This easy homemade kief butter guide will show you how to make a super potent cannabutter that tastes absolutely amazing. You will find step-by-step instructions for dosing, decarbing, infusing, and more!
Features
- A super simple kief butter recipe with step-by-step instructions
- Notes on what kief is, how much to use, and how to decarb
- Tips for dosing and knowing how much to use
Why You Will Love This Recipe
My crockpot cannabutter recipe has been the most popular recipe on the site for the past two years.
My Well With Cannabis Community knows that cannabis loves fat and that making an infusion is one of the easiest ways to make edibles.
Understandably for some, the taste of cannabutter can be overwhelming, even off-putting, which is where kief butter comes in.
Kief butter can be a better way to make more potent cannabis butter, and it can taste better - a win-win for most!
In this guide, I will show you how to make your kief butter at home in a few easy steps, give you an idea of how to dose this potent edible, and share great ideas for making kief edibles.
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Ingredient Notes
- 1 gram kief - see the How Much Kief to Use section below for helpful tips on dosing.
- 1 stick of butter - ordinary butter or unsalted butter will do, but many people prefer to use ghee or clarified butter. You can also make kief oil with any other oil you desire, like olive oil, or coconut oil. Want a less potent infusion? Add more sticks of butter. Want to make CBD kief butter? Start with kief collected from CBD flower.
Note: a complete list of ingredients with amounts and printable instructions is located in the recipe card below.
Step-by-Step Instructions
- Step 1 - Gather the ingredients and equipment and preheat the oven to 240° F.
- Step 2 - Using a digital scale, weigh the kief to your desired weight into an oven-safe container with a lid, like a mason jar.
- Step 3 - Place the jar in the oven and bake for 30-35 minutes for THC-dominant flower or 60-65 minutes for CBD-dominant flower. New to decrying? Check out this kief decarb guide here.
- Step 4 - While the jar is cooling, prepare a water bath. Fill a saucepan ½ way with water and place over high heat. Once boiling, reduce to low heat to simmer.
- Step 5 - After the decarb cooking correct time, remove the jar from the oven.
- Step 6 - When the mason jar is cool enough to handle, remove the lid, and put in your stick of butter or amount of oil. Reattach the lid.
- Step 7 - Place the mason jar in the water bath and allow the butter to start to melt.
- Step 8 - Once the butter and kief have completely melted, allow it to simmer for 5 minutes. If cook enough to handle, shake gently a few times.
- Step 9 - Remove the jar from the hot water bath. You can allow the butter to harden as is, or you can "clarify" the butter by straining the white foam from the butter before allowing it to solidify.
- Step 10 - Pour the butter into silicone molds and individual portion-sized trays, or leave it as-is in the container.
- Step 11 - Refrigerate for a few hours or overnight to allow the butter to harden.
- Step 12 - Enjoy your kief butter in your morning coffee, on toast, or in all of your favorite baked goods.
Note: complete step-by-step printable instructions are located in the recipe card below.
Storage Instructions
Store the cannabutter in the refrigerator for up to 10 days. You can store it for even longer in the freezer. If refrigerating or freezing, be sure to avoid reheating in the microwave. Learn how to store edibles, so they don't go bad.
Because kief is so high in cannabinoids, depending on the type of flower you're starting with, even a little bit can have a big effect.
If you're using a THC-dominant flower, you will have a THC-dominant kief.
If you are using CBD-dominant flowers, you will have CBD-dominant kief.
It's easy to collect kief with a grinder or kief catcher, and over time you'll quickly save up a lot, especially if you use trichome-heavy strains of cannabis.
How Much Kief to Use
For this recipe, we measure in grams of kief. A digital scale can help you measure this out.
It's difficult to know exactly how potent your kief is without testing it in a lab, but you can approximate its strength if you know what kind of bud the kief came from.
In addition, if you buy kief at a store or dispensary, the label will likely give you a good idea of its potency.
While it's standard to find cannabis flowers roughly 15-25% THC, kief can contain upwards of 70% THC, meaning it can be very potent.
With this in mind, know that a little bit of these sticky crystals can go a long way.
As a general rule of thumb, you'll probably want to start with one gram of kief and increase if needed.
Don't Forget to Decarb
Decarbing is one of the most important things when it comes to making cannabis edibles.
Raw cannabis kief does not naturally contain high amounts of active CBD or THC; it actually contains what is known as cannabinoid acids.
Cannabinoid acids, like CBDA, THCA, and more, have potential health benefits – but they are not intoxicating, meaning you won’t get high.
To convert these nonintoxicating cannabinoid acids into the activated cannabinoids we typically want to consume, the process of decarboxylation must occur.
The common recommendation is to bake at 240°F for 30-35 minutes for THC or 60-65 minutes for CBD on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper or in a mason jar.
Baking in a mason jar that you can later infuse in is a good way to keep all of the sticky kief that collects at the bottom of the jar.
The medium heat and short cook time help to prevent any burning that may occur with the very fine consistency of the kief, although it is recommended to pay close attention at the end.
Your kief will have darkened in color. Sometimes, the resin crystals may have melted a little, but that's okay; they will melt into the butter.
Once you've mastered the process of decarboxylation, you can use your new skill to create so many different types of edibles.
Is Kief Butter Is Better Than Cannabutter?
Many people find this easy kief butter recipe much more enjoyable than weed butter, mainly because of the taste and smell.
When making cannabutter with flower buds or trim, a lot of chlorophyll is leached from the plant material into the final infusion.
That, along with excess moisture, makes the final product look and taste more green.
The good news? Many people find that making kief butter provides the best experience when making edibles.
Notes and Expert Tips
- You can use this same method to make hash butter
- When making a water bath, you can do it in a crockpot, Instant pot, or, as we are doing here, on the stovetop
- After you have this recipe made, you can make kief cookies, kief cookie dough, no-bake cannabutter edibles, and all of these other amazing kief recipes
- If you find your kief butter is too strong, you can gently melt it in another stick of regular butter or two
Frequently Asked Questions
Working with kief can be brand new to even the most seasoned cannabis consumer, so here are some of the most common FAQs I get asked about this recipe from my Well With Cannabis Community.
There are several different methods to get more kief than just the grinder. Investing in a kief collector, kief boxes, or dry ice is a great way to collect as much pure kief as possible.
Kief has a mild nutty flavor, but many people find it much more mellow than traditional cannabutter.
Nope! Once you have decarboxylated kief, you can add it as-is to any recipe you desire. There are many different ways to use it, from edibles to smoking.
Keeping the plant matter in the melted butter is the best way to get the most potency and final result. If you feel you have to strain, you will want to increase your infusion time to 2 hours and then use a coffee filter or other fine tool to strain.
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.
Want To Make This Easier? Use A Machine!
If the process of decarbing and infusing feels like too much work, an all-in-one countertop device may be a perfect all-in-one solution.
My personal favorites? The LEVO and Ardent FX, but you can review the most popular infusion machines here.
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Easy Homemade Kief Butter
Equipment
Ingredients
- 1 gram kief
- 1 stick butter or ghee
Instructions
- Gather the ingredients and equipment and preheat the oven to 240° F.
- Using a digital scale, weigh the kief to your desired weight into an oven-safe container with a lid, like a mason jar.
- Place the jar in the oven and bake for 30-35 minutes for THC-dominant flower or 60-65 minutes for CBD-dominant flower.
- While the jar is cooling, prepare a water bath. Fill a saucepan ½ way with water and place over high heat. Once boiling, reduce to low heat to simmer.
- After the decarb cooking correct time, remove the jar from the oven.
- When the mason jar is cool enough to handle, remove the lid, and put in your stick of butter or amount of oil. Reattach the lid.
- Place the mason jar in the water bath and allow the butter to start to melt.
- Once the butter and kief have completely melted, allow it to simmer for 5 minutes. If cook enough to handle, shake gently a few times.
- Remove the jar from the hot water bath. You can allow the butter to harden as is, or you can "clarify" the butter by straining the white foam from the butter before allowing it to solidify.
- Pour the butter into silicone molds and individual portion-sized trays, or leave it as-is in the container.
- Refrigerate for a few hours or overnight to allow the butter to harden.
- Enjoy your kief butter in your morning coffee, on toast, or in all of your favorite baked goods.
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