I’m looking for material to let people rough train and experiment with that “oops” wouldn’t be as costly with. I was planning on using hemp but the state of Michigan licensing board has made some statements over the past couple of days giving me doubt on how “legal” it would be (yes in MI you can get a license to process marijuana but not hemp crazy but true). I find people work better after burning their fingers a few times, gives them more understanding of why things are done certain ways, instead of just working through a run book.
Any suggestions for reasonable analogs to let people work through methods, etc?
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You can always use hops or lavender.
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Try crude hop oil. Email these vendors and see about crude options:
ttp://www.spothops.com/category-s/140.htm
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Liquid malt extract is sugar made from grain. I don’t think you could distill it without burning it. Try vacuum distillation of limonene.
Absolutely valid. note however that Lilibel did not say to try distilling malt extract.
She said email these guys and ask…
I love the idea of training on less valuable material. telling the minions that they’re holding $10k worth of product just makes them nervous.
What are your solvents of choice & and desired endpoints. ie what are you looking to train. I suspect the right substitute will depend on which process.
Certainly the Hops flowers would make a decent proxy when beating “it puts the cannabis in the tube, and then connects the hose again” into them the first few times…no matter what solvent you are using. 
When training for CO2 extraction, you can sell your Hops SFE or find local brewers more than happy to take it off your hands. Haven’t actually looked to see if the same applies to Hydrocarbon or CyroEtOH extracts.
Distillation of Lavender is definitely different that distilling cannabinods, not so sure about Hops. D-limonene does sound like a decent SPD substitute, especially if mixed with a couple of other things boiling above 100C, and some color to make it interesting.
Yeah, I guess if they need experience pouring goop… It wasn’t too hard for me to figure out how to pour the stuff. I think spd training materials are probably the most critical. With closed loop extractors you don’t need plant material to train an operator. Just run with an empty tube and practice recovering the gas.
When you guys mentioned hops I literally slapped my forehead… duh. Thanks all.
As to what solvents and endpoints, I was thinking SPD, after ethanol extraction/winterization. I’ve learned so much when things have gone sideways that it gives me so much more understanding than just following a recipe and done. I want people to mess up, they generally won’t do it again, and it gives them the confidence to trust themselves without making them overconfident in their abilities. Just need a place where the consequences of something going unexpected isn’t so bad.
Am I going to get flamed if I mention that with prices going the way they are, it will be waaaaayyyy more expensive to order Hops or Lavender oil? Because, if it’s too soon, I’ll keep that to myself. 
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For those training on a CUP, you can apparently use lettuce and bottled water instead of cannabis and Everclear
