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.