How to make cannabis tinctures at home

Cannabis tinctures offer a user-friendly way to experience the cannabis plant’s health benefits. They consist of cannabis extract diluted in a carrier liquid, such as alcohol, vegetable glycerin, hempseed oil, or medium-chain triglyceride (MCT) oil.

When made with alcohol, a cannabis tincture is sometimes called a “green dragon” tincture.

While many dispensaries carry cannabis tinctures, you might prefer to make your own. This guide will walk you through the steps of making a cannabis tincture at home.

How to make a cannabis tincture

Making your own cannabis tincture offers some benefits. Homemade tinctures can be less expensive and give you control over the:

• Strain of cannabis
• Potency level
• Carrier liquid

Making a cannabis tincture is also fairly simple and requires only two ingredients: cannabis flower and the carrier liquid of your choice.

What you’ll need

• Rimmed baking tray
• Parchment paper
• Double boiler (a heatproof bowl over a saucepan of boiling water will suffice)
• Candy thermometer
• Cheesecloth or strainer
• Small funnel
• A dropper bottle

Ingredients

• 3.5 grams of cannabis flower
• 1/2 cup of your preferred carrier liquid, such as MCT oil, olive oil, or a neutral-tasting, high-proof alcohol like vodka or grain alcohol

Instructions

To make a cannabis tincture, first, you must decarboxylate your cannabis.

Decarboxylation is a heating process that activates the cannabinoids in cannabis, including tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) and cannabidiol (CBD). It’s important to activate the plant’s cannabinoids without burning them.

Follow these steps to decarboxylate cannabis:

1. Break up your cannabis flower into small pieces.
2. Layer the cannabis flower evenly on a rimmed baking tray lined with parchment paper.
3. Place the baking tray into a preheated oven set to 240°F to 248°F (115°C to 120°C). Bake for 30 to 40 minutes, stirring every 10 minutes.
4. Remove the tray from the oven. Let the cannabis cool to room temperature. The flower buds should be yellow or light brown rather than bright green.

There are two main methods for making cannabis tinctures, depending on whether you’re using oil or alcohol as your carrier liquid.

Follow these steps if you’re making an alcohol-based “green dragon” tincture:

1. Place the alcohol and decarboxylated cannabis flower in a jar with an airtight lid.
2. Close the lid and place the jar in a cool, dark place, such as a closet or cabinet, for about 4 weeks. Shake the jar once a day.
3. After 4 weeks, pour the mixture through a strainer or cheesecloth to remove any plant material, and funnel the strained tincture into a dropper bottle.

Follow these steps if you’re making an oil-based tincture:

1. Coarsely grind your decarboxylated cannabis flower.
2. Combine the cannabis and carrier oil in a double boiler.
3. Cook on low for 6 to 8 hours, stirring occasionally. Use a candy thermometer to ensure that the oil temperature never exceeds 245°F (118°C).
4. Remove from heat and let the mixture cool before pouring it through a strainer or cheesecloth into a clean jar.
5. Transfer the tincture into a dropper bottle using a small funnel.

Learn about other methods for infusing cannabis into oil here.

Alternate method for making cannabis tinctures

Some people prefer to use vegetable glycerin instead of oil or alcohol. This can be due to dietary reasons or because they enjoy its sweet taste.

If you want to use glycerin as your carrier liquid, simply follow the double-boiler method described above, using 1/2 cup of vegetable glycerin instead of oil.

Tips for making cannabis tinctures

Consider the following tips when making a cannabis tincture:

• Use high-quality flower: For the best results, cannabis tinctures should be made with high-quality cannabis flower purchased from a licensed dispensary.
• Choose your strain wisely: Opt for a cannabis strain that fits your personal goals.
• Strain thoroughly: Be sure to strain your cannabis tincture thoroughly after you’re done cooking. This will prevent a bitter taste and prolong its shelf life, as small pieces of flower can make it easier for mold and bacteria to grow.
• Store it properly: Keep your tincture in a dark, dry, and cool location, such as a drawer, cabinet, or shelf in your closet. Alcohol-based tinctures will last longer than oil-based tinctures.

How to dose homemade cannabis tinctures

Cannabis tinctures are stored in dropper bottles for easy dosing and administration. But when you make cannabis tinctures at home, the amount of THC can vary widely depending on:

• Carrier liquid: Alcohol tends to be more efficient at dissolving cannabinoids from cannabis flower than oil.
• Alcohol proof: If you use alcohol as your carrier liquid, higher proof options like grain alcohol will dissolve more cannabinoids than lower proof alcohols like vodka.
• Cooking method: The multiple rounds of heating required for oil-based tinctures may reduce the amount of cannabinoids, especially if temperatures become too high during the cooking process.
• Cannabis flower: The amount of THC in the flower you decarboxylate will greatly affect the amount in your final product.
• Age of tincture: Over time, the cannabinoids in your tincture will break down, meaning older tinctures will have less THC.

Estimate the amount of THC in the full tincture bottle

When making cannabis infusions at home, the final product typically retains about 60% of the flower’s THC content after being heated.

With this as a baseline, you can estimate the total amount of THC in a full tincture bottle.

For example, Leafwell’s recipe calls for 3.5 grams (g) of cannabis flower, or 3500 milligrams (mg).

To identify how much THC is in 3.5 grams of cannabis flower, first find out the percentage of THC in the flower by looking at the product label.

If the flower contains 20% THC, you would multiply the total number of milligrams of flower (3500 mg) by the THC percentage (20%, or 0.20). This equals 700 mg of THC.

If infusing 700 mg of THC into a tincture, you would multiply this figure by 60% to get 420 mg.

Therefore, a cannabis tincture made with 3.5 grams of flower containing 20% THC yields approximately 420 mg THC in the full recipe. Leafwell’s recipe calls for 1/2 cup of carrier liquid, or 4 ounces (oz), with each oz having about 105 mg of THC.

Estimate the amount in one dropper

A common dropper bottle size for cannabis tinctures is 1 oz, or approximately 30 milliliters (mL), with a dropper size of 1 mL. If you’re making your own tinctures, however, this might vary. Be sure to check the size of your bottle to accurately calculate the dosage in each dropper.

To determine how much THC is in each 1-mL dropper of tincture, divide the total mg of THC in the tincture by the total mL in the bottle.

Using a typical dropper bottle size of 1 oz (30 mL), a tincture with 105 mg of THC would contain approximately 3.5 mg of THC per 1-mL dropper.

The bottom line: Making your own cannabis tincture offers control over your dosage, strain, and more

Making a cannabis tincture at home is relatively simple and can give you more control over its potency, the strain of cannabis, and more.

When making your own tincture, it’s important to consider the amount of THC in the final product so that you can dose according to your needs.

A medical cannabis card makes it easy to access high-quality cannabis flower for making tinctures. To get your medical card, schedule an appointment with a Leafwell provider today.

Resources

• A comprehensive review on the techniques for extraction of bioactive compounds from medicinal cannabis. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8840415/
• Processing and extraction methods of medicinal cannabis: A narrative review. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8290527/