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I love cannabis distillate tinctures and have used them for many years. I always made my own cannabis tincture and they were all good, but it was hard to get good consistency. Accuracy of dosing was also an issue as you pretty much were rough guessing everything.
Without test equipment you had no real way of check your potency except personal experimentation. Another issue was the taste: that toasty decarbed cannabis flavor doesn’t exactly sit well with everyone. These were problems that you just dealt with…until now!
With the advent of cannabis distillate, making cannabis tinctures takes all of 10 minutes and you can easily control your strength! Distillate is cannabis oil that was refined by short path distillation, making it almost pure cannabinoids. As an added bonus, the process also delivers a fully decarbed cannabis oil ready for your enjoyment!
I’ll show you below exactly how I make my cannabis distillate tincture in 3 easy steps. Feel free to let me know how it works for you! Obviously this recipe is dependent upon access to cannabis distillate. This can be done with any decarbed oil as well, however your results may vary.
What you need:
- 1 gram of cannabis distillate
- 1 clean dropper bottle. You will find an abundance of these small inexpensive glass bottles with droppers available on Amazon, they work perfectly for your tinctures!
- 1 small bottle ethyl alcohol (ethanol) – You can use any type of drinkable alcohol you wish here. You don’t need high proof alcohol like Everclear for this recipe as it’s really only being used as a carrier solvent to “water down” the cannabinoid content to your desired strength. Flavored alcohols are particularly useful here as it helps mask any herbal taste present. That being said, the more pure the alcohol, the better it will mix.
***Lower proof alcohols contain a lot of water. Cannabis oil is not water soluble and could therefore fail to properly emulsify in these lower proof alcohols. You can add a small amount sunflower or soy lecithin to the mixture to help maintain emulsification and keep your tincture from separating. The higher the alcohol proof, the less of an issue this becomes.***
** DO NOT use Isopropyl Alcohol – ingesting is poisonous!**
This is my favorite recipe that makes a tincture with about 10mg of THC per drop, you can easily adjust your recipe to make it stronger or weaker. [wpdiscuz-feedback id=”gkgsebn1c6″ question=”Have you ever tried tinctures for sleeping?” opened=”0″]A few drops of a strong Indica tincture before bed really helps with your sleep. [/wpdiscuz-feedback]
The math is as follows:
- The 1gm of cannabis distillate I used contained 830mg of THC. (Use the THC percentage of your distillate, not mine)
- Adding 3ml of alcohol makes the tincture 4ml in total volume.
- Divide the 830mg of THC by the 4ml to get a total concentration of 207.5mg/ml.
- There are 20 drops in a ml.
- Divide 207.5 by 20 to get mg/drop, in this case 10.375mg/drop
- You can easily adjust the amount of alcohol to reduce the final potency to whatever you desire.
- There are 50ml of alcohol in a mini-bottle. Using this example, using the entire bottle will yield a tincture of about 16mg/ml (1 dropper full) or about 0.8mg per drop. Excellent for microdosing!
Easy Instructions:
- Squirt the contents of your cannabis distillate into the clean dropper bottle. Cannabis distillate is very viscous and will not come out of the syringe if cold. Simply run the vial under hot water for about 30 seconds and it will come out quick and easy.
- Using the syringe you just emptied, measure out the alcohol 1ml at a time and squirt it into your bottle containing the distillate until you have reached the desired amount. (This part of the process has an added bonus of getting every last bit stuck in the syringe tip into your mix.)
- Put the dropper top back on, close the lid and shake well to mix thoroughly. This part will go faster if you hold the dropper bottle under hot running water for a minute.
Usage:
Put the desired number of drops under your tongue or simply add drops to your favorite food or beverage and enjoy!
Looking for a way to make your own cannabis extract? Check out our guide here:
https://www.mediblereview.com/quick-wash-iso-extraction-qwiso/
Lemon haze and lemon vodka does good together so does hindu kush and jaegermeister
Thanks, I will try those!
How do you emulsify though? I did your method exactly with regular(not 151) Bacardi white rum, and after heating and shaking ALOT, it still is not 100% emulsified, and plenty are still stuck to the bottom? Should i had sunflower lecithin? Ultrasonic cleaner?
The most likely culprit is too much water and /or too much water solubles in the mixture. Are you using distillate or regular cannabis oil? If I make this using normal BHO and anything under 100 proof this has happened. (I have also noticed markedly different results using the same alcohol but a different distillate brand.) You can use sunflower (or soy) lecithin to help with the emulsification problems you are experiencing, I will update the instructions to add this.
Lower alcohol content = more water, so using a higher proof will produce better results. The main purpose of this article is to show that you can make tinctures without 190 proof alcohol for those who cannot buy it. I personally use 190 proof due to the fact that I make strong tinctures (10-20mg per drop).
My observations-using low proof alcohols especially flavored ones can make the plant waxes in your oil join with the water and sugar and make a sludge that settles to the bottom. I just filter it off because its almost impossible to emulsify that stuff. Still good tincture. But if you use 151 or higher this dont happen, also some alcohols are worse, dont try tequila its nasty mess with lots of those lumps.
Thank you for that! I also have tried tequila and I agree with you 100% on that one 😉
I need a recipe for 1000mg of distillate and veg glycerin tincture. How much vg do you use if you want 10mg dose per 3 or 4 drops. Can you use distillate in vg to make non alcohol tincture? what distillate non alcohol tincture recipes that are easy to try?
There are 20 drops to 1 ml. Therefore, a tincture of 50mg/ml would render 10 mg per 4 drops. To achieve that, you will need to mix your 1 gr of distillate with 19 ml of VG. This will give you a total volume of 20 ml @ 50mg/ml. 20 drops per ml = 2.5 mg per drop. 4 drops = 10 mg +/-
The other way to make tincture is to use the remnants of vape cartridges. I have a whole box of them. Just bought a glass tubing cutter, take the top off the cartridge, pipette about .5ml alcohol into the cartridge, swirl around and then pipette out of the cartridge into a 1 oz glass vial. Be accurate in your measurements so you know how much concentrate you are pulling from the cartridge. For example I just did one of a cartridge of Kali Mist, I inserted .5ml into the cartridge and then pipetted it to a small measuring beaker, where I got .8ml total. I know that .5ml is alcohol, and .3ml is the concentrate. The Kali Mist contains 825mg per ml. So 825mg x .3ml = 248mg. Just keep doing that until you have emptied all the “dead soldiers”. Add up the amount of THC and the amount of alcohol. So let’s say you have 1000mg of THC and 12ml of alcohol you would have about 83mg per ml or about 4mg per drop. I use 151 proof spiced rum for my tinctures. People will tell you that 80 proof is fine, no it is not, you will be left with margarine rather than a tincture.
Damn, I never thought of that, I’ve been throwing them away!
Excellent advice Steve! If math ain’t really your thing, the tCheck comes in real handy for testing the potency of your final product as well.
I too do not like low proof alcohols, some (like tequila) make the worst non homogenized tinctures , yet there are those who still do it. Here in Colorado we have access to Everclear so that’s the lowest proof I prefer to use. I have a recovery still so I prefer to use 100% ethyl alcohol.
I tried making a tincture. I bought a brown glass vial with dropper. I did as the instructions said…. I put 1 ml syringe solution. Then I followed it with 3 more mls of everclear.. great..
But the solution seems so small in the large glass tincture bottle. I guess I was expecting the solution to fill the whole jar.
Did I do it right or should I add more alcohol? The thc is 700mg of Delta product.
Thanks in advance for the help
This tincture recipe is very strong, you can dilute it according to your desired strength. If you want it strong, I recommend a small bottle, like 5-10ml
I like the strong tincture this makes I only have to use 2 drops for a dose. You can put it in almost anything food wise, if you put it under your tongue it burns like a motherfucker. I like putting 2 drops into a shot of Bushmills it adds a nice twist
Never tried that, sounds delicious!
I appreciate this article, I never thought about making tinctures this strong. Now that I think about it, it makes sense to me. My tinctures are normally 10mg/3ml and I usually put it in my food. I would much rather add a single drop of alcohol versus 3 ml so I will be making some this evening. Thank you again for teaching me something new, Mehangol
No. I was using CBD CBG THC gummies. 25 mg and I would have to eat two and a half to be able to get some pain relief and try to sleep. I have some nasty diseases lupus MS RSD. Nerve pain sucks
Hi Janet!
I also have RSD, what I have found that helps me sleep best is a tincture made from 50% Mazar, 25% Blueberry and 25% Hindu Kush. Try it if you can get those strains!
Good idea using the syringe to measure alcohol. I hate leaving that little bit thats stuck in the tip. It adds up over time. I went back and used old empty syringes I saved to make a whole nother tincture with just what was stuck in the tips. Thank you for this!
Also, you can do first mixing with Everclear and then dilute the tincture with flavored lower proof alcohols for easy mixing. I like making Jaegermeister tinctures but the distillate doesn’t mix well with Jaeger. This way it mixes perfectly. I add about 25mg to a mini bottle. I use Indica strains for this and drink b4 bed. Great sleep tonic! You should try it!
Can you do something similar with Rick Simpson Oil?
You can, but it just wont taste very well.
Thanks so much for this. I used mct oil, same ratio, turned out perfect. Now I have a 3200mg bottle of tincture 😁 I do not have very hot water that comes out of the faucet I had to heat a bowl of water up for about 45 seconds. Let the bottle sit in there for a couple of minutes and it mixed together perfectly.
Awesome, glad you found it helpful! I have not made mct tinctures, perhaps I will give it a shot.
Does it stay mixed in the MTC oil or do you have to shake it?
It will stay suspended in MCT oil, but not forever. It is best to shake before using if it was subject to prolonged storage.
When in doubt, shake before using.
Question…. if using a 950mg distillate and grain alcohol, and using 4 grams at a time, how much alcohol should I use to make my tincture at about 10 mgs a drop ?
4g @ 950mg = 3800mg Thc
4g = 4ml in volume
Target = 200mg/ml
3800mg / 200mg = 19
You need 19ml in total volume, so add15ml alcohol + 4g concentrate = 19ml
200mg/ml
20 drops to ml so 10mg/drop
By the way, I would check on the ethyl alcohol amazon link from your article. I’m pretty sure that specific product is denatured alcohol and unfit for consumption.
Thanks for pointing out the bad link! That link was auto-generated, I have fixed it to showvthe proper alcohol.
Thanks again!