How to Make Cannabis Infused Vegetable Glycerin

Have you ever wondered how edibles manufacturers infuse candy with cannabis? Or maybe you are looking for an easy-to-make medical tincture that you can take on a daily basis. When you infuse vegetable glycerin with cannabis you get a safe method of creating a tincture that you can make lots of things with. Using tinctures are a great way to medicate with cannabis without ingesting toxic chemicals that may harm you. Check out our recipe below for making potent cannabis infused glycerin that you can use for tinctures, candies or vaporizer “e-juice” recipes.

Ingredients

2 ounces food-grade Vegetable Glycerin
5.5 grams of top shelf cannabis
Crockpot- This one is super handy because it is portable with a locking lid.
Sealable glass jars
Cheesecloth or handy-dandy strainer bag
Large rubber band
Funnel
Latex/Vinyl Gloves

Instructions

Before beginning, you want to make sure that you have already decarboxylated your cannabis. To do this, you will need to preheat your oven to 240° and spread your ground cannabis onto a baking sheet and bake for 50-60 minutes. This process “activates” the THC by removing the acid, or carboxyl group, thus converting THCA to THC. You may skip this step if you wish to avoid most of the psychotropic effects from your finished product.

Take one of your small, sealable glass jars and mix the vegetable glycerin and decarboxylated cannabis inside of it. Seal the jar then shake to mix the ingredients up as much as possible.

Next, fill your crockpot with water until it’s halfway full, then fold a small towel into the bottom of the crockpot. Place the sealed glass jar with the cannabis and glycerin mixture inside of the crockpot, but resting on top of the towel. This towel exists so your glass does not break on the crockpot, be careful!

Place the lid on your crock pot and turn it on to the lowest setting. If your crockpot is one that has a warm setting, that is perfect. Never, ever use the high setting. The low setting is okay. Let the jar sit inside the crockpot anywhere from 18-24 hours, making sure to remove the jar and shake vigorously every couple of hours. It’s okay to leave it be while you are asleep or at work.

After 18-24 hours, remove the jar from the crockpot and let it sit for 20 minutes.

Once the jar has cooled, put on your gloves and take your cheesecloth and secure it to the funnel with the rubber band. We like these funnels because they are inexpensive, made out of stainless steel and have a lip that will help in keeping the rubber band in place.

Place funnel over another clean glass jar and carefully pour your cannabis and glycerin mixture on top of the cheesecloth. Be very careful, the mixture may still be warm.
You may notice that your tincture is dark amber in color – perfect! Once strained your glycerin infusion may now be used as a tincture that you can place under your tongue (or in a drink) or it can be used to make candy! If you plan to use as a tincture then store in a dark dropper bottle with a dropper top. This will make it easy to begin self-titrating in order to get the perfect effect.

46 Comments:

  1. Jogpal

    Does a glyceron THC tincture have to be refrigerated to keep its potincey. Pls reply

  2. Mary Janed

    I am not sure, but I did refrigerate mine until use. I don’t keep my temperature to high, so it works for me.

  3. Mort

    Probably a silly question, but the 240 degree measure, is that Fahrenheit or Celsius?

    1. David Snoddy

      farenheit bro, i made that mistake and burnt 8g’s of nice haze to black ash haha

  4. Sean

    In the beginning you mention using it as an ecig liquid. Have you had any feedback on how that works out?

    1. We have had had patients try it using an Istick Pico rig and the right watt setting so far seems to be 45-47w. Your preference will vary, but lower than that doesn’t vaporize effectively. This is only what we have seen and should not be considered as gospel.

    2. Mike

      I made some but I used alcohol and once evaporation not too sure about what to cut it with too vape,I used coconut oil sometime it works and then it doesn’t I don’t know what the problem is

  5. mike

    all you need is liquid and weed. throw the busted weed into the liquid bottle and just let it sit. vg/pg will draw out the thc, and itll just jam in the liquid till you vape.

    im doing it right now so i know it works. flyyyyin
    i mixed about .5gs (medium bust to keep bits from flowing from the bottle to the vape), with ~10ml of liquid to test it. using an old e-go tank/w adapter on my istick60w. now i need a strong flavor to cover the herb taste. its a bit overpowering. but im stoned so… woooo

  6. Greenberryjnr

    Yeah I kind of guessed it would be a stupid comment.

    I made cannabutter for the first time last week. 1oz of top bud 1lb of butter in a crock pot 24hrs. I didn’t decorboxlate it first. I didn’t follow a recipe that stated to do it. I didn’t research into making butter I just found the first recipe and followed it.
    I proceeded to make a brownie mix, tasted some of the brownie batter, a teaspoon of it! One hour later I was feeling the effects of it. Ended up losing my milk, later found in the cupboard. (20 brownies where made)
    Friends tried the brownies and took one bite and waited, they reported to me that they were wasted and thought I’d set out to kill them (they had a bad time on them) Some where in bed for a day after eating a full brownie.
    These where beyond strong. Why is that? (Should of made 60brownies)

    If I ‘decorboxlated’ my Cannabis would the end result be more potent?

    I have now got all my gear to make the glycerin tincture and I am going to follow this recipe and another recipe where It says to leave it for 60days.

    But first I would like to know more about the ‘decarboxlate’ stage. If my brownies turned out mega potent with no decar’ would my tincture not also?

    Appreciate your honest opinion, I’m a newb at cooking with canna. But pretty experienced at cooking.

      1. He states, “I proceeded to make a brownie mix, tasted some of the brownie batter, a teaspoon of it! One hour later I was feeling the effects of it” So obviously the de carb did not occur in the baking process . How did the batter strength compare to the baked brownie. I too am interested in this subject.

      2. Susan Lilley

        Old timers (my dad, his dad) didn’t bother with decarboxylation. It’s a waste of effort. Brownies reach a sufficient temperature to do it during baking. Grind your weed, Buzz it up in a little food processor along with the right measure of oil, and continue from there. The ratio eaten in a spoonful of an ounce of weed in the batter might give you something, I don’t know….but I’ve made many many pans of brownies using this method and it never fails. Make sure they get completely done done to have the best results. Start with one inch squares….

  7. Stoney Wan Kenobi

    How much tincture will you end up with after the process is complete? I’m guessing less than 2 oz. after cooking the 2 oz. of Vegetable glycerin. Correct? & how do you calculate the potency level without lab testing. If you use a flower that has a 20% or above THC level & you use 5.5g of it what will the THC mg be in the tincture you make with the 2 oz. of VG?

  8. Colleen

    Does anyone have any good recipes on what to do with the left over weed? Please please please:)

    1. Diana Hirons

      I keep the it in the freezer and use it for making tea. A tablespoon steeped in hot water with or without your favorite tea works great. You can buy a tea strainer ball or teabag if you want.

  9. I made a couple of jars of tincture using vodka using the freezer method. (weeks later) there is now a thin film of scum, oil?, on the bottom of the jars, it won’t mix with the alcohol when I shake it. Worried it’s the cannabis oil which has leeched from the alcohol. Impossible to scrape out. Any advice???

    1. The “scum” is probably plant waxes and lipids that did not get strained out. Even though you kept everything frozen these components (unlike cannabinoids) are water soluble, so it is likely that this is probably why the scum is there. That’s why it is important to use very high proof alcohol. Vodka is only between 40% and 50% alcohol by volume, the remainder is water. By contrast, Everclear 190 proof is 95% alcohol. I would recommend putting your tincture and some unbleached coffee filters in a deep freezer for 24 hours and then strain it through them. Leave the whole setup in the freezer to strain if possible. The filter should catch most of it.

  10. There’s a much easier way. If you have access to top shelf cannabis you most likely have access to top shelf wax or shatter as well. This is much easier to make a far more concentrated and easily calculated potency. All you have to do is take your wax drop it in veg glycerin and heat it to around 240 for 45 minutes.(i recommend stirring or shaking the mixture every 5 or 10 minutes) It will decarboxylate the thc and break down the wax at the same time (you can buy a thermometer for cooking at wal mart under 5 bucks) this is significantly faster and cleaner, no straining required. Once its done cooking you can cool it down and use it right then and there. Effectively no clean up and you can generally only extract 70-80% of available cannabinoids from buds with this method whereas you don’t lose a bit with the hash method. Gettin your moneys worth!
    to calculate potency every gram has the potential for up to 1000mg if you know your hashs potency. Its easy. 70%thc =700mg 65%thc=650mg 80%thc=800mg, etc etc. If you have no idea. Dark almost black wax will be 55-65%thc, decent pretty yellow wax will be 65-75%thc, quality fresh frozen or bud run which will have a gorgeous amber appearance will generally be 75-85%thc, and you can get bud run fresh frozen, live resin, rosin things like that that I’ve seen hit up to 95%. These are averages. I’ve seen regular trim run shatter that looked like bud run and was over 80%, but this is only from strains which produce a very large amount of sugar on the leaves (gorilla glue in this instance)

    1. Loi

      Hey! How much VG and how much wax do you use in order to make it as potent as possible? And what’s your heating method?

    2. Patti

      Would love to make tinctures with wax.This will be my first time. Saw your post.Could you give me step by step instructions. You mentioned heat.Is this stove top? Can it be done in crock pot on low heat? It seems much quicker using wax. Also wax is sold in 1 gram at dispensary. Need ratio of wax to vegetable glycerine? My dispensary stop selling tinctures. Want to make them thanks….

    3. Patti

      How much tinctures does this make?? Need ratio wax is sold in 1 gram. How much vegetable glycerine? Would like to make several bottles of tinctures. Need ratio? Thanks.

  11. I should’ve also said all this method requires is
    a small glass jar (quart is plenty big, half quart is fine)
    Vegtable glycerin
    Wax or shatter of some kind (however much you want for desired potency
    (Optional) blue or brown glass vials with droppers for easy storage and dosage(I aim for around 700-1000mg per vial)

  12. Dustin

    Easy way I make butter. ,,,,I use at least 2 to 4oz of trim/sugar leaf/shake—-First…
    1.Clarify butter (7 sticks(UNSALTED) is what I’ve been using) You Need,cheesecloth,coffee filter, clean shirt if that’s all you have(unbleached preferably) tongs help
    2.Decarb Herbs 240 -30-45min(Times Vary)Watching Closely -once done
    3.SPRAY SHEET OF DECARBED HERB LIGHTLY WITH EVERCLEAR.
    4.Crockpot herbs with your clarified butter for 4-6 hours,using a lid
    (I add a little water just so it doesn’t burn)
    5.STIR , WAIT,STIR, Wait & Repeat
    6.Strain herbs,& store in a light proof bowl
    (Poke it once solid just to be sure u don’t have any water left behind,,if so ,Pat it if so ,,,dump excess water that may of stayed behind.

  13. julia

    I’m interested in using a VG tincture in hard candies but am having difficulty finding information on dosage. When using my homemade canna butter I’ve got it to where 4 tablespoons create 24 10mg servings. I’ve read VG does not absorb thc as well as butter so it’s unclear to me how much to use to get that same ratio. I’m thinking of doubling my numbers (8 tablespoons of VG for 24 servings), but I would really love to hear from someone who has experience with VG!

  14. Alessia

    Couldn’t you just grind up your weed and let it sit inside your premade e-liquid juice?

  15. Kippi

    My question is the vg. Will the 99.5% pure vegetable glycerin I use for my Essential oils work or do I need a special glycerine. I buy this at the pharmacy.

    1. Jeff

      Pure vegetable glycerin is pure vegetable glycerin. Some people are sticklers about which specific plants it’s derived from, but it really doesn’t matter in the end.

  16. Jack

    I read somewhere that you can just cook it in the crockpot for 24 hours on low setting instead of jar in crockpot? Is this true?

  17. Andrew

    Anyone know how much this makes? Does it stay at the 2floz, or will there be some evaporation?

  18. eastwood

    Will the decarboxylation in the oven produce a strong smell? It seems like it would.

    1. SouthCANN Editor

      Absolutely! It will be quite pungent until you finish with the decarb, but the smell dissipates pretty quickly.

  19. Marie Hawkins

    I would like some info re ways of using tincture made with vegetable glycerin? Drops under the tongue and how much? Sorry I am very new to this and really do not know what now

  20. Harald

    a second question: when i tried it with CBD, it does blend but after some days, i can see the oil seperating from the glycerine again. Did i do anything wrong or is it just like that?

  21. Tiffany

    Anyone know if I can mix cannibus coconut oil with VG to put in vape pen? If so, do you know the recommended ratios?
    Thanks in advance!

  22. CBG

    How much bud would you need for a liter of PG/VG 80/20 , considering making my own vape juice ?

    Thanks any help would be appreciated

  23. spud1982 alan (spud1982)

    Does this method work? Or are there better methods out now? I have bought everything to give it a shot but I don’t want to waste these flowers. This method seems simple enough. Just curious . Thanks

  24. Gissel

    Question… I’ve seen some recipes with glycerin and some with lecithin, what’s the difference and why?

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