The Ultimate Solventless Rosin Pressing Resource
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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Wet Trimming vs Dry Trimming Cannabis Flowers
Trimming cannabis involves snipping away excess leaves that grow out of the buds, exposing the swollen calyxes and dense flower structure underneath. Trimming always happens after harvest, but it can take place before or after the flowers have been dried. Wet trimming takes place right after the flowers are harvested, before they’re hung to dry. Dry trimming takes place after the plants have already been hung to dry, before they go into jars for curing.
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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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Pros and Cons of Hand Trimming vs Machine Trimming
Autumn is here, and outdoor growers are looking ahead to that magical time of year when nearly a year’s worth of hard work will finally pay off. Flowers are maturing, leaves are turning, and trichomes are swelling with medicine-rich resin that’s nearing peak ripeness. October is called Croptober for good reason, as the crop and chop is top of mind!
Whether you have 3 plants or 300, planning and preparations are in order to ensure your cannabis makes it across the finish line in top condition. Part of that is determining when exactly the plants are ready for the harvest.
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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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Top 10 Harvesting Tips for Cannabis Growers
After months of careful cultivation, harvest time is finally here! You've grown some lovely ladies to full maturity, now it's time to reap the rewards of a beautiful bounty. But just like growing the plants, harvesting them requires careful planning and attention to detail. A haphazard process or impatience in letting the plants dry can ruin months of hard work. Proper harvesting techniques not only maintain the levels of quality your flowers achieved, they actually enhance them.
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Top 5 Common Mistakes When Washing Hash
One of the things we love most about our work in the solventless community is sharing the tips and tricks we’ve picked up over the years in working with the cannabis plant. Solventless extraction requires knowledge of cannabis, its trichomes, and the techniques and best practices required to isolate, collect, and process them. The resulting concentrates, when made with care and intention, capture the essence of the cannabis plant better than anything else available.
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The Difference between Drying, Curing, Storing, and Aging Cannabis
Drying, curing, storing, and aging are distinct phases of preparation and preservation for cannabis. All the care and skill required to grow premium cannabis is only meaningful when the best qualities of the living plant can be maintained and even enhanced after harvest. What happens to cannabis after it’s harvested, and how the resulting solventless concentrates are cured and stored, have a significant impact on the quality that the consumer will enjoy.
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Bubble Hash Washing Vessel Insulation Guide
If you want to wash bubble hash there’s one thing you need without question, and that’s ice cold water. In addition to a set of quality bubble wash bags, frigid water is central to the process of creating solventless hash. Mixing cannabis flowers or trim leaves and ice water together in a wash bucket allows trichome heads to fall away from their stalks and separate from the unwanted plant material. The cold temperature of the water makes the trichome stalks brittle enough to break, and also minimizes the likelihood that the heads will rupture and leak their valuable resin.
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Rosin Press Hand Pump Modifications
There are several types of rosin presses capable of producing high quality rosin, spanning the range between hair straighteners and fully automated pneumatic presses. Hair straighteners are the most manual of all presses, which require all the pressure to come directly from the weight of the extractor pressing down on the plates. Pneumatic presses are the most automated, using compressed air to generate internal pressure which is controlled by the simple push of a button
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How To Use a Pre-Press Mold
Pre-press molds allow extractors to quickly and conveniently compress cannabis material in preparation for rosin extraction. Compacting starting material eliminates gaps and inconsistencies throughout the flower, sift, or bubble hash within a rosin filter bag, allowing for an even flow of rosin as pressure is applied during extraction. If the cannabis material contains pockets of empty space, these mini chasms will collect and hold the freshly-squeezed rosin and prevent it from flowing through the filter bag and onto the parchment paper for collection.
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Step By Step 100% Solventless Vape Cartridges
High-quality, terpene-rich rosin plus a heat source is all you need to make a solventless cannabis concentrate fit for vape cartridges. While there are other approaches to conditioning rosin in preparation for vape pens, such as adding terpenes, winterizing (to remove excess waxes), or using synthetic liquidizers, we’re going to show you our absolute favorite way to make our vape cartridges. This is a great way to combine the purity and potency of rosin with the ease and convenience of vape pens. When you want the flavor and the head change of a dab without breaking out your rig, take a solid rip from the vape and you’re on your way!
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Top 5 Ways to Keep Your Water Cold for Ice Water Extraction
Cold water is essential to the ice water extraction method of making bubble hash. Cold temperatures allow for the trichome heads to break free from their stalks and the rest of the plant material, while remaining intact at the same time. Warmer water creates an environment where the trichome heads can more easily rupture, stick together, and become difficult or impossible to collect. Without cold water, you’re left with drastically less trichomes to sieve out of the water and what you attempt to collect will be a greasy mess.
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Top 5 Reasons to Use All Mesh Bubble Wash Bags
All bubble wash bags utilize the same basic technology, but not all wash bags are created equal. Although every wash bag incorporates mesh sieving screens into a bag-shaped design, the actual construction and materials of wash bags can differ. Traditionally, bubble wash bags were made with waterproof nylon side walls attached to a mesh screen at the base of the bag. Water can only pass through the mesh screens at the bottom of these bags, essentially limiting the surface area through which the ice water extraction actually takes place.
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A Tribute to Frenchy Cannoli
Frenchy’s impact on the cannabis community helped shape an entire industry and forever changed the way that hash is recognized and appreciated. He inspired countless individuals during his life, and even after his passing, he will undoubtedly inspire many more. Although he was based in Northern California, his reach wasn’t confined by his geography.
Earlier in his life, he traveled to the traditional hash-making regions of the world, learning the craft and eventually bringing it to the Emerald Triangle.
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What Is Bubble Hash?
Bubble hash is a type of cannabis concentrate, a collection of the plant’s most potent attributes, made using a simple and chemical-free extraction process. Bubble hash, or simply “bubble” is a pure and potent form of cannabis medicine, perfect to consume by itself or to use as a starting material for other forms of cannabis concentrates. Bubble is not only incredibly powerful and effective, but it’s clean as well.
Bubble hash is referred to as a solventless cannabis product, since no solvents are used to create it.
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How To Use a Work Cube for Washing Bubble Hash
Work cubes are enclosed mesh filter bags used to hold cannabis starting material during the mixing phase of ice water extraction. Work cubes are similar to regular open-ended work bags in that they utilize the 220-micron filter screen size, however they’re designed to fully contain the cannabis material with a top lid that zips closed. Cube work bags are also made entirely with 220-micron mesh so that the total surface area acts as a filter.
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Q&A with Ryan from Terpy Highs
One of the benefits to working in the cannabis industry is the opportunity to connect with a community of growers and extractors who work tirelessly to produce the cleanest, most effective medicine on the planet. Recently we met with Ryan from Terpy Highs to talk about washing hash, pressing rosin, and growing premium cannabis flowers. Ryan is a ACMPR Licensed Medical Patient based in Ontario, Canada, who’s been on the quest for years to create solventless medicine for himself while helping to educate others on how to get started.
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How Does a Freeze Dryer Work?
Freeze dryers have grown in popularity in recent years, as solventless extraction artists are constantly improving on the quest to produce the world’s best bubble hash. For commercial and craft producers alike, freeze dryers present the most optimum solution to quickly and thoroughly dry fresh ice water hash. For decades, other methods have been successfully used to dry wet bubble hash, but in terms of overall quality and terpene preservation freeze dryers offer a better solution than the other approaches.
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What Is the Best Environment for Hang Drying Cannabis Flowers?
There’s more to cannabis cultivation than simply growing high quality flowers from premium genetics. After plants are grown to full maturity and the flowers are carefully harvested, drying remains a key piece of the puzzle that allows the buds to reach their full potential. Drying is a make or break process that can raise your cannabis to trophy-level status or actually diminish its therapeutic value. Without proper drying techniques, the best flowers from the best genetics will fall short of delivering the optimum effects.
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