Sup bros. I got inspired to make some canna-oil capsules. I mainly followed
de captain's recipe, with some tweaks suggested by additional research. Thought I'd do a little writeup for the benefit of the 2+2 community.
Motivation
When I first saw the recipe and discussion in this thread back in August, I was intrigued but didn't pursue it at that time. As I've thought about it some more, I decided to give it a try for a few reasons:
- Not wasting good cannabinoids
- Could be a good way to get really high
- Could have a different kind of cannabis experience
- Fun "lab" experiment
Ingredients & Equipment- Already-Vaped Bud (AVB).
Medium-fine ground, mostly Sativa or Sativa-dominant hybrids, collected over last 10 months.
- Coconut oil (14oz jar)
- Canning jars (1 x 12oz, 2 x 8oz) w/lids & rings.
Used canning jars because I was concerned about a regular drinking glass holding up to the heating and cooling. Also the jars' screw-on lids would be convenient. If you wanted to make a lot at once, one idea I saw was to use a french press beaker.
- Veggie steamer.
This holds the jar off the bottom of the pot to prevent any chance of overheating and/or tipping over.
- Pot (large enough to hold jar in steamer and water).
Basically this will form a modified double boiler. The oil and AVB mixture will be heated to a temperature which will never exceed the boiling temp of water (212F).
- Cheesecloth
- Strainer
- Capsules (250 00 size)
- Syringe (3ml pet medicine)
Changed a couple things after this photo as you'll see.
Process
Spoon ground AVB in a bowl to break up "bricks" from the PAX vaporizer and increase surface area for extraction. Some say to grind in a coffee grinder, but I opted not to for various reasons.
Got water heating in pot, put the coconut oil jar in to soften the oil.
Measured ground AVB at approximately 3/4 of 1/2 a cup = 3/8 cup.
Aimed for about 3:1 ratio of oil:AVB so measured a little over a cup of oil and put in the 12oz canning jar.
Placed jar into the pot, allowed the oil to melt a bit more, then stirred in AVB. This was around 9:45.
This was at the start before it got all the way up to temp. I kept it at a light boil as much as I could.
Put the lid on the canning jar loosely to prevent any water dripping or splashing in. Also, people complain about the smell of the AVB in the oil, so I thought the lid would keep things from getting too smelly. Kept the stove hood fan on and there was a smell but it wasn't too bad.
Covered pot and let go for about an hour. Checked water temperature a few times to dial in heat setting for good simmer.
At 10:00, removed jar from pot and stirred it thoroughly. When the jar first came out I could see convection within it. Back in pot.
11:00, removed and stirred again. Remembered I had a food thermometer so measured the oil temperature; it was 190F.
12:00, same.
1:00, removed and stirred. Temp measured 195F. Topped up water in pot to replace evaporation.
3:00, removed jar, temp measured 200F.
Had a feeling this could get messy so I put newspaper down on the table.
Poured oil through 4x thickness of cheesecloth folded into the strainer. Spooned solids into the cheesecloth "pouch" and pressed with spoon, then twisted and squeezed. Filled one 8oz jar and a little more into another jar.
Used syringe to draw up oil and fill capsules. Didn't try to fill capsules to very top. This part was kind of messy. Capsules in a ziplock. Only did the small part, ran out of time.
Output was about 50 capsules and 8oz of oil ready to use or put in capsules.
This was the next day, the jar had been in the fridge and the capsules in the freezer.
Optional variations & considerations- Lecithin
Some recipes you'll find specifiy to use lecithin. Some say the lecithin helps with absorption/metabolism in the body, others say it helps with the extraction process. There didn't seem to be a lot of solid info on this, so I skipped it for simplicity.
- Water curing
To reduce the flavor and smell of the AVB, some people "water cure" the AVB. This involves soaking it in water, pouring off the water, and repeating until the water is clear. I wasn't too concerned with flavor/smell so I skipped this as unnecessarily complicated.
- Flavoring
I saw some recipes that added small amounts of flavoring agents at the end. I skipped this too since I was planning to just put the oil in capsules.
- Oil/AVB ratio
Recommendations here run a gamut from "enough to cover the AVB" to 10:1 or more. Stuff I read seemed to support de captain's rationale so I aimed for 3:1.
- Time of extraction
Generally people say "longer is better" but some also say that too long could break down or degrade the cannabinoids. I didn't have all day so was happy with the 5 hours I was able to do.
- Freezing/heating cycles
At least one person I saw said that doing multiple cycles of heating, then freezing the oil/AVB mixture gave the best extraction. Their rationale made some sense but again, I didn't want this to take forever, so I decided not to do this.
Cannabiniod chemistry
Decarboxylation (aka decarbing): As de captain notes, this is a crucial step. The cannabis plant produces THCA, which is non-psychoactive. So if you just use fresh buds for this you'll be very disappointed. THCA is converted to THC by heating, so either use AVB (which should be pretty well decarbed) or decarb fresh buds by baking at 220F for 30 minutes to an hour. Don't overheat though, you'll cook off cannabinoids!
CBN: THC degrades into CBN over time and with exposure to heat and light. CBN has a variety of effects but mainly has a sedative effect. I hypothesize that many peoples' report of cannaoil knocking them out is partly due to higher CBN levels in the older bud/AVB used to make the oil.
Ingestion vs. inhalation: When you eat THC, it's metabolized by the liver into a different form (
11-hydroxy-THC). This form of THC has different effects which play out over a different timeline than inhaled THC. I think this is also a reason people often report much different subjective experiences with edibles vs. smoking or vaping.
Cost
I had some of the things on hand or was able to borrow them. The stuff I had to buy was: coconut oil ($10), cheesecloth ($4), strainer ($7), and the capsules ($10). Total was around $30. (Of course this leaves out the cost of the bud but I'm not counting it since the AVB is more of a "bonus" and not the primary reason for purchasing the bud.) I still have some ingredients left over, so if/when I do this again, I'd only need to buy oil. Overall this is a pretty cost-effective route to cannabis intoxication.
Effects & strength/dosage
I've had a chance to try these two times: the first time with just one capsule (playing it safe), and the second time with two. It turns out my oil ended up being on the weak side. One and two capsules gave me a mild, mellow buzz and made me feel kind of sluggish and goofy. Both times I ended up supplementing it with hits off the Pax after a few hours had passed and I thought the effects had leveled off. At this dosage, this oil seems to make a good base for vaping flower: it kind of rounds out the high and sustains it longer. Both times I took the capsules mid-morning before breakfast and ended up going to bed and sleeping well around 10:00pm.
Next time I try this I'll make some adjustments to see if I can increase the potency. Probably grind it finer and keep the mixture on the heat longer, at least eight hours, more if possible. It may be that my AVB is pretty much cached too, some of it was pretty old and I typically vape the heck out of it.
So, overall a fairly successful experiment, with some things to tweak next time. Let me know if you have questions about anything, or if you try it yourself, report back with results.