The Ultimate Solventless Rosin Pressing Resource
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.
Read more
The Endocannabinoid System and Cannabis
Humans have been using cannabis for thousands of years. The history of human experience has included cannabis for health and wellness and recreation. It’s been a love affair that’s not going away, and for good reason. In some ways, it seems that humans and the cannabis plant were made for each other. The active compounds in cannabis called cannabinoids fit like a hand in glove with a system of receptors in our bodies known as the Endocannabinoid System.
So what exactly are cannabinoids? Cannabinoids are the naturally occurring compounds
Read more
Top 5 Mistakes To Avoid When Dry Sifting
Dry sift, or sift for short, is a type of solventless cannabis concentrate that’s similar to bubble hash in quality and appearance. While bubble hash is made with water and a series of filter bags, dry sift is extracted without water.
Dry sifting involves sieving cannabis flowers or trim leaves with a series of mesh screens. As the cannabis material is agitated over the top screen, trichomes fall away and get caught on the screens beneath. Various sizes of screens collect various grades of dry sift, with the highest grades being composed almost entirely of trichomes.
Read more
Top 5 Rosin Pressing Plate Tips
A rosin press is the primary piece of equipment that extractors use to make rosin. There are multiple types of presses, but every press incorporates a set of rosin pressing plates which apply heat and pressure onto the cannabis starting material. The pressing plates can be installed onto a regular hydraulic shop press which provides the necessary pressure for extraction, and temperature is set through a digital heat controller. Heating rods are inserted into the center of the plates which heat the aluminum to the temperatures needed for pressing rosin.
Read more
What's the Optimal Moisture Content for Pressing Flower Rosin?
The moisture content of cannabis flowers is an important factor to consider when sourcing the best starting material for pressing flower rosin. Either too much moisture or too little moisture will negatively impact the extraction. Using flowers with just the right moisture level is key to maximize both yield and overall quality. Relative humidity is a good indicator of the amount of moisture in flowers.
How can we measure the relative humidity of cannabis flowers? The best way to measure relative humidity
Read more
Benefits of Pressing Rosin at High Temp
Temperature is one of the key variables for extractors to control while pressing rosin. The type of starting material determines the best temperature to target, but there’s a range of temperatures that can deliver good results. Aiming for the higher end of that range is considered pressing rosin at higher temps, and it offers some advantages over pressing rosin at lower temperatures.
Before we look at the benefits to pressing rosin at higher temperatures, let’s review the suggested temperature ranges for each type of starting material.
Read more
Benefits of Pressing Rosin at Low Temp
Rosin is created through the application of heat and pressure onto starting material over the course of several minutes. These variables of time, temp, and pressure can be adjusted depending on the type of cannabis material pressed and the specific strain or cultivar of that material. Differences in these inputs also impact both yield and quality of rosin.
A range of temperatures are suitable for pressing rosin. Pressing at the low end of the temperature range will yield different results than pressing at the higher end.
Read more
How To Cold Cure Rosin
Cold curing is a type of post-production treatment that you can apply to your freshly-made rosin. It’s a simple process that doesn’t require much input or equipment to execute, the main ingredients being a few days and some patience. Although the name itself implies the need for cold temperatures, relatively speaking even normal room temperatures will do the trick. With a sealable glass jar, dab tool, and cool ambient temperatures, you can easily set up an environment for your rosin to benefit from a cold cure.
Read more
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.
Read more
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.
Read more
How To Use a Freeze Dryer To Dry and Cure Cannabis Flowers
In the past few years, using freeze dryers to dry bubble hash has become commonplace for commercial extractors and even in-home hobbyists. Freeze drying hash not only speeds up the drying process, it also ensures a consistent and thorough removal of moisture, preventing mold growth and preserving terpenes. Freeze dryers may currently be associated mostly with bubble hash, but the technology can also be applied to drying and curing cannabis flowers.
So what is freeze drying? Freeze drying involves removing water moisture through sublimation
Read more
Difference between Pillow Tech, Bottle Tech, and Chottle Tech
In the art of rosin extraction, there are several different methods that extractors can use to accomplish the same goal. For example, all rosin extraction involves pressing cannabis material between heated plates, but there are a variety of ways to pack the starting material into filter bags and position it between the plates. These different approaches are referred to as techniques, or “tech” for short. Pillow Tech, Bottle Tech, and Chottle Tech are different ways that rosin filter bags can be used to hold starting material, and how that material is oriented between rosin plates for extraction.
Read more
What's The Problem with Using Dry Ice for Dry Sifting?
Dry ice is the solid form of carbon dioxide, capable of achieving temperatures much lower than that of regular ice. Unlike water ice that changes from a solid to a liquid when it melts, dry ice sublimates as it warms up, meaning it changes from a solid directly into a gas vapor. This vapor cools the surrounding environment, which makes dry ice an effective cooling agent. At more than 100 degrees below zero, dry ice gets so cold that it can actually damage unprotected skin.
One of the mantras often heard when working with solventless cannabis extracts like bubble hash and dry sift is “keep tools and environment cold”.
Read more
Why It's Important to Pre-Heat Your Rosin Bags for Pressing Rosin
Preheating cannabis starting material is an important prerequisite for extracting rosin. Whether you’re pressing flower, dry sift, or bubble hash, warming the material between heated rosin plates helps prepare the cannabis for extraction. Although pressing material without preheating will still give you results, you can achieve a more efficient extraction and better yields with a quick preheat before full pressure is applied.
Benefits of Preheating
Preheating cannabis prepares the trichomes
Read more
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.
Read more
Buying vs Building Your Own Rosin Press
A common question for people just getting into rosin is what type of rosin press they should buy. A hair straightener is some extractors’ first foray into solventless extraction, but the limited capabilities of this makeshift approach soon grows old (especially given the easy availability of better alternatives). Although a hair straightener can definitely produce quality rosin, a press that utilizes heated plates designed specifically for rosin production that can generate several tons of pressure is both easier to operate and more efficient for processing cannabis material.
Read more
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.
Read more
How To Press without Rosin Bags
Rosin filter bags offer many advantages to solventless extractors. They keep cannabis material tight and compacted for a consistent flow of rosin, facilitate even pressure from the heated plates onto the material throughout extraction, and help remove unwanted lipids and plant particles from rosin. Rosin filter bags are a staple of the solventless extraction toolkit. But can you press rosin without filter bags?
The answer depends on what type of cannabis material you’re pressing.
Read more
The Anatomy of a Cannabis Trichome and Why It's Important
Know why good cannabis looks like it’s covered in a sugar-like coating of tiny crystals? That lovely layer of sparkling goodness is actually thousands of little appendages that hold the magic of the cannabis plant. These resin-producing glands are called trichomes, and they contain the cannabinoids, terpenes, and flavonoids in highly concentrated amounts. Growers think about cultivating cannabis in terms of flower production, but another way to think about it is through the lens of farming terpenes. At the end of the day, it’s the trichomes we’re after.
Read more
Indoor vs Outdoor Cannabis Cultivation
The definitions of indoor and outdoor cannabis cultivation are self-explanatory: indoor growing takes place within an enclosed structure utilizing artificial light, whereas outdoor growing takes place outside using the sun as the primary source of light. Cannabis can be successfully grown in either type of environment. Both indoor and outdoor flowers are capable of reaching incredibly high qualities of flavor and potency. However, there are factors unique to each approach, and pros and cons that come with either type of garden you choose to establish.
Read more
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.
Read more