Ratios, Rigs, and Reused Weed: Your Cannabis Edibles Questions, Answered

Your edible math looks clean on paper, then the real world shows up: ovens run hot, flower potency is a guess, and your infusion method does not behave the way you expected. We sit down for a long-awaited listener Q&A and get practical about the stuff that actually changes your results, especially if you care about consistent cannabis edible dosing at home.

In this episode we cover:

• decarb experiments - to decarb or not to decarb
• water bath advice
• what to do with AVB
• which infusion device should I buy
• the best fat to cannabis ratio
• why no one infused hemp oil
• Bite Me successes and failures
• Bite Me: command, suggestion or preference?

If you enjoy craft cannabis, DIY edibles, and real-world kitchen methods, subscribe, share this with a friend who’s dosing blind, and leave a review so more people can find the show.

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Transcript

Welcome Back And Listener Q&A

Margaret 1:16

All right, all right, all right. Welcome back, friends, to episode 364 for the long-awaited listener QA. I'm your host, Margaret, a certified Gangier and TCI certified cannabis educator, and I believe your kitchen is the best dispenser that you'll ever have. Welcome to Bite Me, the show about edibles, grab a snack or a drink or whatever floats your boat, and let's get into today's episode. So I'm really excited about this one. It has been a hot minute since I've done a listener QA. In fact, I think when I looked back, the last one was probably three years ago, but I thought it was time to do another one. And I have collected a few questions from various different places, and we will be getting into that in just a minute. Before we do today, I just want to say if you're listening for the first time, thank you for being here. I really appreciate you. And I hope you enjoy this episode. There's many more episodes to come and a whole back catalog for you to explore as well. And I always welcome questions. I don't necessarily wait for a listener Q ⁇ A to answer a bunch of them. And if you've been here for a while, I appreciate you as well because it is without you listeners who have been supporting me over time, I wouldn't be here without you. I just wanted to talk about a couple things before we get into the meat and potatoes of today's episode. And the first one is just a comment about getting resources when you're either starting out with edibles or you've been at it for a while and you're looking for more inspiration. And that is your local library. Not particularly earth-shattering, I'm sure, but I was at the library yesterday because I was looking for a specific book. But as I was walking through some of the shelves, I spotted a book on a shelf called CBD Every Day How to Make Cannabis Infused Massage Oils, Bath Palms, Salves, Herbal Remedies, and Edibles by Sandra Hinchcliffe. And I thought, you know what? I'm gonna take that home. Just don't discount the fact that you may have cannabis-related books in your local library. The other thing I wanted to mention is that I'm planning a new series called the Craft Table. The Craft Table is a bite-me interview series with growers, makers, operators who are doing things differently. So it's going to be less corporate and more craft community over revenue process over press releases. They're not news interviews and they're not sales

Library Finds And Craft Table Series

Speaker 3:51

pitches. I'm sitting down with people who are hands-on in their own work and exploring what makes their operation, business, endeavor different. Family run producers, outdoor growers, co-ops, folks exploring the plant beyond high THC flower are the kinds of folks that I'm interested in for this series. They will be recorded when the folks I'm interviewing have the time. The members of the Bite Me Cannabis Club will have the option to join in the chat during the conversation and ask questions if they have any at the end. And then they will be uploaded to YouTube at Byte Me Podcast, which is my YouTube channel. And that's kind of the plan for now. But the Bite Me Cannabis Club members will sort of get a first look and have the ability to show up for the conversation, ask questions if they have any. So if that's not another reason to join the Bite Me Cannabis Club, I don't know what is. So I do have the first conversation booked. If you know of anybody that you think would sort of fit that description description of family run producers, outdoor growers, co-ops, you know, people exploring things beyond just the high THC flower hype, that's the kind of stuff that I'm interested in. So I am open to suggestion as well because Bite Me is worldwide, baby. Let's get into today's Bite Me Listener QA episode. The first thing I wanted to talk about was about the decarb experiments that I tried to do. If you've already heard the episode that I did with Robin Swan of Swan Apothecary, she was pretty adamant that you don't need to decarb your cannabis, especially in a medical context. And of course, that would really affect the potency. And I wanted to see how much of a difference it would make. I tried to do my own experiments, but I found it that my testing setup isn't really designed for non-decarbed cannabis. I did a couple of tests, and each test, I would have the same flour. I would weigh out the same amount, the same cultivar. One would get decarbed and the other one wouldn't. And then I infused it into an oil in both instances. I got to this point where I'm like, well, how do I test it? But the tea check doesn't have a setting for non-decarbed infused oils or fats. If you say that your flour is not decarbed, it suggests you do a THCA CBDA flour test, which is

Decarb Experiments And Testing Limits

Speaker 6:23

in which you're testing the actual flour. So the first time I just, you know what, I was just like, what happens if I just do the I just do the test as if it is decarbed flour? And it kind of showed the results being the same or very similar to the decarbed flour. And so the but the second time, so I did that the second time as well, but the second time I also added, I also tried the acidic cannabinoid flour test. And that's when you you need the expansion pack for that. You have to actually test the flour itself. I was really surprised because it did say the f was like 26%. And I was just like, there's no fucking way this stuff is 26%. Maybe it is, maybe it was more powerful than I realized, I guess. But again, as we know, THC numbers obviously don't tell us everything. And so I plugged those into my dosage calculator that's on my own website. The results were like, we're really high. Now, I will admit, the second time I did the test, I did six grams of cannabis flour in half a cup of oil. When I did the infusion on the stove, I only did half an hour because, again, if you haven't heard the episode with Vanessa Laverado that I did last year, she did a whole bunch of tests that said you will extract the majority of the cannabinoids from your cannabis within 30 minutes of infusion time. And I tested it out myself back then and found that she was indeed correct, according to my T-Check, that the additional time after half an hour really added a very marginal amount of extraction. I did the decarboxylation efficiency. I went as low as it possibly would go, which was 50%. Calculate potency and it gives me 546 milligrams of THC per serving. Now, of course, this is a very strong serving, it says for experienced users only, but that's because that's the entire half cup of oil, which totally makes sense because the THC, if it's 26%, 6 grams is 6,000 milligrams, and then you times that by the 26% to give you, you know, to go on for those calculations. That's sort of how you get there. But so I got 546 milligrams. Now let's see what happens if I put in the same weight, the same percentage, because I use the same flour, the extraction efficiency, but this time we're gonna do the decarb efficiency instead of 50%. A machine decarb could be up to 97%. I did happen to use an ardent to decarb. That's not surprising. 1037.4. It still breaks my brain a little bit. Without being able to actually test it with a lab, it's really hard to know exactly. But obviously, it does seem as though the non-decarb, based on all of this, is going to be significantly less potent. Without having access to be able to send in both batches to an actual lab, I think it's pretty difficult for me to say with any certainty what the actual numbers are. I just don't have the tools at my disposal to do it properly. If any of you know of any labs in Ontario that would be willing to help me out with this experiment, let me know. I would love to hear it, or even anywhere else. I just have to be able to ship them. And I have found recently shipping to the United States from Canada is a huge pain in the butt. So I probably don't want to ship it across the border because they've made that very difficult as of late, unfortunately. I got a question from someone, and they had been reading an article, I think over on the website that I had written, and they said and it was about infusion, and they said they were just confused about one thing. And this was for infusing your oil on the stove. So the way that I like to infuse my oil, if I'm not using a device, is this really simple sort of water bath method. They asked, is it the oil that is meant to simmer for 30 minutes or just the water around the jar to simmer for 30 minutes? I had my pot of water boiling for over an hour and could not get the oil to simmer at all. And I'm really glad that they asked this question because I often take it for granted that people just know what I'm talking about or know what I'm thinking about. The answer is it's the water bath that should hold the gentle simmer, not the oil directly. So in a jar and water infusion setup, the jar insulates the oil from direct contact with the pot. So the oil sits at a lower, more stable temperature than the water around it, often well under boiling. And that's everything working correctly. So there you have it. When you are doing your stovetop infusion in a pot of water,

Water Bath Infusion Simmer Explained

Speaker 11:11

you just need to bring the water to a boil and then bring it down to a simmer. You don't need to worry about the contents of the jar simmering. I do just like to give it a little swirl when I walk by it or whatever. So the next question comes from Mr. Freenuggs, that some of you may be familiar with because I had him on the show earlier this year when we were talking about tolerance breaks. But he asked about some of the sugar leaf trim that he has that he's been sitting on. And he also has some AVW. So AVW is already vaped weed. It could also be called AVB, already vaped bud, AVC, already vaped cannabis. You get the idea. It is the spent cannabis that you collect from your vapor, your dry herb vaporizer. Can I mix the two and use that to infuse my coconut oil? How much should I use? And can it be done in a cheap slow cooker? And the simple answer to that is yes. Yes, you can combine your sugar leaf and already vaped bud in one infusion. The AVB, as we know, AVW, retains some residual cannabinoid content since home vaporizers rarely extract everything. So it's not wasted material, but it can be meaningfully weaker per gram than your than your trim.

Mixing Trim With Already Vaped Bud

Speaker 12:38

And there's not really a reliable way to eyeball its remaining potency without a lab test. So it's something to keep in mind that without some kind of lab test on either the trim or the AVW, any final dosage math is going to be an estimate, not a precise number. But a cheap slow cooker absolutely works fine for this. Low and slow, lid on to reduce vapor loss, same pre and it's the same principles as any oil infusion. The next question we have is from a fellow and calls himself Lobby Lobster. He says, Hello, it is I, Lobby the Lobster. If you're going to purchase one piece of equipment to make making edibles easier, what would it be and why? Heard good things about the magical butter machine. I need to simplify certain aspects of making edibles as I am only a simple crustacean and stirring pots for hours on end hurts the claws. That's a great question. I really appreciate you sending that one in. Lobby the lobster. I do have a magical butter machine and I do like that device. I have an Ardent FX as well and a Levo too. And they all bring different aspects to the game of making edibles at home. If you are making a lot of edibles, they can be a worthwhile investment. The magical butter machine is great because it does large batches at once. That is one of the big advantages of that particular device. You can do up to five cups. It's also the only one out of the three that will infuse alcohol as well. So that if you're doing a lot of tinctures, that can be something worth looking at. The Levo has a really cool

Best Edible Gear To Buy First

Speaker 14:26

dispensing system. It does have a smaller capacity, but on that one, you can also set the time and temperature. So if you do want to do an infusion, but you want to change the temperature to a higher or lower one, or you want to do that 30-minute infusion instead of two hours, that's a possibility with the Levo. Because the capacity isn't as big, some people also get around the actual pod that holds your plant material. They will they do have larger ones now to hold more plant material, or some people just buy more than one of the regular sized ones so they can put more in it. But again, you have to remember you don't necessarily need a lot to have really potent infusions. And finally, there's the Ardent. The Ardent is great as well because it was originally designed as a decarb device so you could decarb in your space without all the smell. And with the really nice silicone infusion sleeve, you can put stuff into the Ardent. There's very little cleanup afterwards. And the one thing I do like about the Ardent as well is that it's basically a canister that you put stuff in. So there's not really any parts or anything that can really break on you. So that's an advantage. The decarb efficiency of those devices is fantastic. You are going to get more potent decarb out of it. It doesn't hold as much as the magical butter machine for large batches, but it's still pretty decent. So I think I might have a comparison of all three somewhere on my website. I'll have to see if I can link to that in the show notes. But those are the three that I have experience with. They all have pros and cons, obviously. I always like to check warranties on different devices as well. A lot of the times that really speaks to the company's own belief in their product. Now I haven't looked at the warranties at any of these in recently. I do know I have a PAX vaporizer, a PAX 3, which is now a pretty old model, and they had a 10-year warranty on that baby. Warranties matter. I've never had any issues with any of these devices, so there's also that. This one comes from Australia. Hi Margaret, it's your biggest fan from Australia here. Well, maybe not your biggest fan, but I'm a pretty pretty big fan. And I just wanted to know what you think is a good ratio of plant material to oil when making an infusion that you could use for edibles and topicals. So I'm getting into oil infusions. I've been doing other weird honey whole weed concoctions before now, but really want to do oil infusions. I did get a tea check. Say if my weed is roughly 20% THC, what is a good ratio of plant material for making all-purpose products? Thanks in advance, Sia. Well, to one of my biggest fans in Australia, thank you for such a great question and you're you're too kind. Flattery will get you everywhere. The question 20% THC ratio, plant to oil ratio, that can be a tricky one to suggest because it really depends on your tolerance. It depends on your tolerance and also decarb efficiency and extraction efficiency are both going to mean real potency lands lower than the raw math might suggest. Typically, well under the 100% of theoretical THC transfers into the final oil.

Plant To Oil Ratios And Math

Speaker 17:31

Of course, you can use the dosage calculator again that I've already mentioned. It is going to consider the extraction and decarb efficiency. So let's see. I mean, and again, people I think often don't realize how little cannabis it can take to make a pretty potent infusion, which is again going to really depend on your tolerance. I have my edibles dosage calculator open. And I know you mentioned that you have a T-Check, so you can always, you know, test against this as well. You have flour and bud, let's say three grams, and you said it's a 20%. Let's do an olive oil. That's one of my favorite infusions. And you're doing a stovetop infusion method. So it has the typical stovetop at 60 to 80%. So we're gonna put that at 70% extraction efficiency and the decarb efficiency, you know, we're gonna assume that you did it in the oven. Typical oven decarb is around 80 to 95%, but ovens can be really tricky and can vary a whole ton. So let's say it's at 80% extraction efficiency. Let's put a half a cup, that would be 120 milliliters of oil and calculating the potency, that is 344 milligrams of THC in your batch of oil. But knowing this, you can go from there because again, three grams of cannabis is 3,000 milligrams when you convert it to milligrams, and then you times that by the percentage of the flour, which you said was 20%. If you have a tea check, you can definitely calculate the potency after you're done. But if you kind of want to have a good idea of how strong it's going to be, you could use the calculators to get an idea of how strong it might be before you even get going. Another question comes from Wayne, and he asks about the rarity of hemp oil infusions. That is admittedly something you don't ever see. I mean, you could technically infuse hemp oil just like any other fat. So why don't we see that more often? And I think the answer comes down to a few different things. One is hemp oil has a pretty distinctive taste. It's strong, earthy. Because of that, it might not blend well with other ingredients, like your more neutral oils, like olive or avocado or some vegetable oils. I do remember when there was a time when I was taking a spoonful of hemp oil every day because I had heard it was good for me. That stuff was sometimes kind of hard to choke down. So it also has a low smoke point. So hemp oil having it makes it kind of unsuitable for kind of higher heat cooking methods as well. And it does tend to have a shorter shelf life compared to other oils, which can really limit its versatility. It does have to be kept in the refrigerator, unlike your other oils typically. It just makes it more limited. That's probably why it's less popular among home cooks as far as an infusion oil

Why Hemp Oil Infusions Are Rare

Speaker 20:35

goes. But that's not to say that you couldn't do it if you wanted to. There's no reason why. As far as I know, it's got a high fat content, but you are going to be wrestling with the distinctive taste, the low smoke point, and the shorter shelf life. If you try it, let me know. I would love to hear about that. I also have a question from Anne, which was what is your biggest success and your biggest fail? She says, I've had no shortage of fails. It's the side effect of experimentation. And Anne, thank you for the question. I'm going to assume that this is related to the podcast itself. The biggest success I think I've had is that is my longevity, that I have managed to pull off pretty much an episode a week for the last seven years. I think I've missed once or twice in that time. And sometimes I it boggles my mind. There was a period in my life where there's no way that I was in a place to make that happen. And you know, sometimes I batch record and get things out ahead of time. Sometimes I'm editing an episode at 11 o'clock at night on a Wednesday because it goes out Thursday morning at 7 a.m. So I have this self-imposed deadline. Just that consistency has been really good for myself and has really helped me cultivate an audience of people who have come to expect this episode landing on their podcast player every Thursday. The biggest fail, oh God, I've had plenty of those, just projects that I've tried that haven't worked out. One of the ones that I would say actually, though, that stands out is my website. I started that website like probably within six months of starting the podcast. It is

Biggest Wins And Biggest Mistakes

Speaker 22:05

a WordPress site, which I'm really glad that I went with because you own your own infrastructure. What a lot of people don't realize is when you are building an audience on something like Instagram or YouTube or or any of those social media platforms, you don't own anything. They can decide, nope, and they shut them down. You can't appeal, and then you have to start all over again. So that's a huge disadvantage. So I did start the website, but I have made a ton of mistakes with that website. I'm still going back now and trying to fix a lot of those things because if I knew then what I know now, I've hired people to help me with that website and spent amounts of money that I really wish I could get back. So my biggest fail is probably not learning about the right way to build the website over time. And yeah, that that is maybe one of the regrets that I have. You know, you live and learn. And finally, this is a fun question that comes from Tim. The question is: would Bite Me be considered a command, a suggestion, or a preference? That's that's a fun question. Definitely not particularly technical, if you will, but I did say I was open to all kinds of questions. Bite me is an act of resistance. The people listening to this show are people who are making their own edibles, they're growing their own cannabis, they're resisting that corporate takeover of the cannabis space if you're in a legal jurisdiction. It's an act of resistance, maybe it's a command and it's an invitation. And you could also consider it a preference. I think it can be used in all those different ways. I do like the idea of a command, though, and an act of resistance. So thank you for that question, Tim. And there you have it. We covered quite a bit in all of these questions, and I'm really glad that you're here for all of them. Once again, if you want to join the Bite Me Cannabis Club, there'll be a link in the show notes. With that, my friends, if you do have any other questions as a result of this episode, please feel free to reach out. I always love to hear from listeners. There's exciting things coming up, and I am so glad that you're a

What Bite Me Really Means

Speaker 24:17

part of it. With that, my friends, I'm your host, Margaret. And until next time, stay curious and stay high.