How to make CBD hemp oil tincture

Are you sick of reading about all the contaminants that are turning up in so many commercial cannabis products? Perhaps you’d like to try making your own. There are two ways you can do this. Either you can make a tincture with alcohol as a carrier, or you can extract the oil using ethanol to ultimately obtain a practically alcohol-free oil.

Doing it the old-fashioned way: how to make a CBD hemp oil tincture

To make a tincture, you will need some dried herbal hemp. Unfortunately, that’s pretty hard to get, but let’s assume you are able to do so. To avoid any form of contamination, ensure that it has been organically grown and dried in such a way that mold has not grown on the material.

Now you need a high-alcohol base for your tincture. Many choose vodka, but some have even made extracts with apple cider vinegar. It’s less effective, but it doesn’t contain any booze.

You will also need:

• A jar with a sealable lid

• Dark-colored bottles (preferably with a dropper)

• A strainer

• Some cheesecloth or muslin

• A glass jug with a spout

• A funnel

If you are using dry material, grind enough to half-fill the bottle. If you are using fresh material, pack the bottle loosely until two thirds full.

Now completely cover the plant material with alcohol. Seal the lids and place your bottles in a cool, dark cupboard. During the first week, shake the bottles daily to help the alcohol extract plant chemicals. Then leave the bottles for a further five weeks before straining, first with the strainer, and then through the cloth. Decant your tincture into the dropper bottles. Your tincture is now ready to use.

For a more concentrated, alcohol free oil

A lot of the info on how to make CBD hemp oil tincture focuses on oil extraction and recommends the use of butane or other harsh solvents. Avoid these methods. They are dangerously flammable – even explosive – and you could end up with toxic residues, which is exactly what you are trying to avoid. Ethanol is also flammable, although it is safer.  Exercise caution if you choose this method.

• Cannabis plant material (organic)

• Choose a high CBD cultivar

• Place plant material in a ceramic or glass bowl

• Cover with Ethanol

• Stir for three minutes using a spoon

• First sieve the plant material out

• Now run the mixture through a coffee filter to remove the last plant material (you may have to do this several times)

• To limit risk of fire, use a water distiller to separate the ethanol from the cannabis oil.

• Distill until 80% of the ethanol has been extracted.

• To remove the last of the alcohol, use the coffee machine’s heating plate and a heat-proof glass bowl. Leave on the heat overnight.

• Test the resulting oil by dipping a paperclip into the oil and applying an open flame. If it does not form sparks, the alcohol has been completely cooked out.

How to make CBD hemp oil tincture: which method is best?

Clearly, by making an oil out of the tincture, a much cleaner, more concentrated extract is produced. You will need quite a lot of material to produce only a small amount of CBD oil, but if you can get your hands on enough, this method will give you a great CBD oil.

There are other methods to extract cannabinoids, and this is not a complete guide. You should also be aware that without accurate testing, you can’t know exactly how much of which cannabinoids are contained in your extract. For uniform extracts with proven cannabinoid content, choose a reputable commercial supplier, such as Enecta, that uses advanced laboratory methods for extraction and testing.