Strain: Teslin, Indica, 19.5% THC, Decarbing to Make MTC Coconut Oil Tincture (Part 1: The Decarb)
A close-up photo of a single raw bud of Teslin
Materials Needed:
- Airtight Stainless Steel Container
- 30 grams or 1 ounce of Cannabis
- 2 litres or 67 ounces of Water
- A Pressure Cooker with its Riser and Rocker Weight
- An oven mitt or tea-towel
How to Decarboxylate 30 grams or 1 ounce of cannabis:
- Fill a stainless steel, airtight container with 30 grams or 1 ounce of bud that hasn't been busted or ground.
2. Lock the airtight lid onto the container body.
3. Place the pressure cooker riser in the middle of the bottom of the cooker.
4. Place the sealed airtight container on top of the riser, in the cooker and add the water.
5. Seal the lid of the pressure cooker and turn the burner of your stove on to medium high.
6. Place the rocker weight on the lid weight holder and adjust your burner intensity to keep the rocker weight consistently rocking back and forth.
7. Let the cannabis cook or decarb, on the stove for 1 hour.
8. After an hour, turn the stove burner off and remove the pressure cooker to a safe area to cool. (When the pressure cooker is cool enough, the pressure will be released and the lid will safely open.)
9. Remove the airtight container from inside the pressure cooker. (An oven mitt or tea-towel might be necessary to remove the container because it will still be hot.)
10. Release the lid of the airtight container but do not remove the lid. Instead move the container with its lid loosened to a heat-safe surface and let it completely cooled for another 30 minutes. (This will let all the terpenes and flavinoids settle back down on the buds.)
11. Remove the lid of the airtight container to reveal perfectly decarbed cannabis.
Here's a close-up photo of a single bud, "after" decarb. It's now ready to make an infusion.
Notice how evenly toasted it is.
It's now fully psychoactive and the cannabinoid, THCA has been converted to 9-THC.
nice color
Thanks. I think the transformation is remarkable.
Can I just eat it at this point?!?
Yes, you could. However, it's best if you grind the buds into a powder and load it into double 0 capsules, so that there is no taste. The medicine or cannabinoids need fat to be absorbed by the intestinal wall efficiently. So, in order not to waste any of the medicine, a person should have a generous helping of fat to go along with it. Eat 1/2 an avocado and chase it with powdered decarbed bud. :)
What does decarboxilating do? There is something different medicinal effects when it is heated past 160 right?
It's a very important step related to loosing carbon dioxide molecularly.
When you heat raw, dried bud, the medicinal components that are in their raw (acid) form, change molecularly to their psychoactive form.
So, in the case of THC, it changes from THCA to 9-THC.
When a person smokes or vapes, they are decarboxylating as they go.
When we make an edible, this step needs to be done first, before the trichomes are damaged too much.
Once eating, another molecular change occurs in the liver. 9-THC is converted to 11-THC.
11-THC is ten times stronger in psychoactivity. It will produce stronger medicinal effects and last longer.
THC decarbs best between 230- 250 degrees F, for 40 minutes to 1 hour.
Many other cannabinoids have specific decarb temperatures and times.
I actually have one of those containers. They are great! My question is if I could use a normal mason jar with the lid a tiny bit loose, like normal canning. Excited to try this out.
So here's the issue with mason jars @kingofkong...if they're old, you run the risk of the glass breaking under the heat and pressure. When I tried this method of decarbing for the first time, I went to a local store in my area and splurged on a tempered glass sealer jar, which cost approximately $10. I used it instead of a regular mason jar, and it worked just fine, but I was still nervous that the glass might break and I'd ruin an ounce of pot with shattered glass strewn through it. So, I sourced this stainless steel container off the internet and it's what I use now. The smell is less and it equally decarbs all the buds evenly.
Thanks for your reply! I used to decarb by mixing in butter and bringing to a simmer for about 45 minutes. This method seems to be less messy and there will be less lost material. Excited to try it out and I appreciate the info :)
Ok, this is important to note. With at home, decarbing, the absolute best case senario is to decarb for THC at 240 degrees F...whether you bake your buds in a covered casserole dish in your oven or you pressure cook it on your stove top. You have to get the buds to 240 degrees and when you do, you'll activate about 46% of the available medicine. Once you infuse another medium with the activated cannabis, save the left over cannabis pulp by using a fine mesh strainer. This plant material is still highly active and I usually bake this left-over pulp right into a baking recipe, like cookies. Never throw the pulp away...lots of people think that it's spent but it's not. They only exception would be if someone has made shatter with a solvent like butane. Throw that out because it will have solvent residue in it. :)