed a dropper or two in a shot glass with some soda like seirra mist it tasted so floral and good. It was hard to judge which batch was stronger. It definitely wasn't super super strong though (I put way over an 1/8th of nice kb in there and all of my keef and about another 1/4 of regs) I think it did what it was supposed to do though? I might try making it again I just wish i knew that I was doing it completely right.
to the person in the previous post asking about the heat of the mason jars -- Put an extra lid or two under the glass if you are worried about it -- It was a little trick that I learned from growing boomers (when you put them in the pressure cooker)
Outdoorer
01-20-2008, 07:23 PM
Ok, thanks for the info... Will try this soon.. ;) hopefully this weekend.. can't wait..
Smokez
01-22-2008, 02:25 AM
I followed the direction but changed the ratio. I used a bit over 1/8th of dank. I used this chinese rice wine I have. It's 40% alcohol. Its also been infused with honey comb and ginseng for months. I use about 3/4th of a remy bottle worth of the alcohol. after I was done I had 1/2 of a remy bottle left. I took a shot 1hr and half ago. I didnt feel anything the first hour so I figure I'm going to just experiment. I still have the weed tied up in cheese cloth soaking in the bottle. So I poured 1/4th of bottle of Absinith in the green dragon bottle. I'm going to see if it does anything in a few weeks. 1hr and 30mins now, I'm feeling it. I'm high but not baked. I'm trying to have it as shot servings. I also ate a big big bowl of rice and ox tail stew after I took the shot. Maybe I should of used more weed.
OzzyOz
01-22-2008, 05:09 AM
i'm interested in trying the original method ( first post )
Would i be able to use 4.5-5 grams of "regular herb" ( not dank ) shake in 2 oz's of bacardi151 to get similar effects as an eigth of headies?
Smokez
01-22-2008, 07:08 AM
took another shot a few hours later. this is the one with the Absinith. it had a stronger weed smell and taste but the effect is weaker, almost no effect. Damn could it be that I diluted it?:(
psybates
01-22-2008, 03:29 PM
This sounds delicious ... :hippy:
I'm gonna get this cooking some day :D
Psychedelic Adventure (http://psychedelicadventure.blogspot.com/) :rastasmoke:
fredfarts
01-26-2008, 06:19 PM
I read and reread this thread so many times I hope I got this right.
Let me warn you I usually OVERKILL everything!
I took 32 Grams of sit on the couch weed
Ground it up in my food processor to a fine powder
Preheated my oven to 325 for 10 min then put the powder on a sheet of foil ans baked for 5 min.
When I took it out I saw the wisp of vapor! it was browner then when it went in.
Then I place the poder in a double boiler added 2 1/2 cups of 160 proof vodka broght the mixture to 170 degrees and left it for 20 min.
When that was done I strained it and had 1 1/2 cups left.
SOOOO I washed the powder 2 more times I ended up with 3 cups or 24 oz of booze. Now trying to duplicate Dragonriders recipe in which he used 4 Grams bud to get 12 oz before he added the simple syrup.
I had started with 32 grams of bud so My recipe should have been 96 oz or 12 cups at this point. However I didnt have enough vodka! so I added all I had left that brought the volume up to 7.5 cups or 60 OZ
So by my calculations My mix is 62% stronger weed to booze.:stoned:
Now to get to the goal of doubling the volume with a 2 to 1 simple syrup to mineral water I figured I needed to add 5 cups of simple syrup and 2.5 cups mineral water.
Am I on the right track here???? :stoned::stoned::stoned:
Doctor Whoov
01-28-2008, 04:04 AM
Not to be a dick to anyone but if you don't know things like what a water bath is or if it's OK to drink isopropyl alcohol or how to convert Celsius to Faraeheit then you probably shouldn't be doing this kind of "advanced" chemistry. And for safety's sake I would consider Pyrex.
fredfarts
01-28-2008, 04:11 AM
Not to be a dick to anyone but if you don't know things like what a water bath is or if it's OK to drink isopropyl alcohol or how to convert Celsius to Faraeheit then you probably shouldn't be doing this kind of "advanced" chemistry. And for safety's sake I would consider Pyrex.
OOOOhhhh Yea this is "advanced Chemistry" Come on man we are just a bunch of stoner tyin to get High!!!!!!
brainface
01-28-2008, 07:35 PM
Has anyone experimented with how grinded up the green is during the extraction process? If its ground up too much couldn't it get vapped much quicker? ... like what if you microwaved it? lol
Also, I have a crystal catcher on my grinder so what if I just put the crystal straight into the alcohol and heated it up?
This is just a thought I had, I don't know much about the science of this stuff.
I'm definitely gonna try this later this week though :D
maxsuperdanks
01-28-2008, 11:04 PM
Just made a batch of GD, it's dark green, and should be ultra dank.
maxsuperdanks
01-30-2008, 04:28 AM
Do you guys think this technique would work well for making absynth???????
I've got like 3 ounces of Wormwood lying around.
hereireallyam
01-30-2008, 12:02 PM
I've tried it twice now, with no results, and think I may be going wrong at the baking stage.
Even on a very low (180F) setting, my powdered bud goes brown very quickly and there's a burnt smell about it. Even after just a few minutes it turns that way.
This results in a brownish, burnt smelling product at the end of the water bath stage, and a pungent alcohol mix.
Tastes bad and there's no effect.
Any ideas?
maxsuperdanks
01-30-2008, 01:46 PM
I've tried it twice now, with no results, and think I may be going wrong at the baking stage.
Even on a very low (180F) setting, my powdered bud goes brown very quickly and there's a burnt smell about it. Even after just a few minutes it turns that way.
This results in a brownish, burnt smelling product at the end of the water bath stage, and a pungent alcohol mix.
Tastes bad and there's no effect.
Any ideas?Follow the dirrections.
Get an oven thermometer, then follow the dirrections.
hereireallyam
01-30-2008, 02:08 PM
Yes, I can assure you that I've followed the directions as closely as I can - can you be more specific with where you think I'm going wrong?
I have an oven thermometer - the over temperature is 180F. The cannabis is grinded into a powder, so I suppose there's a large SA:V ratio, but nothing so significant as to account for the quick burning.
Having read this thread in some detail, it seems very important that the baking stage is followed to the letter, but I'm loath to lose any more bud.
Unless someone can offer some helpful (i.e. not you Max) advice, I'll try a final time, ignoring the length the bud is in the oven, but concentrating more on the release of vapours and just taking the stuff out as soon as it starts to brown.
I am still curious as to how/why it's going brown so quickly.
dragonrider
01-30-2008, 03:30 PM
Yes, I can assure you that I've followed the directions as closely as I can - can you be more specific with where you think I'm going wrong?
I have an oven thermometer - the over temperature is 180F. The cannabis is grinded into a powder, so I suppose there's a large SA:V ratio, but nothing so significant as to account for the quick burning.
Having read this thread in some detail, it seems very important that the baking stage is followed to the letter, but I'm loath to lose any more bud.
Unless someone can offer some helpful (i.e. not you Max) advice, I'll try a final time, ignoring the length the bud is in the oven, but concentrating more on the release of vapours and just taking the stuff out as soon as it starts to brown.
I am still curious as to how/why it's going brown so quickly.
I think it would be almost impossible to actualy "toast" the bud at 180F. I cook mine for 200F for 20 mins, and it does not really appear browned or burnt in any way --- it does get drier and loose some of its green color, but not much. So it sounds like your oven is too hot.
Do you have a separate oven thermometer that is not the built-in thermostat? Sometimes the thermostat can go bad, and it will say the oven is being held at a particular temp (say 180F), but it is actually much higher or lower. So you might want to put a sepaate oven thermometer in there to verify that the thermostat is working properly.
The other possibility is that the oven is still pre-heating when you put in the bud, and it is getting hot spots as it heats up. The burner elements get extremeley hot as the oven heats up, so the oven may read 180F, but next to an element it may be much much higher. Make sure to set the temp, turn on the oven, and let the oven pre-heat for 10 -15 minutes so that it gets up to an even temperature. Then put in your bud.
Those are my suggestions. Good luck!
fredfarts
01-30-2008, 04:30 PM
Mine worked perfectly! I ground up the bud in a food processor, PREHEATED the oven with the cookie sheet in the oven, then after about 15 min of preheating I places the stash on the sheet. Closed the door set the timer ti 5 min and woolaa!
You can NOT hurt the thc unless you get hotter than 380 or something. It will NOT vap off at 325! When I tryed this at lower temps it did not work for me! I got a bunch of buddies now that want MORE GD!!!!!!!!!!:jointsmile:
dragonrider
01-30-2008, 06:39 PM
Mine worked perfectly! I ground up the bud in a food processor, PREHEATED the oven with the cookie sheet in the oven, then after about 15 min of preheating I places the stash on the sheet. Closed the door set the timer ti 5 min and woolaa!
You can NOT hurt the thc unless you get hotter than 380 or something. It will NOT vap off at 325! When I tryed this at lower temps it did not work for me! I got a bunch of buddies now that want MORE GD!!!!!!!!!!:jointsmile:
Fred, if your avatar is any indication, you could just decarboxylize using your own farts. Can you keep that up for 5 minutes?
Next time I make GD, I'm going to try the 325F for 5 minutes. Master Wu said he thought that was better than the 200F for 20 that I was using. My method worked pretty well for me, but I want to try the other way too.
Glad to hear your GD was a success!
fredfarts
01-30-2008, 06:46 PM
Thats how I heat my grow in the winter!!!!!:stoned:
I owe you a big thank you Dragon Your recipe is by far the best tasting! More peeps seem to like it better as original is too much booze for some! I think its also very important to follow the shot with a beer!!!!:thumbsup::bigsmoke:
dragonrider
01-30-2008, 07:19 PM
Thats how I heat my grow in the winter!!!!!:stoned:
I owe you a big thank you Dragon Your recipe is by far the best tasting! More peeps seem to like it better as original is too much booze for some! I think its also very important to follow the shot with a beer!!!!:thumbsup::bigsmoke:
Ha ha! Glad you enjoyed the recipe. I thought it was a bit more drinkable that way too. And a beer chaser is definitely the way to go!
I also found that if you mix it with Creme de Menthe, the grassy flavor seems to just disappear into the mint --- so if you have a few people who still don't like the taste, that's one thing you could try.
I just went back to check your earlier posts. I had missed them the first time around. Did you end up with something like a gallon of green dragon? Woooohoooo! That plus a keg of beer and 50 of your closest friends --- we could send a whole colony to Mars!
fredfarts
01-31-2008, 01:45 PM
I got 40 2 oz bottles out of it. Plus what me and the boys had already drank!:thumbsup:
maxsuperdanks
01-31-2008, 02:46 PM
I found that green dragon in orange juice gives the juice a spicy kinda taste and will have you feeling it much faster.
All my green dragon is gone :(
I have to get my hustle game back up so I can do more fun experaments with pot.
turbopat
02-03-2008, 12:43 AM
How bad does this stink up a house..and is it really only two ounces of alchy? thats like two shots i think?
fredfarts
02-03-2008, 01:30 AM
How bad does this stink up a house..and is it really only two ounces of alchy? thats like two shots i think?
If you follow Master Wu Recipe yes its only 2 ounces, However if you follow Dragonrider and my recipe you will yield much more. You simply take Master wu s Recipe and make a double or triple or ????? whatever size batch you want to make. Its up to you... Just follow the procedure and you will be fine~!!!!!!!:stoned:
fredfarts
02-03-2008, 01:59 AM
Let me tell you! Be Warned if your a light wieght be prepared! I have had a few peeps tellin me storys of getting HIGH AS FOOK ON THIS! so dose it easy!!!!!!!!!!!
dragonrider
02-03-2008, 08:43 AM
How bad does this stink up a house..and is it really only two ounces of alchy? thats like two shots i think?
If you follow Master Wu Recipe yes its only 2 ounces, However if you follow Dragonrider and my recipe you will yield much more. You simply take Master wu s Recipe and make a double or triple or ????? whatever size batch you want to make. Its up to you... Just follow the procedure and you will be fine~!!!!!!!:stoned:
Let me tell you! Be Warned if your a light wieght be prepared! I have had a few peeps tellin me storys of getting HIGH AS FOOK ON THIS! so dose it easy!!!!!!!!!!!
Yeah, like Fred said, if you follow Master Wu's procedure exactly, it makes about 2 ounces, and that is like two shot glasses. But the number of DOSES is a lot more than two doses. It's as many as 24 doses when I make it, so you have to measure it out with an eye dropper. If you were to just drink a "shot" at that concentration, you would go to the moon, and never come back --- it would not be very fun.
I don't like measuring it out in droppers, so I like to mix the super-concentrated tincture into more alcohol, sugar and water to get something you can measure out in shot glasses. The two ounces turns into 24 ounces, and you can just drink a shot glass full and have a great time. The procedure is earlier in the thread.
And also, like Fred said, you have to be carefull with the doses, or you will get uncomfortably high and have a crappy time.
turbopat
02-03-2008, 05:24 PM
eh i'm no light weight..just trying to give my lungs a break. so how bad does it stink up a house
dragonrider
02-04-2008, 07:21 AM
eh i'm no light weight..just trying to give my lungs a break. so how bad does it stink up a house
Baking the weed for the decarboxylization process really stinks up the whole house, but it is very important if you want good results. The water bath process smells a little bit, but no too bad.
fredfarts
02-04-2008, 01:44 PM
Keep you fan on, its no worse then when you make butter:smokin:
zero0ne
02-05-2008, 10:57 PM
will this work with buds freshly cut from a flowering plant?
(say one in its flushing stage or about to go in its flushing stage)
fredfarts
02-05-2008, 11:14 PM
Yes it will work BUT you need to dry it first!!!!!!!!!!!!!
zero0ne
02-05-2008, 11:38 PM
drying as in the 5 minutes @325 in the oven?
or should i think about doing it longer etc?
IE how should i modify the recipe to account for the bud being just cut from a plant?
fredfarts
02-05-2008, 11:45 PM
drying as in the 5 minutes @325 in the oven?
or should i think about doing it longer etc?
IE how should i modify the recipe to account for the bud being just cut from a plant?
NO!!!!!!!!!! Its needs to be dry first. The the oven at 325. This is not something that will happen if your in a hurry! Take your time, Trust me its worth the wait!
zero0ne
02-05-2008, 11:57 PM
damnit!
I already chopped the nugs into pieces :/
fredfarts
02-06-2008, 01:02 AM
Thats ok dude they will dry faster now!:hippy:
sandals
02-07-2008, 06:58 PM
dragonrider / anyone else who may know,
Is it worth double soaking the weed? Currently I make gd by using 1 oz of everclear per 1/8 oz of weed. I soak it once at 170 deg. for 20-30 minutes. This has worked without fail. I wonder however if I'm leaving THC behind. Has anyone sampled gd from a 2nd soaking to check its potency? If anyone knows if a 2nd soaking increases yield, can you please let me know how you do this (times, temp, volume of everclear, etc...). Thanks!!
dragonrider
02-07-2008, 07:25 PM
dragonrider / anyone else who may know,
Is it worth double soaking the weed? Currently I make gd by using 1 oz of everclear per 1/8 oz of weed. I soak it once at 170 deg. for 20-30 minutes. This has worked without fail. I wonder however if I'm leaving THC behind. Has anyone sampled gd from a 2nd soaking to check its potency? If anyone knows if a 2nd soaking increases yield, can you please let me know how you do this (times, temp, volume of everclear, etc...). Thanks!!
I do a second extraction, but I've never actually tested if it made a difference. I just always suspect that there is some THC left behind, and I want to get it. If you think about it, if you are only making 1 ounce of GD with 1/8 oz of weed, then the doses are pretty strong --- maybe just 1 or 2 mls for a dose. There's no way to squeeze all the liquid out of the bud, so there is probably a few mls left behind just with GD still absorbed in the weed residue.
After you do the first extraction, save the GD you have extracted in a separate container and put the squeezed-out weed residue back in the cup that you used for heating. Add in more Everclear. If you used an ounce the first time, maybe use an ounce the second time. (I always use a couple of ounces the first time and a couple the second time. But I don't make a super-concentrated tincture. I like mine to be dissolved in more liquor, so it doesn't matter if the amount of alcohol is a lot higher during the extraction.)
I generally use the heated water bath for the second extraction but not as long, maybe 5 mins. If there is any sticky residue left in the cup, especially if there is a ring of residue from the boiling, be sure to use a spoon to wash that down into the liquid and get it disolved --- there is alot of THC in that stuff that will just stay stuck to the cup if you don't get it dissolved. Then extract the second "squeezing" and add it to the first.
Even though you probably capture more THC, if the end volume is now twice what you had with one extraction, then the concetration is probably close to half --- you'll need to about double the dose to get it right.
Good luck and let us know how it goes!
fredfarts
02-07-2008, 08:14 PM
I washed it 3 times! I agree with DR get it all!!!!!!!:thumbsup:
sandals
02-07-2008, 09:28 PM
Thanks for the advice dragonrider. One correction, I use 2 oz. of everclear per 8th. Next time I make a batch of gd, I'll try a 2nd extration and sample it separately to see how much THC is in there.
hey, just a question..
would heating the alcohol to too high a temperature (like for example 'boiling point' or so of pure ethanol alcohol) make the thc loosen up from the alcohol molecules? reason I ask is because it's been hard to keep the temperature at 170, it either goes way under, or way over, the way my stove works. and I've been trying the way over but not to boil the alcohol. I dont do it with 151 proof rum, I do it with 80-90 proof , so I guess the boiling point would also be higher. still that alcohol in there could fizzle along with the water.
dragonrider
02-07-2008, 11:33 PM
hey, just a question..
would heating the alcohol to too high a temperature (like for example 'boiling point' or so of pure ethanol alcohol) make the thc loosen up from the alcohol molecules? reason I ask is because it's been hard to keep the temperature at 170, it either goes way under, or way over, the way my stove works. and I've been trying the way over but not to boil the alcohol. I dont do it with 151 proof rum, I do it with 80-90 proof , so I guess the boiling point would also be higher. still that alcohol in there could fizzle along with the water.
Hotter is better. I would not worry too much about the heat other than to keep the water in the water bath from boiling too vigorously around the cup with the GD in it. You don't want too much bubbling and sloshing going on just to keep stuff from spilling. I usually get a good boil going in the water at first, then back it off to a decent simmer. If you are using very pure alcohol, then I guess it can boil kind of funny and get sort of a "burp" that will blow liquid out of the cup, so maybe that is why the original instructions made a point of keeping it to 170. But if you are using vodka or 151, I've never seen that happen. Also, if too much of the alcohol seems to evaporate because of higher temperatures, just pour in some more.
fredfarts
02-08-2008, 02:32 AM
I guess I dont count!:S4::postexcuseme::asskick::gunfighter2::S5:
dragonrider
02-08-2008, 06:00 AM
I guess I dont count!:S4::postexcuseme::asskick::gunfighter2::S5:
Oh, Fred. Don't go getting your panties in a bunch. I'm sure it was just an oversight. If you do get your panties in a bunch, just blast thorugh the knot with one of those amazing flaming farts.
By the way, is that picture on the deck of an aircraft carrier? Maybe if they used a little more steam in tha catapult, they wouldn't need the "after burners!"
fredfarts
02-08-2008, 02:58 PM
Wow Talk about Blasted!!! I was totally blasted last nite!:stoned::stoned:
chicho loco
02-08-2008, 03:21 PM
What if I make a batch of honey oil with butane extraction and mix it with grain alcohol?, would it be similar?, I figure this way I don´t have to worry about temps and it might be slightly easier, but I don´t now if butane leaves any toxic residue. Just an idea. Cool recipe man¡¡¡¡
fredfarts
02-08-2008, 03:46 PM
That will not be as effective. See you would smoke the oil so it would be burned. since in GD your not smoking it, you MUST heat it to decarboxylize it. With out that step it would be like eating weed NO HIGH.
Brownies work because you bake them. You MUST have decarboxylization for the thc to work
TheScaryOne
02-16-2008, 07:27 PM
Smokez: Your problem is using too low of proofage alcohol. You need to use HIGH PROOF stuff. And ONLY drinking alcohol. Ispropyl or Isobutyl WILL MAKE YOU BLIND. Bad stuff.
Maxsuperdanks: If you've never made Absinthe by yourself before, I wouldn't start out with it. The reason it's banned in the states isn't because people were dying when they were drinking La Fee's Absinthe, but were dying when they drank Billy Bob's Hoedown Green Fairy version. It's easy to muck up.
Non: If you were using 90 proof stuff all the times you were doing it, that could be your problem. You also said most of the time you were using shake, which was probably your second problem. You need to increase the amount of alcohol you use, 90 proof is 45% booze, and everyone else is using 151 or 190, which are 75.5% and 95% respectively.
I am also not sure if using lower strength hooch is even advisable, because the alcohol might have some ionic bonds to the compounds that give the lower strength stuff it's flavor. And if you evaporate the booze when you heat it, then you break the bonds, and it never sucks out the THC from the stuff. I would only do this with OVER 75% drinking alcohol. If you can't find 151 or equivalent in your area, smuggle that crap in!
TheScaryOne
02-16-2008, 07:50 PM
Chico loco: If you do a butane extraction hunt down one of the cans that has the 99% additive free butane on it. Some smoke shops and a few tool stores carry it (butane torches work best with the pure stuff) so it shouldn't be too hard to find. I wonder if you did a decarboxylation with some bud you were gonna make oil with if it'd work better....
maxsuperdanks
02-17-2008, 06:20 PM
Smokez:
Maxsuperdanks: If you've never made Absinthe by yourself before, I wouldn't start out with it. The reason it's banned in the states isn't because people were dying when they were drinking La Fee's Absinthe, but were dying when they drank Billy Bob's Hoedown Green Fairy version. It's easy to muck up.
People were dying?
I extracted 3.5 grams of wormwood into 200 ml's of 151, boiled down to 100 ml's of liquid.
Shit makes you feel nuts.
Is the Thujone that toxic that it can kill people? I've never heard of people dying just because of absinthe, they usually just go too far.
Earthy Dank
02-17-2008, 06:49 PM
"Bake the pot at 325 degrees Fahrenheit for 5 minutes. I chop mine in a mini-prep (or chop by hand) until it is quite fine. Then I spread it out on a piece of aluminum foil which is placed directly on the oven rack. If you place the foil on a baking pan you will need to account for the additional mass of the pan which will increase your baking time. Pre-baking should stink up the house."
Wouldn't baking the pot just vaporize it? Resin Evaporates at around 300 - 400 *F
TheScaryOne
02-18-2008, 08:19 AM
You know, I can't find where I found it, but I distinctly remember that when people were making their own absinthe they were adding too much wormwood and thujone, and overdosing on the stuff, which is why it got banned.
Kind of like how every time I mention everclear to my parents they picture moonshine and warn me that it can contain lead because of people using lead solder for pipes in home distilleries. It was a similar public consensus back in the early 1900's about Absinthe.
Looks like some of the stuff just got made legal in the US. Woot. I really want to try some La Fee.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/12/arts/12conn.html?_r=2&ref=dining&oref=slogin&oref=slogin
maxsuperdanks
03-02-2008, 05:19 PM
Green Dragon stays good for a while, as long as it's in an airtight container out of light.
I just made a 6 gram batch, using the same amount of alchohol.
Drank it all in a day along with a bottle of hpnotiq, half a bottle of 151, half my bottle of home made absynth. And my bottle of lambic.
Gah, my tollerance is too high :(
pocketful
03-14-2008, 04:58 AM
alright, so far I'm 0-2 with the GD. I am wondering if anyone could shed some insight on what I may be doing wrong, if anything at all...
I'm using decent bud (50 an 8th), grind it down, put on tin foil.
i'm using everclear, and i have the right thermometers.
The first try i cooked at 200 for 20 minutes. I don't think that pre-bake did it. The weed was still green and i saw no vapors leave when i opened the oven. so i figured that was why my 5 ml dose was doing nothing to me.
Second try i cooked at 325 for 5 minutes, I have an oven thermometer and my oven is around 335 - 340 when its set at 325 so i lowered it a bit and thru the 5 minutes temp varied from 335-315 but mostly stayed under 325, so i dont think that was the issue. The weed was brownish green and a wisp of vapor came up as i pulled the tin foil out of the oven.
This second try felt right with the pre-bake and all but once again a failed batch that just made me slightly tired.
*** Possible things gone wrong
1. We were blazing a lot up until about an hour after taking the drinks. So is it possible that the smoke high just overlapped the gd high and i didn't notice it. i'm hoping that isn't the case because i had it stuck in my head that this gd shit would be stronger and longer.
2. maybe i'm not taking enough. this doesn't seem possible tho... my doses went like this. 2 ml -> nothing 5 hrs later 5 ml -> nothing next day finish whats left... roughly 20 ml -> slightly high for ~ 4 hrs ( if one dose of GD gets u high 20 ml of the shit i made gets u low )
3. coffee filter. I'm hoping this is where i'm going wrong. both times i extracted, i used a coffee filter. it was kinda messy and seemed to be wasteful. is it possible that it filtered out the good stuff??? the filters would always be left with a large green stain on em. maybe i should try with a nylon or regular kitchen strainer... has anyone had success with a coffee filter???
4. didn't let the drink mature. i don't know if this is even necessary, but both times i made my gd out of an 8th, i've finished the product in a day or two. does it get more potent as it sits. this one seems really far fetched tho.
I just want to make a batch that works and know for sure that this isn't bull. Also, for the second batch i made, i ended up evapprating all the liquor in an attempt to save the gd like master wu does... i was really nervous about re-baking tho ( not 100% positive if all the everclear vaped dont want to go BOOM) so i just put the hash oil or w/e was left over onto a few joints and smoked it. That got me higher than usual but certainly not what I've been expecting from a few of these dragon tales i've been hearing.
So please help a fellow stoner and let me know where u think i may have gone wrong or if u need other info to determine where i went wrong. :hippy:
pocketful
03-14-2008, 06:44 AM
oh yea... i used 1.5 ml everclear the first time, was left with .5 oz "GD"
i used 3 oz everclear the second time and had ~ 1.8 oz "GD"
the first trial i actually only used like 1.5 grams bud, so i used enough alcohol to burn off an oz and be left with roughly half of the original recipe but i am pretty sure the pre-bake in the first trial wasn't sufficient. anyways, any help from anyone would be appreciated, especially dragonrider or fred as u two seem to have had consistent success with the recipe, or master wu himself if u still check out the thread
liamizzle
03-14-2008, 11:55 AM
Really good guide, Written In a Simple Format :thumbsup:
I will definatly try this out one day, When my Parents go on Holiday Hopefully.
Peace :rastasmoke:
BlueBong
04-08-2008, 01:42 PM
Baking the weed for the decarboxylization process really stinks up the whole house, but it is very important if you want good results. The water bath process smells a little bit, but no too bad.
I wrap mine *really* well in tin foil, and it hardly smells at all. You can only smell it cooking if you're standing in the kitchen, near the toaster oven. Even then, the first time I cooked it, my better half walked through the kitchen 2 minutes later (after I had asked her to "keep a nose out" for odd smells) and she couldn't smell a trace of it.
I don't know if this information will be of use to anyone, but I have a small IR/laser thermometer. It's used mainly for checking the temperature of hot metal car parts and such. I used it to check the temperature of the tin foil at the end of the 325 for 5 minute spell in the toaster oven, (properly preheated, properly timed on the microwave timer for 5 min.) and the tin foil was showing as 296.
Is it possible that 325 for 5 minutes isn't actually heating the contents to 325? At any rate, I'm certainly not complaining about the results. I haven't cooked with it yet, aside from a couple poorly-done firecrackers, but I've noticed a difference just smoking it. I have some 151 here and I'm trying to talk myself into doing something with my last decent bud and that.. (although once I'm out, I may be out for a week or two.. so tough call) but I don't have a cooking thermometer, and that laser thermometer doesn't work with liquid as far as I can tell.
dejayou30
04-11-2008, 05:40 AM
I tried this tonight with 6 oz of Everclear and 10 grams of clippings + 2 grams of bud. The only thing I could think to add to this guide would be time frames for things, ie. approximately how long does it take to get to 170, how long do you simmer it in the bath, etc.
I used a meat thermometer and I couldn't really get a good reading from it. The water was definitely boiling and there were small bubbles coming out of the alcohol/weed mix, but I couldn't get an accurate temperature reading on the thermometer so I really don't know how hot it was. It would go up to 150 and then drop suddenly even though the heat stayed the same and I didn't move the thermometer. However, when I stuck the thermometer in the boiling water it shot up to where it should for boiling water.
Anyways, I ended up with about 2-2.5 oz of a thick black/green liquid. I am going to try it out in a couple days so I will be sure to post results.
dejayou30
04-13-2008, 02:24 AM
Well, I put 2.5 ml in a beer and drank it, and I fell asleep about 2 hours later. I was tired from going to bed late and waking up early. I slept about 4 hours and when I woke up I didn't feel stoned so I think its bunk. I am going to try 5 mL tonight and see if there is any effect.
CoronaWithLime
04-13-2008, 06:45 PM
I've never actually baked the plant material before hand- always used the freezer method - and it seems to get me good. I do boil it down for 1-2 hours though so I wonder if that is sufficient...
DoDoFoShoDoe
04-15-2008, 07:35 PM
My bro and i got some shake from some okay dro and made a batch just about 10 min ago and took 1mL just to try it out to see if itll work. Everything went perfectly except we had to simmer the ground dro for a little longer due to dropping temps.
Let you all kno how im feeling in about an hour
dragonrider
04-16-2008, 04:22 PM
My bro and i got some shake from some okay dro and made a batch just about 10 min ago and took 1mL just to try it out to see if itll work. Everything went perfectly except we had to simmer the ground dro for a little longer due to dropping temps.
Let you all kno how im feeling in about an hour
So how did it go?
Mandelbrot
04-16-2008, 04:51 PM
My bro and i got some shake from some okay dro and made a batch just about 10 min ago and took 1mL just to try it out to see if itll work. Everything went perfectly except we had to simmer the ground dro for a little longer due to dropping temps.
Let you all kno how im feeling in about an hour
Oh no not another one lost in space! At least he's got a familly member with him.
KL4D4
04-17-2008, 12:24 AM
I too tried to use a meat therm... no way!
Go to walmart or what not and spend the 3-4$ on a candy therm.
dragonrider
04-17-2008, 05:59 AM
Oh no not another one lost in space! At least he's got a familly member with him.
I miss the days when every month or so we'd have somone say, "I made a gallon of Green Dragon and I'm, drinking the whole thing right now! Woo-hoo!"
And then you'd never here from them again!
Ha ha! I'm sure that's not what happened this time, but it brought a little nostalgic tear to my eye...
amparo33
04-17-2008, 09:13 PM
hey, i live in amsterdam (it's fucking sweet:rastasmoke:), and i was wondering if anyone knew whether it was better to store the weed as chunks or to grind it and store it that way. does it even make a difference?
fenderstrat
04-18-2008, 06:11 PM
best way to keep your buds is away from contact in a dark cool dry place. but who wants their pretties outta the sunshine? green dragon sounds like it has questionable results but only one way to find out... :thumbsup:
amparo33
04-18-2008, 10:29 PM
ok thnx for the advise.
CoronaWithLime
04-18-2008, 10:41 PM
Ok, I just finished boiling down my GD. Started with 11-12 grams of plant material, I boiled it down to about 2.5 ounces of ethanol and I added another 1.5 oz of ethanol so I could average about 2.5-3.0 g/oz.
It's sitting in the freezer - just waiting for shortie to get off work and hopefully bring some friends over so we can see if this time is as good as last time. I've always had good results thus far, so cheers!
p.s. I found the coolest bottles @ World Market that are great for the process I use. They have metal bands which hold plastic/rubber stoppers in place, one of them holds about 24 ounces - which I use to soak the plants in ethanol in the freezer for 2-3 weeks and the other is the same type of bottle but holds 5 ounces which is great for after boiling it down. They look cool as hell too :)
grumio
05-01-2008, 05:39 AM
All hail Master Wu! Here's to your health, three times three. And huge thanks to everyone else who posted their experiences & knowledge.
I've made 4 batches so far; 3 turned out stunningly well, the 4th only very good (& I know what bonehead mistake I made that time & am very unlikely to ever make it again).
Each time I have used an 8th of good bud, ground in a coffee grinder & toasted on heavy foil on the upper-middle rack in my oven, 5 minutes @ 325f.
First wash in 3 oz 151 everclear, 20 minutes @ ~170f; strain, press.
Second wash in a fresh oz of alc, 10 minutes @ ~170f. The extractions are done in a 2 cup pyrex measuring cup placed in a water bath. For the straining I use a 3.5" fine metal strainer with a 2" disk of nylon hose placed in it. You can pick up all the plant material in the piece of stocking, put that in the garlic press & get medieval on it.
I wind up with ~2 oz of the Drache. Empty-stomach results, with the doses taken in an oz or two of wine (usually), are: 0.5 ml = a nice little glaze on things for a couple of hours; 1 ml = a solid medium-strength effect, 4-5 hours; 2 ml = a pretty strong dose, 6-8 hours; 3 ml & up = careful now.
I've tested the stuff on a fair number of lucky bastards & their results are pretty consistent with mine.
I have no chemistry background but I am a very experienced (home) cook.
Some notes & thoughts on the process:
* The first thing I do is measure out the 3 oz of alc. I use it to wash out the coffee grinder, the foil after the herb's decarbed, & any other utensils that might have something interesting on them.
* I grind the bud to the consistency of coarse sand - not powdered. I put it on the foil in a layer about 3-4 mm thick - not spread out in a very thin layer.
This may be the culprit in some folks' vaping out their bud - ground too fine/spread too thin. Anyone have any thoughts about that?
* Temperature control seems to be another issue - ovens spiking. I always leave my pizza stone on the floor of my (gas) oven even when I'm not cooking directly on it. It takes longer to heat up the oven with the stone in it (duh), but it stabilizes the heat quite a bit. A very cheap way to get this effect is to line the floor (or lowest rack) of your oven with unglazed quarry tiles. And you can cook killer pizza on them. And you're gonna want some pizza...
* Surface area: This has been touched on, but not very specifically: the diameter of the glass vessel you do the extraction in has a huge effect on the rate of evaporation, &, apparently, the temperature the alc reaches in the water bath.
When I do it in the 2 cup pyrex measuring cup (~2.5" diameter @ the bottom), the mixture is visibly convecting, the surface looks like the surface of soda pop - little tiny bubbles sort of effervescing, & the temp cruises right about 165-170f.
I did it once in a half-pint mason jar (~2" diameter), & it boiled very rapidly, rolling very fast, & the temperature kept climbing up towards 175f, which puzzled the hell out of me until I remembered that my 151 was 24.5% water. It also didn't reduce as much. The wider vessel gives me the 50% reduction I'm looking for.
NB: I'm sorry if some of this stuff seems obvious - it is to me - but I"m trying to stick to issues that I haven't seen addressed previously which might be problem points.
* Couple of kitchen thangs: proper mason jars (Bell, Kern), are made for repeated pressure-canning (~250f) & are perfectly safe for this process. The guy whose jar broke - had a cracked jar. Recycled pickle jars & whatever are another matter - probably ok but much more likely to break.
Also, a tablespoon or two of white vinegar in the boiling water will help cut down on mineral deposits from the evaporating water (on the outside of the glass & the inside of the pan/pot holding the water).
* I watch it pretty closely & stir & wash the inside of the glass right above the level of the liquid frequently. The stuff we're after is just sticky as hell - try to keep it in the alc. I wonder if that little bit of oily film you'll see on the surface really is pure cannabinols... (pure-ish at least). Anyroad, try to keep the good stuff in the solution.
* The same goes for the finished GD in the dropper bottle - like so many other medicines, shake well before using.
* The nylon strainer seems to work a treat, as does the garlic press trick. If you're doing a large batch, look into a potato ricer. It's a garlic press on steroids.
Oh that's enough for now. I adore this stuff. I want to make a commercial for it.
Seriously.
Gecko420
05-06-2008, 02:50 AM
I'm trying to convince my roommates that we should try this because I'm unable to smoke marijuana, but they're concerned about stinking up the apartment. Basically what I'm wondering is:
a) Can I bake the marijuana enclosed in tin/aluminum foil? Will this prevent our apartment wreaking of pot?
b) When simmering the mason jar in water, will the fumes produced smell like marijuana or simply alcohol?
c) Do you have any other advice for us to keep our little operation on the down-lo?
grumio
05-06-2008, 06:32 AM
My 2 cents: If you're doing this with an 8th & using the 325f/5 minutes method, you will get a pretty good whiff of the weed, but it's not going to "stink up the whole house" like somebody said, and it doesn't last long at all. It's not smoke, it's vapor (hopefully not thc vapor), & it dissipates very quickly. I'd very surprised if the strongish weed smell window is more than 5 minutes. Tell your roommates to quit being such old ladies. Even if they are old ladies. Especially if they're old ladies.
(& nothing against old ladies. Some of my favorite people. Just a little too risk-averse sometimes).
Now, if you have specific reasons to be extra cautious, like an ill-natured cop living upstairs, well, use your judgment.
a: Decarboxylation is vaping out the carboxy group (someone who knows what they're talking about better please correct any errors) which comes off as CO2 & H2O. Doing it covered seems to be at cross purposes with the intent, but I don't really know. Someone earlier in the thread mentioned that they do it in a foil packet to reduce the smell.
(not to bust your chops on spelling too much, but I would love to have an apartment that "wreaked pot." ;))
b: I don't notice much smell at all in the simmering part.
c: My main problem is keeping from walking up to strangers on the street & going, "hey, do you get high? you gotta try this!!! here, have a dose!!" I've actually only dosed one stranger. He worked in the dispensary where I was picking up some bud for my next batch.
So if it turns out really really well - I hope it does - try to be discreet.
a:
nicktheawesome
05-15-2008, 09:49 PM
I made green dragon before, following master wu's recipe, and it didn't really work. I used hash, but I think I messed up the potency levels. I knew I messed up and that green dragon was capable of more.
I made it again today. I combined a few methods I've read about, and added my own. Let me know what you guys think. I'll fully admit this experiment sucks, because I didn't try the other alternatives, but my supply is fairly limited.
I used perhaps a gram of Jack Herer kief. I'm estimating here, I didn't weigh anything. That would be too reproducible...
This herer, when smoked (the bud, anyway) was the strongest thing I've ever had. It destroyed me. Unlike some of the descriptions I've read, when I smoked the herer, it hit me very much like an Indica; I was slow, heavy, etc. Personally, I love that high, so I didn't complain. Interestingly enough, when vaporized (volcano, if you wanna get serious) was much more of a heady high.
I also used approximately a gram and a half of random kief from my grinder. Some of this kief is very old (2+ years...I never empty it) so I don't know how potent it is at all. I also threw in about half a gram of Herer bud, ground with the volcano grinder.
I put this in the toaster oven, in a tiny stainless steel bowl, with aluminum foil covering it, for 5 minutes at 325f. At the fourth minute I started to smell pot, but I let it finish the time. At the 5 minute mark I turned the heat off, but let it sit in the oven for a few minutes to make sure it was thoroughly warm. (I put the stainless steel bowl on the baking sheet for the toaster, and the baking sheet I had in the toaster for the entire preheat, so it was nice and warm, and able to conduct heat into the bowl.) All in all, I'd say it was in the toaster for 8 minutes, 5 of which the toaster was running for.
Afterwards I put the bowl, still covered with foil, in a frying pan full of boiling salt water. I added the salt to the saturation point, and then some, because I figured the water would boil a little hotter (ethanol still limits it to 172f, but stick with me on this), but also because it made the water boil with smaller, more even bubbles, that didn't knock and kick the bowl around. At this point I used a toothpick to poke 3 holes in the aluminum foil to relieve built up vapor pressure. I checked the bowl after 20 minutes and noticed the alcohol had boiled off completely. I added more alcohol, and stirred and scraped the edged of the bowl to try to redissolve as much as possible. I then put the bowl, again covered with foil (with the three holes) back into the salt water to boil. At ten minutes I checked it, and it was very low on alcohol.
At this point, I deviated from master wu's recipe, and brought in some ideas I had. One of these (I believe Coelho and dragonrider are to thank here, sorry if I forgot others...) was isomerization. One thing I always thought weird when they did their isomerization, is they did it after the extraction. I wanted to do it during the extraction. They used lemon juice as an acid, but I wanted to try something different. I used distilled white vinegar. I poured a little into the bowl and it instantly became cloudy, and I covered the bowl and put it back in the salt water to boil.
I used distilled white vinegar because I read it had a pH of 2.2-2.4, and because it is a product of alcohol decomposition. I knew THC is alcohol soluble, so I figured maybe vinegar would work better than lemon juice (acetic acid vs. citric acid).
I noticed that while in the salt water bath, the vinegar wouldn't boil. After being in the salt water bath for about 20 minutes, I took some tongs and held the bowl above the flames. (gas stove) I figured direct contact (flame to bowl) would damage the THC, so I held it about 4-6 inches above the flame, varying as it boiled. When it got down to a small amount (slightly more than a paste consistency, maybe runny paste) I added the alcohol back, and stirred to get all the stuff off the sides. I then covered it again and boiled for another ten minutes. I then put this in my eye dropper (a big 2 ouncer) and it filled it maybe 1/5. I filled the rest with alcohol. I left all the kief in it, and the little bit of bud too. I figure it won't hurt it much, if at all, and maybe I'll get more out of it.
Also to note, in the eye dropper there was left over glycerin tincture that semi worked. I turned it upside down and let it drip out, but I didn't want to rinse it out. I figured it too wouldn't hurt much.
To try it out, I took two dropperfulls in a glass with some orange juice and Cointreau (master wu said additional alcohol may help come up). I never drink, so that was unusual for me too. I actually kind of enjoyed the Cointreau and orange juice (highly unusual for me) so I had another, without the green dragon.
As of now, 45 minutes after ingestion, I do not feel too high, but I am high. In the beginning, within the first 15 minutes, I felt VERY high. It is now more of waves, but its a different high than it started out. I was giggling at first (I'm a heavy smoker), and now I just feel really high. I don't have the giggles any more, but it is a strange high. It isn't entirely heady, but not too stoney either. I like it, and again, this is only 45 minutes into it. I'll post back later with updates on how it is going, but I can't complain as of now.
Also, I hate to write, and never write anything very long. I took the tincture, waited about 30 minutes and wrote this...:hippy:
grumio
05-16-2008, 12:28 AM
Hey Nick -
Sounds nice. Did the effect continue in a satisfactory manner?
I don't know anything about the chemistry of isomerization so I don't know about that aspect of the vinegar step, but I assume you used standard distilled white vinegar, which is 5% acetic acid - 95% water. That's why it turned the solution cloudy. There's also the issue of water extracting bad tasting compounds. For me, GD taste isn't a big issue, so if it improved the potency, all to the good.
What kind of alc & how much?
nicktheawesome
05-16-2008, 02:49 AM
I don't really know what happened. It seemed to taper off, but I'd get waves where it was real intense. I got a few crazy head rushes when I'd stand up or something, but not like the "out of breath" head rush, the "volcano-bag-of-headies-on-level 9" kinda head rush.
All in all, kinda meh. The high was nice, but seemed weak. I'd like to try it with a lesser tolerance, or maybe a few more dropperfulls.
Otusb12
06-16-2008, 05:11 PM
I was wondering if perhaps teh problems people have with teh decarboxylation step is due to differences in teh moisture of teh bud. Water has a ridiculously high specific heat and i'm thinking tht drier bud will be heating and thus decarboxylating much faster than bud tht has more moisture. Maybe someone wants to try making two batches with teh same bud, but dry one batch out first. i haven't tried this recipe yet, but i hope to by the end of teh week.
Also, what is teh consensus on teh most effective strainer?
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