🧊 Hash Room Build

[SuperiorBuds]

Since I finally got my grow setup how I like it and I’m consistently producing over a pound per plant it was time to think about processing and long term storage.

I have been following Pedro and Dizzy from Pedro’s Grow Room for quite some time and always admired the quality rosin he produces. We talked for well over 6 months before I decided to pull the trigger and go all-in on making myself some top quality fresh frozen bubble hash rosin. Over the past few months I started collecting the equipment I would need and once I was ready I sat down over a few days and took the classes Pedro offers. Yes I could have fumbled through it and learned myself, but I am always willing to spend a little money for a lot of information – and a lot of information is what he provided me.

With a full grasp of the processes required I went ahead and harvested the last full run from the room, did a shorter dry, then bucked and bagged into the freezer until I was ready.

The first thing I needed was high quality wash bags. I went with Rosin Evolution so I could get full mesh bags that I know weren’t going to fall apart after a few washes. (Like some of the knock-off brands on Amazon that ruined my bubble runs before.)

I also needed a washer, so I went with the 5 gallon washer from Amazon for around $60. Don’t spend the extra money on the same unit with someones sticker on it, that’s just a 4x markup for cannabis buyers.

Originally I had wrapped the washer in bubble insulation, but it wasn’t as effective as I expected. After a bit of testing I finally settled on the Pelle Polare insulated jacket for the washer. The jackets tight fit really helped keep the water/ice mixture colder for longer, so I’m happy with the purchase. I will be doing some testing today on Twitch to compare no insulation vs bubble insulation vs insulated jacket to get some final numbers.

Next up was modifications to the RO system. I setup a new RO reservoir using a 35 gallon trashcan and a float valve. The RO reservoir has a small pump installed in the bottom that goes to my watering wand and flow meter. (The meter allows me to measure out exact # of gallons into a bucket if I’m mixing nutrients.) The wand itself is for washing down the bags with nice and cold (and clean) water.

Since I’m doing this as clean as possible I also wanted to make sure my ice was absolutely clean as well. I purchased a small commercial ice maker and plumbed it up to the RO system. I am now making 100% clear RO ice that can be pre-bagged and stored in the freezer.

The final piece of equipment is the freeze dryer. I went with a Harvest Right Medium Home model, lower cost than the pharmaceutical version but still plenty of space to dry my hash properly. Covid caused a rush of people to purchase freeze dryers so this one has been a long time coming, but I finally have shipping info so I should receive the unit in the next week or so.

Next on our agenda is building a new wall in order to separate the hash room from the rest of the garage. We’re installing a new subpanel this week that will give me 6 new 20A circuits and then we can start construction.

We’ll be using a simple window AC with a Coolbot mounted in the wall to keep the hash room down to proper temps during processing, and when not making hash the AC will be used to keep the lung room temps in check during our short summers.

A few more weeks of hard work and this all will be ready to be go. I have 2 lbs of trim in the freezer to run as a first test and once I feel like I’ve got the processes down I will break out the big bags. I have around 4 lbs of fresh frozen buds to run, as well as over 10 lbs of jarred/cured flower that will probably make their way through the process as well.

Things are about to get sticky around here!

[jaguarlax]

Nice man… Following along, I hear lots of good things about rosin evolution… I just grabbed a set bubble bag dude bags myself…

[ReikoX]

I’m following along, the only thing I’m missing is the ice maker and freeze dryer. Most ice is made with filtered water, so I’m okay with buying it in the short run.

[newb2.0]

Damn! This makes me super jealous!

[Gpaw]

And I’m following along… 'cause… research & science… and shit…

Cheers
G

[Instg8ter]

Pulling up a chair, got my rosin press today.

[MBVapester]

What the he’ll is a freeze dryer worth? Nice set up. I just finished doing about half my trim with dry ice and this sure would have been easier. My freezer is half empty again😉

[TheShowMeHomie]

60 bucks can I get a link Jesus H Christ got my stool pulled up and bong loaded

Edit : damn son now that justifies the ice machine plumbed into the ro that’s a nice stock pile waiting to be ran best wishes brother can’t wait to see the final outcome

[TheShowMeHomie]

Them pucks you make look primo

[SuperiorBuds]

@Instg8ter

Pulling up a chair, got my rosin press today.

I knew I was going to forget something. I also upgraded my press from the Strongway 10 ton w/ 3 year old plates from Amazon to the LowTemp 3x5 caged plates w/ BVA pump.

3

@MBVapester

What the he’ll is a freeze dryer worth?

The Harvest Right that I got runs about $2700.

https://harvestright.com/product/home-freeze-dryer/

According to Pedro is also the most important piece of equipment when it comes to final quality. I’ve dried hash on cardboard for years but never been very good at it – this takes the guesswork out of that process. Hoping for that blonde-blonde goodness!

@TheShowMeHomie

60 bucks can I get a link

I totally forgot links, sorry about that!

It’s up to $76 right now, but keep an eye on it as it bounces around quite a bit.

Amazon.com: SUPER DEAL Mini Washing Machine Compact Counter Top Washer with Spin...

[TheShowMeHomie]

76 dollars while smoking a king sized versus holding a drill doing my best not to get to close to the edge of the bag

Win win in my book

[valleymicro]

Great breakdown and explanation. I’m watching as well. Expecting great results with the preparation and planning you put in.

[valleymicro]

Just wanted to add, I noticed this is the same washer that Frenchy uses in his videos and recommends. The version I’ve seen used had some slight modifications. Is that part of the plan?

[SuperiorBuds]

You are correct, the washer has already been modified and I should have added that. The drain line is normally corrugated tubing which traps hash when draining it. The original drain line was cut out and replaced with straight 3/4" tubing. Then a 3/4" plug is used to block the end and prevent overflowing.

You can see the drain line in the washer photo above.

[TerpSneeze]

Interesting approach and equipment selection. I can’t help but be interested myself and will certainly be following along.

One question (I have and will likely go dig through Pedro’s page again to see is ) - why run a freeze dryer over a Vac Chamber? A Vacuum Chamber would purge any contaminates like water from the hash, dries the product and can be used to further clean up hash by vacuuming materials back through mesh much like a bubble or rosin bag. Vac chambers can also be made very inexpensively with Venturi Pumps and a small air compressor or vacuum pump.

My vac chamber was less than $200 all in, and will process/dry a pound of bubble hash at a time.

[SuperiorBuds]

A freeze dryer is a vacuum chamber, but it also has heated racks and sensors to determine exactly when to fire each stage of the drying process. Yes you can probably do this yourself, but I can press a button and walk away – then it will tell me when it’s done.

I researched doing a DIY freeze dryer and in the end you spend nearly a thousand on building the system, have to provide dry ice to keep it cold, and it looks like a monster when complete. Compare that to the harvest right, a standalone unit that sits on a shelf and has software to manage the entire process and you can see why it’s worth the cost.

For a better description of the processes of a freeze dryer compared to your vac chamber, check this link out.

Freeze Dryer: What is it, and how does it work? Millrock Technology

In a vac chamber your dry times will be much longer than mine, and you cannot sublimate since you’re not freezing/heating, which will result in either burst trichs or off-gasing the terps, both of which degrade the quality of the final product. On top of that if you don’t get 100% of the water out you’re risking hash that will mold over time during storage.

[TerpSneeze]

Interesting thoughts for sure!! Thanks for the info! And yes they are very similar that is why I mentioned it!

@SuperiorBuds

In a vac chamber your dry times will be much longer than mine, and you cannot sublimate since you’re not freezing/heating, which will result in either burst trichs or off-gasing the terps, both of which degrade the quality of the final product. On top of that if you don’t get 100% of the water out you’re risking hash that will mold over time during storage.

I have used vac ovens (freeze dryers) for making shatter in the past but always found that the heating aspects were what degraded terps, we eventually turned the oven components off and saw much better results under vacuum (through lab testing the product for actual profile). Using a vac chamber specifically for bubble hash is more of a vacuum bagging technique than typical vac chamber use - which could burst some trichomes if handled incorrectly but guess what’s going to happen in your rosin press…

The use of a wicking membrane and vac chamber traps water outside of the hash and separates it, results in a very dry hash and a wet cotton towel. We don’t leave our hash sitting around for any amount of time if it is destined for hash rosin, the trichomes get dark as they age so longterm storage has never been a priority. If long term storage of clearmelt is the goal, into the dehydrator they will go.

I guess I can understand your choice a bit better if you are looking to stockpile hash and eventually make it into rosin. There are certainly more than one way to make and store hash, really interested in what you find out!! Thanks for sharing your journey and your findings

[SuperiorBuds]

@TerpSneeze

I have used vac ovens (freeze dryers) for making shatter in the past but always found that the heating aspects were what degraded terps

Yes, if you use the default settings it will most definitely “burn off” terps. With the Harvest Right you can set the “shelf limit” for temps – running at 40F preserves the terps while the vac decreases the boiling point of the water, allowing it to sublimate direct from solid to gas.

@TerpSneeze

I guess I can understand your choice a bit better if you are looking to stockpile hash and eventually make it into rosin.

Yes, everything I make will be pressed into rosin. With this method you can store the hash indefinitely in the freezer w/ no degradation of quality or oxidation. I am running perpetual to make harvests easier on myself, taking down one plant a week. Then once every 2 months or so I’ll do a bubble run with the stockpiled frozen material. I can then store that processed hash until I have a day free to press everything at once.

This is all in prep for the coffee shop opening, so everything from my grow to the final processing has been documented and built to be as scalable as possible. What I have designed and ran for 12 right now will scale up to the 150 that our license covers.

At least that’s the goal.

@TerpSneeze

There are certainly more than one way to make and store hash, really interested in what you find out!!

For sure! I’ve taken the hash journey more than a few times in the past 25 years but every time I run into something that just makes it annoying. First it was the wash, then it was the the drying. I’m trying to ease as many of the pain points as possible – it will still be a long process with lots of steps, but if each step has stopping points and can be followed to reproduce results then I’ll be good to go.

Plus it helps having someone like Pedro answering all of my questions and helping me think outside the box when I come up with unique new ways to handle something.

[TerpSneeze]

Super interesting stuff my friend, looking forward! Since you are pursuing this seemingly through a legalized state of mind I assume that you will be thirds party lab testing your product to be compliant? It will be interesting to see your input versus end product profiles, if not might have to setup a donation fund so that we can all learn from your new toys!!!

@SuperiorBuds

running at 40F preserves the terps while the vac decreases the boiling point of the water, allowing it to sublimate direct from solid to gas.

I wasn’t really speaking to temps as much as I was to sublimation effect; lowering the boiling point within the chamber also lowers the temps where terps become more volatile as well and can make them more prone to degradation, maintaining these conditions for longer periods (as you would when removing solvents from shatter) is where the degradation happens in our findings.

No doubt this process will make some mean, terpy, hash rosin and prolong the life and ease of making high-quality product, but sublimation by nature is not as gentle of a process as we tend to think.

For example take β-TERPINEOL that melts at 32.5 C (90 Freedom units) under normal atmospheric conditions, when under vacuum, this terp on a chemical level will be evaporated at well below 4 F.

Its really interesting tech and I hope you get the results you seek SuperiorBuds, I too spent the years and countless tens thousands of dollars (of others people $$$) to develop extraction systems for various folks, entities and industries. The one thing I know for sure; there is still so more to learn and improve on, its a never-ending quest. I also believe that there is so little we understand about terpenes in terms of effect, absorption in our Endocannabinoid system that its difficult to say what processes retain the most, or the most effectively preserved and how they are affected beyond being present to a human ole factory (nose) or not. Lab tests show what is often imperceptible to human senses and that why they are the standard.

[goatrock]

@SuperiorBuds

It’s up to $76 right now, but keep an eye on it as it bounces around quite a bit.

I bought this exact Super Deal machine for $52.99 0n Nov. 28, 2019. I’ve seen some pretty big price hikes on Amazon lately. Oh and Frenchy Cannoli says to replace the drain hose and secure with a hose clamp.Good luck with your setup. Looks sweet as hell.