Butter from Watercure

[Greenheart]

This will be my first attempt at cannabutter. I have tried it in the past and enjoyed the edibles made from my provider's butter. They do however have that distinct resinous oil that lingers with the palate. After a recent experiment with watercuring it got me to wondering how well it would work for making butter.

I have taken all my fresh sweet leaf and put it into a jar filled with water to begin the process. In about 7-10 days I hope to obtain the knowledge to make a decent batch of butter and find out if the flavor is better or not. Also towards that end I will take some of the watercured sweetleaf and make an everclear tincture to compare to the last few batches I have made. It generally gets dark green and leaves quite the aftertaste if not dilluted in a good ratio of GValue: 100% Juice Appjuice "fruit punch blend" and water.

I'm hoping that the water curing process which results in a potent but "bland" smoke will be the ideal purification process for making quality edibles. With luck perhaps cannascentless, ganjaflavorless, and otherwise subtlely indestiguishable to all but the baker and consumer. Anyone with helpful tips, previous forays into this realm, or just plain intrested in the outcome please come join in the fun of cannascience.

 

[Dawn Patrol]

Please update us with your findings. I've watercured for "stealth" smoke before, but I have no experience with it for edibles. Quite interested in what you end up discovering.

 

[supermanlives]

yeah that ^^^^^

 

[massivecalyx]

I am also currently attempting the same experiment. I'll post my findings as soon as the water cure finishes. I am changing the water daily and will continue to do so until the waste water is clear.

 

[Greenheart]

Good to see a few interested minds. Day #5 in the jar. I'm expecting it to start settling soon we are getting closer.

Some pics to help. (everyone loves pic's right?)



So the past week I've been consuming some sticky notes on cannabutter. Random stuff I came up with or cut and pasted into a notepad for carrying over into this thread for deeper understanding as the megasticky is easy to get lost in with all those good recipies and positive responses.

1# of butter to 1 Oz of bud
Crockpot vs Stockpt?
Equal parts water and butter?
Cool in refridgerator and store in freezer after separating. Shelf life when thawed is 2 weeks.
Process could be ruined if 160 degrees Celsius is reached keep temps around 100C or less
Water boils at 212F/100C
A water wash or curing process is reported to improve flavor.
A few reports of laxitive properties.
Can be highly sedative.
kief/hash leaves less cannaflavor. (1gram to 1 stick?)
A small bit of drinking alchol can help with the extraction. (can also prevent solidification be careful)
clarified butter "Ghee" reportedly has better flavor as well as shelflife

Worthwhile experiments:
#1

One quetion. Its widely agreed that thc will degrade at 375f or so. Personally, i dont know it thats fact or not, but it occurs to me that some recipes call for baking temps very close to 375, so...... does the cooking degrade the thc in the butter? Just wondering.

I have wondered the same thing. I guess you would have to make a cookie recipe at 2 different temps with the same butter. THe lower temp will simply cook longer then try them both and see.

#2
Salted vs Unsalted vs Pure butter(Ghee?): Pure butter has a higher fat content. All butter must be made with same plant material. Then used to bake 3 batches of edibles from same recipe and ingredient sources. (3oz)

#3
Water cured vs Fresh vs Aircured: Butter must all be the same brand/type and be made from same plant material (3oz)*Fresh we may expect taste greener/chlorophyl but how will the effects compare?

Many many thanks to all who have gone before us for your many contributions. Especially to the stickied "guest" and "glasspackedbowl" both of whom have contributed greatly to said megathread.

 

[Greenheart]

"The show must go on..."

So finally the eve has arrived. The leaf has settled and the crockery is out. I decided that the "crock pot" method seems to get better recommendation than the double boil method. Probably because most of us heads are lazy and don't want to tie ourselves to a stove for 3-12+ hours. My definition of lazy btw means a person has to work the brain matter more to compensate for always trying to get out of "work". My teachers said it was cheating but I just thought it was a better way and nowadays those 3rd graders have 100 dollar calculators for thier tests. Go figuire. Ah well back on track

beep beep beep... be right back time to stir!

190F Mmmm smells good.

I mean GOOD. Don't get me wrong I like the smell of buddabluntage as much as the next hashhead but when it comes to butter I want butter and guess what. Smells faintly of herb but mainly of butter. I couldn't resist. I took a lick off of the stirring stick. hmmm tastse like butter and water.

I changed the 1 gallon jar every 12 hours till some of the leaves started to settle on the botttom. Then I switched from tap to distilled water for the next two days. When all the leaf matter had settled on the bottom of the jar I gave it one change and two hours later proceeded to begin the cannabutter cooking process.

I have consumed my entire stickies worth of butter making knowledge, grabbed a few trinkets from other sources, and now with "The Crockery" method have proceeded upon the path of those before me towards buttery bliss.

beep beep beep... 187f added 1/2 a capful of EverClear and turned back on low for the next 15 minute round (this makes 1 total capful of EC)

I did not wiegh the plant matter as it was still watersoaked when I started the process. I figuire the drying stage would be pointless as I will just be adding it to water and butter anyway. I measured it out to almost 2 cups of heavy wet compressed sweetleaf. (my guess almost 2 oz dry wieght leafshake) I used 2 sticks of butter and 3 cups of water. I started with the crockpot on high for 45 minutes I have been stirring every 15 beeping minutes and alternating between high/low temp setting to keep the cannabutter stew close to optimal range I believe to be around 190-212?

I'm not sure it makes a difference salted or not so it was my personal choice to use unsalted. Figuiring less is more I used 2 sticks. beep beep beep...180F still smells mostly of butter, the taste is of water and butter, and the color is starting to get a pale green hue to it.

I'm thinking the 2 week soak was worth it. I even got a small bit of a feeling off of my last lick. Now the question is will I be able to wait 4 days to use the butter or will I end up zombie warrior at work on Thursday.

 

[Greenheart]

Final stages complete. I left the crock on low while I slept the remaining 5 hours. I awoke and the temp was 180F. I gave it a good stir, prepped the ladies for the day and proceeded to extract my butter. Sorry I didn't get more pics of the process but the wife was in a tizzy when she found our crockpot full of my experiment in the morning.



The process involved a plastic ziplock container. Cheap kneehigh nylons and some heat resistant calloused up hands. I figuire it was best to strain the product while still hot. It was quite laughable watching me play hot potato with steaming cannabuttered pantyhose but I think the pain endurance test was key in helping me obtain 167.5 grams of butter. This is 0.36 pounds of my original 0.5 pounds of regular unsalted sweet cream butter. A loss of 62.72 grams of butter. I did not weigh the "sludge" but it probably accounts for alot of the missing weight so I doubt much actual butter was lost in that tiny compressed ball I tossed into the compost pile.

I ate 1/2 tablespoon straight to test the flavor as well as the high. It definitely has that cannabis oil taste but not bitter at all. No burn on the throat. I even chewed up the butter ball a bit to really give myself the gag test and passed. I wanted to bake but it will be much better on my next days off to really enjoy all my efforts. For now I can tell you this. The butter is quite edible. I cleaned the plastic wrap with a slice of plain wheat bread. I then sampled the "waste water" not bad at all. Kind of a MJ/buttery taste but drinkable. I mixed up a 1/2 gallon of tea using 4 lipton iced tea bags, 1/2 cup of sugar, and the waste water. Leaves a slight oily/butter taste on your mouth like hot buttered rum. I also saved the layer of liquid fat A.K.A. "sludge" that was floating in between the solidified butter and the water.

Being this edible in raw form I can't wait to give the final update with some actual edibles. Anyone having problems with the taste of edibles should try a full watercure before making butter. The palatablilty of the results is astounding.

 

[darklands]

Excellent write up on a worthwhile subject. I'm surprised that the waste water was palatable, and amazed that you'd make tea with it. Certainly that bodes well for the taste of the butter itself.

Another option for people who dislike the taste of cannabutter is capsules.

 

[Greenheart]

hehe you shoulda seen me licking my fingers and then space cadeting for the next 30 minutes after straining.

On the tea thing I figuire I've consumed worse making soup from grocery store veggies. Least I know how my plants were grown. Not sure which it is the 3rd cup of tea or the 1/2 teaspoon of butter but I just started to enjoy the ride 1.5 hours later. No worries I got some Green dragon in that sig bottle that would knock Paul Bunion on his arse.

how did that quote go in the sticky..."it's a beautiful day"

 

[NCbuds828]

if you don't want the "green" taste you should just soak your trim in some of that everclear you have, evap, then cook with leftover oil as a grain alcohol solvent is safe to eat.

this is a really cool experiment though, im super interested in water curing. never really had the chance to test some water cured smoke.

 

[darklands]

I've done a serious watercure only twice. It wasn't really worth the effort for me, but I can see why some people might like it. The theory behind it is sound in my opinion. I once watercured some nasty-tasting dispensary bud and it came out better. Bland, but better.

I'm a big fan of green dragon though. I make mine with kif and call it gold dragon. The taste is not too bad and the high is excellent, not as heavy as cannabutter.

 

[Greenheart]

Final Results!!!

Final Results!!!

On a scale of 1 to 10 (1=low 10 high)

Taste of cannabis in brownie: 2
Smell of cannabis in brownie: 3
Potency of brownie: 7

The brownies were 3"x3"x1/2" (12 total brownies in a 9x11 pan) and baked at 300F.

I ate 1 brownie the influence was noticeable in about 30 minutes with a stronger onset after 1 hour. I consumed a second brownie at this time. After 2 hours I was in no need to medicate for the next 8 hours. I managed to stay awake the entire time after overcoming some initial sedative urges. The high was quite enjoyable and made me forget entirely about the pain that never seems to leave my lower back.


The frosting tasted more of cannabis than the brownie I would give it a 5 on the flavor rank (similar to a chocolate MJ sucker). Also I would like to mention that when making the brownies where the recipe called for water I used the water saved when skimming the "sludge" 3 tablespoons total (the round dish on the left in the picture a few posts back)

 

[HashCat]

I made Cannabutter once with my leftover bubblehash water. It was almost too strong...

 

[Greenheart]

I just made my 2cnd batch. Results the same as the first. Low taste and quite long lasting. Someone else should try this to reassure others that it is indeed a great method for producing a high quality edible.

*** I bumped the water change intervals to 3 times per day as the summer heat was causing it to ferment. ***

 

[gunnaknow]

Nice experiment GH. Technically speaking, this would be referred to as deodorization. In the food industry, fats and oils are deodorized by heating them to 175–250° C under vacuum and passing steam through them. This method wouldn't be suitable for deodorizing cannabutter because the temperature is in the range that cannabinoids volatilize. It would, however be possible to use a lower temperature and volatilize everything with a lower boiling point than the cannabinoids, for a partial deodorization.

You're already partly achieving this by simmering the cannabutter and water together for several hours. You could keep simmering until virtually no smell was being given off anymore but you would need to eliminate the chance of oxidation by using a vacuum pump. That's probably too complicated for the average stoner to bother with.

Water curing the bud would be a simpler way to leave the resulting cannabutter partially deodorized. However, an additional step could be added to improve the results. After initially water curing the bud, you could remove the trichs with ice and extract just the trichs in butter. This way, no plant cell contents will make it into the butter and no butter would be wasted by being absorbed into the plant material.