How To Press Bottle Tech
Todde Philips
🇺🇸 Retired veteran, father, rock-climbing expert & rosin connoisseur
Why use Bottle Tech to Press Rosin? If you’re pressing flower, especially if you work with the same cultivars on a regular basis, Bottle Tech allows you to more accurately dial-in your pressure application for repeatable and predictable results.
Although Bottle Tech is effective for pressing flower, it isn’t as advantageous for pressing kief, sift, or hash. For these materials, the traditional flat rectangle-style press is still the way to go.
How Does Bottle Tech Improve Extraction?
When cannabis flower is squished during extraction it expands outward and gradually increases its surface area as greater amounts of pressure are applied. As such, the perimeter of the rosin bag expands to accommodate the material and subsequently decreases the amount of actual pressure on the material.
For more clarity on bag pressure, or PSI, see our article How To Calculate Platen PSI.
The vertical and cylindrical orientation of source material in the Bottle Tech minimizes this surface area expansion for truer and more precise pressure control. With this level of control comes more consistent results.
The Advantages of Bottle Tech
Controlling the variables of time, temperature, and pressure are essential when pressing rosin. The primary advantage of Bottle Tech is that it gives us better control of the amount of pressure being exerted onto the source material. But there are other advantages to Bottle Tech too.
Bottle Tech takes up less space on the plates, which means you can press multiple bags of material at the same time. 2-3 bags at a time is common, and if you arrange them with enough spacing to facilitate unobstructed rosin flow then you’re good to go.
Another advantage is that the “bottle” shape of the material gives rosin a shorter escape route from the material than the flat, rectangular pancake design. Bottle Tech let’s rosin from the center of the material flow quickly through the screen and away from the heat.
How To Bottle Tech
As always, we want to make sure the seams of our rosin bags are on the inside, so flip them if needed. Assuming you have The Press Club’s pre-flipped bags, you can skip this step.
There’s one key technique to preparing the rosin bags for Bottle Tech that you can’t ignore, and it involves the bottom corners of the bag. It’s the move that allows us to pack the source material into the shape of a bottle, with a circular top and bottom.
Using a chopstick or similar pointed tool, poke the bottom corners of the rosin bag inward to the middle of the bag, one corner at a time. When finished, the bottom of the bag should represent a “V” shape on the outside and the two inverted corners should overlap each other on the inside.
Next, evenly and firmly fill in the bottom of the bag with the first few pieces of flower, which are building the foundation of the rest of the bag. As you’re putting in the initial nugs, make sure the corners remain inside the bag and locked into place. This will create a circular bottom.
Continue to fill the rest of the bag as you normally do, packing firmly to eliminate air pockets between the pieces of flower. 3.5 grams of flower in The Press Club’s 2x4inch bags is an ideal amount of material for Bottle Tech.
Clip away extra filter material at the opening of the bag, leaving just .5 inches of material to work with. With the excess material, make four separate folds inward, similar to how you would wrap a gift. These four folds around the circular top seal the bag and lock in the source material.
Pre-press the material with a pollen press. When you remove the bag from the pre-press mold, notice how the bag is being folded inward to itself like an accordion, instead of expanding outward like a pancake.
Load the bag vertically between the rosin plates. Keep in mind that taller your pack is, the less even the heat and the less even the melt. This is why pressing 3.5 grams of flower at a time in 2x4in bags is a good amount.
Don’t forget to pre-heat the material for 30 seconds, then begin to gradually apply pressure.
After the extraction is complete you’ll see a round puck inside the parchment, a good visual indicator of the effectiveness of the Bottle Tech method at reducing the total surface area of your material.
Conclusion
Not only does Bottle tech reduce outward expansion and total surface area of the rosin bag, thus minimizing fluctuations in bag PSI, there are other benefits to this method as well. It doesn’t require any additional equipment, and the approach is elegant in its simplicity. Give it a try and you may never press rectangles again!
Also check out the article The Difference between Pillow Tech, Bottle Tech, and Chottle Tech.
Bonus Tip
You can use rolls of filter tubes to Bottle Tech, just clip the material to the desired length and fold both open ends into themselves as described above. Place a tiny dab of rosin in the middle to hold all the folds together and you’re all set!
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
What is a pollen press?
A pollen press is a cylindrical rosin pre press that functions the same way as the traditional, rectangular pre press molds, except it produces round pucks of cannabis material. Pollen presses are the perfect pre press mold for pressing rosin using the Bottle Tech Method.
Is a pollen press better than regular pre press mold?
A pollen press, or circular pre press is not better than the traditional rectangular pre press, it just depends on the method you're using to press. With Bottle Tech (pressing with rosin bag oriented vertically), a pollen press is better. For hash and traditional pressing methods (bags laying flat), then a rectangular pre press is best. The pre press should match the shape and size of the rosin bag.
What type of pre press should I get?
The shape and dimensions of the rosin bags you use for rosin extraction will determine the most effective type of pre press. Choose rectangular pre press molds for rectangular rosin bags, and round pre presses, also known as Pollen Presses, if you're using Bottle or Chottle Tech Method. Learn more about pressing with Bottle Tech here.
What are filter tubes?
Filter tubes are the perfect type of rosin bag for pressing Bottle Tech. It's one single roll of filter material that you can cut to size for every squish. This is an ideal set up for pressing with the bag positioned vertically between the plates.
Can you press hash with Bottle Tech?
Pressing with the rosin bag laid flat is better for hash than pressing Bottle Tech for hash.
2 comments
Just to add the the last comment. When I try folding it like a present it opens up as soon as I would release and the bud touches the top metal sheet. I had .5 inches left over and I do not want to keep more material as I believe it would be too much.
Respectfully, this article is pointless without a video. You seem knowledgeable but this article raises too many questions for a beginner. For example you stated you close/fold the open side of the rosin bag like a present but I did that and it opens right up. A video would give a clear explanation on how to do this and would be greatly appreciated.