How To Extract CBD Oil From Hemp And Cannabis Easily At Home
CBD is great for relieving a host of symptoms ranging anywhere from arthritis to inflammation to anxiety. With its promise in a variety of medical applications, you may be wondering how to extract cbd oil from hemp and cannabis yourself!
You’ve probably been paralyzed with questions surrounding what ingredients and tools you need for an extraction process.
But we have the solution. It may surprise you, but creating your own CBD oil at home is not as difficult of a process as you may have thought.
Requiring only ethanol, a freezer, coffee filters and some glass jars, CBD oil is easy to make. You’ll be able to be use CBD oil in such a variety of different ways and discreetly if you choose.
Stay with us as we break down 2 popular extraction methods, their benefits, and how you can do it at home.
CBD Oil Extraction Methods
Supercritical CO2 Extraction
Industrially, CBD oil is extracted through a process called Supercritical CO2 extraction. In liquid form under high pressure, CO2 passes through the plant material to produce a highly concentrated, pure plant oil extract.
Many cannabis connoisseurs enjoy CO2 extracted oils and concentrates due to their absence of solvents such as butane, hexane and pentane.
Although these solvents are usually 100 percent expunged in high quality concentrates, many prefer to avoid the risk of inhaling these solvents altogether.
Only using CO2 to extract CBD from the plant, supercritical CO2 extraction is the only “solvent free” extraction method.
However, as many benefits as CO2 extraction may provide, it is not without its downsides. To begin, CO2 extraction yields the highest amount of undesirables such as the plant’s lipids, waxes and chlorophylls.
This can lead to an extremely “crude” extract which will require an extended refinement and winterization process.
Additionally, this process requires expensive equipment and experienced technicians.
Where would one even source CO2 under pressure high enough to keep it in liquid form. And that’s not considering the danger and logistics of storing contents under such high pressure.
Cold Ethanol Extraction
One of the primary reasons why manufacturers prefer Supercritical CO2 extraction is due to volume they’re able to move through that extraction method.
Housed in huge cylinders and automated by technicians, supercritical CO2 extraction is primarily designed for industrial manufacturing of concentrates.
A lower-cost but not necessarily lower quality alternative you can do at home is ethanol extraction. Cheap, easy, and safe, ethanol extraction can produce CBD oil of equal quality to CO2 extraction when done right; without the excessive amount of undesirables that CO2 extraction offers.
Here’s how you can do the cold ethanol extraction method at home.
How To Extract CBD Oil From Hemp And Cannabis Using Cold Ethanol Extraction
Time: 3 – 4 hours depending on freezer
Materials:
Decarboxylated cannabis
Ethanol or 190 proof grain alcohol
Freezer
25 micro mesh or comparable cheesecloth
Glass jars
Steps:
Step 1: Put your decarbed flower and ethanol into the freezer
Take your dry (this is important) and decarboxylated flower into a sealable container. Ideally, you’re using a mason jar. Put both the flower and ethanol and into the freezer.
Once their temperatures reach a stable -17ºC (0ºF), take it out of the freezer.
Step 2: Pour ethanol onto flower
Pour your ethanol into your jar of cannabis flower until it covers all of the plant matter with 2 to 3 centimetres of excess on top.
Stir the mixture until the ethanol and flower mixture is well mixed before placing the container back into the freezer for about 3 minutes.
Step 3: Strain mixture
After 3 minutes, remove your container from your fridge and stir gently. Then strain the mixture through your 25-micron mesh or comparable cheesecloth.
Wrap the micron mesh around the remaining plant material and squeeze out any remaining liquid.
Step 4: Filter mixture
Take the liquid and slowly filter it through a coffee filter or similar such filter into a different container.
Step 5: Boil off remaining alcohol
The last step is to boil off the remaining alcohol in your solution. Heat an oil bath to 120ºC (250ºF).
Place the container into the bath, being sure to suspend it off of the bottom of your pot using either jar lids or plates and bowls!
Step 6: Check the temperature
Monitor the temperature of the oil with a very accurate thermometer to ensure it stays at 120ºC (250ºF). Boil the alcohol off until the container’s liquid is reduced to a smooth, bubbleless oil and you will have created CBD oil!
To learn more about the process and an alternative method of production, be sure to check out how to make CBD oil from isolate and dry flowers in our guide.
Final Thoughts
Your freshly made CBD oil can be eaten as is, used in baking or if you want to elevate your cooking to a “higher” level.
Don’t worry if the extraction from your flower might appear to be dark and murky, and not clear and translucent like you may have expected.
The lack of clarity doesn’t mean that there’s anything wrong with your oil. It just means that other compounds such as the plant’s chlorophyll and waxes are present within the solution as well.
Despite its murkiness, your CBD oil is still perfectly safe to consume.
However, it may have a slightly bitter and vegetal taste, making it difficult to incorporate into your cooking. If you want to use your CBD in cooking and in the creation of more refined concentrates such as CBD isolate, you’ll have to go through the winterization process.
Winterization may sound like a deeply scientific process, but I can assure you that it is anything but.