Vaporizer Butter Making Disaster

So I deviated from my own recipe and ruined a huge batch of volcano leftovers butter. Trying to keep the odors down, I thought I’d get smart and cover the pot with a lid…

DON’T COVER THE POT!

I ended up creating some sort of butter water emulsion simmering under pressure with the lid on. Because of this I didn’t get the neat and easy separation of butter from water after cooling. It was a total mess and almost a total loss. I even tried freezing the whole bowl to see if I could scrape the butter off the top. But no. Learned my lesson!

32 Comments

  1. Rob on March 27, 2019 at 1:08 pm

    Can one is a cheese cloth to strain? I don’t have one of these fancy coffee filter or any coffee filter for that matter



    • Vapormaster on March 27, 2019 at 6:41 pm

      Yes! You can definitely use cheese cloth. It just doesn’t filter as much of the fine particles out of the finished product.



  2. stjara on July 26, 2016 at 7:26 pm

    pour boiling water through the mix in the strainer to pull out the butter left in. right into the same bowl you’ve left some space in.



  3. djones on August 17, 2013 at 11:17 pm

    so i have 2-3lbs (yes, lbs) of volcano leftovers… my problem being that i don’t get an empty house too often, so i don’t get to produce the butter a much as i should.

    trying a batch via the water method at the moment. used around 80g of lightly vaped material, into 3 sticks of butter.. did a low, almost non-boil for 30 minutes.

    using a mesh strainer that kind of rests on the saucepan was easy, but i can tell there is a lot of butter that goes out with the clump… it’s just hard to squeeze it all out. i’ll come up with a better method soon enough.

    all i know this batch is already firming up on top, and looking very, very potent.



    • djones on August 19, 2013 at 11:06 pm

      worked the butter into a basic chocolate chip cookie mix.. using half ‘cano butter and half regular butter… can still taste the product a bit, but they came out great.. put them all in the fridge for now, as i wanna pass them out for field testing pretty soon…

      haven’t tested them yet, as i don’t have time right now… but i can just imagine. i think a different extract may be in order for me, as i’m not into sweets, and these cookies are over the top sweet..



  4. heather on February 12, 2012 at 7:59 pm

    can you use a chocolate melter?



    • Vapormaster on February 16, 2012 at 8:05 am

      Not sure about that… If you give it a try, be sure to report back!



    • jordan on June 23, 2014 at 8:13 pm

      If a chocolate melter is a fancy double boiler, then the answer is yes. Sw one in ebay I nearly bought. I now use a crockpot with a steamer stand in the water to hold my container up off the heated bottom. I cover the top with a small square sheet of tinfoil sitting unformed (NOT wrapped or in any way attached) on top of my jar. steam comes out the sides, but I lose less butter or glycerin or whatever while I’m cooking. And I use a potato ricer lined with coffee filters as a drainer method. The french press also works, but the potato ricer is KING, and only $8 on ebay! Good luck to ya!



  5. snorgl on November 19, 2010 at 11:58 am

    Hey thanks for the quick reply! Yeah, I just can’t see a way to save it or use it. Even if I do somehow remove the water I’m still left with foul-tasting butter.

    I’m really glad I found your site, because I couldn’t find any explanation for what had gone wrong. Now I know it was because of overheating! I will definitely be following your recipe next time I cook! =)



  6. snorgl on November 19, 2010 at 6:50 am

    made some butter last night and left it going too long with the top on. usually i cover it and make sure it is just lightly bubbling, but this time i left it on medium heat and it boiled 2/3 of the water away. today i found that the water wouldn’t separate from the butter, just like you said.

    so this is a total loss? even the buttery watery stuff is no good? I can spoon it out but it just won’t solidify.



    • Vapormaster on November 19, 2010 at 7:41 am

      Personally, I’d chalk it up as a disaster and move on. Maybe allowing the water to evaporate naturally by leaving it out? Whatever you do, you’ll be missing the benefits of the water absorbing some of the nasty flavors and stuff. Better luck next time, sorry to hear of your trouble.



  7. someone on October 5, 2010 at 12:55 pm

    dont use an immersion blender either, it wont separate!

    crock pot on warm for 18 hours….thats the ticket



    • jordan on June 23, 2014 at 8:14 pm

      I agree totally! and put something under the container, between the bottom of the crock pot and the container. It will dissipate the heat even better, within the water.



  8. SativaDiva13 on January 18, 2010 at 10:35 pm

    it is my experience that you can substitute prepared butter for the same amount of oil in a recipe. If you are trying to be a canna-pastry-chef don’t do this, but generally speaking it works.
    I like to make my butter in a crock pot with water. I like to think the ‘nasties’ are in the water I discard. What I am left with is just the fat part of the butter, where all the good stuff is. The ‘goodies’ won’t bind to water, but they love fat.
    I have made some potent olive oil with water, but it is more difficult. I would spend forever skimming the top of the water trying to catch just oil. Too time consuming. I also think the active ingredients don’t adhere to the vegetable fats like animal fats.



    • jordan on June 23, 2014 at 8:18 pm

      It’s not a matter of animal versus vegetable, as I understand it. It’s about medium chain triglicerides, whatever they are. Seems thc et all just love those MCTs! Coconut oil is proof in my case. It’s so strong I had to dilute it! My best advice is to monitor your butter/oil’s color — so far avocado is a “concentrate” color, where a much lighter, nearly pastel green is MY best dose. A friend has a sliver of avcado colored butter and spent 12 hours in an acidlike trip. I thot ABV was a joke. I just could NOT believe that there was ANYTHING left in that dark ratty looking shit. Boy was I wrong!



  9. four20freedomfighter on December 10, 2009 at 1:17 pm

    just wondering if you can use clarified butter in a saucepan without the water? that is how i make my regular butter now and it seems to be a little more potent. so pretty much is the water being used just to keep the butter from burning? thanks



    • Vapormaster on December 24, 2009 at 9:00 am

      Should work. The water keeps the butter from burning, absorbs the nasties, and allows you to put much more material into the mix. Let us know how it goes!



    • jordan on June 23, 2014 at 8:35 pm

      You can either clarify your own ghee or just buy ghee and melt IT. The important part is the sinking of the meds into the butter. I use a container in a crockpot (see reply above) for cooking, just like everyone else here. The difference in MY (stolen from a million youtube vids) system is that I put my poo into cheesecloth and tie it off like a little burrito, so it never NEEDS to be strained. I just remove the quid (chef’s name for pot burrito) at the end and put it in my potato ricer which I squeeze like hell until all the butter/oil is out. Then I put the dry cake into a container in the fridge until my next bath (I drop the oil quid right in the tub. The butter quid “cake” gets ground into a fine powder after drying out and is added like flour to brownies or other mixes and is invisibly used up, nobody complains much except the lightweights who just eat smaller servings now). The water is being used to keep things from burning, but also as an additional solvent that can be discarded. When you use the quid method, you don’t need water IN the butter, just in the container holding the butter/oil container (water over the butter/oil line)to keep the heat in line.
      Neither way is “right” but if you have one hand that doesn’t work right, you don’t heft pots of hot water if you don’t have to. “My” way, I don’t have to. Watch a few dozen you tube vids and you’ll see there’s basically just two ways: pot of water with butter and mj mixed, and quid of mj in butter container sitting in crock pot, water and butter/oil and mj NOT mixed. The one that works for you and you practice the most is the “right” one, imho. Watch the color… darker is killer…



  10. vapotronic on May 19, 2009 at 8:26 am

    you will also lose some butter when the solids seperate from the liquid oils when heated.
    At the shops you can buy ghee, clarified butter. Its just the liquid oil of butter, you could try warming the toast in the ghee and then strain it to remove the particles, just be careful as the ghee could get too hot easily maybe put it in a metal bowl over boiling water, then just use the ghee like butter in cooking same amounts etc



  11. vapotronic on May 19, 2009 at 8:22 am

    If you want to add the raw toast, try grinding it to a powder in a little coffee grinder first. This reduced the bad texture and because the toast is all baked and crunchy it powderizes really well. It just becomes a flour like ingredient, perfect for baked foods.
    I even would like to try brewing the toast like a coffee or with coffee, or brew it in hot milk as the milk has oils in it 😀



    • jordan on June 23, 2014 at 8:36 pm

      word! your abv just disappears!



  12. Tommy on February 17, 2009 at 12:21 pm

    My problem with the original recipe is not potency, it works, but the fact that I get a lot less butter out than what I put in. I tried it with one stick, and after it cooled and separated, I only had less than half a stick left. Is this normal? Did the rest evaporate? BTW, I didn’t cover the pot. Thanks!



    • Vapormaster on February 17, 2009 at 6:15 pm

      Hey Tommy – Yeah, you’ll have that. Since some of the butter is water, some of it’s volume is lost in evaporation. Add regular butter to make up the difference and you’ll be all set.



      • jordan on June 23, 2014 at 8:38 pm

        My experience as well. I end up adding ghee later if I’ve made it too strong accidentally or if I did it on purpose to make a bunch for others. I dilute each batch (for friends I know well) personally. The 12 hour acid trip guy gets pastel, the two broken hip pt. gets avocado.



  13. Ryan on January 21, 2009 at 10:00 pm

    Is the butter comparable to the oil you can get from cooking using oil? Using oil a quarter pan of brownies would have u dazed until the next day.



    • Vapormaster on January 24, 2009 at 5:12 am

      Hi Ryan: Using oil vs butter is the same process of extraction. I’ve never had luck getting the oil to separate as cleanly from the water. Plus we make our goodies from scratch, which requires butter. If you’re using box-mixes, it may call for oil.



      • jordan on June 23, 2014 at 8:43 pm

        The quid method works very well with coconut oil. I’ve never used any other oil (Dr. Andrew Weil says it’s the best oil, so I stick with the coconut… look it up and decide for yourself) but the method is the same. Just put your chosen meds into a thin (!) cloth “bag” and tie it off so nothing comes out. Then sink it into your chosen fluids and off you go. When it’s the color you want or the “right” amount of time has gone by (12-18 is good), take that quid out, use the squeezing (WITH GLOVES) method or a french press or a potato ricer (!!), and reclaim the rest of the liquid. The cake is still good, ime. I use it in the tub, and when I get out, I dump the ex-pot and rinse the cloth to reuse it next batch. Again, I culled this wisdom from the giants who are brave enough to film their epic failures and rare successes. MANY people use this method, including pro chefs, so I figure I can’t improve on it any.



  14. butterless on January 19, 2009 at 8:24 pm

    I discovered that the vape-toast can be added directly to the brownie/cookie/banana bread/scrambled eggs/etc. recipe without any prior preparation and it has worked … TOO well, you could say. For single use, less than a gram is worthy. For a batch of cookies, around 10 grams makes for a cookie to be reckoned with. I vape my materials around 5 times before tossing them into the toast container.



    • Vapormaster on January 24, 2009 at 5:11 am

      Hi Butterless: Yes it’s true, you can add your leftovers direct to whatever you’re cooking. However most of us make butter because we don’t like the taste/smell of vaporizer leftovers or the texture it adds to the food. But hey – to each their own! If it works for you, I’m not going to knock it.



  15. Iconic on January 14, 2009 at 7:27 pm

    I am also having trouble with the recipe.

    I don’t have an issue with separation. I leave overnight in the fridge, with good results.

    My problem is potency. There is none, whatsoever. I have been assured my poo is suitable 🙂

    I have also covered my brew when cooking. Could that affect the results?

    We shall soon see…



    • admin on January 15, 2009 at 7:29 am

      I think that leaving the brew covered when cooking could also force some of the active ingredients into the water since it’s under pressure. How much weight of poo to butter did you use? Let me know how it goes. We’ve had great results in the past, so you’ll get it sooner or later… just might take some experimentation. And everyone’s poo is a bit different : P depending on original potency, amount of times it’s been vaped, reground, etc… soooo many variables! Good luck and happy vaping.



      • jordan on June 23, 2014 at 8:52 pm

        At what temps do you vape your stuff? I’ve found I get my favorite flavors and feelings out of very low temps, and my ABV is BBV (barely been vaped) to the eye. I’ve also tried vaping at higher temps, and while the ABV LOOKS the same, the stuff that’s been vaped at temps over 190C just does not have the same get-up-n-go as low temp abv. I usually have two or three bags at 140/145 for all the anti-inflamms at that temp, and then I hop up to 160, where about a dozen diff cannabinoids are supposedly released. By four or five bags, the taste has left MY range of liking, so into the jar it goes. And it is mighty mighty stuff. But I am a taste-hound, not a stoned-hound, so I KNOW I’m leaving a lot on the “plate” to cook with. Whatever your machine, try temps in the 145, 160 and 175 spots for a change. See how you feel, see how your abv does. I think you might both enjoy it a little more (since vaping at low temps decarbs and makes the meds more active) and save some money as well as have powerpoo at your service. And yeah, putting a tight lid on your stuff can “steam” it, and that is NOT what you want. A low simmer won’t steam it, just loosen the goodies into the fats… That’s MY understanding and experience, anyway. Good luck on yours.