After you trim your cannabis buds, there are a few different ways to store the trim if you intend to make cannabutter or edibles with it later on. The optimal storage method will depend on whether the trim is wet (live) or dry to begin with and how long you intend to store the trim.
If you have the equipment and the space, the best way to use your trim is ultimately to freeze it when fresh and process it into live extracts and concentrates, which you can then infuse into butter, oil, or sugar to make live resin and rosin edibles. Professional processing tools—including The Original Resinator, a scientific freeze dryer, and a professional rosin press—enable you to make live extracts easily, with stellar results.
The Number One Best Way to Process and Store Trim for Edibles
Want to make top-shelf edibles with your trim? Here’s our winning formula, using our proprietary kief/dry sift tumbler—The Original Resinator—and a scientific freeze dryer (both of which are included in our live rosin bundle):
Freeze your cannabis buds immediately after harvest.
If keeping the buds for smokable flower, first trim the buds with CO2 at low temperatures with the Cryo-Trim® process using The Original Resinator, then Cryo-Sieve® the live whole-bodied trim.
Freeze dry your buds in a commercial or scientific freeze dryer.
If you’re not keeping the buds and are rather processing your whole fresh-frozen buds into extracts, then skip steps 2-3 and use the Cryo-Sieve® process with The Original Resinator on the frozen/live buds.
Maintain the cold chain and freeze the live sift to process it into live extracts such as live bubble hash, or blast it into live resin.
In solventless use cases, freeze dry the live sift or live bubble hash, and in the case of hydrocarbon, purge the live resin under a vacuum.
Store your live extracts in the freezer in jars or airtight storage containers.
There are several reasons why this is the best method:
Maintaining the cold chain from harvest to extraction preserves terpenes and cannabinoids (promoting full spectrum extracts) and prevents mold growth.
Trimming your buds at cold temperatures gives you full-bodied trim with all of the trichome heads intact and no streaks of chlorophyll or plant particulates.
Making live extracts with the trim locks in the full flavor and cannabinoid profile of your material and removes any potential green or chlorophyll taste.
Freezing your live extracts helps them to maintain their potency until you’re ready to process them into edibles.
Alternative Ways to Store Trim for Cannabutter and Edibles
We’ve described our ideal workflow for storing trim for edibles, including cannabutter. However, there are a few other ways you can store trim and its derivatives for making cannabutter and edibles—either for commercial or personal use.
Storing Trim for Commercial-Grade Cannabutter
If you’re making edibles commercially (which is a great use for wet trim), you have very little room for error. When storing trim, it’s important to store it with the same amount of care that you would use for storing buds.
If the trim is dry:
Store it in an airtight container.
Keep it somewhere cool, dark, and dry.
Monitor the trim for mold growth, as mold can be dangerous when ingested.
If the trim is wet:
Freeze it in turkey bags when fresh.
Use it to make live bubble hash, live dry sift, or live resin.
Press the live solventless extracts into rosin.
Store the live rosin/resin in the freezer or fridge.
Cannabutter for Personal Use
Hobbyists and home extractors won’t typically invest in industrial-grade equipment like a bladeless Cryo-Trimmer or a commercial freeze dryer. However, following sensible storage guidelines will help you make cannabutter that’s potent and doesn’t taste like grass.
These are a few suggestions from weed enthusiasts on the web:
Leave wet trim to dry in a shoebox for a few days or to the point that it breaks when you bend it. Trim will dry faster than buds but you should still aim for the same drying conditions that you’d use for buds to prevent mold growth.
Store dried trim in turkey bags or storage bins in a cool, dark, and dry place.
Freeze wet or dry trim in turkey bags to preserve the terpenes and cannabinoids until you’re ready to process it further.
Smaller, more affordable freeze dryers and equipment are available for small-batch, craft, and boutique processors, and hobbyists who are interested in making top-quality live extracts.
Additional Tips for Making Edibles from Marijuana Trim
Keep records of each strain and its potency when you store the trim. According to Cannabis Training University, cannabutter made with sugar leaves (at a ratio of 8 ounces of oil to 1 ounce of trim) contains around 4.25 mg of THC per gram, depending on the strain.
Use fresh trim (max one or two weeks old) rather than old trim, if possible.
Cook the cannabis in the butter or oil at around 230 °F to 250 °F for 20 to 30 minutes (up to three times) to decarboxylate the acidic cannabinoids THCA and CBDA. This process converts these “raw” cannabinoids into their (psycho)active forms: THC and CBD.
Infuse your trim into coconut oil or MCT oil for dairy-free cooking, and into sugar for use in butter-free treats.
Save your best trim (especially fresh-frozen live trim) for making bubble hash or live sift.
Edibles Made with Live Extracts Fetch the Highest Prices in Dispensaries
While cannabutter is a popular use for trim—both for commercial and personal use—you can get the best value from your trim by using it to create live solventless or hydrocarbon extracts, which you can then test for potency and infuse into edibles.
To create connoisseur-grade edibles SKUs, follow our recommended process: freeze your cannabis buds soon after harvest, Cryo-Sieve® with The Original Resinator, and maintain the cold chain to make live extracts (live bubble hash and live dry sift, and then live rosin and even live resin) with the trim. From our experience, this is truly the best way to maximize your return and turn your trim into gold.
