I was winterizing some distillate that got mixed with MCT, and it’s dropping out fats nicely (6:1 methanol to oleo). I’ve noticed after a couple of days some other stuff seems to be crystalizing in the jar as well. It seems like it might be a different shape/look than the fat globules.
I’m just curious if thc crystalizes as well? Or if this is just more nasty stuff falling out of solution?
Obviously I can just gather all the remnants up and test it for thc. But just curious what might be happening in my jars.
Got pics? Are the crystaline structures brownish? If so, you are likely getting water solubles (sugars and the like) crashing. MCT has the ability to crash out water solubles really easily, and it has been my experience that they will continue to precipitate for at least a few days. Our tincture is made with MCT, and it is something we see every time we formulate.
To the best of my knowledge, only THC-A will crystallize. Decarbed product has never gotten me or anyone I know any crystaline thc. On the other hand, CBD is opposite, and CBD-A will not crystalize but CBD will at concentrations over 55%. Someone please correct me if I am wrong.
That’s what mine looked like when I winterized in methanol. Almost like snow flakes, but it was CBD crude.
@Akoyeh CBDa does crystallize, but not nearly as well as CBD. There’s pics posted recently somewhere around here of someone making sugar sauce with hemp buds they ran through a butane column.
It’s worth noting that methanol dissolves cannabinoids pretty damn well from what I’ve read. Even at 6:1, I don’t think you have to worry about crashing out cannabinoids with methanol. I’d love for someone to do a side by side comparison to how much cannabinoids stay in the waxes of an ethanol winterization compared to a methanol winterization. That’s what scared me about using acetone to winterize, is it looks like people are successfully crashing THCA out of solution with that.
Filter it and get it tested! Nobody has ever seen THC crystallize but it would certainly be cool if it did. I would bet this is something else. They are pretty though.
Hmm, gonna be a hard one to figure out. I know there’s gonna be trace thc left in the oil. It’ll just be a matter of figuring out what’s oil and what’s not before it just dissolves
