The short answer to the question is - yes, you can over decarboxylate your cannabis.
To understand why this happens and how you can avoid it, you need to know decarboxylation.
Every cannabis or hemp plant produces #cannabinoids naturally. Eating raw cannabis or hemp will relax or make people high. That's because THC and other cannabinoids are not psychoactive unless decarboxylated. Your cannabinoid receptor will not take anything if you eat them raw.
So how to incorporate cannabis in food or drinks?
You need decarboxylation before making any edibles. It might sound like a chemical class to most people, as many of us can't even spell decarboxylation right. But the truth is, decarboxylation is simple. Simple as heating your strain in specific heat and time, converting THCa and CBDa into THC and CBD. Or you can put decarboxylation in a more accessible term - activation.
So here comes to the second question - Can I over decarboxylated?
YES! Take THC as an example. If you heat your flowers for too long, in the beginning, THCa will convert to THC. However, after a certain period, when conversion reaches 70%, THC will start degrading into CBN. Unless you want to sleep better, most people wouldn't want to ingest too much CBN in their food.
What makes a over decarbed cannabis?
Lets take a look at traditional decarb method.
1. Sous Vide Method
Sous vide is a great way to get an even temperature in a period. The usual reason to fail is that Sous Vide's temperature is too low for conversion. Remember water boil point is at 210F / 100C. 210F, which might be too low for THC conversion. Also, a Sous Vide machine is expensive.
2. Mason jar Method
This is the most cost-effective method. By turning the mason jar every 30 minutes, you can have a lovely evenly baked herb. And the smell is in reasonable control. But remember, the temperature of the oven and the microenvironment inside the mason jar are different. Oven temperature fluctuates from +30F to -30F; it's not easy to know the temperature inside the jar. In this case, you might undercook the herb.
3. Baking pan method
The third one is the baking pan method. It's been commonly used for beginners. The steps are pretty straightforward by spreading cannabis flower onto the baking pan and putting it into the oven. The problem with the method is you might not be able to get even baking. Take the toaster oven; the heating element inside the range cannot make an even heating environment. If cannabis product gets too closed to the heating unit, the top layers of the product might get burnt, yet the bottom layer is still raw.
Nowadays people are looking for clean infused edibles. My personal favorite is decarb with #keif. Kief are not too much of smell when cooking. And the potency is ensured.
However, for kief decarboxylation, it’s impossible to decarb with sous vide or baking pan. First of all, a water bath method requires a wrapping of cannabis product inside a plastic bag. But keep in mind rubber or plastic will lead to cannabinoid degradation. For baking sheet method, kief fibers are very fine and easy to get burnt. In this case it's ruining my the kief.
That’s why ECRU #DecarbKit or #Activator is so important to cannachef - no matter you are an expert or novice. Every edibles begins with perfect decarb and ECRU’s goal is to help you simplify and standardized the process.
There are 4 preset mode in the #DecarbKit. The best thing for the preset mode is time and temp precision control. The thermometer monitors the micro environment inside the glass box. The countdown only starts when the temperature hits preset. Only by using this scientific method, you will achieve this slightly browned herb without stinking the kitchen.
To learn more about decarboxylation, please check below link to learn how to decarb with ECRU Decarb Kit.
Cannabutter Cannasugar
Tips for dosing edibles
Your edibles' potency depends on factors, from strain you choose, to storage, or even how long and what temperature you treated the strain. For safe dosing, try to spread 1/4 teaspoon on a snack and see how that dose affects you after an hour. First time users must be very careful with dosing.
