I have been smoking for a few years now and have decided to try my hand at making cannabis infused e-liquid.
Here is the process I followed on my first attempt.
I ground up 6 grams of cannabis and de-carbed in an oven at 250F for 20 minutes. In a double boiler setup I mixed 12ml propylene glycol and 36ml vegetable glycerine for a total of 48ml mix, an 8-1 ratio to the cannabis.
Let the mixture heat and added the cannabis.
Cook for 3-4 hours until the liquid in the mixture turns dark green, stirring every 10 minutes.
Here I ran into trouble, but it was my own fault. Did this while partying with friends and smoked enough that I forgot to set a timer about 3 hours in. After 20-30 minutes of being un-watched the water boiled out of the pot, heating the bowl too much, which burned the liquid.
Expecting about 45ml, but because it burned I ended up with about 28ml of brown liquid.
Still vaped it, but it was super disappointing.
Vaping with a .5 ohm atomizer at about 25w and it took about 10 large hits over the course of 10 minutes before I could feel any effect. It was more of a light body high, and only lasted 20-30 minutes.
Vaping with a 1 ohm atomizer at about 12w and the effects were similar, possibly lasted a shorter amount of time.
A friend with a similar high tolerance also tested with similar results. I'm not sure of their setup, but it took a lot to feel any effect and did not last very long.
A friend who is new to cannabis with a very low tolerance tested. On a .25 ohm at 50w it took 3-4 hits over an hour period to feel anything. Effects lasted at 4-5 hours.
Overall a sad failure. I didn't actually follow my recipe and ruined it by burning it.
Next time:
Don't burn it.
There are also several other things to consider.
It is unclear weather or not de-carbing the cannabis is necessary. I may also use a closer to 50/50 ratio of VG and PG as it is also unclear if the cannabis infuses better with either.
If you have any experience or advice or just want to comment to call me a druggie, please do.
Look into pure/ethyl alcohol extraction or pheonix tears/rso. Your first problem is 250 degrees is over the burning temp of thc/cannabinoids. 180-220MAX for concentrates. You can also look into rosin pressing. All of these methods should get you closer to where youre looking to be.
de-carb is mostly useless, especially if you're not focused on an extremely high-productivity setup, so don't sweat it too much. Do ethanol extraction, and boil (you'd better have good air circulation) with activated carbon to remove large organics (literally until the dark brown/green coloration is gone) that will leave easily burn and leave nasty residue, then move on to evaporating or whatever your chosen technique before re-suspending in your medium of choice. That will probably get you the cleanest end product without too much work.
Yes, the color, but, more importantly, the stuff giving it the dark coloration. It's long chain organic molecules that will probably decompose at the same heat that it takes to vaporize your terpenoids. And no, cannabinoids won't get caught in the activated carbon at a rate that matters. End all those sentences with "probably." Still, purer is always better, right?
Next time, stop at cannabutter and melt that bitch on some kettle-cooked popcorn.
DIRTY DRUGGIE!! Personally I wouldn't have gone this route. Have you tried making BHO? I have a higher trust in something that is made from a single chemical that can have a certain amount of purity associated with it (many butane cans can promise 99.99% purity) that evaporates quickly. With your recipe who knows how much of that other crap is in there. Just don't ever try doing it inside and stay away from any electronic devices or electrical wires. That's when you see news articles about people blowing up their homes.