How To Make FECO
Mike Wise's Method
The information provided here is for educational purposes only and is not intended as medical or professional advice. If you choose to use these methods, please ensure you take necessary precautions, including wearing protective gear and working in a well-ventilated area. Always prioritize safety when handling flammable substances.
Materials Needed
- 190-proof ethanol
- Cannabis flower
- Gloves
- Rice cooker (big enough to boil at least 6 cups)
- Spatula
- Coffee filters
- Wide-mouth quart Mason jars
- Blender
- Heat gun thermometer
- Hot plate
- Oral syringes
- Fan
Step by Step Process
Step 1: Put cannabis in the blender and grind it to a fine level
Step 2: Transfer the ground cannabis into as many Mason jars as needed. Fill the cannabis up to right below the lid.
Step 3: Pour the 190-proof ethanol into the blender to capture all the cannabis material leftover. From there, pour the ethanol from the blender into the first Mason jar full of ground cannabis
Step 4: With the blender washed out, the rest of the Mason jar can be filled with ethanol by pouring directly from the bottle. The ethanol should cover just over the top of the cannabis
Step 5: Put the cap on the Mason jar, seal it, and shake the jar for 2-3 minutes. This facilitates extraction. Once shaken, take off the cap and knock any attached alcohol
Step 6: Attach a coffee filter to the lid of a Mason jar. The filter can be put in upside down, with the edges of the filter as close to the rim as possible, and then folded over.
Take note how close the coffee filter is to the edge. This is the proper approach.
The above is the IMPROPER approach. Folding over the coffee filter with so much extra room, as shown above, will significantly slow the filtration speed
Step 7: Attach the Mason jar lid with the now-attached coffee filter to the Mason jar.
Step 8: Take another Mason jar and put it over the jar with the filter. Then flip it upside down to allow filtration to occur.
Step 9: After filtration, a second wash can be done to extract more plant compounds. Essentially, steps 4 to 8 can be repeated. The plant material is covered again with ethanol and filtered through another coffee filter. The filtered solution can go into the same jar with the solution from the first wash.
Step 10: Depending on how much cannabis you are extracting, you can repeat Steps 1 to 9 and have multiple Mason jars filtering at the same time.
Step 11: Once all of the ethanol cannabis solution has been filtered, the solution can be transferred into the rice cooker. Set the rice cooker to the Cook setting instead of the Warm setting. It is highly recommended to do this outside with a fan blowing, as this will dramatically minimize the risk of fire. If the process needs to happen inside, make sure to open windows, have no open flames, and have the fan blowing over the rice cooker.
Step 12: After several hours, the solution can be brought back inside and put on a hot plate. This step ensures decarboxylation of the THCA into THC. The temperature should be brought up to 180-190F, which can be verified with the heat gun thermometer. It usually takes 1-2 hours to decarboxylate, although it may take longer depending on the amount of material.
Step 13: As long as bubbles are still present, it means the FECO is not fully decarboxylated. Once the FECO is smooth and lacking bubbles, it’s done! Pictures below show the process
Step 14: Pull up the FECO into an oral syringe while it is warm (but not hot) directly from the container
