Winterization and Ethyl Alcohols

[CentiZen]

So I am planning on starting to experiment with adding a winterization process to my technique for producing concentrate. Right now I am somewhat dissapointed by what I am able to make in terms of quality, I usually end up with rock hard oil that shatters and snaps easily and leaves a small amount of black residue on the titanium once I'm done my dab. It is very difficult to use this in my ThermoVape Revolution, so I want to see if winterizing my product will increase it's purity and viscosity so that it works well in the Rev.

I live in Canada and have been looking all around the area which I live in to see if I can find pure Ethanol at any brick and mortar stores but have not had any luck finding anything pure. So now I am going to order from a Canadian chemical supply store but I want to make sure that I am getting the best kind of Ethyl alcohol for winterizing with. There are three variations of Ethyl alcohol available from the supplier I'm looking at, distilled, denatured and anhydrous denatured. I'm not entirely aware how exactly the winterization process works so I'm not sure which one of these three option is ideal.

Any advice?

 

[Edward Hyde]

i dont know what winterization is but i have worked with distilled ethanol to extract and it worked ok (not perfect but not bad either) the problem is its too expensive.

 

[fake name]

Go distilled, not denatured or anhydrous denatured. Denatured means they've added methyl alcohol too it to make it poisonous to drink. It can be purged out, but if improperly purged you'll have poisonous oil. I believe anhydrous will not work at all, you need a little bit of water for the waxes to coagulate in. This is why people tend to use distilled, it'll be 95.63% alcohol and the rest water.

 

[CentiZen]

WOW that stuff is expensive. 150 dollars for half a litre!

 

[Puffers]

WOW that stuff is expensive. 150 dollars for half a litre!

Wow thats not exactly cheap lol.


If you just want your oils more viscous without winterizing you could decarb your oil or herb prior to extraction

 

[StickyShisha2]

I found Polish Spirytus at a local liquor store

 

[CentiZen]

What it "local" for you? If that works well and is available in Canada, that will be my choice

 

[thesoloman]

Im going to start by saying i have not used any of these, i always use 91% iso. Just ran a batch of God's piss, which is iso that was used repeatedly to clean my solo stems, i winterized it and let it evap/heat-purge, just scrapped it up an hour ago and i have the most liquidy hash oil i've ever had. But this stuff is dankk!
Good luck with your winterization, i hope you share how it turns out with us.

 

[Edward Hyde]

can someone give a brief description of what winterization is?

 

[StickyShisha2]

i liken it to clarifying a soup.
take about 2 grams of honeycomb bho and put it in a small jar with 3 ounces of warm alcohol until it all dissolves. you now have honey colored liquid. put jar in freezer . after a few hours, it looks like a cotton ball is in it with your goodies liquid. its possible to gather it up on a dabber to get rid of it, but usually people filter it out.
after you evap and purge off the alcohol, it will look like a lot less oil but be careful with dab size. this shit is really potent now.

 

[Darb]

I'm not sure what part of Canada you're in but here in Alberta you can buy Everclear at any liquor store.
It works great for winterization.

 

[Cymbaline]

I was about to say Everclear, or any other drinkable 95% grain alcohol.

 

[Puffers]

Im going to start by saying i have not used any of these, i always use 91% iso. Just ran a batch of God's piss, which is iso that was used repeatedly to clean my solo stems, i winterized it and let it evap/heat-purge, just scrapped it up an hour ago and i have the most liquidy hash oil i've ever had. But this stuff is dankk!
Good luck with your winterization, i hope you share how it turns out with us.

I thought iso is too non-polar to effectively winterize when you polish extracts, you want a non-polar wash followed by a polar.

 

[2clicker]

definitely EverClear. not too pricey and cleans up my ABV qwISO very nicely.

 

[kingofnull]

Centi, any luck sourcing some grain alcohol for this purpose?

 

[CentiZen]

Yep, all you need are some potatoes and time.

Seriously, I could get cocaine or heroin easier than this stuff. I've pretty much resigned myself to the fact that I need to be the one to make it or pay at least 200% more than normal prices to smuggle it. Just not worth it in my opinion, vac purging is good enough for now.

It turns out that the Sticky Pads were to blame for the film and black markings that was appearing in my BHO, so going back to pyrex sorted that out. Made a little nice batch which I'm going to use tonight at an At The Gates concert, it tastes really good even without winterization.

 

[thesoloman]

would moonshine work for winterization?

 

[CentiZen]

Made right, it's the ideal solution. I just don't know how to make it right.

 

[thesoloman]

Awesome, i have a buddy that i can get some from, maybe it'll be just whats needed to clean up my last god's piss. It came out over a gram and is really dark-red/black when clumped together, the taste is not any good either. Hopefully winterization will fix this.

 

[Trever]

Awesome, i have a buddy that i can get some from, maybe it'll be just whats needed to clean up my last god's piss. It came out over a gram and is really dark-red/black when clumped together, the taste is not any good either. Hopefully winterization will fix this.

My opinion is stay away from most moonshines because most are actually quite dirty for use with extractions/winterization make sure its 100% clear and do an evap test on it all ive ever tried left a sticky residue from sugars. However ive tried 91/99% iso 99 worked much better, but am a firm believer in everclear works wonders for winterizing.

 

[PPN]

Hi Dabbers, could I winterize my ethanol extraction? should I wait that all the ethanol is evaporate before to put some alcohol into for winterization or can I put my jar in freezer when 50% of alcohol is evaporate?

When time is difficult I make thanol qwiso with my abv, but the taste and the effect are not really nice, winterization could help to get a better product, isn't it?

 

[Trever]

Hi Dabbers, could I winterize my ethanol extraction? should I wait that all the ethanol is evaporate before to put some alcohol into for winterization or can I put my jar in freezer when 50% of alcohol is evaporate?

When time is difficult I make thanol qwiso with my abv, but the taste and the effect are not really nice, winterization could help to get a better product, isn't it?

Most definetly buddy
Filtering:
"After re-dissolving the extract in ethanol or hexane, it may simply be filtered to remove the material that is insoluble. We usually use coffee filters for this purpose, or if we have a larger amount, we use a Whatman # 1 lab filter, with a vacuum assist."
-www.skunkpharmresearch.com
I use everclear but he rec ethanol or hexane for the best winterizing. So if your already using good ethanol then just throw that bad boy into the deep freezer and use an unbleached coffee filter unless youve got a vaccuum assist and a watson #1 filter

 

[vaporonly]

Hi Dabbers, could I winterize my ethanol extraction? should I wait that all the ethanol is evaporate before to put some alcohol into for winterization or can I put my jar in freezer when 50% of alcohol is evaporate?

When time is difficult I make thanol qwiso with my abv, but the taste and the effect are not really nice, winterization could help to get a better product, isn't it?

if you are talking about winterizing an oil made with ethanol as a solvent it's not going to be much use.

winterizing is normally done when a non-polar solvent like butane is used, which aggressively dissolves waxes, then when you freeze it in ethanol (polar, less aggressive) those waxes fall out of solution and can be filtered.

 

[PPN]

Hello, I'm making a winterization because I done a bad oil (too much seeds into) but just to be sure:
Waxes stay in the coffee filter and good oil is diluted in the alcohol or the opposite?

 

[kingtut106]

Hello, I'm making a winterization because I done a bad oil (too much seeds into) but just to be sure:
Waxes stay in the coffee filter and good oil is diluted in the alcohol or the opposite?

Yup just make sure you use an unbleached coffee filter