Marijuana Extracts: Kiff

How To Make Kiff Or Hash Butter

Kiff (also spelled kif, kief, kef, keef) is a potent cannabis extract most commonly produced by agitating marijuana over some type of screen or filter system. An herb grinder with a screen at the bottom is an example.

Kiff is utilized for spiritual, recreational, and other purposes. In addition, when consumed in kiff butter and other similar ways like mixing it with cooking oil and adding to a recipe, it is very effective medicine for treating pain.

In comparison with marijuana butter, most people find kiff butter is more stimulating physically, more potent mentally, and a better analgesic.

Being more physically stimulating makes it very good for getting high and partying, or doing something physical. It is also very good for pain medication when taken in order to work or preform some type of physical task.

Hashish also called hash can be produced by pressing kiff together into a solid cohesive mass. You can substitute a similar amount of hashish for kiff in the instructions that follow.

You will need to crumple the hash into fairly small pieces so they can fully liquify when heated and uniformly blend into the butter for consistent potency.

Try to crumple hash into pieces that are roughly the size of grains of sand, or slightly larger, in order to assist in fully dissolving into the butter.

Making The Butter

Step By Step

List Of Materials

Dose Size

Hash Oil Butter

Making The Butter

Kiff that is going to be made into kiff butter requires a shorter period of time to be decarboxylated when compared to marijuana that is going to be made into marijuana butter.

With this one step method the entire procedure can be finished in 45 minutes total, or less. Preparation and clean-up not included.

The resulting butter is appealing in smell and taste, with similarities to the smell of butterscotch or caramel. It will enhance the flavor of some foods, especially sweets like brownies and cookies.

A double boiler is used to heat the kiff and butter. It is simply a set of 2 pots where one pot fits snugly into another pot.

The pot on the bottom is filled with water and heated, the pot on top sits in the heated water.

Fill bottom section of the double boiler with water and heat until the water starts to boil, not too hot about 215-230°F/102-110°C, a gentle boil is fine. Top up with water to keep the bottom section from drying out, if it becomes necessary.

Butter can start to burn at temperatures as low as 250°F/121°C. A thermometer that will provide accurate measurements to ensure you don't ruin the butter by burning it, is optional.

A candy or candy/jelly/deep fry thermometer works good but any thermometer you can get an accurate reading with is fine.

After the water has started to boil, put the butter into the upper section of the double boiler. When it has fully melted, add the kiff. At this time, it's optional to add 1/4 teaspoon lecithin granules.

Mix the butter and kiff with a spoon until all the kiff is well mixed with butter. Put a lid on the butter and kiff mixture.

No need to continuously stir the butter and kiff, you can but because of the low temperature of the double boiler, stirring once every 3-5 minutes or so is fine. Keep heating for about 30 minutes, with the lid on the pot.

After 30 minutes, take the double boiler off the burner and set the temperature to very low heat. The heat has to be very low because you are going to put the pot with the butter directly on the burner for decarboxylation.

As soon as the already hot kiff butter comes into contact with the burner, a bubbly froth will start to form quickly on the top, this is decarboxylation at a fast rate.

This part of the process will take under 10 minutes, don't over-heat the butter, very low heat only. As long as the butter and kiff are on the burner, you have to keep stirring it.

Stir all the time, if you have to stop stirring, remove from the burner immediately.

Depending on what you will do with the kiff butter, you should take the butter off the burner either when the formation of bubbles is at its peak, when it starts to slow down, or when it stops.

If you are going to put the kiff butter in a recipe that will be heated for an hour or longer, take the pot off the heat when bubble formation has just started to reach its peak.

If you are going to put the kiff butter in a recipe that will be heated for less than an hour, take the pot off the heat when peak bubble formation slows down.

If you are going to put the kiff butter in a recipe that will not be heated, take the pot off the heat when bubble formation slows down considerably or has stopped.

The reason for varying the cooking time and taking the butter off the burner either when the formation of bubbles is at its peak, when it starts to slow down, or when it stops, is to prevent too much heating.

If the kiff butter is going to be heated again in a recipe, the extra heating it undergoes will finish the decarboxylation process.

After the kiff butter has been decarboxylated, further heating will just degrade cannabinoids like THC. This will result in less potent kiff butter. Try varying the heating time if this is something that will be done more than once.

The batch of kiff butter that these images were taken from took about 4 minutes to reach a point of peak bubble formation, at 8 minutes bubble formation started to slow down.

The butter pictured was removed from the burner after 8 minutes, and later added to a cookie recipe that was heated for 10-12 minutes.

After you take the butter off the burner (optional add another 1/4 teaspoon lecithin granules) you can prepare a recipe right away, or place the kiff butter mixture in the fridge. The butter is now ready to use in any recipe that calls for butter as an ingredient.

Try to use the kiff butter in a recipe and consume relatively quickly for maximum potency. Food made with kiff butter can be stored in the fridge or freezer for weeks or months but will weaken over time. It is best consumed within a week or two, but it can be stored for longer.

Make a small batch, 3.5 grams or less of kiff total, and start with a small dose you first time, 1/4 gram or less. It can take an hour or two to work, so you might be tempted to take more if you don't feel much. Don't overdue it, doses of 1/2 gram up can last for six hours or longer.

Step By Step

A) Heat double boiler to 215-230°F/102-110°C.

B) When heated, put butter and kiff in.

C) Optional, add 1/4 teaspoon lecithin granules.

D) Heat the butter and kiff for 30 minutes, with the double boiler lid on.

E) Take double boiler off burner, set burner to low.

F) Put pot with kiff butter directly on the burner.

G) When decarboxylation is complete, take pot off burner, turn burner off.

H) Optional, add 1/4 teaspoon lecithin granules and stir them into the butter.

I) Prepare into a recipe or store in fridge.

List Of Materials

kiff

stove

butter

spoon

double boiler

optional lecithin granules

optional candy thermometer

*** kiff: An amount of kiff you want to make into kiff butter.

*** stove: A stove is needed to heat the butter and kiff.

*** butter: It doesn't matter if the butter is salted or unsalted both will work, choose what you prefer. The amount depends on the recipe the kiff butter will be prepared into. If the recipe calls for 2 sticks of butter of butter, you would use 2 sticks.

*** spoon: A metallic spoon is preferred over plastic or wood. Some types of plastic can release nasty chemicals when heated. Wood spoons can absorb the butter and be permanently stained, although they won't release harmful chemicals into the butter.

*** double boiler: A double boiler is simply a set of 2 pots where one pot fits snugly into another pot. The pot on the bottom is filled with water and heated, the pot on top sits in the heated water.

The heated water will cause the second pot on top to heat up, and a lid will help retain more heat. This is done because butter burns at a low temperature and heating the butter directly on a burner for an extended period of time can easily ruin the butter.

A double boiler can easily be made with the kitchen pots you have, as long as there is one that can fit into another. If not, a double boiler can be purchased for a reasonable price.

*** optional lecithin granules: Some people add 1/4 teaspoon of lecithin granules when the butter/kiff is being heated and another 1/4 teaspoon just after being removed from the heat source. This is done to help the absorption process.

Try to get lecithin granules because they are easier to work with when compared to liquid lecithin. This step is optional but recommended. It will not alter the taste and can improve the potency of the butter.

*** optional candy thermometer: A candy thermometer can be put in the butter to check the temperature. Other types of cooking thermometers can do a good job.

Kiff Butter Dose Size

To determine the dose size of the kiff butter, divide the total amount of kiff, in grams, by the number of portions produced. This will give you an accurate idea of how much you are consuming.

If 3.5 grams of kiff were used to make kiff butter which was made into brownies that were divided into 20 equal portions (3.5 grams divided by 20 portions), each portion would contain 0.175 grams, a bit over 1/6 gram, of kiff.

If 7 grams of kiff were used to make kiff butter which was made into 28 cookies (7 grams divided by 28 portions), each cookie would contain 0.25 grams, about 1/4 gram, of kiff.

The amount of butter to start with will depend on the recipe that the kiff butter will be added to. In the example above, the kiff butter was made into chocolate chip cookies.

The chocolate chip cookie recipe required one stick of butter, so one stick of butter was made into kiff butter. 3.5 grams of kiff produced 22 chocolate chip cookies, each cookie contained 0.16 grams, a little less than 1/6 gram, of kiff.

If you are making a brownie recipe that needs 2 sticks of butter then you would substitute 2 sticks of butter, and follow the directions described above to make the kiff butter.

When prepared correctly with good kiff, 1/8 gram dose is mild but noticeable for 2-4 hours. 1/4 to 1/2 gram is a medium sized dose that will last 4-6 hours. Most people that smoke marijuana on a regular basis will find a 1/4 to 1/2 gram dose about right.

Doses that are larger than 1/2 gram will be very strong and may last 6 hours or more. Even people who smoke marijuana daily may find that doses larger than 1/2 gram get them too high, or make them fall asleep.

For recreational and spiritual purposes, most people will prefer kiff butter over marijuana butter. It is a much stronger clear headed high that is more physically stimulating (at low dose levels), good for partying. Although for some spiritual practices more sedating marijuana butter might be a better choice.

Hash Oil Butter

Making hash oil butter is essentially the same as making kiff or hash butter (instructions above), except you use hash oil instead. Follow the directions above and where it calls for kiff, substitute hash oil.

When prepared correctly, the recommended starting dose size is 1/10 to 1/5 of a gram of hash oil. Don't overdo it until you know how you respond. It doesn't take much to get really messed up. You might want to only try 1/20 gram your first time.

Mix the hash oil butter into a recipe that requires butter and take on an empty stomach, so the effects will start more quickly than they would on a full belly. Even on an empty stomach, it will usually take 90-120 minutes to work fully.

If you make hash oil yourself, you can save a bit of time making hash oil butter by decarboxylating the marijuana prior to producing the hash oil. That way you don't have to decarboxylate again. Just mix the hash oil with some butter, then add to a recipe.

What you are doing by following the instructions above is combining cannabis with a carrier (in this case butter) so it is uniformly distributed, as well as decarboxylating the cannabis. This ensures uniform dose sizes and maximum absorption by the body.

Potency will depend on the quality of the hash oil you start with. If you have to buy it and there is any possibility, try to get medical grade. Better still make it yourself, if you have access to worthwhile quantities of marijuana.

Related Books

Beyond Buds: Marijuana Extracts

A very thorough guide on making various kinds of cannabis concentrates. Includes information on selecting and collecting material, how to make hashish, vaporizers, how to make hash oil, tinctures, capsules, edibles, topical use, and more.

Beyond Buds: Marijuana Extracts