The mechanics of pressing rosin are straightforward. With the application of heat and pressure, solventless extractors release the oils contained within cannabis to create a pure and potent form of concentrate known as rosin. Although the overall approach to pressing rosin is simple, many variables exist in the actual process, any of which can have a direct impact on the quantity and quality of your rosin yield.  

Over time and with experience, extractors gain a better understanding of how to control variables such as time, temperature, and pressure when pressing rosin. Improvement requires experimentation and learning from past performance. By measuring, tracking, and assessing data from every press, you can accelerate your learnings and quickly advance to higher levels of extraction expertise.  

Taking notes during extraction lets you collect valuable data, which is helpful to benchmark the outcome of every press and give you track records to refer back to later. The only thing it requires is a system of organization and a commitment to document every press.  

How should you organize your notes?

There’s no right answer, it comes down to a matter of personal preference. The easiest approach for many is a pen and a notebook. Document each press and as time passes you’ll be able to flip back through the pages and refer to previous extractions as reference points.  

You can also use a note taking app on your cell phone. Digitizing your notes has advantages such as easy access to them anytime and anywhere, and convenient search features in case you want to refer back to specific things (e.g. a certain strain, micron, temperature, etc.) 

If you want to be ultra-organized, you can create an excel spreadsheet and keep the data there. This is useful not only for organization, but for analysis and comparison of different variables being tracked.     

Source Material

• Flower, Kief or Sift, or Bubble
• If Bubble, list the microns and whether it was made with fresh frozen or dried and cured buds
  
• Age of starting material
  
• Humidity of starting material
  
• Total weight of material being pressed
  
• Any unique notes on the overall quality of the starting material 

Cultivar

Press Time 

• Total time the source material is under pressure. Remember to slowly and gradually increase pressure for the duration of the press, until maximum pressure is reached

• Note the maximum pressure that was applied to source material during extraction. Know how to calculate platen PSI? Learn how in our article here.
  

• Total weight extracted (in grams)  
• Yield percentage (rosin weight divided by starting material weight)
  
• Rosin texture immediately after extraction e.g. shatter, budder, etc.

Curing

• Warm Cure or Cold Cure
  
• Terpene separation, recombining, stirring/whipping
  
• Length of time curing
  
• Final consistency 

The above outline for notes is comprehensive, but you can pick and choose the data that’s most useful to you in order to keep things simpler. Complexity is the enemy of execution, so keeping it simple is a good default approach.  

By keeping good notes you’ll be able to refer back to your previous extractions and track your progress over time. You can gain some real gold nuggets of insights by reading through your notes from previous squishes.  

Assess what is working and what isn’t, but also try to find out why. Keep an open mind and be willing to make mistakes and undoubtedly you’ll become better over time. 

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

Why is it important to take notes when making rosin?
Especially when you're starting out, it's important to take notes after every press so you can learn from your experience. Taking notes lets you go back to reference past presses, start to see patterns, and recognize what is working and what isn't. Notes help you stay organized and accelerate your progress. 

What variables should you note when pressing rosin?
Cannabis cultivar, preheat, time, temperature, pressure, and yield are examples of the variables you can note with every press. 

What should you use to take notes when pressing rosin?
The trusty pencil and notebook is a great way to take notes. Especially since your fingers often get sticky when handling cannabis, and you don't want to smear cannabis resin on your phone for taking notes. 

How often should you review your notes from pressing rosin?
You can reference previous presses as needed, or just read back through your records every week or so to check for patterns and gauge progress. 

What if you don't take notes when pressing rosin?
If you're new to pressing rosin and you're not taking notes, it may take you longer to notice patterns and areas for improvement.