This thread is AMAZING. I can’t wait to make some infused hard candies. For sure.
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You can use kief, if it is good quality (60-70% THC) I will use about 1-2 grams per ounce. Sometimes kief can be as low or lower than the bud, dry ice hash for example. I like using the whole plant because I feel like the polar and semi polar compounds have medicinal value.
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That looks delicious. I’m right behind you. 
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I’m gonna have to study this closer as it’s a very long thread I believe I have the alcohol end covered I’m looking for something for neuropathy in my feet & hands
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you’re into “Breaking Bad” territory - is that a moonshine setup? Or is there a small child trapped in that bucket? 
Captain Picard - Patrick Stewart - says that alcohol-based cannabis spray works great on the arthritis in his hands, maybe it will work on the nerve pain. I’ve been thinking of making an alcohol-based liniment of some kind.
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been playing with sour mash corn & apple which requires amalyss enzyme to release sugars from the grain ( in this case masa ) strait fruit & sugars would work good for extraction purposes & be easier to ferment & distill I usually make some sort of small runs around the holidays for grins
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I’ve got to put in a little something here. You guys are freaking me out. There are a lot of nuances at play with this process and it takes a little practice to learn it all. Small batches should be made first until you learn. It doesn’t take much but it is easy to mess up an initial large batch. I know that you all are a bunch of growers and think nothing of using a bunch even on something new but refrain from that until you’ve made a practice batch or two with just a quarter or half ounce. That will give you enough to play with and sample. The formula is easily increased for when you want it but please start small and learn the techniques. They seem simple but you may be surprised how many people screw it up.
In my original thread on the subject elsewhere I have a couple of hundred pages of “repair work” on other folks mistakes. ReikoX is doing a great job moving it forward and modernizing it all and making it better. I’m not going to butt in except at times like this to provide a little insight and deeper understanding where needed. I’ve been at it for a long time and I’m still learning.
horribleherc56, cannabis root is excellent for that neuropathy in a topical. That’s a different topic but it does work well for a lot of folks. 
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With you there, old photo where i was playing with a friends lower boiler as ive run a 24quart pots for years, wanted to try out the immersed heater and SS milk vessel which ill replace to eventually if i get back into it more, but i’ve had a few setups overtime. If i did get back into it more i will make a potstill head with a liebig condenser, while also keeping my 2" bokakob for neutral spirit runs.
Started up a rum wash last night 
And yes i realize went a bit of track of this thread
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Topicals are definitely going to be covered. I have been needing to make a batch of “Roots and all” cream. I’ll try and get that worked up in the coming weeks.
Sam, I like to make small batches myself. Usually one each harvest with a natural decarb. I believe I have half a dozen bottles or so in my fridge. There are, however, people here who get multiple pounds every four months or so. With this much material on hand, an ounce isn’t very much material.
My concern with bigger batches is the evaporation step. It’s one thing to evaporate a couple ounces of alcohol vs a liter. The larger volume is more volatile. Please be careful evaporating flammable solvents folks. 
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Stills are totally on track, tax free alcohol! You can also use the still to reclaim your solvent from the extraction and reduction steps. You can start with 151 proof alcohol and distill it to 180 proof too.
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True, but smaller setups would be more ideal, you can build a small pyrex setup from easy to order parts though, or use a small water evaporator purifier. Also 151 store bought stuff is 30+ times the price for the same amount i can make at home but at 190 proof, well for me anyways.
Fun hobby in itself, i just drink seldomly anymore so i can’t really advance my skills which i would like to. Would have to toss a lot just so i could run more batches through to try and refine recipes, techniques and tweaks.
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Yes, I know that but you know how I am about that, a bit of OCD. It was just a bit of advice I wanted to toss in early. Often a person can learn more about the actual process in a small batch then translate that into more successful large batches. I used an ounce in my very first attempt and it came out successfully but it wasn’t until I started making smaller batches that I was able to really see what was going on in detail and apply it.
I agree that stills are not off the track. The darn alcohol, if you can get it, is expensive and anything that can be done to alleviate that can only be a positive. 
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that’s a bit more advanced nice job on the condenser
that’s good advice & applies to just about anything I do if someone can screw something up by being overconfident it’s me
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Thanks, but thats not the actual condenser, this is which sit in top section that is removable. Its a 2" Bokakob Reflux head with a dual coil and cold finger that is also directional flowing on the spirals, can know down Alot of vapor for its size. Best starter still head for high purity stuff, the plans are easily to find out there and are open knowledge, but homedistillers.org and their forums is the site to go for that.
The spiral in the previous picture is just to somewhat cool my alcohol off take coming from my head, really i should swap that for a small liebig condensor as ideally i would like my alcohol to coming out close to room temperature as its easier to measure with a hydrometer without having to calculate/guess its % when its at 60-65 degrees C (140-150f)
Side tracked again lol
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Anything that helps us better our knowledge in pursuit of knowledge is by no means off topic or side tracked.
I’ve been wanting to build a reflux still for a while… but time is money and will probably just buy one ready made.
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that is way more advanced my pot still is more a copy of a backwoods pot type still with no reflux capability that’s capable of doing in one run of probably 96% or 192proof if you will it would take at least 2 runs in my setup to replicate that & this would cut operating cost for sure especially if you stuck to molasses/rum type wash your main expense would be a quality yeast if you want a glimpse to where all this legalization is heading alcohol production & distribution is a perfect exhample of what the government has in mind
That kief up there and the entire QP for that matter are purely for experimentation to see what process I can get comfortable using. It’s old stuff, border lining on the ammonia smell. Garbage. Everclear is 40 bucks near me so I’m bitting the bullet and wasting some money trying this, but with hope.
I’m thinking 60-70% on this material is a far stretch. Maybe 40-50% is more likely even 30?. So…that’s good info for some experiments. Thanks
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Even with neutral spirit runs I still typically do fast stripping runs though. Usually when im brewing i do multiple batches as It’s just easier to condense a few batches to 40-60% and then do one slow reflux run than to run multiple singular slower high proof runs. I find some flavor good and bad can still come over with singular runs and there is a greater chance of blowovers, but i’m also not running a super tall column which would be a little different.
If its rum though that depends i but i still typically do a two step run “stripping/finishing” with some dunder mixed back in on the final run for flavor. The still is run wide open both times with no reflux just so i’m not knocking down any flavor. Which is why if i got back into things i would be making a new pot still head for the flavored stuff, as the reflux head even though it works great isn’t as ideal when you want to carry over flavor.
But typically i do multiple batches all at once and just store whatever i make for month’s to years on end, as setup and breakdown for individual batches can be a pain.
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