Hops tincture what am I doing wrong?

[A BStudent]

Im trying to make a hops tincture with whole hops flowers. Doc says he usually does a 1:8 ratio. That didn’t even come close to covering the hops. I had to put almost over 1300 grams vodka to even cover the hops. What am I doing wrong? I also read Doc said they didn’t need to be powdered. Just seems like an awful lot of vodka even if it’s a thirsty plant. I’m near a 1:26 to. Anyone have any info?

[A BStudentTopic Author]

I should add I did 50 grams hops

[Greg BoggsStudent]

I think the best method when it comes to hops is to powder them up, they will still be thirsty but will cover them all easier

[A BStudentTopic Author]

So this method would be more of the folk method would you say? Just put in enough vodka to cover the hops? Does that make it less potent? I’ll for sure grind up the other half I didn’t use for my next batch.

[Greg BoggsStudent]

What I would do for record keeping is to powder up the hops, see how much that weighs, then add in the vodka to the point in which it covers it all, and then see how much that weighs. Now you have your ratio on hops to vodka and can replicate it in the future

[SharonStudent]

I’m thinking that after that first “thirsty” batch is done, press it and use the tincture AS your menstruum for approximately the same amount of dry (powdered) hops, and “run another batch” (might call that a double extraction or double infusion?).  Theoretically, it should make the finished product about 1:13 if you are 1:26 for the first one.  That’s what my plan is anyway…  Maybe when Doc is back online he can correct this theory if it’s wrong.

[A BStudentTopic Author]

Well, I’m confused. How do people do the folk method and have any idea of potency? I gave up on measuring so now have no idea on my vodka amount. Just know how much hops I started out with. Hmmm, what to do.

[SharonStudent]

A B – many people use the folk method, but like Doc says – if you want to have any kind of consistency in your tinctures so that they work the same all the time – the ratio method is the only one that makes sense (to me anyway).  I try and keep a log, and I also put some wide orange painters tape on the jar with the herb, how many grams of herb : how many ml of what % of alcohol – then the 1:5 or whatever it works out to be.  If it’s a much larger number on the alcohol, I’m planning on “running another batch” with that alcohol/tincture from the first batch which in theory should make that ratio half what it was the first time.  Still experimenting with that, but I think it makes a lot of sense.  Otherwise, you could just make a 1:10 (as an example) and use twice as much as you would have used for a 1:5.  Hope this helps 🙂

[Lisa BatemanStudent]

Weigh (in grams) the filled jar. Make note. Weigh (using grams) an empty jar with lid. Subtract weight of empty jar and the 50g of herbs you started with from the weight of the filled jar. That will give you the weight in grams of vodka.  You can get a ratio that way. If I remember correctly, a ml of fluid is close to a gram in weight. Regardless,  you will have a gram to gram ratio you can use to standardize.

Lisa Bateman

[SharonStudent]

Lisa is right, but with one SILLY caveat that I’ve found by accident.  All mason/canning jars of the same size/brand don’t weigh the same!  How crazy is that?!  You’d think the factory would “pour” a certain amount (weight or volume) of material into each mold or whatever they use, and they’d all be exactly the same.

Also, I made a “cheater jar” for my alcohol measurements.  I commonly use 150ml or multiples of it for my tincturing, so I took an accurate ml measuring glass and a jar, and put painters tape at the line where the liquid was for each of the measurements.  Now all I have to do is know what amount I want, pull out that jar and pour the hooch in to the tape lines.  EZ peasy!

[Greg BoggsStudent]

So I just started two hops tinctures last night. One is 20g with 140g of vodka and the other is 30g with 240g of vodka. This was all that was needed to be able to cover all of the herbs since I powdered them all first

[SharonStudent]

Gregg’s results match with mine for POWDERING the hops first.  My very first attempt had me trying to pulverize everything AFTER I put the alcohol in – not a good way to do it at all.  Powder everything before tincturing and you and the tincture will be happier!

[Author]

Posts