Are you ready to learn how to make your own CBD oil to be used as a supplement, in recipes, or for self-care products? This guide will give you the step-by-step process and show you how easy it is to make the best CBD oil at home.
Features
- Two natural ingredients: CBD flower & oil
- No special equipment! You just need a crockpot and mason jars (or an Instant Pot)
- Versatile and can be made with your favorite strain of CBD flower
Why You Will Love This Recipe
If you are familiar with making homemade cannabis oil, this canna oil recipe follows the same process.
The only difference is the type of cannabis flower you start with and how you decarb that flower.
For this recipe, you need CBD-dominant flowers. CBD is the second most abundant cannabinoid found in cannabis plants, next to THC, and is commonly found in the hemp plant.
CBD does not produce a high or intoxicating effect like THC, which is why it is preferred by many members of my Well With Cannabis Community.
Their anecdotal evidence suggests that this homemade CBD oil can be good for managing joint pain, serious medical conditions, weaning from prescription medications, and as a supplemental dietary product.
This step-by-step guide will show you how easy it is to make your own CBD oil at home with just a few simple steps, notes, and expert tips for how to make your own CBD recipes, and fully answered FAQs.
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Ingredient Notes
- CBD Flower - To make CBD oil at home, you must start with a CBD-dominant flower that has CBDA already present. You can purchase this from my online shop here.
- Oil - There are many options to choose from. Choose a type of oil that fits your personal preferences. Unsure what to pick? Check the options below.
- Lecithin, optional: If you're new to working with lecithin, you can learn more about adding lecithin to edibles here. This ingredient is optional.
Carrier Oil Options:
- MCT oil
- Coconut oil
- Olive oil
- Hemp seed oil
- Sunflower oil
- Avocado oil
- or any other liquid cooking oil you desire, like vegetable oil
- You can also use this process to make CBD cannabutter
Note: a complete list of ingredients with amounts and printable instructions is located in the recipe card below.
The Step-by-Step Process
Step 1 - The goal is to create a hot water bath at approximately 180-190°F for the infusion process. The printable instructions in the recipe card below are for using a crockpot, but alternative options are outlined in the FAQ section below.
Step 2 - While the water bath is heating in the crockpot, measure and decarb the CBD flower. This is an essential step! Simply break the flower into smaller pieces, put it in a mason jar, and place that in the oven at 240° F for 90 minutes. Alternatively, can learn how to decarb in an Instant Pot.
Step 3 - Add your desired oil to the mason jar with the decarbed cannabis. If you plan to use sunflower lecithin, add it to the mason jar.
Step 4 - Carefully place the jars into the water bath, put the crockpot lid on, and leave it alone to cook for 4 hours. You want to maintain a temperature of around 180-190°F the entire time. If you don't have a lid, aluminum foil will work. After the 4-hour cooking time, carefully remove the jars from the water bath and allow them to cool enough to handle. You are now done with the crockpot step and can discard the water bath.
Step 5 - Whether it be a paper filter and funnel, cheesecloth, French press, fine mesh strainer, or a simple coffee filter, you will want to set up a straining station to separate the plant material from the oil.
Step 6 - Once cool enough to handle, strain the prepared oil with your method of choice. You can save the plant matter, called leftover cannabis pulp, for use in future recipes.
Step 7 - Return the prepared CBD oil to whatever jar you would like to store it in; I use a small amber tincture dropper bottle.
Step 8 - Store the prepared CBD oil in a cool, dry place. It will last longer if stored in the refrigerator and even longer if stored in the freezer.
Note: complete step-by-step printable instructions are located in the recipe card below.
Storage Instructions
Store the prepared CBD oil in a cool, dry, dark place at room temperature.
Learn more about how to store your CBD oil so it doesn't go bad here.
More About CBD Flower
Cannabis comes in a variety of different strains with a variety of different cannabinoids and cannabinoid ratios.
While many people are familiar with traditional, THC-dominant cannabis flowers, there is also CBD-dominant cannabis flower or industrial hemp flower.
Third-party lab tests are the best way to identify what cannabinoids are present in your flower and how much CBD content is present.
CBD-dominant flowers may come with either high or low amounts of THC; it all depends on the strain of the plant.
You can read my full CBD flower guide here if you're still unclear about CBD flowers.
CBDA to CBD Conversion
Once you have acquired the CBD flower needed to make this CBD oil recipe, the next step is to decarboxylate the CBD flower.
While you may be familiar with the traditional decarboxylation process for making traditional THC cannabis-infused oils, it is slightly different for making CBD-infused oil.
This process converts cannabidiolic acid (CBDA) into cannabidiol (CBD), although both forms remain non-intoxicating in their respective states.
It is important to remember that all cannabinoids decarboxylate at different temperatures, so the temperature and time needed to achieve full activation for CBD will differ from THC.
The most common recommendation for decarboxylating CBDA to CBD is to bake the flower at 240°F for 90 minutes.
Notes & Expert Tips
- Making your own homemade high-quality CBD oil with the following recipe is one of the best ways to reap the health benefits of CBD and other beneficial compounds
- Using pure CBD products, like isolates, will not produce a full-spectrum CBD oil because it does not contain a full spectrum of cannabinoids. Therefore, you may not experience the therapeutic effects of CBD
- Use the flower-to-oil ratio guide if you need help deciding how much to use. It's a good idea to record how many flowers you used, in grams, so you can calculate your final potency with the edible dosage calculator.
- Once made, you can use this oil in a variety of recipes from edible recipes to beauty products! Click here to learn how to make your own CBD edibles
Frequently Asked Questions
Below are some of the most frequently asked questions I receive in my Well With Cannabis Community about making CBD oil at home.
If you want to make this recipe at home using high-quality CBD flowers, I have them available for purchase in my shop. Check with your local laws to ensure full-spectrum oil is a legal option for you.
No, you do not need to use a slow cooker or crockpot, but it is a great way to set it and forget it! You can use a double boiler or a small saucepan on the stove over low heat to create a water bath for infusion.
Yes, if you want a stronger, more potent infusion, you can make CBD oil with full-extract cannabis oil, also known as FECO. This is a different process than what is outlined here and involves making a cannabis tincture with the alcohol extraction method, so be sure to follow my FECO guidelines here.
The answer depends on the cannabis flower you're using. Some flower can contain high amounts of both CBD and THC, while other flowers, like CBD hemp flower, contains low amounts of THC. If you want to ensure you are not getting high from your final product, you want to opt for a CBD-dominant flower with little to no THC.
Many people feel nothing at all when they use CBD. Using CBD is not about what you feel; it is about what you don’t feel – a lack of unwanted symptoms. Just like all things cannabis, how you feel will be entirely dependent on your own unique tolerance to cannabis.
When it comes to getting drug tested, it is important to know that using a CBD product containing any THC amount can result in a positive drug test result. If you need to be free of THC, you need to ensure the product you are using is labeled as a broad-spectrum CBD or CBD isolate product.
Yes, you can. If you want to make a smaller batch first, to see if homemade CBD oil is right for you, use this cannabis flower-to-oil ratio guide.
You can use this oil as a sublingual tincture or learn to cook with CBD oil and make these delicious CBD oil chocolate chip cookies.
How to Determine The Dosing
Want to get a more accurate guesstimate of the potency of your cannabis infusions and extractions? Try our popular edibles calculator!
Not sure what your perfect dose is? Learn more here.
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📖 Recipe
Easy Guide to Make CBD Oil
Equipment
Ingredients
- 7 grams CBD-dominant cannabis flower
- 4 ounces oil of choice
- ¼ teaspoon lecithin optional
Instructions
- Lay a clean tea towel down on the bottom of the crockpot. This will create a buffer between your mason jars and the crockpot, potentially preventing any jar from moving or cracking during cooking.
- Fill your crockpot with enough warm to hot water to cover the top of the mason jars you plan on using by an inch to create a water bath.
- Place the digital instant-read thermometer into the water. Start the crockpot heat on high. When a temperature of around 180°F is reached, turn the crockpot to low. Note: any temperature range of 180-190 degrees Fahrenheit will work. You may need to adjust to medium heat, depending on your crockpot.
- While the water bath is heating in the crockpot, measure decarb the CBD flower. Simply break the flower into smaller pieces, put it in a mason jar, and place that in the oven at 240° F for 90 minutes. Click here, for a full CBD decarboxylation tutorial, if needed. Record how much flower you used, in grams, so you can calculate your final potency at the end.
- After decarboxylation, remove the jar from the oven. When it is cool enough to handle, open the lid and put your oil of choice inside. You may need more than one jar if you are making a big batch. If you are using more than one jar, evenly divide the ingredients between the jars for more consistent dosing.
- If you plan on using sunflower lecithin, add it to the mason jars now.
- Wipe the rim of the jars with a clean towel, and add the lid. Tighten the metal ring to finger-tip tightness. It should be tight, but not too tight.
- Carefully place the jar into the hot water bath, put the crockpot lid on, and leave it alone to cook for 4 hours. You want to maintain a temperature of around 180-190°F the entire time. If you don't have a lid, aluminum foil will work.
- After the 4-hour cooking time, carefully remove the jars from the water bath and allow them to cool enough to handle. You are now done with the crockpot step and can discard the water bath.
- Prepare a straining area with new, clean mason jars and a strainer, paper filter, cheesecloth or French Press. Pour the contents of the mason jar through the strainer to separate the plant-matter from the infused oil.
- Save the leftover cannabis pulp for use in future recipes. Then return the prepared CBD oil to whatever jar you would like to store it in, like an amber glass jar with a dropper.
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