Home Cafe & Bakery How to Decarb Weed in 3 Simple Steps

By Pauline.

First question you wanna ask before attempting to start making your cannabutter is "how to decarb weed?"

First, we recommend to start with decarb 1 gram of weed, rather accidentally burn or ruin what you have.

Cannabis-infused butter or oil is one of the simplest and most common ways to make medicated edibles. Making infused butter properly has a few steps and can be a little bit tricky.

The entire process usually take a few hours, some recipes require even 24 hours if you using a slow-cooker (unless you have the Magical Butter Machine), but once you have a batch of cannabutter, you’ll be able to make any marijuana-infused food within minutes and enjoy your dose of medicine the way you like.

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what does decarb weed mean

What does it mean to decarb weed?

Decarbing pot is a term technically means ‘removing a carbon atom from a carbon chain’ and is the process that activates the compound(s) in marijuana, such as Delta-9-Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), Cannabinoids, Cannabidiol (CBD) etc.

Related article: Marijuana Effects: THC and CBD, and the Entourage Effect)

As you may know, raw cannabis is non-psychoactive, that's why we have to process it in different ways to be able to consume it and get the best out of this amazing herb.

Marijuana becomes psychoactive when couple of things happen to it, heat and time. The process of decarboxylation, heat activates your cannabis, will convert another non-psychoactive component in marijuana (THCA) into a psychoactive one (THC), which will ultimately release the full potential of the psychoactive traits of your strain.

When you smoke your weed the traditional ways, even when you use a vaporizer, "decarbing" pot, the process of "decarboxylation," happens automatically (it's why you don't need to decarb your Already Vaped Bud).

On the other hand, if you were trying to make edibles, you will be missing the "heating" part, therefore an extra step should take place before making your cannabutter, it's decarbing marijuana. Without this process, the herb will have less THC, and eventually less potency and psychoactive capabilities.

Important to note, without decarboxylating marijuana, the little moisture left in your cannabis may cause botulism bacteria to grow in your cannabutters.

How to Decarb Weed in 3 Simple Steps

Best Way to Decarb Weed

Whether you're attempting to decarb 1 gram of weed or decarb an eighth of weed, it's pretty much the same, depends on the size of the tray you're using though.

Decarb weed and the process of transforming THCA to THC can be achieved by heating the your bud on a low temperature in the oven without losing terpene, which are the pungent oils that affect the color of your cannabis and the instinctive flavors such as berry, mint, citrus, pine, etc.

There are many medicinal benefits to be claimed from terpenes; some will successfully relieve your stress while others will promote focus and awareness, so is very important to get the first step right, without exposing the dry material to too a high temperature.

We have a cannabutter recipe for 1 gram of marijuana, however, how to decarb a gram of weed is exactly the same as decarbing an ounce. After extensive research, here is the best way to decarb weed, a three step process!

Preheat the oven to 215 degrees Fahrenheit. Spread grounded buds evenly across baking sheet (like in the picture above) how long to decarb weed? Bake for 60 minutes, set a timer! You can check your weed half way through, its color should turn from its normal fresh weed color, green into light brown-ish. The end result will be brown and dry.

If you don't have enough time, you can preheat up to 230 - 240 degrees Fahrenheit but bake for only 25 - 35 minutes.

I won't recommend lower temperature for this short time, you may not be able to convert all the THCA in the flower to THC and eventually losing potency.

With higher degrees however you may risk burning the flower. So make sure to keep an eye on your batch.

Again, SET A TIMER and checking regularly for even toasting, try not to open oven door fully, keeping all the flavors inside. You can easily use Pyrex bowl or tin foil and cover it to keep all the good stuff inside, while your buds are decarboxylating.

With this decarboxilated cannabis, you can easily start making butter, olive, coconut oil or some other type of infusion.

Related article: 1 Gram Cannabutter Recipe - How to Make Quality Marijuana Butter?)

Ayad Maher is a Cannabis Industry Entrepreneur, Blogger & Activist. eCommerce Specialist and Owner of a 420 Life Style Website; Monroe Blvd, an online smoke shop; 421Store, and an online CBD store; GoodyCBD.

Editor's Note: This post was originally published in October 2015 and has been revamped and updated as needed for accuracy and comprehensiveness.

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