Sous Vide Marijuana Tincture Decarb & Reduction Part 1

I wanted to see if I could make an effective, ethanol-based, Green/Bronze Dragon-inspired marijuana tincture, using my sous vide machine, within a few hours. A number of searches on the subject brought me to the site, Sous Weed. They had just what I was looking for, instructions on how to decarb using a sous vide cooker. I also used it to reduce and concentrate the tincture. As my way of giving back to the universe, I hope that others interested in the subject can find this helpful.

Pulling ideas from several different sources online, I decided to try something based off of the quick wash method. I set out to see if two five-minute washes in ethanol is enough to make an effective tincture.

Before proceeding, I should note that THIS MAY BE ILLEGAL where you are. I am a card holder in a Medical Marijuana state. I have come to prefer tinctures over smoking. Some steps I took in this process were potentially dangerous and/or stupid. If you try any of this, you do so at your own risk. One of the steps I describe involves evaporating alcohol, which can produce flammable vapor. You might even want to do that part outside. I cannot guarantee your safety. I am just a guy in my kitchen trying to perfect an easy way of making this stuff and not a scientist. Though the scientific method is my co-pilot. So there.

Forgive the quality of some photos. They looked in focus to my aging eyes at the time I took them.

For this test, I used approximately 21 grams of plant matter: 11g of  +20% indica buds; 3g of 19%ish sativa buds, and 7g of shake from local dispensaries.

I put the plant matter into a re-purposed coffee grinder for a few pulses. Just enough to break up the popcorn buds into smaller, more even bits, and to thoroughly mix all of the plant matter together. If you do this in your coffee grinder, it will probably become your herb grinder moving forward. I gave up on trying to completely clean it after about the second or third time I used it for this purpose. You probably do not want to use your fancy burr grinder, either. It is hard enough cleaning coffee form those things. The plant matter was vacuum sealed in a pouch with some dinner knives added for weight in a separate chamber. This was then set inside of a 203F degree bath for one hour and 40 minutes.

• Cautionary Tale 1: Buoyancy. Make sure you have enough counter-weight in your pouch. The decarb process releases CO2, which can cause the bag to inflate and float, potentially pulling the leaf out from under the heat of the water.  

The plant matter was poured into a mason jar. I then filled that with ethanol (Everclear) until it covered the plant matter, by roughly half an inch. Before sealing this up, I took the back end of a spoon and mixed the plant matter and alcohol together for a minute or two, making sure to mash up any larger clumps I saw or felt. After I was satisfied that everything was broken down, I tightly sealed the jar, set a timer for five minutes, and started to shake the jar vigorously until the time ran out.

After this first wash and agitation, I ran the alcohol and leaf through a coarse strainer, into a measuring glass. I placed the leaf back in the jar and covered it with fresh ethanol as I did the first wash. I reset the timer for five minutes and shook the jar until time ran out. Once that is done, I ran that through the coarse strainer into the first batch.

Here is what I was left with.

To filter out all of the finer particulates, I used a pour-over coffee maker and paper filter. I don't care if you use bleached or unbleached ones. I just happened to use an unbleached one. This pour-over coffee maker worked wonderfully! To think I nearly donated it. And I manually squeezed every last drop from the filter.

• Cautionary Tale 2: Fine Filtering. This will take a seemingly long time. Well, it took a long time for me. 

A finished product.

I reserved a 7ml sample for the laboratory of this initial finished tincture. I wanted to reduce a good portion of the alcohol from it to make it more concentrated. For that I would use my sous vide machine as well.

I lowered the temperature to 170F degrees, and placed large bowl inside, upside down, on which my measuring cup full of tincture sat. I rigged it up so that the measuring cup sat about half-way in the water. I also aimed a small fan (out of sight) at the whole set-up to blow away any alcohol vapor that might accumulate.

• Cautionary Tale 3: My Reduction Set-up. About 30 seconds into the process of reducing my tincture, I realized what a terrible, stupid, and potentially ruinous idea that was. All I needed was for me, or someone else, to accidentally bump my sous vide container, and that measuring glass would have fallen right in. I was just imagining a tank full of hot, green, expensive water. I will try a more stable way next time. I came up with a few ideas while I sat staring at it the entire time. 

After about 90 minutes the volume had reduced to about half.

I was satisfied. I reserved a 7ml sample of this reduced tincture for the laboratory test as well. Here are the two samples side by side.

I placed about five or six drops of the reduced tincture under my tongue. Man, does that hurt! But I held it there for about a minute. When I dose sublingually, I keep a beverage handy to help clear my palate, soothe the burn, and get every last bit of tincture inside. 

I was incredibly pleased with the results!

Off to the laboratory they went. For the results of that test, see part 2.