With no shortage of options when it comes to CBD oil, why make CBD oil at home? In truth, making your own CBD oil can be quite rewarding, but it’s also a good way to experiment to get versions you may not be able to go out and buy. If you like to mess around in the kitchen, have some spare hemp flower on hand, and would like to try making your own concoctions, we have a few pointers to keep in mind.

How to Make CBD Oil at Home

The two main ingredients in homemade CBD oil will be hemp flower and your choice of oils: MCT (Medium-Chain Triglycerides), olive, or hemp seed oil. MCT oil is the preference for CBD oil-making because it has smaller fat molecules that are easy to digest and enter the blood quickly. Olive oil obviously comes from olives, and hemp seed oil is derived from pressed hemp seeds—both are good healthy oils to use.

What You’ll Need

• CBD flower
• MCT, olive, or hemp seed oil
• Baking sheet
• Small saucepan
• Cooking thermometer
• Fine mesh strainer or sieve
• Storage container with a lid

How to Determine Potency with Homemade CBD Oil

Determining potency with homemade CBD oil can be tricky because the potency can vary depending on what strain of hemp you use. Generally speaking, the formula to get a good estimate would be:

(potency percentage) CBD x 10 = mg of CBD per gram 

So, if you have Hawaiian Haze hemp flower, which is 15.4% CBD, you would have 154mg of CBD per gram if you make the oil properly.

If you intend to use one gram of flower to a half cup of oil, you can estimate that the end formula will have around 150mg of CBD in a half a cup. From there, you can further determine potency by breaking down the fluid and milligrams into smaller increments. For instance, there are 8 tablespoons in a half-cup. So each tablespoon would give you roughly 19mg of CBD.

Decarboxylating or Grinding

Normally, hemp needs to go through a decarboxylation process for the cannabinoids to actually work within the body. You can opt to decarb before making CBD oil by laying out the flower on a baking sheet and baking it for 20 to 30 minutes at about 230˚F. But, since you will be heating the hemp while infusing it with oil, you can also simply grind the flower into a powder with a grinder, which will make it easier to get the cannabinoids into the oil.

How to Make CBD Oil Using MCT Oil

1. Combine your chosen amount of oil with an equal amount of water in a saucepan
2. Add your prepared hemp flower to the mixture
3. Heat on low, stirring constantly to prevent clumping or sticking
4. Increase the heat slowly until the mixture approaches a boiling temperature
5. Once you reach a full boil, lower the temp to keep the oil as close to 200˚F as possible for about 30 minutes

Once the hemp flower starts to float and the majority of the water has evaporated, you are ready to turn off the heat, allow the mixture to cool, and then strain the mixture using a fine-mesh sieve. Cool the strained oil in the refrigerator for a few hours or even several hours or overnight. After chilling, the oil will coagulate at the top, which means you can easily pour off the remaining water.

How to Make CBD Oil Using Olive Oil or Hemp Seed Oil

The process of making CBD oil at home with either olive or hemp seed oil is essentially the same as MCT Oil. Some things to keep in mind:

• Olive oil has a lower scorch-point, which can leech bitterness into your mix even at the controlled temperature necessary to extract the cannabinoids from your hemp. A more robust (not extra virgin) olive oil tends to offer a better outcome.
• Hemp seed oil can be delicate, but should be fine as long as it is kept under 300 degrees, which also happens to be the heat level where cannabinoid quality is compromised.

Not ready to make your own CBD oil at home? No worries! We’ve got an excellent collection of CBD oils available at Vermont Hempicurean—no cooking required!