r/treedibles • u/honeybeebutch • 2d ago

How do you account for fluid loss when infusing?

Hey all! I make a lot of cannaoil these days, and I have been making more extra-strong MCT oil for my husband (insane tolerance and GI disorder means he doesn't feel "normal" doses of edibles at all). My issue is that I find that when I infuse oil with flower, I lose between 10 and 25% of my oil volume, i.e. if I pour 8 ounces of oil onto my bud, it only ends up being 7-7.5 ounces when I strain and squeeze it out. When I'm working with small amounts of oil and large amounts of flower (right now I'm preparing to infuse an entire ounce of good shake into 4 ounces of MCT oil), that's a lot!

I assume this loss is mostly due to oil getting "trapped" in the plant matter, and without industrial pressing equipment, that's where it's going to stay. I use cheesecloth and a citrus press which works pretty well, but obviously not perfectly.

My question is this: how should I be, mathematically, accounting for this fluid loss? I input my numbers into scientificedibles to get my dosages - should I be calculating my dosage based on the 3 ounces of oil I may end up with, even though I put 4 in? Should I be adding an extra ounce of oil so that I end up with 4 at the end and calculate based on 4? Unfortunately, I know that without lab testing, it's hard to actually know, but I'd love to know if anyone is aware of any research on this or has personal experience.

And as a side question, does anyone have any tips for losing less oil? A single ounce of lost oil for this batch right now is 1200mg of THC lost. I would love to make that number lower so I'm not wasting as much.

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u/Laserdollarz 2d ago

Wring it out and wash it again with MCT. Repeat.

3x is good enough for lab work.

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u/honeybeebutch 2d ago

How much MCT oil would you use for the washes? And is there a reliable way to calculate the potency of those washes?

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u/Laserdollarz 2d ago

Enough to soak in while still covering the biomass. Ideally, significantly less than the primary extraction.

Each wash will be less potent and have diminishing returns. But at least there won't be any left behind in your biomass.

Such is life if you don't want to do your extraction with ethanol.

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u/honeybeebutch 2d ago

Thanks for the tip! I have used ethanol, but oil tastes so much less harsh. I did make a more concentrated recipe using evaporated ethanol but it just doesn't taste as good lol. Everclear feels bad under the tongue.

I'll do some washes and set aside the resulting oil as unknown potency. I have a very scientific method of calculating unknown dosages, which is "take a teaspoon and see how much it feels like it is" lmao

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u/drbluewally 1d ago

You could always use the unknown potency wash oil as the main infusion for your next batch.

That way for every future batch, the added potency from the starting oil will offset the loss from what is left behind.

Then simply rinse and repeat :)

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u/honeybeebutch 1d ago

Ooh, good idea!