Say I have Cannabutter already made. Could I melt it and just put it in the capsuls. This is pretty much what were doing? I used a method from this stuff I used called "Cutters Hash"
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Say I have Cannabutter already made. Could I melt it and just put it in the capsuls. This is pretty much what were doing? I used a method from this stuff I used called "Cutters Hash"
well, basically, yeah...the titration is gonna be a bit more challenging though
I've been following this thread very closely and recently gave it a go myself, they didn't come out as strong as i thought they would, so i spent a little time investigating.
Using an Infrared Surface Temperature thermometer i discovered after an hour with the lid on, the sides of my Crockpot reached about 195, but the dish in the center of the Crockpot only reached 137 Fahrenheit.
My Crockpot is a large RIVAL brand. Perhaps this is the reason some people in here are having potency issues. :jointsmile:
I also have a RIVAL Crockpot. So what do you think about putting the mixture in the oven instead?Quote:
Originally Posted by Kgreen
Man, this is rough. My girlfriend and I have been watching this thread for a while now and we finally had gotten all of the pieces together that we needed. We've tried them.. we even have 4 in us now.. and nothing. Maybe a little body high, but nothing near what we were hoping. Especially having used as much bud as we did. We are tight on money and we were hoping this would help stretch us a little. Unfortunately, it looks like it may have just lost almost 2g. The biggest step we know that we did differently was not having a grinder to turn it into powder. We took scissors to it like crazy though, and it was fairly fine, but not perfect. Could this little detail be the difference between it working and not?
We also weren't sure about the amounts we used. We weighed out 1.5g of bud and scooped 7g of coconut oil and when it was all put together, the bud pretty much just soaked up the oil and was chunky, moist bud. After about 2.5 hours of cooking on low in the crockpot, it was pretty mushy, as I had decided to expect. We took it out, let it cool, and stuffed our caps. They turned out to be pretty full, which was fine. We got 12 out of it and each took one. That was last night.. We waited and got enough to say it felt like we had smoked a couple hours prior. This morning, we woke up and took two and some bread right away. After two hours, nothing. If anything, it was about what we got last night. We took two more and we're still waiting on those, technically. I don't really know what to expect though. Everyone else has been freaking out about them, so I would expect that I would definitely know what was going on when it happened.
I guess my biggest worries are the lack of grinder and the thickness of the cooked mixture. Could that be because it wasn't ground? or..? We realllly wanted this to work, but we also reallllly can't afford to lose much (if any) more to this right now. On the crockpot, there are only two settings. We used "low", which I believed was the reccomendation.
Any ideas at all? We might have to pick up an eggcup like that just so we can do a smaller batch and see what happens, but I really don't know. :/ *sigh*
I ran another small batch this time with the crock put on high, i monitored the temperature closely, turning it back to low to keep the temp regulated and this time the results were phenomenal.
Also, it took about 45 minutes or so for the center to reach 180 degrees farenheit. So you'd have to adjust cooking times.
My conclusion: If you have a crappy crock pot like mine that doesn't heat from the bottom, monitor the temperature if you can, if you can't float your cooking vessel in preheated water in the crockpot on low, that should keep the temperature even througout.
also if you float it, you should probably cover it with tin foil or something, to keep condensation out.:thumbsup:
BTW Flame, your a genius!
Is it possible you could detail this a little more. I think I get the idea, but I'm having trouble finalizing it in my head. I think we definitely do have a crappy crock pot. We're just borrowing it from my parents. It only has low and high. We tried low and nothing really happened. You have given us a little bit of hope back as we see it very well could be a the temperature.Quote:
Originally Posted by Kgreen
How would you suggest pre-heating the water to know you have it hot enough?
You said it hit 180 at 45 minutes.. Did you turn it down at this point? Is there anyway you could estimate what times you had it turned up to high and down to low? Any idea for us to follow would be great.
The only thermometer we have around is a meat thermometer.. Would it be helpful to put that in the crock pot to at least see about where it is?
We've already taken most of them, hoping something would happen, but it hasn't. We have 4 left. Is there any chance that if we squeeze those back out into maybe a shot glass, we could re-cook them and get something back out of them?
These are pretty much just questions out to anyone, if anyone knows. Flame has been great throughout this whole thread. I'm envious of all the knowledge, but I'm trying to get it down :p
Hi guys, and welcome to thread Kgreen and niltrog :thumbsup:
Firstly, can I just say great work on the troubleshooting Kgreen. Spot on!
Getting the temperature just right is sometimes a tricky process.
The problem arises due to the need to keep the weed and oil within quite a narrow temperature band.
It needs to be:
Hot enough to melt the resin heads and allow the THC to amalgamate fully with the butter/oil, but, below the first THC vaporization point, otherwise the THC starts to evaporate.
(Roughly speaking the required range is between: 80 and 140 degrees Centigrade, or 175 and 285 Fahrenheit).
One of the principal reasons for using a crock pot is because it prevents overheating of the weed since, even on the highest setting, most donâ??t go above 95/100 degrees C.
Remember, due to the simmering times (upwards of two hours or more) if the mix was exposed to anything much higher, even a few degrees over the vaporization point, quite a pit of potency could be lost by just slowly 'leaking away'.
Secondly, (a potential crock pot solution, and an alternative to using the 'Water bath' method) anyone who thinks their crock pot is not getting or maintaining a high enough temperature might consider using an oven instead.
N.B. Ovens generally tend to be a little inconsistent in setting and keeping a constant temperature. My experience in using a fan-assisted electric oven, for example, was problematic (I found that the fan caused the temperature in the oven to be actually much hotter then it was set to - burning off some of the THC), however, assuming you've got access to a fairly reliable oven, it' may well be a better option than 'under-cooking' in an old or inefficient crock pot or 'water bath'.
Oven settings should be at either gas mark 1/2 (120/130 degrees C, or 250 Degrees F), or, if that doesn't seem to be getting hot enough, try at Gas mark 1 (140 degrees C, 275 Degrees F).
N.B. Very important, cooking at gas mark 1 will mean your oven temperature is right on the first THC vaporization point and will potentially reduce your potency if it achieves or exceeds this temperature for any length of time.
For niltrog (and anyone else who might this useful), it sounds from your description like you might be a bit light on the amount of oil in your caps (The consistency of the 'chopped' bud won't have helped either I'm afraid, but don't worry, we may still be able to rescue it).
With bud it can be difficult to gauge exactly how much oil will be needed to fully extract the THC simply because, depending on how dry the bud is, a percentage of oil will be 'soaked' up into the ground plant material.
What you need to try and achieve is a mix which is a little less than half and half (half oil soaked powdered bud, half liquid oil).
It doesn't need to be exact, but try not to end up with a mix that is less than a third oil/two thirds residue, as the effects will be reduced.
My advice would be to squeeze out the contents of the four caps into a very small oven proof container, add some more oil and re-heat (perhaps in the oven this time) for another hour. If you could 'top up' the mix with a 'pinch' or two of finely chopped bud that wouldn't hurt either lol.
Anyhow, thanks for all the kind words guys, and good luck. :thumbsup:
Wow, yeah.. If those are the general temperatures of crockpots, I really think that was one of our bigger problems. That and the mixture being off. We thought it was a little light on oil. but we even put in a little extra. We didn't want to go off of the recipe too badly. We might have an option to grind it down better now too. Now that we have a better idea on how much we should use, I think we're about ready to try it again.Quote:
Originally Posted by Flameon
We're going to only do 6 caps worth in a shot glass and hope that helps a little. I was wrong about my number on how many we had left, it was only two, which would be hard to mess with anyways.. We just took them because usually we at least felt a liiiiittle something. We also more recently saw your picture with the bud frothing, and we saw much more liquid.
With that and the temperature a little more understood, this batch could be one. *crosses fingers*
Thanks so much, Flame and everyone. This thread is great!