For the times when whipping up a batch of marijuana brownies is inconvenient, a few drops of this cannabis tincture under the tongue or in a glass of water is a quick and effective alternative. Though alcohol based, you will not be taking any shots. This fast acting tincture packs a punch.
Kitchen Tools
- Blender, coffee grinder, or food processor
- Bowl or quart size measuring cup with pour spout
- Mesh strainer
- Cheese cloth
- Scale for measuring marijuana
- Small funnel
- Quart canning jar with lid
- Brown or blue tincture bottles with droppers
Estimating Dosage
Just 5 to 10 drops on the tongue or in a glass of water will do the trick every time. Be sure to test each batch of fresh cannabis tincture just a few drops at a time until you are familiar with the potency. Remember that any substance enters the bloodstream more slowly through the mucous membranes than through the lungs. Ultimately the potency will depend on the cannabinoid density of the marijuana you use to make the tincture. Cannabis tinctures can be made from leaf, trichome rich trim or manicure, buds of any quality, as well as kief and hash. If you are trying to maintain a consistent strength over time with different types of marijuana, have the crew at SC Laboratories check out your cannabis first. They can test the level of cannabinoid present so you know what you are working with.
Use the following estimated amounts of cannabis for each pint or 500 ml of distilled spirit.
- Leaf – 3 to 4 ounces
- Trim – 2 ounce
- Trim Smoke and Bud – 1 to 1 1/2 ounces
- Kief and Hash – 6 to 8 grams
Instructions
- Measure the amount of cannabis you plan to use and grind it with the blender, coffee grinder, or Cuisinart to about the size desirable to roll a joint with. Shoot for pieces not more then about 3 mm but certainly not a powder either.
- Decarboxylate the cannabis. If you are unfamiliar with this, here is an article on decarboxylating to help you figure it out.
- Add the cannabis to the quart sized canning jar and pour a of pint of vodka over it.
- Seal the lid tight and shake the jar a few times then place it in the freezer. Once or twice a day remove the jar and shake vigorously for a few seconds before returning it the the freezer.
- After about 5 days most of the cannabinoids should have dissolved into the alcohol. Set up the cheese cloth over your strainer and place the strainer over the quart sized measuring cup. Remove the jar from the freezer and carefully poor the contents over the cheese cloth to strain out the plant matter.
- Once the alcohol has passed through the cheese cloth into the measuring cup, fold the edges of the cloth around the marijuana and twist the cloth to remove any further alcohol.
- Use the small funnel to fill your dropper bottles with the cannabis tincture. If further filtration is needed, you can place a coffee filter in the funnel to catch any plant matter that managed to pass through the cheese cloth.
- Filled tincture bottles should be kept in a cool dark location.
Alternative Method
I usually use Belvedere Vodka because I usually have it on hand, but in a perfect world I would use Everclear for my cannabis tinctures because of the high alcohol content. In reality, it doesn’t matter as long as you use a liquor that is at least 80 proof–40% alcohol. The higher the alcohol content, the faster the cannabinoids will be extracted.
If for some reason the freezer is not available, the same method can be used to make tinctures in the refrigerator or another cool dark place. You will need to wait a month instead of five days, still shaking the jar once a day.
How To Make Cannabis Tinctures,
I just finished up, it’s day 5 , I’m so excited. I’ve been told this will really help me sleep. I have insomnia so bad, I haven’t slept in a week. I don’t smoke haven’t since 1975, have done some eatables and got so stoned I couldn’t walk! Hope this just puts me down and doesn’t get me stoned out of my mind. I’ll let you know what happens. I’m a little scared.
Holly, I am curious as to how that worked out for you. I am not a smoker and I just mixed up a tincture with the intent to help me with insomnia. I am not interested in getting high, just want a sedative effect. Anybody else can help with this, it would be appreciated.
My last tincture was mind blowing. 1Gm bud:1oz ETOH. Grind and decarb bud. 250°/20° then add to ninja crockpot. I use 15-30 gm batches. Set ninja to 200° outsude and away from flame…. let it go for an hour after you see boiling, uncovered. Filter after an hour, return filtered solution to ninja. Reduce until boiling at 200° has stopped. This indicates the ETOH is mostly cooked off. At this point I either draw the oil into syringes to make capsules, or depending how i filter it, I may add three parts vegetable glycerine to make a sublingual tincture, or a liquid for e cigarettes that is quite discreet. Either way, the end result is quite potent, and as long as the temp is kept low during the process, you will get RSO, or a good tincture.
Using the great info on this page I tried this to make tincture for my cat with cancer.
1. Good bud – 3 grams ground in pot grinder
2. Heat in oven as described above. Hand grind to fine powder.
3. Take an airline size bottle of vodka, remove a little and put the bud powder in the bottle and seal and shake.
4. Put in freezer for at least a week. 2 is better – shake a lot.
It works great, and allows me to create small batches of tincture for a pet with cancer. I can rotate batches and keep them longer in the freezer.
I reduce the alcohol by evaporation and mix it with oily fish. It gave him an appetite and he obviously feels better. He spends a lot of time on our laps purring.
If I am going out I wanna go out stoned. Apparently the cat feels the same.
Thanks for the info. It works for more than people.
might help cure him. i watch a you tube video where a bunch of people who said they were doctors were making the exact same stuff you are, and claimed a 30% success rate in tumor shrinkage. go kitty.
Im interested in starting to try this and i like the idea of using smaller mixeres rather than testing it out with ounces. I figured if i start of with lots of different alcohols and mixtures to find what would suit me best the. i could look at larger batches that i know i will like. Im not looking for the medical proporties as much as id like to get really high in areas where a quick couple drops will go unnoticed comepared to me blazing down a blunt. So the question is mainly about the ratio of bud to alcohol. So for a very potent minimum amount of drops what would be the best approach? Say i wanted to use an 1/8 follow the steps that were already laided out ( dont really care to join the freever vs counter argue enough input on that as it is) how much of that 1/8 should contribute to one dose for a prett decent high? I know i can evaporate the alcohol off to make it more and more potent. To sum this up im looking for a good starting point using an 1/8 of good ground bud and how many ounces of 100 proof vodka to use to make a strong starting point to where i need 5-8 drops to get pretty high.
I have read this article and found it useful. I am just starting this project and I am curious to wether anyone has tried to evaporate the alcohol off some. If you have does that make the tincture a bit more oil like than a straight liquid.
alcohol evaps at 144, thc at 250 f or so. so use a slow cooker on low and let alcohol simmer off. don’t let it dry out though, will burn your thc out of it. and don’t have any open flames, ect. alcohol vapor is explosive!
I would like to use the the tincture in my E-Cig.
will I be able to reduce the pint of alcohol down to 2oz and keep the same potency?
if so How DO I?
Thanks
Do NOT put anything containing alcohol in your E-Cig. You will blow your face off!!
Most people use glycerine tinctures for e-cigs or vape-pens.
If you want you can tincture it in alcohol and then evaporate all the alcohol off, you will then have hash oil for your e-cig but make SURE you have all the alcohol out of it before you ignite!
Hey Rambo,
I’d like to start off by saying thank you!!!! This is a really easy tincture to make. Decarboxylation I would have never thought about! Here is my question can I add some other herbs to the tincture, possibly Mint to change the flavor and add the health benefits that mint has to offer?
I want to use Kief with honey. No alcohol. Has anyone tried this?
GREAT THREAD. I have a few hopefully easy to answer questions though.
1.)As the tincture sits for a few days is it appropriate to add more decarboxilated trim day by day to the batch? Can it negatively affect it in any way?
2.) What is the difference between this “tincture” and the “Green Dragon” recipe?
3.) Would putting non-decarbed trim into the alcohol, and heating it after placing it in the alcohol make a more potent tincture? My logic in thinking this being that the heat will take away some alcohol all the while converting that THCA.
I read about 90% of the comments so i hope i didnt ask a question already asked.
Hi,
Tried this the other day, good result.
3.2 grams Sour Diesel, dried, powdered.
Heat 1/2 fl. oz. vegetable glycerin to 375 F, stir in herb in small (1/8 tsp.) increments. Will foam up a bit.
Stir for another 5 minutes after last herb added.
Herb should be getting dark.
Strain WHILE STILL HOT through 70 micron stainless steel mesh.
Take solids from strainer, mix into another 1/2 fl. oz. glycerin at 375 F.
Cook, repeat straining.
Combine liquids, allow to cool; dark brown-orange milky looking product.
MUCH thicker that pure glycerin.
1 eyedropper is usually enough for relaxing, two is fun. Three? Don’t go to work.
Theory sez THC ‘vapes at 370 F, catch vapors in a liquid. Seems to work!
Liquid ‘vape!
I started a batch of tincture before I knew about decarbing. 12g ground bud in 10oz everclear has been in for two days. I was planing on double boiling and reducing by 25-30%. Should I strain out the material, dry it and decarb it in the oven or will it decarb at 175 or so while reducing the alcohol?
Setup double boiler on Saturday and had bud/alcohol at 200deg for 30 minutes – tried 1.5ml, not much effect. Going to let it sit another week and see if it improves. Is 200 for 30min long enough to decarb and will it work in alcohol?
Vodka with decard bud in and out of the freezer being all shooked up – I’ll report on results.
Meantime want to tell you my edibles experience:
I’ve been smoking for nigh on 40 years, so thought I was quite the experienced toker.
Anyway – purchased a Volcano vaporiser, to reduce my combustion usage. After pushing each load through the vape a few times, I would collect the ‘waste’, thinking it was exhausted.
After a few weeks I had about half a cup of ‘spent’ weed – or at least I thought it was spent. Big mistake.
Knowing I was having a massage in a couple of hours, I made a pancake and dumped the weed into it. I then ate it.
Took a while, but during the massage, I felt it coming on…. and on….. and on…. and on. I had to tell the masseuse to stop when it became too weird. She left.
What followed was many hours of hell.
I kept on thinking….. c’mon man, you’re a seasoned smoker – this is just dope. It was horrible – the worst aspect was not being able to control my thoughts – eventually I ended up sitting on my bed with the light on, repeating a mantra – something like – you’re safe, in your room, this will pass!
Started at 6pm – felt normal again at around 3am!!
Moral of the story – BE CAREFUL with edibles. Reading the comments above, it seems the main problem is lack of potency. How I wished that was my problem during that horrible experience!
By the way, I was later told that high vit-C doses can mitigate the overdose effect.
Love and peace to all
Archie
a point about freezing. I don’t see any higher thc in freezing, and thats not really the purpose of it. I use ever clear, for maximum effect, and soak for at least ten days.
The alcohol is a polarized detergent, that melts or whatever the thc. the 5% water in the ever clear is an oppositely polarized detergent, which works on the chlorophyll and plant matter.
so if you want clear, better tasting honey looking tincture, freeze everything. if you want stronger, better medicating tincture, let it sit, room temp. it should look dark green and taste like ass when your done.
ps, also i decarboxolate after the aging process, i don’t recommend it for newbies cuz it can be dangerous if you don’t mind your highly flammable alcohol, but it makes the best stuff. good luck all, and no comments plz. if anyone feels like critiquing me, plz control the urge. good day.
I want to make a cannabis oil for my brother who has cancer. He cannot take anything by mouth and is fed via gastric feeding tube. He will be taking the oil as a cancer treatment as opposed to a pain or nausea reliever or a mood altering substance i have high cbd content buds. If i make the oil, can it be blended with the liquid food he takes via feeding tube?
Ok so let me get this straight. I just read this ENTIRE thread here. I was given some tincture but have no idea how it was made beside the fact that ever clear was used. And yes it was fairly potent. I’m going to do my own batch in a couple days here. I’m going to decarb my buds as this seems to increase potency. One thing I did know however from my oil making days is that very little contact time is required (at least when making oil as too much contact made the oil green and unfit for consumption) I’m going to use 151 as a minimum base. Was thinking I could possibly slowly freeze the booze with dry ice in a cooler to separate to ethanol from the useless sugars and water in the 151. I have seen vodka freeze and separate in extreme cold weather so this may be crazy enough to work. I’ll keep you all posted on my results I’m thinking that too much contact time will create a green unpleasant tasting product. I know when I used to brew oil from ISO my pre-cook liquid was always a light colour the finished product looked like dark honey.
I read ALL of the comments and didnt see an answer to my question so I’ll ask (doesn’t look like rambo is responding anymore but maybe someone else knows). I’m going to use everclear and let the alcohol evaporate…will it still burn if placed under the tongue? Looking at the question in black and white it now seems like a dumb question…lol. I’m guessing/hoping no. Thanks for any help.
What is the shelf life of the tincture?
Alice…if you let all the ever clear evaporate you’ll be left with a horrible sludgy mess. What I do is use Bacardi 151 mixed one to one with ever clear. Bake the herb gently at about 230F for ten minutes. Crush into a fine powder. I use a half pint canning jar for the whole process. I smash it up in the jar with a small spoon. I use 5 grams of bud to 4 ounces of booze. I let it soak until it begins to turn green. Run it thru a coffee filter into another small jar. Place jar in a pot with about 3 inches of water and get it boiling full bore and make sure to turn on the fan above the stove. After about 7-10 minutes most of the alcohol will have boiled off but there’s still enough in there to keep the resins dissolved. Still burns a little but not as bad as ever clear and now the solution has been concentrated. I get enough to fill a 50 millilitre dropper vial. 2mls pretty much levels anyone….enjoy 🙂
Christy I’m pretty sure that because there is alcohol in it it should be well preserved for quite some time. Just keep it in a cool dark spot I bet it would be good for years.
Anyone try vinegar instead of alcohol yet? I hear vinegar is a solvent for tinctures, but not sure how well it will work with cannabis. Anyone try it yet?
I’ve been using the slow cooker method to make vegetable tincture. My question is, how many times can I make tincture from the same leaf? So far I’ve been using it only 4 times with each time letting it steep longer. Also, is there anything i can do with the leaf once I’m done? Smoke or make wax out of it? I tried using the herb once in cupcakes but I need the medicinal properties from it and in that form it had too many of the hallucinogenic properties. Thanks.
To Renee, you were trying to cure a cancer.
We use a plant that can cure caner, all natural and grows in the hills here. You may find it where you live perhaps, it is a weeping pittosporum or commonly know here in oz as Gumbi Gumbi. Check it out, it save lives. I have seen personally seen it cure prostate and an inoperable brain tumor it seems to get results fairly quickly. Can be used as tea or the dried powder in capsules.
Cheers Smokey
Could you use the tincture in a asthma nebulizer?
Hello
I am going to try and make a tincture using Everclear,can someone give me a simple recipe for a first time? I have seen so many not sure which one to try
Thanks Pat
Good news everyone!
I created the tincture as described above using 1/8th an ounce of medical grade cannabis… it made 2 ounces exactly. The prescribed dosage above was a good idea, the first 3 drops after a 10 minute wait inspired a second dose(5 drops) which was way plentiful for my ailment. since i was more interested in the relief from arthritic and degenerative pain i only baked the cannabis for 30 minutes leaving a mix level of thc & thca. I recommend this recipe to everyone as a good base to adjust from to fit your personal needs.
Hello, I was wondering if someone can tell me what strain of MMJ to use for back pain as Im new to this and have no idea,this is for making a tincture.
Thanks in advance. Pat
Pat, I used a purple kush. I also read some forums that suggest a plant hi in CBD’s called Harlequin has the lowest count of thc & thca’s. I made my tincture high in thca for the inflamation around my spine… low head buzz great back relief! You may need a harlequin strand for the neural pain blockers. I also desire neural relief. I am creating a new batch for this purpose with a 60/40 sativa/indica hybrid I came across relying mostly on the cbd’s than the thca. Hopefully a result in a reduction in neural pain and a mild sedative affect.
BTW… this new recipe uses the glycerin medium to carry the medication.
why cant you use isopropyl alcohol? I can’t get Everclear here in ontario
OMG!!! You CANNOT ingest isopropyl alcohol!! Should say so on the bottle. Use 151 rum.
Weird that nobody has commented on this. You are giving instructions on how to make a sublingual tincture. you even comment that “only a few drops” would be needed. Then you proceed to give instructions involving FIVE HUNDRED ML’s of ALCOHOL. 100% of the people here are looking for a *tincture* … not a thirst quenching drink. Tinctures always come in 1ml dropper bottles. 1 ml. Not 500 … Because of this discrepancy I am at a loss as to how to proceed. I am confounded as to why you’re giving tincture instructions that result in an entire coke bottle worth of liquid. Pretty certain you can’t fit that under your tongue.
The process for making a large batch is the same as making a small one. Just scale up or down.