QWET oil extraction
- Thread starter Gray Wolf
- Start date
Been working on this process in a couple of different ways over the last week. Not ready to share my results yet, but I wanted to add an important detail to the discussion. It may seem obvious to some but do NOT add cold alcohol to hot alcohol it will boil over and you will loose some of your product.
A question on Decarbing with EtOH
A question on Decarbing with EtOH
EtOH boiling point is only about 170* whereas 250* is standardly used for decarbing, as stated before...
If the general sign of decarbing happening is the observance of changing bubble patterns as the solvent evaporates...how do you observe this if using a covered reflux boiler like Chef showed us, in which the solvent is retained during the heating process?
Or do you reflux cook it at 250* for a period of time before removing the lid and evaporating at a lower temp?
A question on Decarbing with EtOH
EtOH boiling point is only about 170* whereas 250* is standardly used for decarbing, as stated before...
If the general sign of decarbing happening is the observance of changing bubble patterns as the solvent evaporates...how do you observe this if using a covered reflux boiler like Chef showed us, in which the solvent is retained during the heating process?
Or do you reflux cook it at 250* for a period of time before removing the lid and evaporating at a lower temp?
When we use a covered still, we just keep track of what we put in and what has come out. Once we get about 90%, we evaporate the rest off to atmosphere, where we can watch it.
Thank you!
Another quick question; the general yield for QWET has been ~10-20% correct? So washing an ounce of top notch well-cured frosty buds should yield ~3-6g concentrate? I remembered seeing a post mentioning different observable yields whether using buds/trim/leaves but that was with butane and not EtOH, so I just wanted to check
Another quick question; the general yield for QWET has been ~10-20% correct? So washing an ounce of top notch well-cured frosty buds should yield ~3-6g concentrate? I remembered seeing a post mentioning different observable yields whether using buds/trim/leaves but that was with butane and not EtOH, so I just wanted to check
Hey Gray Wolf!
Hey Gray Wolf!
To watch this colorful phenomenon, I prepared a solution of chlorophyll in ethanol (three minutes at room temperature)
of the material left after 90 minutes of soaking in butane -20C.
In a few hours in the sun greens became honey-ginger-red.
After evaporation, red proved to be thicker and denser than green.
Together with the color sun improved consistency.
I did not photograph them, both were small and almost black.
Hey Gray Wolf!
Hee, hee, hee, good experiment! Thanks for the good thoughts!
thanks for a good read and inspiration, Grey!
my 1st attempt at qwet resulted in a very small amount of end product (not much on entry either) so i gave it a try to switch from quick wash to long wash.
i know it is not what you recommend but for a beginner, why not? the result is very black and somewhat gooey, still to much lower extent than i expected.
i took the molded buds i had (as a result of too much humidity in growroom) and soaked them in 60% ethanol for a few days, shaking every now and then.
i am aware it is far away from your recommended method, more conservative approach to be tried next time.
so i believe my end product is full of contaminants other than the good resin.
is there any way to purify it at this stage? thanks again for inspiration.
my 1st attempt at qwet resulted in a very small amount of end product (not much on entry either) so i gave it a try to switch from quick wash to long wash.
i know it is not what you recommend but for a beginner, why not? the result is very black and somewhat gooey, still to much lower extent than i expected.
i took the molded buds i had (as a result of too much humidity in growroom) and soaked them in 60% ethanol for a few days, shaking every now and then.
i am aware it is far away from your recommended method, more conservative approach to be tried next time.
so i believe my end product is full of contaminants other than the good resin.
is there any way to purify it at this stage? thanks again for inspiration.
ILL-IN-GROWER
Member
GW, I use long ethanol washes on lower grade water hash after drying to extract the goodies out of my 160 and 25 micron bags. I can't seem to get the same consistency as a quick wash through dry flowers or trim.
Flowers and trim consistently yield a hard shatter that is stable at room temp.
My long soaks on the water hash will come out like a hard silly putty. Workable at room temp, but after scraping if left in the same spot, it will slowly run and flatten out.
I'm mostly been using it to make jelly by mixing higher quality water hash grades with the ethanol extract, but can't seem to get the consistency I'm looking for with just the ethanol extract. Could the long soak be picking up impurities in the hash that doesn't let it harden completely into shatter? Other ideas? Even with decarbed material I can normally obtain stable shatter.
Respect and thanks for all your help
Flowers and trim consistently yield a hard shatter that is stable at room temp.
My long soaks on the water hash will come out like a hard silly putty. Workable at room temp, but after scraping if left in the same spot, it will slowly run and flatten out.
I'm mostly been using it to make jelly by mixing higher quality water hash grades with the ethanol extract, but can't seem to get the consistency I'm looking for with just the ethanol extract. Could the long soak be picking up impurities in the hash that doesn't let it harden completely into shatter? Other ideas? Even with decarbed material I can normally obtain stable shatter.
Respect and thanks for all your help
ILL-IN-GROWER
Member
Also, any benefit to using a vacuum for evaporating ethanol solvent? I generally let it evaporate through the air with thin films and only add heat for a minute to allow scraping of the hardened extract. But with all the big boys playing with butane and vac chambers, I can't help but wonder if this would help my Et process as well.
Yes, the long ethanol soaks will pick up chlorophyll and water solubles.
Yes, we cold boil ethanol to get our best winterized shatter.
Use a membrane vacuum pump, a cold trap, or frequently change your pump oil while cold boiling, because it will dilute your pump crankcase and destroy it if you don't replace the oil as it thins out.
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YouGrowBoy
Member
Very experienced, noob to oil
Very experienced, noob to oil
When it comes to cannabis I've been around the block a lot (I'm an old fart that started young) but have not made any extractions yet other then bubble hash and screen kief. I'm gonna make some QWET real soon but I'm a little confused about one point.
I was under the impression, after reading this entire thread, that oil extracted with everclear does not need winterizing.
Also "cold boiling" is that just using a vacuum chamber and pump like those I see on eBay?
GW, this is an old thread (and you're probably tired of it), will you still be here to help this old noob?
Very experienced, noob to oil
When it comes to cannabis I've been around the block a lot (I'm an old fart that started young) but have not made any extractions yet other then bubble hash and screen kief. I'm gonna make some QWET real soon but I'm a little confused about one point.
I was under the impression, after reading this entire thread, that oil extracted with everclear does not need winterizing.
Also "cold boiling" is that just using a vacuum chamber and pump like those I see on eBay?
GW, this is an old thread (and you're probably tired of it), will you still be here to help this old noob?
I believe when I asked about winterizing ethanol extracts, GW said they don't bother. Which makes sense, as hopefully your ethanol was really cold when you QW'ed... Now in the single solvent butane thread, winterization is not deemed necessary if the butane is cold enough... That might lead one to conclude it's the same with ethanol. There is very little wax in everclear extracts, and the process of extracting it is an extra everclear drying stage, making it potentially undesirable, as its a pain to get all the everclear out, and you may be partially decarbing in the process...
Thats why they cold boil ethanol when making winterized shatter (in this context I believe they are talking about bho that has been winterized, and they are trying to get the everclear out, but it could also be applied to everclear extracts as well)
Thats why they cold boil ethanol when making winterized shatter (in this context I believe they are talking about bho that has been winterized, and they are trying to get the everclear out, but it could also be applied to everclear extracts as well)
C
CaliGabe
Gotta read back through this thread.
1 part Iso + 2 parts Dry sift is some very nice smoke.
You don't need to winterize a QWET extraction, but when we winterize a BHO extraction with ethanol, one of the techniques to remove the alcohol is to cold boil it away with little heat under vacuum.
The rotary vane vacuum pumps aren't really suitable for cold boiling without a cold trap between the chamber and the pump,
