If you’re out of bread to bake and looking for a new project to keep you entertained this winter, we have just the thing: making CBD from scratch.
CBD, or cannabidiol, is one of the main compounds found in the Cannabis sativa plant. This phytocannabinoid can work within the body’s endocannabinoid system to promote relaxation and soothe tension. Making your own CBD oil to enjoy can be a fun way to spend a slow day, learn more about CBD, and add your own flair to the final product.
So how do you make your own CBD? The Brothers Apothecary covers it all here!
How Is CBD Made?
Making CBD is a surprisingly simple process. All you need to do is decarboxylate (basically, a fancy word for activating through heating) the CBD flower and infuse it into the carrier oil of your choosing.
We’ll break it down step by step below!
Is It Legal To Make Your Own CBD?
Thanks to the 2018 Farm Bill, CBD derived from industrial hemp containing less than 0.3% THC content in its dry weight is federally legal.
While purchasing hemp buds and using them to create CBD oil is federally legal, you may want to double-check your state’s legal THC limit. Some states, such as Idaho, currently have a stricter THC limit, saying that there must be zero THC content in legal hemp, while recreational cannabis is fully legal in other states.
Make sure you know the rules in your state, and double-check the THC content of any buds you plan on using!
Is It Legal To Sell Homemade CBD?
While it is federally legal to sell CBD products derived from industrial hemp, different states and jurisdictions have different laws regarding homemade CBD sales, as well as different licenses to get started selling your own CBD.
Make sure you familiarize yourself with the specific rules in your area and know what licenses are needed before you start putting your CBD up for sale.
How Much Does It Cost To Make Your Own CBD?
Much of what you need to make your own CBD is likely already in your kitchen, making it a cost-effective endeavor. CBD buds typically cost about five to seven dollars per gram.
What Supplies Do I Need To Make CBD?
Here’s what you’ll need to get started on making your own CBD oil:
- CBD buds (how much you want to use is up to you, but we’d recommend using between seven to ten grams)
- A grinder
- 1 cup (250 mL) carrier oil of your choosing (coconut oil, olive oil, or hemp seed oil are all great options!)
- A double broiler (or a makeshift one)
- A cheesecloth, coffee filter, or paper towel
- A mesh strainer
- A glass bowl
Optional: A probe thermometer
How Do I Calculate Dosage of Homemade CBD?
To calculate the dosage of homemade CBD, follow these steps:
- Find the percentage of CBD for the flower you’re using (find this on the product’s lab test results, which should be available online or through a QR code on your product).
- Determine the amount of milligrams of CBD in your flower by moving the decimal point one to the right. So, if your flower contains 15% CBD, you’ll move the decimal point from 15.0 to 150.0–meaning that you have 150 milligrams of CBD per gram of flower.
- Multiply the amount of milligrams above by the total number of grams of flower you’re using to make your CBD oil. So, in this example, if you’re using 10 grams of buds, you’ll multiply 150×10, equalling 1500 mg of CBD total.
- Next, divide your milligrams of CBD mg by your milliliters of carrier oil. If using 250 mL of oil, you’ll divide 1500/250, equaling 6 mg of CBD per ml of oil.
If you want a more potent final product, you can add a few grams of CBD. If you want a less potent oil, remove a few grams of CBD.
Keep in mind that, even when following these steps, it may be difficult to get a completely accurate measure of the potency of a homemade CBD oil even when following these steps.
Start with a small amount to see how it makes you feel.
We recommend only using a quarter to a half teaspoon of oil at a time, which is approximately 1.2 to 2.5 mL of oil. If that doesn’t produce the desired effects, you can try a slightly higher dose the next day.
How Can I Make My Own CBD Oil?
Now that you have what you need and know the amount of CBD you want to use, you are ready to start making your CBD oil!
Use Your Grinder To Grind Flower
Measure the amount of grams you want to use for your oil. If you have a kitchen scale, this is the most accurate way to measure out your flowers. Then, use your grinder to loosely grind your buds.
Preheat Your Oven
Next, you’ll start the decarboxylation process by preheating your oven to 250 degrees F.
When you heat your hemp flowers, the heat changes the chemical structure of the cannabinoid into a form that will activate within the body. If you used flowers straight off the hemp plant without decarboxylation, it wouldn’t produce the same effects.
Decarboxylation turns CBDA into CBD by removing the extra carboxyl ring that exists in the CBDA found in the raw flower.
While decarboxylation will happen over time if the buds are left to dry, the process can be sped up with the help of your trusty oven.
Place Flower in the Oven For Decarboxylation
Next, spread your grounded buds on a baking sheet and place the sheet in the oven.
Keep in mind that, while heating CBD activates it, overheating the buds can destroy their active ingredients and render your CBD useless.
To avoid overheating, set the timer for fifty minutes to an hour at 250 degrees. Remove them once the buds have turned a light brown, and be careful not to let them burn in the oven.
CBDA takes longer to convert to CBD than THCA takes to convert to THC, so you’ll want to keep isolated CBD buds in the oven closer to an hour, while buds with a high concentration of THC may be ready in closer to 45 minutes.
We should also add: be mindful that this process will make your kitchen smell like…well…like cannabis. It may be quite strong.
Choose a Carrier Oil
Now it’s time to choose your oil! Most CBD oils use hemp seed oil or coconut oil, but you can also certainly use olive oil if you’d prefer.
Make a Double Boiler With Carrier Oil at the Top
Once your CBD buds have turned light brown, you’re ready to set up your double boiler. Put water on the bottom of the double boiler and the carrier oil at the top, and heat on low heat.
The double boiler is necessary to avoid overheating your oil and potentially destroying your CBD and terpenes. You don’t want your oil to get hotter than 200 degrees Fahrenheit, and this would be more difficult to prevent if you had your oil directly on the stove’s burner.
If you don’t have a double-boiler, you can make one by resting a glass pyrex or stainless steel bowl atop a saucepan.
Make sure the upper layer isn’t hitting the bottom layer. The bowl should perch on the lips of the saucepan rather than sitting on the bottom of the pan.
Put water in the saucepan and oil in the bowl above!
Mix Flower Into Carrier Oil
Once your oil is melted, it’s time to mix in the buds. Stir your decarboxylated cannabis into the oil. If you’d like, you can also add in a gram or so of raw cannabis to get more terpenes and some of the beneficial acidic forms of cannabinoids found in the hemp plant.
Keep the heat on low for another thirty minutes to an hour, stirring occasionally.
If you have a probe thermometer, checking your oil’s temperature can help ensure you stay under 200 degrees (ideally, your oil should stay within 120 to 180 degrees). If you don’t have a thermometer, no big deal. Just be sure to keep your heat low and remove your oil from the heat after no more than an hour.
Strain and Enjoy
After an hour, you’re ready to strain your concoction. Line a mesh strainer with cheesecloth, paper towel, or coffee filter, and place it atop a glass bowl. Then, pour your cannabis oil mix through the strainer.
Beware that the oil will be hot!
Once fully strained, your oil is complete and ready to be enjoyed! To store, transfer your oil from the bowl into an air-tight storage container and keep somewhere dark and cool.
How Long Does It Take To Make CBD Oil?
All in all, making CBD oil will take about 2 hours. Most of the process is not very active though, so feel free to kick back knowing you are just a few hours away from homemade wellness-boosting goodness!
The Bottom Line
Making CBD is a fun, easy, and affordable way to spend an afternoon, with an end result that will bring you soothing relief for months to come!
And if you don’t have the time or energy to make your own CBD oil right now, don’t sweat it: we have all the ready-to-go CBD products you need at The Brothers Apothecary.
Sources
The Endocannabinoid System as an Emerging Target of Pharmacotherapy | Pharmacology Review
Jesse Richardson is the co-founder of The Brothers Apothecary. He's an avid tea drinker and the primary creator behind The Brothers' products. An undergraduate of UCLA for Political Science, Jesse currently studies Medicinal Plants at Cornell University and The International School of Herbal Arts & Sciences.
2 thoughts on “How To Make CBD From Scratch”
Do you sell CBD tea?
Hey Rose! We do. You can find our shop here: https://www.thebrothersapothecary.com/shop/
Let us know if there’s anything we can help with!
The Brothers