Please help me with my tincture.

[Coelho]

I've got about an ounce of ground up kind bud sitting in some Everclear. What I keep wondering about is straining. Everything I read says to strain it through cheesecloth or even something as fine as a coffee filter. Now don't some people use coffee filters to strain out trichomes for making hash? Won't the filter keep the trichomes out of my tincture? Or do the trichs dissolve into the alcohol, and can then pass through the filter? Someone please help put my mind at ease about this.

Well... if the bud was left soaking in the alcohol during enough time, all the THC from the trichomes should already be dissolved, so filtering the weed wouldnt make any harm to the potency of the tincture.

Sorry for the stupid questions. I've made a couple tinctures before, but that was with trim. It was slightly effective. Now I've invested good weed and I'd like the tincture to be effective, or even very effective. It would be real nice if I could just put a couple drops under my tongue for a fantastic voyage. I keep reading about this, but I'm wondering if anyone has every really made some that good, and if so what's the secret to success.

I dont know if tinctures made only with alcohol would be good for putting under the tongue... it would burn a lot! (I already tried it). I did read that some tinctures are made with glicerin, but never had any worth success trying to make them.
The tinctures i make i ingest by mixing them with some drink to disguise its bad taste... usually, the amount of tincture i need to drink is some 5-10ml.

I was also wondering what people thought about putting the mixture in the freezer for 3 days, as opposed to a dark cupboard for 30 days. Does that really work, and does it end up as potent?

I think it doesnt work. Heat speeds up the dissolution of the THC in the alcohol, and cold slows it. Thats why the Green Dragon recipe instructs to heat the weed in the alcohol, because doing so it can be made in about one hour, instead weeks if one just lets the weed soaking in the alcohol without heating it.

Still not sure if I'm going to evaporate on the electric stove (seems a little scary), or by just letting it sit out.

Well... if you use an electric stove, the risks are VERY lower... in fact, you could even heat the bottle with the evenclear and weed for some minutes (maybe in a waterbath) to ensure that all the THC from the plant was dissolved, before filtering out the weed.

Do you guys make an extra, less potent batch or two from the same plant material or just toss it after the first squeezing? I've read that people keep the ball around for a topical application for pain, but I find it hard to believe that would really work. Weed doesn't really take away my physical pain, it just makes it less aggravating and more bearable.

Any thoughts or advice would be much appreciated.

I do a second extraction from the weed i use to make green dragon... sometimes it yields a tincture that is almost as strong as the first one... or you could also wet the weed with a bit of water, dry in the microwave (usually it takes about 1 minute) and smoke it... this weed is weaker, as part of its THC was dissolved in the tincture, but still gives a bit of a high. :thumbsup: