The Definitive Green Dragon (Revised, Updated, Combined)

Hey sloppyj03, the one thing I can say is to put some foil loosely over your cup in the water bath and push the center down. That way when the alchol evaporates it will drip back into the cup and you should not have to add more. I don't really seem to lose any for the 20 min or so it is in there. And I use a digital meat thermomitor stuck through the foil to monitor the temp. I also like using a small crock pot for the water bath instead of doing it on the stove. It seems to keep it at a very consistent temp.

sloppy -

Putting something heavy - a pizza stone, a good-sized cast-iron skillet, etc - in your oven & pre-heating it adequately (20 min - half an hour) will help with temperature fluctuations in your oven.

As for time/temp in the oven, I've always done 325/5 minutes. My oven doesn't have glass on the door; I can't see inside, so I don't know anything about vapor rising.

As far as monitoring the temperature of the alcohol - don't bother. 151 is ~25% water, remember, but still, it cannot get hotter than ~170f - it evaporates at higher temperatures, just like water can't get hotter than 212f (yeah, at sea level, if it isn't under pressure, blah blah blah).

It's important to keep the residue that accumulates on the inside of the cooking vessel washed back into the alcohol. I use one of those little silicon "spoonulas."

The properties of your cooking vessel affect things, too. I usually use a 2-cup pyrex measuring cup, & the alc/bud mixture simmers. When I've done it in a 1-cup mason jar (thinner glass, taller, narrower, less surface area), the mixture boils much more vigorously.

is there any way i could get a pic of how the weed is arranged in the alluminum foil that gets put in the oven?

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Originally Posted by ytrewq

There seems to be a lot of mystery surrounding the decarboxylation, which is the crucial step, so I've been researching. I found this patent application for thca > thc conversion and extraction: Extraction of pharmaceutically active components from plant materials - Patent 7344736

The applicant tested samples at different temperatures for different amounts of time then perfomed chemical analysis. There are 2 main factors they consider: the conversion of thca to thc, which is what you want, and breakdown of thc to cbn which you don't want.

They got good results with 221 F for 4 hours, 248 F for 1 hour, or 284 F for a half hour. Those all gave 99% conversion of thca to thc. 248 F for 1 hour had somewhat less breakdown of thc to cbn than the other two temps so it seems like the best.

If you extrapolate from the data 200 F for 20min is inadequate; you'd maybe convert half of what's available.

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is this true?
should i heat the weed at 248 for an hour instead of the 325 at 5 mins?

would the decarb process work just as well if i was using a quad instead of an eighter?

http://boards.cannabis.com/recipes/1...en-dragon.html

In this link, dragonrider talks about isomerizing a single dose of DG, my question is would you be able to isomerize the entire GD tincture before making it into a liquer, instead of doing it per serving?

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Originally Posted by GDnoob

is there any way i could get a pic of how the weed is arranged in the alluminum foil that gets put in the oven?

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Next time I give the GD a try, I'll post pictures but it will be a week or so. I can tell you that I just grind it in a shitty tobacco store grinder. Take out big stems and seeds, and spread it evenly over the aluminum foil. Early posts said about 3mm, I just use a spoon and spend about 1 min making sure it is even.

As for the temperature to decarboxlyate at I haven't found the perfect setting yet, it takes a few tries unless you get lucky and find the sweet spot. I only see 200 and 325 on this post, but I am going to be experimenting with different temperatures and methods, so let me know how it goes.

Good Luck.

So im makin my first batch in about an hour and im still not positive about the whole alluminum foil thing. I'm planning on just using a pyrex dish and spreading it out evenly, is that gonna work?

Depends on what temp you use. 325 for 5 min it will make a big difference. All that extra mass that has to heat up with the weed will mean a longer time it needs to be in there.

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Originally Posted by misslilly

Depends on what temp you use. 325 for 5 min it will make a big difference. All that extra mass that has to heat up with the weed will mean a longer time it needs to be in there.

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Thank you very much for the info!

Wish me luck

Il post tmorow and let u guys know how it goes

Hey guys,

I'm getting an ounce some time next week, and I was thinking about trying my first foray in GD. I have a quick question about potency: Master Wu says that this recipe should convert one 1/8th of good bud into roughly 1 fluid ounce (30 ml, or "doses). He then says that 2 droppers was a spiritual dose, "as strong as any brownie".

How can this be? If there are 30 doses, and an 1/8th was the starting amount, that means there is roughly ~0.116 grams in each dose. Two droppers at that amount would be 1/4 of a gram. I've had firecrackers with nearly 4 times that amount, and I still wouldn't describe it as "spiritual". Where does this discrepancy come from? Is it just a more efficient extraction? I would assume that eating the plants (such as in firecrackers) would result in zero waste.

I'm confused :wtf: Any ideas?

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How can this be? If there are 30 doses, and an 1/8th was the starting amount, that means there is roughly ~0.116 grams in each dose. Two droppers at that amount would be 1/4 of a gram. I've had firecrackers with nearly 4 times that amount, and I still wouldn't describe it as "spiritual". Where does this discrepancy come from? Is it just a more efficient extraction? I would assume that eating the plants (such as in firecrackers) would result in zero waste.

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Eating the plant also requires your body to digest the plant material, the cracker, and the peanut butter. This takes a certain amount of time for stomach acids to break down the assorted food products, reduce it to chime and then be absorbed in your lower intestine.
There are a few things that can begin being absorbed in your stomach, among them; some drugs-particularly aspirin(don't have a clue about thc), fats, and alcohol. While some of the magic you want might be in the oil in the pb in your firecracker and might begin to be absorbed in your stomach it is also competing for digestive juices with all the other products that are part of the FC.
Thc in a high concentration bonded in an alcohol base solution and taken on an empty stomach will move into your system quicker, thus raising the amount in your system quicker. Compare it to sipping two beers over an hour will only slightly raise your blood alcohol level, but chug them in ten minutes and you would register legally drunk. Just my opinion, but I think I know that much physiology, although my A&P professor would probably say that I don't.