tincture expiration dates

nannymouse

nannymouse

Well-known member
Since i make my own tincture with everclear, i was wondering how long this will keep in a cool dark area.

I would think that it would be years, but am waiting for expert advise.

thanks in advance!
 
Thinking about saving up for my old age.

It's pretty easy. Decarbed in oven, helps to use a canning jar, leave the lid rather loose to let off pressure. Only fill the jar part way, and lay it on its side. Half way through the decarb process, turn the jar to mix contents a bit. Finish decarb. Cool in jar. Add everclear to top of herb. Leave it sit there for about three minutes, swirl it around gently. Strain with stainless kitchen strainer, the finer the weave, the better. Then back into the everclear container for storage. Actually, i do several runs of everclear over the herb, to make sure that i get it all, i 'jar' and label each run seperate. Then, when i think it's all 'out' i use the herb to make hot chocolate, and usually, there's enough left in the herb to do a couple of runs of hot chocolate, too. That hot chocolate gets me pretty thoroughly medicated...

Or, the simple method...get rso oil from dispensary and squeeze that into everclear. I like to keep my dosing pretty 'even', and the rso oil helps with that. I use one ml to a 375 ml bottle of everclear. Then i use the cap off the bottle as my measuring device. One cap per 16 oz glass of juice. I really like using tart cherry juice, unsweetened. Some evenings i will drink two glasses (and be up peeing during the night), but that's for the bad fibro nights.

I might try this in my bourbon balls recipe. I use defatted peanut powder instead of pecans, cuz i like it and it's WAY less $$$.

Why do i not just use the rso straight? I find it very hard to dose, right out of the syringe, and it's sticky as hell.

bon appetite!
 
Tincture of cannabis, made with grain alcohol, should 'keep' indefinitely in the sense that it won't 'go bad' as in become something or become a growing medium for something that would make a person ill. However...

Cannabinoids have this way of degrading or transforming from something that has more desirable effects to something that has less desirable effects. How quickly those transformations occur depends on many things, and there is very little publicly available research on the subject, especially with regard to tincture. Refrigerating the tincture is not necessary to keep it food safe, but that will most likely slow down the transformation.

US states with legal/regulated cannabis markets may require a 'use by' or 'expiration' date on grain alcohol-based tinctures, and retailers may be prohibited from selling 'out of date' tinctures, but the most likely impact of, say, a year or two on a shelf at room temperature is a loss of potency, or a change in effect from something more uplifting to something more sedative.
 
nannymouse said:
Freezing would likely add to the 'best by' time.
Click to expand...
Yes. Some people don't like the condensation that forms inside the container when it's opened to do something like (re)fill a dropper bottle. In my case, the fridge has more room and is easier to access than the freezer. Testing identical tinctures over time stored in refrigerator vs freezer to document changes in cannabinoid levels might resolve the issue. I'm thinking about doing that.
 
@nannymouse

Not that this helps much, but I've listened to hundreds if not thousands of hours of podcasts regarding all sectors of the cannabis industry, and I have never heard anyone broach this topic. (And certainly no accredited scientist yet)... and, I have been wondering the same.

However, you are suspending the oils in the alcohol, which I would assume to be the very best method to use. I don't drink, so the alcohol has to go... but if I tore a page out of your book and just took my cap-full as you do and cook the alcohol off in a shot glass on the warming plate of the coffee maker before adding the dose to whichever application I may be using at the time, I might extend its longevity. (Same would hold true for cooking off unwanted moisture.)

The only down side I see, is how much more storage area it would take up in a refrigerator.
 
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