How to Make Weed Butter at Home for Beginners

5 Feb 2024
how to make weed butter

The beauty in learning how to make weed butter lies not in the end product but in its ease of production and accessibility. 

You don’t need to be Gordon Ramsay to make cannabutter. All you need is just a bit of patience, a willingness to learn, and a bit of elbow grease to make cannabis butter that’s ready to be used in a variety of fun, tasty edibles! 

Many people opt to use cannabis edibles as an alternative to smoking. It’s an efficient and hassle-free way to consume cannabis in the form of baked goods without drawing too much attention to yourself or having to invest in rolling equipment.

Cannabutter is also slowly starting to eliminate the stigma against cannabis as more and more consumers begin to experiment with the plant. What’s more, an increasing portion of the population is finally starting to appreciate the benefits of cannabis.

Now that you know why cannabis butter is so great, let’s get into making some delicious, cannabis-infused butter!

How to Make Weed Butter – What You’ll Need

The tools you’ll need to create cannabis-infused butter are easily located in any kitchen. So chances are, you’ll already have all of these lying around your house!

Here’s what you’ll need to make weed butter:

  • Oven or toaster oven
  • 1 1/2 cup of water
  • Hand grinder/ scissors
  • Baking sheet/ parchment paper
  • Sheet pan/baking dish
  • 8 ounces of unsalted butter or coconut oil
  • Saucepan or pot
  • Wooden spoon
  • Cheesecloth or coffee filter
  • Glass containers/mason jar
  • 1/2 ounce of quality cannabis flower

Step 1 – Decarboxylating Cannabis

The first step to making cannabis butter involves an oven, your favourite weed, and a baking sheet. 

Before we do anything, we’ll need to decarboxylate our cannabis. Decarb-what? This scientific-sounding word sounds complicated, but all it means is popping our cannabis plant material into the oven to “activate” it.

What is Decarboxylation, and Why Does Weed Need It?

This is an essential step because “raw” cannabis is not psychoactive. Therefore, to feel the effects of marijuana, heat needs to be applied to transform THC-A, a non-psychoactive compound, into THC, its psychoactive cousin.

Here’s how you decarboxylate weed:

  • Preheat oven to 105 °C (220 °F)
  • Begin by grinding/cutting up your weed into coarse bits using your weed grinder. This increases the bud’s surface area and makes it easier to bake evenly. Aim for a consistency you’ll use for a joint.
  • Prepare a sheet pan or baking dish with some parchment paper before evenly spreading your ground weed on top.
  • Place your sheet pan into your oven for 30 minutes to 40 minutes. The time your weed takes to decarboxylate will vary depending on the kind of oven, how fine you grind your weed, and where you’re located. Moisture and altitude affect how long you’ll want to decarboxylate your cannabis.
  • Carefully monitor your weed, and make sure to gently mix every 5-10 minutes, so it doesn’t burn. Once your weed is a dark, golden brown, it’s ready to go.

Step 2 – Infusion

This recipe is dank. So, if you’re planning on making cannabutter at home, be prepared for your place to reek like a cannabis flower for a considerable amount of time. You can also use a portable stove and prepare cannabutter outdoors or on a balcony to avoid the lingering smell.

Here’s how to infuse your cannabutter:

  • Bring water to a boil and turn the heat down. Add the butter to your water over very low heat.
  • Let the butter melt before adding in your decarboxylated cannabis. Mix well and allow the melted butter to saturate your cannabis thoroughly.
  • Allow the mixture to simmer for 3 to 4 hours taking care to gently stir every half-hour to make sure your potent butter isn’t burning or sticking to the bottom of the pot gently. This process allows the cannabinoids to leave the plant material and infuse it into our sticks of butter.

Step 3 – Straining

Once your weed is infused with your butter, you’ll want to strain it to remove every bit of pant matter before using it in your recipes.

Take your cheesecloth or coffee filter and slowly pour the mixture out into a container. Usually, you’d want to squeeze the filtrate to get everything out, but doing so here will just make your butter extra bitter.

Once completely strained, place your infused butter into the fridge and allow it to cool overnight. 

Once cooled, you should see a fair amount of water collecting on the top of your container. 

Dump this liquid out, and you’ll have some potent cannabutter that can be used in a variety of recipes to make homemade edibles!

You can use this butter immediately or store it in the freezer for up to six months.

How to Use & Dose Weed Butter

how to use weed butter

Learning how to use cannabutter isn’t the hard part – figuring out your dose is.

We don’t recommend substituting regular butter with cannabutter, as the potency could be drastically different from what you’re expecting.

Instead, try substituting a tablespoon at a time to build your weed tolerance and get used to the potency before adding more in order to avoid a green out. Cannabutter can be used with various ingredients and can be used to take your cooking to a ‘higher’ level!

We love to use cannabutter in recipes that don’t require too much weed butter. As an infused product, this ingredient will influence how your food will end up tasting. 

Cannabutter can be used to make a nearly endless list of cannabis-infused edibles, including cookies, cakes, muffins, pasta sauces, various beverages and savoury foods.

Whenever your recipe calls for traditional butter, feel free to include cannabis butter instead.

Weed Butter – Versatile & Potent

Cannabutter is the best ingredient to use if you want to make edibles or marijuana-infused baked goods at home.

It is a staple of cannabis edibles. And as we have learned, it is also easy to make and use.

Make sure to decarboxylate your cannabis flower before infusing it in butter. This will activate its psychoactive potential and make your butter able to induce highs.

Use your psychoactive butter to make pasta, coffee and tea, weed ice cream and even pot pies.

The limit here is only your imagination.

As with everything else, make sure you are buying cannabis flower from a trusted dispensary to get a high-quality product.

Happy baking!

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