33% loss when making butter/oil

Misanthrope · Mar 4, 2023

I've made weed infused butter, olive and vegetable oil and I always run into the same issue - the best I can manage to reclaim is 2/3 the volume of what I put in. I use mason jars in an instant pot or hot water bath and typically use about 40g in 6oz of butter or oil and can only get 4oz out of the pulp. I filter with cheesecloth (or clean old tshirt in a pinch) and the twist and squeeze out as much as I can by hand, making a god awful mess in the process...and if I spill a drop or two my dog is high for hours lol. If I use a cup of butter I get back about 2/3, 1.5 gives me one cup, etc.
Does anyone have a hack or tip for reclaiming more from their extractions?

TSD · Mar 4, 2023

Misanthrope said:
I've made weed infused butter, olive and vegetable oil and I always run into the same issue - the best I can manage to reclaim is 2/3 the volume of what I put in. I use mason jars in an instant pot or hot water bath and typically use about 40g in 6oz of butter or oil and can only get 4oz out of the pulp. I filter with cheesecloth (or clean old tshirt in a pinch) and the twist and squeeze out as much as I can by hand, making a god awful mess in the process...and if I spill a drop or two my dog is high for hours lol. If I use a cup of butter I get back about 2/3, 1.5 gives me one cup, etc.
Does anyone have a hack or tip for reclaiming more from their extractions?

Not really. That's pretty standard, you can try a French press to squish more out, but the more you squish, the more plant matter/chlorophyll gets squished out too, resulting in a more grassy tasting butter... so I personally don't mind the sacrifice.

fawnridge · Mar 5, 2023

Misanthrope said:
I've made weed infused butter, olive and vegetable oil and I always run into the same issue - the best I can manage to reclaim is 2/3 the volume of what I put in. I use mason jars in an instant pot or hot water bath and typically use about 40g in 6oz of butter or oil and can only get 4oz out of the pulp. I filter with cheesecloth (or clean old tshirt in a pinch) and the twist and squeeze out as much as I can by hand, making a god awful mess in the process...and if I spill a drop or two my dog is high for hours lol. If I use a cup of butter I get back about 2/3, 1.5 gives me one cup, etc.
Does anyone have a hack or tip for reclaiming more from their extractions?

We make cannabutter 3 or 4 times a month using two ounces of cannabis and seven sticks of unsalted butter in an MBM or similar pot. Total weight of the ingredients is 847 grams. The best yield so far has been 540 grams or 63%. We strain through high quality cheesecloth and then squeeze the crap out of the ball using heavy rubber gloves. After that, we have a citrus press (actually two of them, but only one is used for cannabutter) and squeeze as much out of the cheesecloth ball as possible.

Since moving to Virginia, we've been buying trim from a dispensary in DC because the price of flower is insane. When we lived in Colorado, we only used flower and occasionally had yields in the 560 gram range. And that was without using the citrus press.

From 540 grams, we divide the butter into thirds and bake 45 to 50 cookies per batch. Having tested our cookies against dispensary edibles, we figure ours are around 150mg of THC per cookie. Mint chocolate chip in the photo. One thing I can suggest, leave out chips and nuts for a stronger cookie. They take up space and weight. We use mini chips and only half a bag per batch.

mysticepipedon · Mar 5, 2023

In a conversation with a grower or supposed grower on another forum, I realized he was a phony when he talked about making budder with a ratio of a pound of butter to a half pound of weed, and he yielded... (drum roll, please) a pound of budder! I mentioned that the yield was very impressive, then put him on ignore for the remainder of my time on that forum.

TSD · Mar 5, 2023

mysticepipedon said:
In a conversation with a grower or supposed grower on another forum, I realized he was a phony when he talked about making budder with a ratio of a pound of butter to a half pound of weed, and he yielded... (drum roll, please) a pound of budder! I mentioned that the yield was very impressive, then put him on ignore for the remainder of my time on that forum.

Yeah... the ratio I use is a half ounce to each cup of melted clarified butter... much more than that and you don't have enough butter to pull out all the thc and you're just wasting bud, and the return is even less because there's more plant material to absorb and hold onto the butter. A pound of butter wouldn't even remotely moisten a half pound of weed lol.

steamroller · Mar 5, 2023

Never did this but sounds like the way to get the most out of your debris making butter.
Since I have never done it I just switched the butter for the debris from making butter.
The principal should be the same.

Combine 1/3 cup of butter and one cup of vodka in a saucepan.
Melt them together over low heat to ensure the alcohol won't evaporate.
Once it's fully combined, let it sit at room temperature for 5 hours.
Afterward, freeze the mixture overnight so the fat can infuse the spirit and freeze separately.
Then strain it! Remove the hardened fat and strain the extract to remove any extra particles. Use a cheesecloth or a coffee filter. Strain it once or twice.

Taken from ; https://robustkitchen.com/butter-ex...one,and freeze separately. 5 Then strain it!

Misanthrope · Nov 4, 2023

So I bought a french press for my cannabutter process. Yield is pretty much the same, 6oz butter returns 4 oz cannabutter but it's much easier than squeezing scalding hot butter-soaked cheesecloth by hand or between two plates. The only problem is that the end result is much more watery than usual, in one case it was liquid. It still bakes and tastes the same so it doesnt matter if used right away but I wouldnt want to freeze any watery butter for long term storage.
Does anyone know why using the French press caused this change? Would clarifying the butter before hand make any difference?

alpha.ganjaguy · Nov 6, 2023

is it possible some water got into your mason jars during the process? you should be able to cool the butter in the fridge to make separating from any water easier as they'll naturally separate

Misanthrope · Nov 7, 2023

alpha.ganjaguy said:
is it possible some water got into your mason jars during the process? you should be able to cool the butter in the fridge to make separating from any water easier as they'll naturally separate

That was my first thought too but I don't see how. Grind the weed, decarb in a mason jar then slow cook in a mason jar before using french press - I don't see where any water could get into the process. Next time I will try cooling the butter in the fridge after using the french press and see if it will separate at all.

alpha.ganjaguy · Nov 7, 2023

maybe a bad or going bad seal on a mason jar?

Misanthrope · Jan 25, 2024

alpha.ganjaguy said:
is it possible some water got into your mason jars during the process? you should be able to cool the butter in the fridge to make separating from any water easier as they'll naturally separate

This did the trick! Initially I let it cool to room temperature because that's the state I needed it in for baking but it never really solidified. Now I toss it in the fridge and once it's cool it's a solid block of butter with zero liquid, even when it warms up to room temperature.
I still lose about a third of the butter each time but don't see any practical way around that.

Oldchucky · Jan 25, 2024

I agree it makes a hell of a mess! So I want to make it as strong as possible so I don’t have to make it very often. After I had squeezed the hell out of the cheesecloth full of dope, I put it in a pan of boiling water and massaged it and squeeze it some more. Then put it in the fridge and let it separate. The amount I was able to reclaim, wasn’t worth the effort! I wanted to find out how much I was throwing away. Turned out, not a whole lot in the whole scheme of things!

33% loss when making butter/oil

33% loss when making butter/oil

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