The Ultimate Solventless Rosin Pressing Resource
Gravity Drainage vs Hash Pump for Washing Bubble Hash
A hash pump is a specialized pump that moves trichome-infused water from one vessel to another during the ice water extraction. Hash pumps automate the movement of water from the mixing vessel into the collection vessel, which otherwise needs to happen with the force of gravity. In labs with certain constraints that make using gravity suboptimal, hash pumps are a great alternative to moving water efficiently. And most importantly, in a way that doesn’t damage trichomes in the process.
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How To Use a Washing Machine to Make Bubble Hash
Compact, portable washing machines like the kind designed for small apartments and RVs are great for washing hash. Although they’re made to wash small loads of laundry, they can also do a great job of mixing together cannabis and ice water for making bubble hash. Especially for extractors running high volumes of material, washing machines are the way to go. Machines automate the mixing process that would otherwise be done by hand, adding efficiency and scalability to your operation.
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How To Clean Your Washing Machine after Making Bubble Hash
Washing machines are a great way to automate the all-important mixing phase of ice water extraction or washing bubble hash. Washing hash involves mixing together ice water and cannabis, then sieving the mixture through a series of filters called bubble wash bags. Using a washing machine for mixing enhances the efficiency, consistency, and scalability of output, and is often the best choice for processors working through a high volume of material.
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Breeding to Collect Trichomes
The term “Hash plant” has been around for decades. Most notably the term showed up in the Seed Bank Catalogue in the 1980’s and 90’s as a plant that was selected for its hash-like flavor. In this article I will be referencing the term “Hash plant” as a plant that was selected because of the overall quality and yield of the hash that was derived from the sieving process and not that the plant's chemical profile tastes like hash in flower form.
With more people growing and selectively crossing plants, we are starting to see some very unique expressions coming out of some of these contemporary cannabis lines.
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How To Set Up a Water Drainage System for Washing Bubble Hash
Solventless extractors use lots of water for washing bubble hash, the process of mixing together ice water and cannabis to isolate trichome heads for collection. Water is the key factor that makes it all possible. A drainage system for washing bubble hash controls the flow of runoff water that’s used in ice water extraction.
Water plays a part in both mixing and rinsing, so lots of clean, cold water is required. Once water comes into contact with the cannabis material
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What Causes Green Bubble Hash?
Although vibrant hues of green are often associated with high quality cannabis, it’s actually not a good look for bubble hash. Bubble hash is composed of cannabis trichome heads, the bulbous resin glands that give cannabis flowers that crystalline, sugary look. These heads range in color from clear to amber, but never green.
Trichome heads appear clear in their early weeks of development, turn milky as they approach ripeness, then finally become amber as the resin inside reaches full maturity.
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How To Build A Cold Room for Washing Bubble Hash
A cold environment is essential for washing hash. Loose resin is nearly impossible to work with in warm temperatures, as it becomes a greasy mess that’s difficult to sieve through mesh wash bags. Creating a dedicated cold room for working with hash is the best option for serious extractors. Cold rooms should house all the equipment you need to wash hash, in a clean and well-organized space.
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Using A Drill To Wash Bubble Hash?
The mixing together of ice water and cannabis is probably the most consequential of the steps involved in the ice water extraction process of washing bubble hash. While sieving and drying are also imperative to the process, properly mixing at the outset is the number one prerequisite for success. Agitating ice cold water and cannabis together causes trichome heads to separate from their stalks, liberating the minuscule resin globes from the rest of the material.
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How To Identify Cannabis Strains for Solventless Bubble Hash Production
Identifying strains that are best suited for ice water extraction helps extractors minimize wasted time and resources spent washing material that doesn’t yield desirable results. No matter how perfect the equipment, environment, and process, some cannabis cultivars just don’t dump loads of high quality resin. It all boils down to the trichomes, and that’s where extractors can make the most meaningful assessment of the plant’s potential for solventless bubble hash production.
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What Is Zombie Bubble Hash?
Somewhere between the living and the dead, the world of zombies exists in an enigmatic limbo. While much less dramatic than the creatures popularized in contemporary culture, zombie bubble hash is definitely worth the attention of discerning cannabis connoisseurs. But how can hash be a little bit living and a little bit dead?
Bubble hash, or ice water hash as it’s also called, is made with a solventless extraction method that involves mixing ice, water, and cannabis. Agitating cannabis and ice water together knocks trichomes free from the plant material on which they grow.
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What Is WPFF?
There are several ways to prepare cannabis material for ice water extraction, or washing bubble hash. Traditionally, hash makers hung cannabis upside down to fully dry, prior to extracting the resin. Drying cannabis flowers, and then subsequently curing in glass jars, is the same preparation for smoking them as well. But throughout this process, exposure to the open air (even inside an environmentally-controlled drying room) leads to terpene loss and oxidation.
But there’s another way to prepare cannabis right after harvest, that can minimize oxidation and also preserve the abundance of terpenes locked inside the plant trichomes.
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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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