Dry-Hemping

[pdxhophead]

Can someone elaborate on the butane extraction method. Next question is the shake you used swag, mids, or dank?

Hey I sent you a PM. I'd rather not publish any detailed info in public because not only is it somewhat inappropriate but it's also both legally and very physically dangerous information.

 

[sipNswirl]

What would you call it? Puffenweizen?

hahah, YES....fantastic! I'll update this thread in a couple more weeks once it has conditioned a bit longer. this is round 1 to see how the tastes match up, and so far so good. we have a bottle of everclear on the way for round 2...:cross:

 

[sipNswirl]

i apologize if this thread took a turn away from the brewing aspect of this sensitive topic (to some). I was curious if it's been used in brewing...i already know you can make oil and the like....maybe if we keep up with the topic we can keep it related to brewing.

 

[Bob Loblaw]

What would you call it? Puffenweizen?

YES!!! AWESOME!

PS. Pot doesn't make you lazy, you do.

 

[explosivebeer]

i apologize if this thread took a turn away from the brewing aspect of this sensitive topic (to some). I was curious if it's been used in brewing...i already know you can make oil and the like....maybe if we keep up with the topic we can keep it related to brewing.

Yes, getting back to the original idea, I love the smell of both hops and marijuana, although I don't partake in the latter. It seems that dry hopping with it could have great effects, if you can find a reasonably cheap source.

I don't know much about THC extraction, specifically whether to maximize or minimize its content in beer. I just read a little bit about using solvents such as alcohol or butane to extract it and create honey oil.

I guess my question is, if you only want the flavor and no THC, can you only dry-hop with it, and avoid much or any THC extraction?

And secondarily, if one were so inclined to go for as much extraction as possible, would you make honey oil via butane or grain alcohol and put it in the keg, or just use a very high alcohol content liquor for extraction, let it sit, and then dump all that in the keg?

 

[NWernBrewer]

Most of the herbally enhanced beers I have heard of are of American origin and invariably this is using roasted hemp seeds in the mash. I don't know if anybody is commercially using the flowering tops to brew with. Although, some experimentation has led me to believe that the result of dry-hemping isn't work the expenditure. If you like a musty herbal (not aromatic in the way of the original dry smell) beer, something that tastes more like cork than kind - by all means try it.

If anybody does any experimentation with it and experiences satisfactory results, please let me know of it. But I still stand by the enjoying them side by side - because of the poor results that I had.

I wouldn't bother with adding an extract to the beer, you would be better off dropping in a vial of something :fro: if you're wanting to drink your drugs.

 

[RadicalEd]

I haven't done anything of the sort myself (I have a few too many drug screenings to consider it), but I came across this a while back:

For those of you pondering and now thinking about using a little "stash" in your wash, there are a few things that should be understood before you do. First, if Marijuana was to be used unprocessed (i.e. strait from your stash without any alteration other than separation, like you would do if you were going to use it to smoke), the water solubles in the unprocessed plant would dissolves in the brew, leading to a POWERFUL off-taste.

What should be done is to soak the herb by placing it in a nylon mesh bag. Fill a large container (I was going to use the word "pot," but then I figured I might confuse a few people with the terms) with TEPID water. (the reason for TEPID water is because the dissolution rate of THC -- the active substance in marijuana that gets a person "high" -- occurs in hot water; therefore the oil from the THC glands become thinner and may be released from heavier gland, by which causes a loss of the WANTED oil. This is the reason that TEPID water is used). Soak the herb in the TEPID water for one hour. Then squeeze the water from the vegetation, allowing the water to run back into the container, and allow the vegetation matter to soak for another hour. Repeat this process several times. Most of the pigments and tannin are released in several one-hour soakings.

It should be known that when soaking the herb in water, even TEPID water, some THC glands may fall off during the soaking and squeezing process. These THC glands can be collected from the bottom of the large container, after the herb has been removed, by draining the water through a coffee filter. You can discard the water after you are satisfied that you have collected all of the glands that you can. The collected glands on the filter can be dried and smoked -- these glands are very purse and potent, so beware. If you don't want to smoke them, you could (should) add then to your brew.

After the final soaking/rinse, the herb is ready to go into the brew. Well, almost. You must dry the wet vegetation. To dry the herb, take kitchen wire racks -- the kind used for cooling cookies and such -- and place one paper towel over the rack. Then gently spread the herb loosely over the paper towel covered wire rack. The paper towel draws some of the moister away from the plant material, while the wire rack allows for air circulation underneath the herb, hence quicker drying. You should store the herb that is being dried in a warm dark location until dried. Time for drying depends on the environment, so check the herb often and turn the vegetation over as needed to allow for even drying.

There are other ways to dry the herb as well. You may use a food dehydrator if one is available to you. Check the instructions for proper use of drying herb-like items. You may even, but I am not quick to recommend, use your microwave to aid in the drying process. To use the microwave, loosely place the herb on a paper towel lined microwave safe plate and place in the microwave. Heat the herb on HIGH for 30 SECONDS. Check the herb, if it is still wet, turn the herb and put it in for another 30 SECONDS. Continue the 30 SECOND cycle until the herb is dry and almost crumbly. You do not want to turn the plant black, brown, or have it so dry that it becomes powder after you touch it. Using the microwave to dry herb is a skill, so you may want to try your hand at drying different herbs before you try your hand on this no-so-cheap herb. Now that it is dry, you are ready to go.

There are many ways that you can incorporate your, now processed, herb into different types of drinks. For a "double buzz" beer, just brew up your favorite batch of beer as you normally would. Then add your processed marijuana, in a nylon mesh bag, to your fermenting beer 3-4 days BEFORE you bottle. This gives the alcohol in the fermenting beer enough time to dissolve the THC. The marijuana will lend a small amount of flavor to the beer, due to the residual water solubles the have remained in the processed herb.

The same can be done for whiskey. Add the marijuana to your whiskey mash 1 week before to put your mash into the still. The THC oils will be carried over with your flavorful alcohol. I don't recommend this process with a fractioning/reflux still, as that type of still may keep back some of the desired THC that you have worked so hard to get. MY recommendation is to use a pot still only.

You can also add the processed herb you liquors and other "botanical" brews. An interesting experiment would be to try an Absinthe recipe with and/or without the Wormwood. Now there is an extremely illegal drink waiting to happen.

Some people have taken their processed herb and added it to strait spirit. But they didn't do this to drink it. They did it so that they can later extract THC oil. The process goes like this: take your processed herb and put it into a jar. Take HIGH proof spirit and pour it over the herb until it just covers the herb. Let this sit covered for a week, remembering to shake the jar 2-3 times a day. After the week is up, pour this solution into a double boiler (preferably on an electric stove/hot plate). Then gently bring the solution up to a gentile simmer. What happens next is the alcohol is slowly being evaporated, while leaving behind the THC oil. Mind you, THC is heat sensitive, so you will lose some of the oil due to the heating process. When you are done, you are left with a THC oil concentration. Most people then use this oil to dip their cigarettes into to enjoy an interesting smoke. Other people take a small amount of the oil and re-dissolve it into a shot worth of vodka and take the solution sublingually to achieve the THC affects without smoking. Other people add it to their cooking. The list could go on.

Now, this e-mail is not my endorsement for using marijuana, or any other illegal plant or drug, in any form or fashion. This is knowledge being passed on for educational use only. It is not to be put into use in any form or fashion.

From homedistiller.org. Targeted towards distillers, but the processing information is certainly useful.

 

[sipNswirl]

And secondarily, if one were so inclined to go for as much extraction as possible, would you make honey oil via butane or grain alcohol and put it in the keg, or just use a very high alcohol content liquor for extraction, let it sit, and then dump all that in the keg?

From what I understand you would soak the material in grain alcohol for a few days (maybe a week), then dump into the bottling bucket/keg at that time. This is what I'm going to try next. I just had a delivery of grain alcohol from Alberta (haha, can't buy it in BC) so I'd like to see how that works. Ideally I would like to extract the THC so this sounds like the best method.
I tried the dry-hemped beer after 1 week in the bottles to see how the flavours are coming through and I'm really impressed. At first I thought the shake was going to overpower the rest of the flavours, but it has really balanced out and allowed the bittering hops and malt flavours to come through. There is a slight fruity/sweet flavour on the back of my tongue from the shake that almost tastes a bit like bubble-gum. I think if I were to dry-hemp again I would use 1oz because I think I may lose most of the flavour as time goes on.

 

[sipNswirl]

Thanks RadicalEd! that's an interesting article. Sounds like I should be processing the herb first in the method stated. Now i have rnd 3 planned!

 

[NWernBrewer]

That article does seem plausible and perhaps the majority of dissatisfaction with my results was the pigment and tannins (not counting the one's that spoiled) causing a strange flavor. Perhaps I should reread said article and look at the process again.

Until I read that I had given up the idea - thanks RadicalEd

 

[scinerd3000]

so back to what you were all talking about earlier with brewing with herb. There are a few "hemp" ales on the market however a beverage called green dragon is weed and vodka or everclear. If you let it sit for around 3 -6 months you get a bright green beverage with high content of thc. as for brewing it in beer, not admiting anything- the longer it sits the more of the active ingredients leech out. Beer doesnt have enough alcohol content to act as a solvent so you would probably be better off with wine. Maybe a MEAD?

 

[jdoyle83]

hey sipNswirl: you have a very expensive hobby, man...

 

[dirtymike1]

Wow, the doob smokers are coming out of the woodwork! This explains how "crafty" some of us are when inventing tools of the trade.

I think that there are something that just go hand-in-hand, like hotdogs and baseball, MJ and little boys (j/k) and a nice fatty and a beer!

A buddy of mine came back from Cali this past summer with a couple of the best pints of hemp-brew. I will have to track down the name, but they had an awesome "green" earthy flavor. The beer was an Ale, I would guess IPA. Strong ABV and it did seem to have a good extra kick in it.

Good luck, and I would like to be first one to ask for a copy of this recipe when its complete!!

Prost

 

[sipNswirl]

hey sipNswirl: you have a very expensive hobby, man...

only if you pay for it

 

[sipNswirl]

Good luck, and I would like to be first one to ask for a copy of this recipe when its complete!!

Prost

You're right dude....when the kitchen is full of people running around, things boiling, timers timing, and stress is rising....gotta spark one up to bring it down a notch.

I can post the recipe (when i have it infront of me). It's a blonde ale recipe from the LHBS. The shake we ended up using was chernobyl, which gave it a really fruity/sweet aftertaste. There is NO major upfront ganja flavour...just a sweet afterthought on the back of your tongue. To be honest we thought this would be a novelty beer where you choke one back and pretend it's good....but it's really something you can drink all night long (so far 1 hangover and counting)...and for the ladies a slice of lemon is perfect for the summer patio days.

 

[scottfro]

i can speak for the tastiness of this beer! it makes your tongue tingle and slightly numb up similar to a honey ale. i definitely want to try and make my own at some point.

 

[explosivebeer]

Out of curiosity, if one were to use some really cheap, low-quality weed that smells like hay, how much of the flavor would transfer to the final product after soaking it in a high-alcohol solution for a week? Is the beer going to have a hay-like aroma? Or does that mostly go away?

 

[APendejo]

Sounds like such a waste of the weeeeeeed. Would it not be better to just chew on a little bud while wetting your whistle with a homebrew. You will definately get the both the flavor and effect that way. Not that I have ever done anything like that myself.

 

[scottfro]

personally i didn't find much of the flavor or effects there but the character it added was still quite unique. i'm not the brewer of this so i can't speak fully of it as i only had a taster glass worth.

if you were to use a bunch of trimmings, which in BC aren't terribly hard to get really cheap, it wouldn't be too expensive.

 

[c.n.budz]

Sounds like such a waste of the weeeeeeed.

+1

drink the beer, smoke the weed. That's how nature intended it

 

[sipNswirl]

+1

drink the beer, smoke the weed. That's how nature intended it

if i lived anywhere other than here it is a silly waste of the resource. it's seriously going in the garbage if i don't use it to cook/experiment with. I wouldn't want to smoke this stuff...kind of like comparing homebrew to coors light :rockin:

 

[sipNswirl]

Out of curiosity, if one were to use some really cheap, low-quality weed that smells like hay, how much of the flavor would transfer to the final product after soaking it in a high-alcohol solution for a week? Is the beer going to have a hay-like aroma? Or does that mostly go away?

Personally i think it goes away.
we used 1/2 oz of (roughly) 3 month old, very dry and powdery shake. as we racked to the secondary all i could smell was hay...like musty wet grass. I thought for sure we ruined a batch. i don't taste anything close to hay in the final product. I'm planning on trying the everclear method next but i will definitly keep refining the dry-hemping method as well as i am so happy with the flavour i want to have it around on a regular basis.

 

[Dave the Brewer]

I've extracted the 'goodness' before. You need grain alcohol. Beer contains nowhere near enough alcohol to extract THC.

I know people that throw a few nice sized buds in a vodka bottle, after a few days it will start to change color.
A close friend of mine loves my stout and wanted me to throw in some of the good stuff in addition of the hops during the boil. I told him I thought it would work but I don't know?? I'm looking for a good job!

 

[dirtymike1]

Ok I have this great connection in DC for beer. I was talking to him and he knows of 1 state side brewery that makes Hemp Ale. The company is Humboldt Brewing. He also knows a few in Canada that also make hemp beers. So Humboldt Brewing, check them out, see if you can't track down the secert. Let me know how it goes, I've been thinking of doing the same thing myself.

 

[7Enigma]

From what I understand you would soak the material in grain alcohol for a few days (maybe a week), then dump into the bottling bucket/keg at that time. This is what I'm going to try next. I just had a delivery of grain alcohol from Alberta (haha, can't buy it in BC) so I'd like to see how that works. Ideally I would like to extract the THC so this sounds like the best method.
I tried the dry-hemped beer after 1 week in the bottles to see how the flavours are coming through and I'm really impressed. At first I thought the shake was going to overpower the rest of the flavours, but it has really balanced out and allowed the bittering hops and malt flavours to come through. There is a slight fruity/sweet flavour on the back of my tongue from the shake that almost tastes a bit like bubble-gum. I think if I were to dry-hemp again I would use 1oz because I think I may lose most of the flavour as time goes on.

That would have been my method as well. Treat it like priming sugar and add to the bottling bucket right at bottling time (after soaking in ethanol of course). Probably want to add it in with the last couple bottles (as it might be too dilute in the whole 5 gallons or whatever volume you were using, and also reduces the risk of spoiling the whole batch if it makes it bad). The oil extract would be the best without affected flavor of the beer, but for those that don't mind a little extra ethanol in their beer, it would seem to be a very quick and easy way to get it into your beer. Only possible problem I would see is if it would settle out at the bottom of the bottle. Some experimentation would need to be done; ie pour a couple bottles the traditional way (leaving the last 1/4-1/2" in the bottle). Drink the poured beer and wait for an effect. If none (or heck even if you get one) get someone willing to drink the last 1/4-1/2" from each bottle and see if they get an effect.

Make it a double-blind study and publish the results.....step #3...profit! :fro:

 

[justbrewit]

wow, what an interesting post. time for me to dig in!!!

your forgetting one type that will help in your goal, how about just using straight keef, put it in at the start of fermintation. thats what i'd do.

there is a place in maryland that also makes hempen ale but they only use industrial grade hemp seeds for this, industrial hemp doesn't have the THC content that the other stuff does. by law they can't use any thing else and still sell it in the US.

you might even want to try making hash and then put that in the boil. if i were gonna do a brew like that, i'd use the keef or hash method

but thats just what i'd do. your beer, your smoke, you choose lol

 

[Willy Boner]

Just throw the shake away and put a few buds on your corn flakes, then wash them down with a nice breakfast stout. :rockin:

 

[MalasaluD]

mj strains have their own distinc smell just like hops . i would like to try the dry hemping method but i was also thinking at time of bottling to pour in a good amount of hash oil. the purest hash oil smells soo good i wouldnt mind that to end up in my brew. make some indica ipa

 

[Desert_Sky]

I say go for it.......

then report back.

 

[maltMonkey]

maybe it's covered in this book