Ethanol crystals

No I believe your in the right place buddy!
I was thinking you said bho crude

That’s from ethanol extraction or created in ethanol after a different solvent extraction?

@MoodyBill: so NOT Ethanol?

There are folks in this thread who are crystallizing THCA out of ethanol. Either as the sole extraction solvent, or after winterization.

There are also folks who are seeing crystals during their ethanol recovery, who are probably NOT crystallizing THCA.

there is a also VERY similarly named thread where the nature of the non-cannabiniod crystals are being discussed: Ethanol crystals? (also some actual cannabinoid crystallization)

If you’re deliberately crystallizing out of butane/propane, then you might want to check out: Only The Strong sauce tek and/or it’s associated call for pictures: OTSS When To Cap, Request for Pictures

there is also a thread on using acetone: Acetone crystallization of THC-A

and a discussion of seeding: Seeding which is relevant no matter what solvent system you’re using.

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So, I missed what Michigan was saying entirely and the posts are withdrawn but here is a bit more info and more pics. That original pic was not mother liquid it was additional solvent (Etoh) I added to try to break them down. Those crystals formed in the flask while evaporating solvent out of the mother liquid. I have not yet tried adding water to test their solubility in that manner, but it is on the docket.

So I left my little experiment to sit over the weekend in the vac oven, no heat, no vac. When I returned I had what you’ll see below. Please note they are mostly NOT small bubbles, they look like crystals. a few are bubbles though and again I struggle to get high quality images, so, sorry in advance. What do you think, sugar again/still? Also, second image is under vacuum to help make the crystals easier to see…


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Those look like the real McCoy!

…so I could absolutely be wrong about the ones in your flask.

@MoodyBill presumably deleted their posts as being off-topic. aka not crystals from an ethanolic solution. You can still read them till the 72hrs is up if you’re terminally curious like I am :wink:

I always try both Ethanol & water, and usually ask my GC for confirmation. I’ve run into CBD crystals out of ethanol, and sugar of some flavor as crystals, taffy, and rock candy with THC dominant input.

If I’m counting correctly there are 3 or 4 folks who have posted with direct experience with THCA crystallization out of ethanol between the two threads.

Edit: the color on that is phenomenal, are you doing anything after cryo-ethanol?

Correct, different extraction method

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It would be sweet if they are THCA!

I think my next experiment may be to leave a tad more ethanol behind and go with a small jar… sort of take a page out of the ‘Only The Strong Sauce Tek’ playbook. Maybe I can achieve larger crystals that way, or maybe try for recrystallization with some seeds… either way that is down the line and this was more just me wanting to produce shatter without access to propane or butane. For now that slab is finishing up quite nicely :slight_smile:

It terms of extraction I did the cryo-ethanol and then filtered 1x through AC and DE (Celite 545)

Thanks for the continued advice and interest!

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The ones in the first picture you can really see when you zoom in…

I believe if your starting material is correct then how could it be anything other than thcA crystals? Gotta be right

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whew! That was my best guess.

Much as I love learning new stuff, I was hoping not to be wrong on that one :wink:

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Thanks for all the replies everyone. What I see when I run some flower harvested and dried in the last few weeks, is the light yellow clear liters of ethanol separate as I get down to a couple hundred ml into an oil layer and a milky emulsion layer. So I used a pipette to separate these layers. The crystals crash out of the emulsion. Alcohol is there, I can taste and smell it, but in a day or two, no more. White settles out and liquid turns peach or pinkish, highly fragrant & continues to evaporate. If I spike oil with it and let it dry, perfume flavor x3… so I assume I am seeing ethanol sauce n thca crystals… haven’t sampled crystals yet though…

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pics are in reverse order sorry!

This was a -50c bho run on some moldy OG that was 3 step winterized and filtered through .22 micron syringe filters for spores. Rotovapped at 36c and “full vac” on diaphragm pump untill no more EtOH was visibly distilling over. Jarred and left to sit until vac oven space was available. Since this was low priority material it ended up sitting for a month or more at ambient temps, after which I finally noticed significant crystal growth.

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Epic! Bet if you had placed that jar in the oven capped, with some heat, you would get faster growth

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Oh I wish! Funny enough, this happened to only two of three jars of the same material. Would have loved to see how it progressed had I not poured and purged these into slabs.

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What temperature would you recommend in the oven @Future? Gonna give this a shot with some shatter that came out a little too dark for my liking.

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I mostly work with cold ethanol extract made in a SprayVap. I need to reduce the jacket temp on the sprayvap and try this!

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Any thoughts on this working or not with CBDa?

Between room temp and 100f

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Good luck, CBDa is real tough to Crystallize

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so would we call these two solvent crystals?

That’s cool. Filtering through the syringe is a good idea, but while .22micron is enough to get rid of bacteria, I am unsure if it will filter out eukaryotic spores. In any case, it’s the fungal toxins of particular strains of mold that are a bigger concern. They could in theory be extracted and distilled, but I would bet crystallization excludes them for the most part. Ochratoxins and aflatoxin are bad news.

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