Newbie tincture - what did I do wrong?

I just poured back the solution into the jar I just cleaned and it literally separated again?!

WarMachine said:

Well I warmed up the solution and filtered it with a coffee filter...prettyyyyy sure that's all the reclaim caught in the coffee filter so safe to say this epically FAILED. Cleaned the jars and such but now it's obvious the reclaim was separating from the ethanol.... soooo...


How do you do this? Links perhaps? I have some so-so oil I can try again on perhaps..

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I have seen this happen when water had been introduced into the mixture - by chance did this happen? When you said up above you had 1.5g of reclaim from a rig, just wondering, what rig are you referring to?

I don't think water introduced :-/ I had the lid on the whole time. By rig I mean oil rig, piece I use to smoke my concentrates.

The lid should be off when boiling off the ethanol, I use a wide mouth jar so that the condensation doesn't fall back into the jar.

I wasn't boiling off the ethanol, I was at first having it air dry no fan assist.I too used a wide mouth mason jar.

WarMachine said:

I wasn't boiling off the ethanol, I was at first having it air dry no fan assist.I too used a wide mouth mason jar.

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Gotcha. You really don't need to air dry to reduce the ethanol, what you want to do is use a double boiler method to boil off the alcohol.

After I have captured the oil in alcohol, I put the jar in a small fryer with oil and put a digital thermometer in the alcohol. I put enough oil in the fryer to come up a quarter way up jar. I then crank up the fryer until the alcohol reaches 180 degrees, you will then see it boil. You will continue to reduce the oil until the small bubbles stop even when you stir it.

You can then mix in your choice of medium - I use coconut oil for mine. No waiting for air dry, I can boil down a pint in 30 minutes.

I'm sorry to say that I can't see your pictures very well before the last couple, so can't tell if the reclaim is ever in solution with the ethanol. Did it ever dissolve completely?

Fadedawg said:

I'm sorry to say that I can't see your pictures very well before the last couple, so can't tell if the reclaim is ever in solution with the ethanol. Did it ever dissolve completely?

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It's okay I hate this phone lol. The reclaim is always in the solution and it did completely dissolve because one of the times I filtered, it came out as a clean coffee filter. I basically dissolved the reclaim as if I was winterizing BHO.

Do I understand that the reclaim is separating from the alcohol, simply by filtering it?

Fadedawg said:

Do I understand that the reclaim is separating from the alcohol, simply by filtering it?

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Yes sir! That's why I'm getting so confused! I literally had 2 oz of shine to ~1.5g of reclaim. So I figured I had plenty of shine compared everyone saying 2:1 or 3:1 ratio. It was just separating sitting in the solution. Then I would filter it thinking it was bs particles and within moments the solution had re-separated.

I don't understand a mechanism for that to happen, so will have to run it by our biotech Pharmer Joe. My only thought is maybe water is playing a role.

Back at you after I get his take.

WarMachine said:

I don't think water introduced :-/ I had the lid on the whole time. By rig I mean oil rig, piece I use to smoke my concentrates.

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I don't winterize but when I read up on it they suggested that you use a breathable cover during the air evaporation process. Water can get introduced to the alcohol from the condensation on the glass jar being in the freezer.

If you still have the filter with the oil on it you should be able to dissolve the oil back into alcohol and try again.