Instant Pot Cannabis Decarb – For THC, CBG, and CBD

There are a lot of YouTube videos on using your Instant Pot pressure cooker to decarb cannabis.  Because it uses pressure, the Instant Pot can reach temperatures of 245 degrees Fahrenheit before water boils.  It maintains this temperature evenly during the period it is pressure cooking.  Some bright cannabis fans discovered that you can pop your weed into a mason jar, screw the lid “finger-tight,” add 2 cups of water, and cook it for 40 minutes.  This heating (or decarboxylation) converts the non-psychoactive THCA to the psychoactive delta 9 THC.   While this process works for THC (and also for CBG) it does not produce enough heat to decarb CBD.

Toasted Blonde has one of the more entertaining videos showing how the Instant Pot decarb works for THC.

What about converting CBDA to CBD?  Cannabidiol (CBD) requires either higher temperatures or longer decarb times.  The makers of the Ardent Nova decarboxylator recommend running the decarb cycle twice if you are decarbing CBD hemp flower instead of THC marijuana.  The same principle works for the Instant Pot.  You decarb the hemp flower for 80 minutes instead of 40 minutes. (Ardent just announced a new version with different cycles for THC and CBD – and they recommend using the THC cycle if you are decarbing CBG-dominant cannabis.)

If you are using the Instant Pot to infuse CBD oil you can decarb for 40 minutes, wait for the flower to cool, add MCT oil to the mason jar, and run the Instant Pot for an additional 40 minutes.  By the end of the process you will have a home-made CBD oil that will need to be filtered through a coffee filter or a commercial filter.  It will probably taste more herbal and possibly more smoky than the CBD oil/tincture you buy.

Decarbing cannabis on a baking sheet in the oven can be a smelly process no matter how many smell barriers you erect.  The Instant Pot method only smells a little bit.  That’s another major advantage.  If you have an Instant Pot then you should really try this method.