Well, I decided to throw about 1/2 once of White Widow/Big Bud in and just use that. I bought a bubble machine for the other shit.
I really improved this time! The first run yielded a little over 2 grams. It's not as hard as shatter and slightly malleable. First hit nearly killed me, LOL. I then ran it again and got almost a gram of darker goodness. Terrific taste and just dissolves on the nail.
All I did was freeze the buds (first run I didn't crumble them up, second run I did) and get the Everclear as cold as possible. Then I combined them and shook for a few seconds, put it back in the freezer for one minute. I repeated this process for a total of 3 minutes. Then I poured it through a coffee filter (regular white one) and through a strainer into a stainless bowl. Once the liquid was all drained into the bowl, I restrained it through 2 coffee filters and into a pyrex dish. Had a small fan over the dish that was covered with a flat wire strainer to keep out crap. Next day it was dry and looked kinda white and yellow. I scraped it all into the center of the pyrex dish and put the dish on a heating pad for an hour or so. It all melted together in a nice translucent glob.
I don't dab much, but this process is so much better than BHO for me. Anyone have suggestions to improve this process?
if your starting alcohol is colder than the standard freezer, you can get slightly purer oil. (cooler with dry ice)
also i worry about dust and other contaminates settling in the dish while evaporating. perhaps a stocking stretched over the pyrex would help
can I just leave the evap outside overnight? would it be okay to just leave it and let it evap a few more days even?
Can anyone who has done both this process and BHO with the same material comment on yield between the two methods? Concentrates are very rare in my area, and the simplicity of this method appeals to me. Will be doing primarily small runs (quarter ounce of flower or less).
I need a little help to figure out why my yield is so low. I'm using very high quality buds and am running usual 3.5 grams, but this last time I did 7G. My yield was .7G of oil after two washes. This oil is by far the most potent I've made, and it looks golden yellow and has a taffy like consistency at room temperature. It appears to be extremely clean. Here's my process:
- Toast buds for 20 minutes on 200 (this makes my oil stealthy with no smell)
- Break up into 1/4 inch or smaller pieces
- Freeze buds and everclear overnight
- Do a 3 minute wash with everclear just covering the bud. This wash remains in the freezer and gets a swirl every minute.
- Strain quickly through wire strainer into a coffee filter, then in the freezer to filter
- Wash frozen buds again with same 3 minute wash and filter into the same batch
- Evaporate through a double boiler set up with water not going above 135 degrees
I feel like I'm doing the correct steps, but my yield is not close to what some you you guys are getting with one wash. I love the taste, consistency and potency. But what can I do to improve yield? The only thing I can think of is more Everclear in my wash, or maybe use a different freezer as mine gets to about 8 degrees at it's coldest. This batch had 1/3 of a cup of everclear to evaportate. Some previous batches have yielded .5G from 3.5G of bud. But that was after 2 washes.
Thanks guys... good info. I'll definitely try more EC and see where that gets me. I'm sure I was reaching a max saturation point with the amount I was using. The only reason I mixed the washes was to try and get my yield up to par, and because I don't mind getting the full spectrum similar to vaping bud. @Abysmal Vapor there is no real sacrifice in quality with decarbing in my opinion. You lose a little bit of the flavor (but not much) and all the smell. And I typically do this for my mixes with e-juice that I use in public settings. I can sit at a bar and go at it without a fear in the world. That is the sacrifice, and it's well worth it!
on another note... looking for some feedback on the purging process. I typically do mine in a pyrex rectangular dish. This works great, and I can scrape up the majority with a razor. But there still tends to be some collected on the corners that is impossible to get with a razor, and not all of it comes off the glass perfectly. I usually scrape up as much I can, then add hot Everclear to the pyrex to grab the risidual, and then boil off in a beaker to be made to juice. Is there a better way? Maybe purge on a slik pad in my pyrex?