We put commercially bought winterized decarbed CBD crude into (not veiled=clear) native olive oil, ratio 1:3,
heated the mixture to around 194 F / 90 C
and stirred for 5 minutes to dissolve,
cooled to room temp, added 1% hemp derived terpenes, stirred thoroughly
and then filled into sterilized 50 ml brown glass pipette bottles,
flushing with argon before closing (including the pipettes)
The problem is, in every bottle was about 0,25 to 0,5 ml sterile water before filling with the mixture because of human error/stupidity,
including by myself.
For now, the bottles are kept slightly above freezing point, since 24 hours.
This is not a commercial product, but i dont want to give family/friends or myself food poisoing, botulism etc.
and because there are about 30+ bottles,
storage for at least a few months would be required
As olive oil can only absorb around 0,2% water,
but there is now around 0,5 to 1% water in the mixture at minimum
(i dont know if the cbd crude had any water content)
i suppose, just my amateurish theory, the water is sitting mostly at the bottom or is partly absorbed in the fine plant matter particles of the crude that are suspended in the mix.
Would reheating remove the water?
Or should we freeze it to about 0 F / - 18 C and for using, thaw 1 bottle
at a time, keep it refrigerated and use it withing a few weeks?
Or thrash all of it?
Or maybe it doesnt seem to be a big problem at all?
Edit: okay I reread what you wrote and in my opinion, ALL OTHER THINGS BEING EQUAL, adding a little bit of sterile water to a mixture that was heated to 90° Celsius for 5 minutes already should not make a big difference.
But also if you are that worried about having a little bit of water in there at the bottom then go ahead and freeze your mixture and separate the ice layer at the bottom. It’s not a perfect solution but it will get rid of some water/ice.
I do think it seems like formulating from crude vs distillate or isolate is actually a little more tricky for beginners making consistent products for some reason.
What’s the goal of using crude in this scenario(a rso type tincture or is it cost)?
5min is a super quick mix, I’d bet it’s not homogenized. Especially with crude where it’s more difficult to visually identify if everything has been mixed due to the opacity/color.
I’ve never seen this issue, but if you can visually see the water layer separating at the bottom id probably try put all of the material in a sep funnel and drain the water.
Then I’d probably re-heat mix everything for like 15-45min depending on the batch size.
Yes I think it’s a problem and should be fixed, especially for your friends and family. Either fix them or toss them.
If I’d been the one handling it and knew exactly what had happened at every step of the way? Probably not. But that’s not the case.
If you knew that everything going in was sterile it should be fine for non-commercial applications. If it’s going to be used fairly quickly, it should be ok. But how long will these end up sitting on the shelf? Do you know for sure they will be 100% consumed within a couple of months? Or is there a chance they will end up tucked in the back of a cabinet and get pulled out in a year or three.
If I was willing to lose some of the terps I’d just heat it until the water fucked off.
You could freeze it as suggested above.
You posted about it, you’re obviously worried about it, so I’d mitigate it if I were you.
the reason we went this route:
we used crude because of the fuller spectrum of plant material,
and readymade cbd oil was 1) too costly, the stuff is pricey here
2 )you know whats in it if you get raw materials from renownded, somewhat local sellers and mix it yourself
i had a feeling the stirring is crucial for homogenity
(same problem as with viscous 2k epoxy mixing)
also, the plant material tends to settle on the bottom after some time
and probably cbd concentration gradients happen too
so i will stir longer and stir again bevore every material transfer to the bottles
separatory funnel seem the best way,
i just let it sit a while,
remove the bottom 5 % or so which is mostly plant slurry anyways,
hope most of the water is in there, toss it,
then reheat the rest as you suggested,
for further water removal and bakteria deactivating,
the terpenes will vapourize but i might catch them in an cooler,
and readd back later if i can seperate them from the water,
or add new ones,
any suggestions whaat percentage of natural hemp derived terpenes
are recommended to add to cbd oil, seems a bit weak 1% und 2% might be too much?
“Or is there a chance they will end up tucked in the back of a cabinet and get pulled out in a year or three.”
thats e x a c t l y the problem, it cant be ruled out,
we put in on the labels,
hand out information sheets about cooling, max. shelf life, to every person,
information about things to pay attention to, how to judge if the oil hat become bad etc,
but you cant control what some person who knows some person
under circumstances that cant be anticipated will actually do etc etc,
so:
i will bite in the sour apple as we say and follow the procedures suggested here ( and still provide a precise handout about correct storange and handling)
For your terpene %, what I might do is after removing the water and fully mixing the whole batch. Don’t add your terps to the whole batch yet, pour just a 50mL sample flask, then test out ratios of your terpene blend added to your tincture, start with lower ratios and then test it out to find what seems to be the sweet spot/right amount for your product. Once you find the ratio you like multiply it by the full batch size, also make sure to not use heat(or low heat) when adding/mixing your terps.
I would also note that properly winterized crude should not have much plant matter in it(if any), and a lot of plant matter could indicate some sort of filtration failure possibly. If there is significant plant matter in your tincture/crude it might be worth giving it a basic filtering as well before rebottling.