Decarbing 101, I can make my own edibles?!

We’ve all seen it in movies, The cops are coming and someone eats the WHOLE baggie of weed and gets really high. I hate to burst your bubble but eating raw cannabis will not get you high, the effects will be mediocre at that.

Why is this?

Did you know that the weed plant has no active THC in it? Only THC-A, which is called tetrahydrocannabinolic acid, the most prominent cannabinoid in the cannabis plant. THC-A is known to have a wide array of benefits such as anti-inflammatory properties but THC-A is non-intoxicating and needs to be heated before it becomes THC, the psychoactive property found in cannabis. So when you go to eat weed the way it is, you’ll experience zero psychoactive effects. In order to achieve this, we need to decarboxylate our cannabis.

Why should we decarboxylate?

Think of decarbing cannabis like activating your weed to its full potential. In order to achieve this, we need to heat the weed to approximately 220 degrees Fahrenheit. In order to use your cannabis to, it’s full potential, decarbing is an essential step in making your own edibles, oils, tinctures, and topicals.

There are various methods to achieving this and where it can be a smelly process, I’ll be giving you tips on how to decarb without smell, so you can start infusing your own edibles.

Materials Needed for decarbing.

Course ground cannabis or “shake”. Shake is the bottom of the bag weed, most dispensaries sell their shake at extremely reduced prices in large quantities. This typically contains tiny buds, the weed that’s fallen off the buds, stems, and leaves.

Other items to have on hand are;

- Baking tray

- Wooden spoon or spatula

- Oven Mits

- parchment paper

- tinfoil

-Timer

- mason jar for storage after

The purpose behind grinding your weed beforehand.

Grinding your cannabis beforehand is a must. You can throw whole nugs in the oven, but they won’t decarboxylate fully. The best method is coarsely grinding your weed to the consistency of loose tea leaves. You don’t want it to be too fine due to having weed particles in your oil infusions after straining.

How to decarboxylate.

Oven method

This method is the most popular and well-known way of decarbing cannabis. Gather your materials and prepare your cannabis, pre-heat your oven to 220-240 degrees F.

Spread your ground weed on a pan with parchment paper under it. Make sure it is evenly spread so it can evenly bake. It is also beneficial to cover your pan with tinfoil when decarbing. This cuts down the smell some and helps keep the terpenes preserved better.

At the 20 minute mark, open your oven and check on the cannabis and give it a stir to evenly bake the weed.

Check on it again at the 30-minute mark, We can see our weed to be a light golden brown in colour for optimal decarbing success. Between the 30-40 minute mark in when the cannabis is at the optimal state.

A detrimental thing people tend to do when their weed is baking is open the oven frequently to check on the cannabis. Doing this will cause the temperature to fluctuate and cause an uneven decarboxylation. We want to get the most out of our cannabis while preserving all the good things in the plant matter.

After pulling your decarbed weed out of the oven, leave it covered till it cools down. This keeps the smell down and keeps all the goodness in. When the weed is cool, remove it from the pan and store it in a mason jar for later use!

Instantpot Method

I was extremely skeptical of this method! But I wanted to find a method for decarboxylating without producing the strong smell cannabis has when baking it. This was a super easy method and I was extremely thrilled with the results.

The materials needed for this method are slightly different. You’ll need,

• An instant pot

• A mason jar with lid

• 2 cups of water

• Ground weed

• Oven mitts

Grind your weed and place it in your mason jar. This part is CRUCIAL, do not put the lid on tight on your mason jar. This will cause it to potentially explode while cooking. Place the lid on just enough to slightly tighten it.

Place your mason jar in your Instant-Pot and add two cups of water to the pot.

Place the lid on your Instant Pot, and set it to manual for 40 minutes.

The best part of the Instant pot is that it heats to 240 degrees, the perfect decarbing temperature and it stays consistent and heats your weed evenly.

As the Instant Pot comes to temperature and builds pressure, you will hear the mason jar rocking inside the pot, this is normal, do not be alarmed!

After 40 minutes your Instant Pot will shut off. From this point, you can allow your instant pot to naturally depressurize or you can flick the steam vent to allow it to depressurize faster. When this is done, the lid will unlock and you can take out your mason jar of perfectly decarboxylated cannabis. There is no smell this way so you can make edibles discreetly.

Click the link below.

Edibles in your Instant Pot? How to decarb your weed with no smell

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_7qRfIMu0OY&feature=youtu.be

Conclusion.

Making your own edibles isn’t as complicated as it seems! Decarbing is the crucial first step of making edibles and now you have two different and effective methods to try! It’s extremely rewarding to have the ability to make your own edibles. But it doesn’t stop there, you can use your decarboxylated weed to make topicals as well and you can add it to tea or your meals!

The possibilities are endless once you learn this amazing skill.

What are you going to make or infuse? Let us know in the comments!