Step 5 - Reduce
Step 5 - Reduce
Introduction
Final Reduction. You should have a bowl of dissolved oils in 95% Ethanol. Use one of the recommended cooking appliances that has accurate heat control. Skunk Pharm Founder Carla Kay recommends a fondue maker as it has very accurate temperature control circuitry with very minor swings in temperature. Low end consumer devices such as hot plates have wide swings in temperature and will quickly overheat the oil and burn residual impurities.
Procedure
Place the wash in a small stainless steel bowl. Use a small bowl that will make it easy to squeegee clean afterwards. If La Brea, add a couple drops of MCT oil to the wash to make the resins pliable. La Brea is very thick and sticky. Using MCT will reduce the viscosity of the final oil.
Set the device to 120c/250f and boil it down. Boil off the ethanol then water. The alcohol boils off at 82c/180f, water at 100c/212f. When boiling commences, bubbling will increasingly become fast and furious. Once there is more oil than water, boiling slows in thick oil. Use a thermomenter to watch for 220f C02 bubbles at temperatures over 100c/212f.
Skip this step if not decarbing. Decarbing is easiest before making oil but less accurate to obtain optimal potency. Carla says, for the best potency, decarb at the end of reduction. With the temperature above 100c/212f, the large bubbles from water vapor will give way to fine small bubbles coming from C02. As the temperature rises above 100c/212f, the bubbling ratio of water to C02 bubbles shifts towards C02. At 104c/220f, the water has pretty much boiled out. WARNING: Watch out for spiking temperatures once the water is gone. Temps can spike to 148c/300f and higher in seconds if applying too much heat. Only use precise temperature controlled cooking appliances for the final reduction. Take a moment to review the recommended cooking appliances for reduction.
DONE! You now have oil! Your medicine is ready for application. From plant to oil now takes a few hours.
Science
Tips and Tools
Tip: Water saturated with salt has a boiling point of 227f. You can bring the boiling temperature of the base boiler up to 227f by boiling brine. Downside is, brine dissolves aluminum and pits stainless steel. Best to dedicate a stainless steel pot as the bottom boiler and always use it for boiling brine. Second downside is, at boiling temperatures, the water spits dry into salt crystals so you will have a mess on your hands afterwards.
Troubleshooting
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WARNING: Never distill alcohol near open flame. Alcohol vapors are highly flammable so always distill in well ventilated spaces.
This oil is appropriate for oral ingesting and vaping. Due to the potential of residual salts, do not torch this oil. Torch temperatures can reach over 760c/1400f and can vaporize any residual salts.
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