The Ultimate Solventless Rosin Pressing Resource
How To Microplane Bubble Hash for Air Drying
Microplaning bubble hash is a way to break apart fresh, wet bubble hash for drying after Ice Water Extraction. Hash that’s just pulled from bubble wash bags is soaking wet, and in order to air dry properly, it needs to be prepared accordingly. Wet hash sticks together in globulous patties. Even if it’s spread into a thin, uniform layer to air dry, it will still trap moisture within. Moisture locked inside can’t evaporate by itself in the open air, and this invites mold growth before the hash gets a chance to fully dry.
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What Is Food Grade Bubble Hash?
Bubble Hash, or Ice Water Hash as it’s also known, is a type of solventless cannabis concentrate known for its purity and potency. Bubble hash is made through a process called Ice Water Extraction, a method utilizing only ice, water, and cannabis material to extract trichomes from cannabis. Extractors sieve the ice water and cannabis mixture through a series of mesh filters, called Bubble Wash Bags, in order to isolate and collect cannabis trichomes. These trichomes, also collectively referred to as “resin”, are the main object of interest
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Ice Water Bubble Hash vs. Dry Sift: Which Is Better?
Ice Water Hash and Dry Sift are forms of solventless cannabis concentrates, or extracts made without any chemical solvents such as CO2, Alcohol, or Butane. The goal of extracts is to isolate the most powerfully therapeutic compounds of the cannabis plant. These natural compounds, most notably cannabinoids and terpenes, deliver the highly sought-after benefits that cannabis has to offer like pain reduction, sleep enhancement, and stress relief. While these compounds exist throughout the plant, they’re produced in the highest concentrations within trichome heads
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Buchner Funnel Tech for Drying Bubble Hash
We are fortunate to host Tyler Markwart in our lab today to talk about his experience developing and using the Buchner Funnel Tech for air drying bubble hash. Tyler is a cannabis activist, farmer, hash maker, syndicated journalist, and consultant with over 25 years of experience. It's an honor to have him here with us.
No budget for a freeze dryer? No problem.
Let's start with a note from Tyler about how he came upon the use of this technology for drying bubble hash.
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Why Is Micron Accuracy Important for Solventless Extractions?
Bubble wash bags, rosin filter bags, and dry sifting screens are various types of filters that allow extractors to mechanically separate pure, unblemished cannabis resin from the cannabis plant. It’s thanks to these nylon filters that we can collect high purity cannabis concentrates without the use of solvents.
Solventless cannabis extracts exist in a variety of premium forms, including bubble hash, rosin, and dry sift. Thanks to quality bubble wash bags, rosin filter bags, and dry sifting screens
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Average Bubble Hash Yields from Ice Water Extraction
When it comes to hash yield as a percentage of total weight of your starting material, there is a significant difference between dry material and fresh frozen material. The amount of moisture in fresh frozen is much higher than the moisture in dried cannabis, which accounts for the variation in yield percentages between the two types of starting material.
For Dried, Air-Cured Cannabis, 15-20% yield is a good target. For fresh frozen, look for 3-8%. The rule of thumb for calculating wet (fresh frozen) weight to dry (air cured) weight is 5:1. So if you get 4% wet, that’s equivalent to 20% dry.
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Equipment for Preparing Fresh Frozen Cannabis
The main benefit of using fresh frozen cannabis in the production of solventless hash is preservation. Specifically, preservation of the profuse amount of terpenes and flavonoids that exist in the cannabis plant while it’s alive. Harvested plants quickly deteriorate, and these valuable terpenes are lost as the plant’s metabolism halts and compounds within the trichomes begin to oxidize and degrade. Air drying can lead to around 40% loss of terpene content.
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How Long Should You Dry Bubble Hash?
Solventless extractors create bubble hash through a process called Ice Water Extraction, in which we mix cannabis flowers together with ice water in order to separate the small appendages called trichomes away from the plant material. These trichomes (and specifically the heads) contain all the therapeutic compounds that cannabis is known for, and they’re the main ingredients of bubble hash. The purest hash is composed almost exclusively of these trichome heads, with only trace amounts of other plant material.
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How To Wash Fresh Frozen Cannabis for Bubble Hash Guide
Fresh frozen cannabis refers to cannabis flowers and trim leaves that are frozen to subzero temperatures immediately after harvest. Extractors use fresh frozen cannabis as starting material in the production of bubble hash. This process is called Ice Water Extraction, which involves mixing cannabis together with ice water using either a hand paddle or a washing machine. This mixing together of ice water and cannabis causes cannabis trichomes to fall away from the material and float freely in an ice water and cannabis slurry.
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Can You Wash Trim Leaves for Bubble Hash?
As the cannabis concentrates market continues to place increasing value on solventless extracts like bubble hash and rosin, it’s not uncommon for growers to commit entire harvests to bubble hash production. All the flowers from the plant are used as starting material for Ice Water Extraction.
Full melt bubble hash, the highest grade of hash that’s rated as 6-star, is a fantastic product to dab and normally doesn’t stray too far away from the circles of extractors who produce it. 3-4 star bubble hash
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How To Air Dry Bubble Hash
Drying is an essential phase in the creation of high quality bubble hash. Bubble hash is made through a process called ice water extraction, in which extractors mix cannabis and ice water together causing trichomes to fall away from the cannabis material. Extractors then filter these trichomes through a series of screens known as bubble wash bags, in order to separate the full trichome heads from the starting material.
The main determination of the quality of bubble hash is the overall quality of the cannabis starting material.
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Work Cube vs. No Work Cube for Washing Bubble Hash
A work cube is a type of work bag used for washing bubble hash. Work bags are made with 220 micron nylon filters and hold the cannabis material while it's mixed with ice water. Although work bags are traditionally in the same open bucket-like shape as the other wash bags in the set, work cubes are made with 90 degree edges and are closable with a zipper around the top. Work cubes are also constructed using only 220 micron mesh, so the entire container acts as a filter allowing trichomes to pass through, while the bulk of the cannabis material remains inside.
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How To Smoke Bubble Hash
Bubble hash is one of the most spectacular forms of cannabis and possibly the most coveted type of solventless extract. Bubble hash can be used to make edibles, pressed into rosin, or consumed by itself. It’s rare to find true 6-star bubble hash in dispensaries, because the best of the best doesn’t normally stray too far from the extractors who are skilled enough to produce it!
While a 1 or 2-star hash is great for edibles, and a 3 or 4-star hash is good for pressing rosin, the premium product is normally smoked in its unmodified form.
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What Is Full Spectrum Bubble Hash and Why Does it Matter?
Full spectrum refers to the array of cannabinoids, terpenes, and flavonoids present in a cannabis extract. Solventless methods like ice water extraction, which is used to make bubble hash, and pressing rosin capture all of the active ingredients within the cannabis resin. What you get is the full experience of the plant, the full spectrum of what it has to offer.
More broadly, full spectrum can refer to cannabis products that contain all the therapeutic compounds produced by the source plant.
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How To Use a Wine Cooler To Dry Bubble Hash
A wine cooler, or wine chiller, is an appliance designed to generate and maintain the ideal environment for storing bottles of wine. It turns out that these specialized refrigerators are also useful for hash makers to dry bubble hash. But how is a wine fridge different from regular refrigerators, and what makes them useful for drying bubble hash?
Many wine coolers look like mini refrigerators with a glass door, but they are built with features that differ from traditional refrigerators.
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Top 5 Bubble Hash Drying Tips
Ice water extraction is the ideal method used to create high quality bubble hash. While other methods like dry sifting can produce excellent solventless concentrates, ice water offers extractors greater control over isolating trichomes and removing plant contaminants. But after extraction is complete a lot of water still remains, leaving a totally saturated patty of cannabis trichomes. Not only is the hash unusable in this state, but it’s vulnerable to microbial growth like mold.
Just like fruits and other foods, bubble hash can invite microbial growth if there’s sufficient moisture present.
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Do I Need To Freeze Fresh or Cured Material Before Washing?
We know that cold temperatures are a necessity for producing high quality bubble hash with the ice water extraction method. Cold temperatures make trichomes on the cannabis material brittle enough to fall away from their stalks, while also minimizing terpene loss and helping to keep resin contained within the trichomes. But do we have to actually freeze cannabis material before beginning the process of washing hash?
First, let’s look at the different preparations possible for cannabis material used for washing bubble hash.
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Aging Bubble Hash Temple Balls 101
There’s much more to aging bubble hash than simply the passage of time. Without proper preparations and a controlled environment, hash is just getting older in long term storage, not really aging like a fine wine, tobacco, or cheese. There isn’t yet much scientific research that gives us a clear understanding of the chemistry behind the magic of aging bubble hash, but we still have data. That data comes from human experience, passed down through the traditions developed over thousands of years in hash producing regions of the world.
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How To Pre Soak Fresh or Cured Material Before Washing for Ice Water Extraction
For thousands of years hash producers have been extracting resin-filled trichomes from cannabis flowers, creating a pure and potent concentrate that captures the most desirable qualities of the plant. The first hash was collected directly by hand from mature flowers, creating a smear of resin by rubbing open palms across the plants. The hash was then peeled away and rolled into balls, called charas.
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What Is the Difference Between Microplaning and Sieving for Air Drying Bubble Hash?
Drying your freshly made bubble hash is the final step of the ice water extraction method of solventless extraction, and it’s a make or break process. Get it right and you’ll have an evenly-dried batch of bubble that’s ready for rosin production or enjoyment just as it is. Get it wrong and you can invite microbial growth and end up with a mildew-riddled product that’s only good for the trash bin. Drying is critical, but it can also be a bit tricky if you’re not familiar with the methods.
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How To Change the Drainage Hose in a Bubble Hash Washing Machine
Compact washing machines like the kind sold for cleaning mini loads of laundry make the perfect mixers for ice water hash extraction. Their 5-gallon capacity is just the right size for mixing together several ounces of cannabis material and ice water, and their portability and simplicity of use makes them one of the most popular appliances to easily repurpose for bubble hash production. With a few ounces of good cannabis, clean water, ice, a washing machine, and a set of quality bubble wash bags
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