How To Make CBD Oil in 5 Easy Steps

While CBD oil products have become more effective and more affordable than ever before, retail-ready CBD may not be right for everybody. 

Why? Two main reasons.

One, some people have such high dosing demands that commercially-available CBD oil is still too expensive; two, some people prefer a DIY approach that’s more customizable. 

In both cases, the solution is a simple one: make your own CBD oil, from the comfort of your own home. Making your own CBD oil is simple, affordable, and maybe even a little fun. 

Here’s how it’s done in 5 simple steps.

Step #1: Procure Hemp Flower

Any good CBD oil starts with good hemp, and homemade CBD oil is no exception. While such hemp might’ve been hard to find in the past, times have changed. Today, more than a few online marketplaces provide direct access to hemp farmers offering quality hemp flower. 

You’ll want to buy your hemp flower in bulk from one of these marketplaces (not from a dedicated hemp company) to save money. You don’t need the fancy branding and marketing right now, anyways—all that matters is that your hemp is pure and potent enough for extraction. 

So, browse around on your marketplace of choice for a hemp flower that’s:

• Independently lab tested
• Rich in CBD (at least 15%)
• Organically grown

The hemp flower you choose should come shipped with a tangible, physical copy of its associated lab tests, and it should become packaged in a vacuum-sealed, completely airtight container. Buy at least a pound at a time to really save some money—we’ll get to just how much money you can save with the DIY method soon. (hint: it’s a lot.).   

Order one pound of premium, organic hemp flower. Cost: $200-300. 

Step #2: Procure A Solvent

Once you’ve got your hemp flower, you’ll need something to extract it with. You’ll need something called a solvent. 

Most large CBD companies use CO2 as their solvent of choice, but you can do one better and opt for either ethanol or food-grade cane alcohol. Look for a solvent that’s food-grade and organic. While you won’t be outright eating the solvent you select, you will be ingesting small quantities of it, so better safe than sorry. 

Side note: “tincture” and “oil” are used interchangeably these days, but the presence of ethanol in this formula makes it an actual CBD tincture. 

Order 1/2 gallon of food-grade ethanol. Cost: $40.

Step #3: Extract Your Hemp

Now comes the fun part. It’s time to extract your hemp. If that sounds complex, have no fear—the solvent you just obtained will do all the work for you. 

All you need to do is place an ounce of your hemp into a large glass jar, fill the rest of the jar with ethanol, and place the sealed mixture into a 200-degree F water bath for around two hours. 

During those two hours, some magic happens, and your hemp’s CBDa content will have dissolved into its solvent and converted (mostly) to CBD. Carefully take your jar out of its water bath, let it cool, and then strain out the hemp flower by pouring the mix through a fine-mesh filter. You’ll be left with a super-concentrated, full-spectrum hemp extract.

Extract your hemp. Time: 2 hours. 

Step #4: Dilute Your Extract

Your extract will be so concentrated that you should probably dilute things a little. And to do that, a little rough math is required: 

1 ounce hemp flower = 28 grams

28 grams @ 15% CBD = ~ 4 grams CBD

4 grams CBD = 4,000mg CBD

And 4,000mg of CBD is enough for four, 1,000mg CBD tinctures. So pour roughly 1/4 of your concentrated hemp extract into four separate one-ounce tincture bottles. 

Next, fill up the remainder of each bottle with a carrier oil of your choice; we like MCT oil for its pro-metabolic effects or hempseed oil for its antioxidants.

Pour your extract into four separate one-ounce tincture bottles, then dilute it. Cost: $4 ($1 per bottle). 

Step #5: Partake & Enjoy

Once your CBD tincture is bottled, there’s only one step left: enjoy it. It’ll likely be more potent and fuller-spectrum than most stuff available on the retail market since ethanol is a more versatile solvent than most retail brands use. Plus, you’ll have the satisfaction of knowing where everything came from and having done everything yourself. 

Oh, and then there’s the massive price savings. 

An ounce of your hemp flower can make four 1,000mg CBD tinctures, so the entire pound you purchased could make 16 batches—enough for 64 separate 1,000mg, full-spectrum tinctures.   

Your costs? Let’s tally it up:

Hemp flower: $200-300

Solvent: $40

Bottles: $64

Carrier oil: $20

Total: $324-424

Cost per bottle: $5.06-6.63

Five or six bucks for a 1,000mg tincture? That’s a win in our book, especially if you’re going to be needing large amounts of CBD in the long run.