Good evening OG, I am going to do a fairly large bubble hash run this evening, and I need some advice on drying and curing my product. Everyone seems to think that the water extracted hash is better than the dry ice method. Personally I got a slightly better yield from the dry ice method. I am going to go with water hash this evening… Any advice on drying and curing my product would be appreciated.
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Use cardbox and grind it every few hours to allow it to dry out. Without grinding air cannot get in. Eventually the more it dries out the finer you can grind it and that allows it to dry even more. (At first it’s wet and mash-like)
After days or up to week I move it to the jar, but have it open once in while and checking its condition and moisture frequently. Curing is similar to dried buds. Slow drying makes it smoother.
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The best people i know of taught me to use parchment paper in a pizza box. Like Joe said get it fine so the water evaporates quickly. You can fold the edges of the parchment so it doesn’t slide off while handling.
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Thanks for the replies guys! I will post some pics later tonight and show the results. One last thing before I start, is it possible to overmix the water, ice, and bud slurry?? I don’t want any particle to end up in my product because I used my handmixer on too high of a speed or too long???
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Yes it is possible to “overmix” it. Longer time you spend mixing and higher mixer speed increases amount of leaf and bud particles.
If you want purest material in all mesh screens, I’d suggest stir it manually using wooden spoon. I think that 8 minutes of stirring is enough. When using mixer use lowest speed and stir 5 minutes. Make sure you add ice cubes when needed to have plenty of them through the whole mixing process. Then let sit for 20 minutes.
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I am bookmarking this thread, i got some bubblebags i intend to use in the near future!
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I agree with mixing time just want to add some strains dump trichomes and some are sticky and just don’t give a good return. I have heard on a few podcasts it is the ph of the water or environment but i think it is strain dependent. A Sourdiesel i grew used to flood me with hash and a StrawberryCough i had barely gave up anything and if i stirred more it just turned green. I mention all this basically to let you know that there is a learning curve and a few things to watch out for.
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Yes, it is highly strain dependent. Some strains are much bigger resin yielders.
Back to the process I wanted to add that ice is key, without enough ice for whole process don’t even bother to start. It is essential to have whole mix as much “subzero” temperature as possible and full of clashing ice cubes. Ice continually melts down so add more in the process. Not enough ice lowers yield considerately.
Size of pail and amount of water is something you need to experiment little bit. It should be tall enough. The more water you use the more ice you will need.
I also much prefer bought ice cubes in party bags. Because I’ve found that ice from home machine won’t last long in the mix.
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If i make it in the summer i do it at night and use reusable blue ice packs under the bucket. Good point @LemonadeJoe!
I recommend not using a mixer. Just a wooden spoon and a gentle touch. Do several runs for different grades and you can turn your gentle touch into a harder one. And grinding your sift causes it to loose its terpenes quicker and itll turn to “grease” because you are breaking open the wax membrane that is holding all the cannabinoids and terpenes. I reccomend getting a sieve and gently pressing your pattys threw that onto a cardboard box for drying. Dry for as long as you can. If you didnt break your heads by microplaning or grinding you can leave them for months to dry properly. Cool and dry is the best.
Bubblehash doesnt give a lesser yeild, it gives you a cleaner product. Dry ice sifting gets you a lot of plant material, not the stuff you want.
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@lotus710 I ended up going with a method smilar to yours. I used a wooden slotted spoon and check out the material after a few minutes of folding over the mash… … You can see the trichrome heads knocked off. I’m assuming this will be the best quality with low quantity until you knock those tric stalks off of the material.
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Yea bubble man says wooden spoon in a video he did with remo
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those stalks are considered contams tooXD
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Rob Clarke says the trichome stalks are almost entirely responsible for the “hash cough” one often experiences, they irritate the lungs and throat.
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Yessir i could see that. 95% heads has lots of stalk making you cough much much more then the 99.99 heads.
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Check out the results of my first batch of full-melt. As expected, quality was there but quantity was not. I chopped up the hash to a sticky sand-like consistency. Then I blotted all 3 with a coffee filter which I highly recommend to speed up the drying process. I got full-melt in my 73, 110, and 160 micron bags, which I didn’t think was possible??
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Congrats on the full melt, @BackcountryBlazer.
You say you were disappointed in the quantity. One thing that seems to get glossed over in a lot of ice hash discussions, which seems critical to me, is the ratio of bud to leaf, and the ratio of bud/leaf material to ice/water. Can you elaborate in your circumstance? And I’d love to hear from the group on their favorite ratios.
For me, I’m typically working with trimmed leaf (everything from shade leaves to sugar trim) and “larf” - the immature buds smaller than say 10mm/half inch diameter. Typically, I’m using Bubble Bags and two 5-gallon buckets. The first bucket is 2/3 filled with ice, then about 4-6 quarts by volume of leaf/bud material, then filled with cold water. I agitate for 15 minutes, pour everything into a second 5-gal bucket with the stacked bags, let sit 15 minutes, and start pulling out the bags, one at a time. End result, depending on strain and bud/leaf ratio, can be from 4 to 8 grams approximately.
-b420
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Nice full-melt… If it don’t bubble it ain’t worth the trouble 
You have probably seen my bubblehash extraction.
@Baudelaire is right. I experiment a lot with volume of pail and amount of material. I don’t want much of the water column occupied by material, cause I’m afraid that trichome glands will became “captured” inside of the mass… I want it only say 7-8 cm high (and still 70% of it being ice cubes). If it is more, I remove the material or use wider diameter pail.
And btw I’m always using trim and I’m drying the material same way as top buds. Once dried I pack it up and give to freezer before actually mixing it.
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Lets see a melt shot!! Goodjob dude.
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Yep, finding that sweet spot ratio of leaf to water (or “water column” as you more precisely put it) is very important I think to an efficient run - efficient in terms of time, and conversion of material to product.
On that point (conversion from leaf to kief) do you do two runs of the same material, three, or more? I tend to lose interest in doing more than a single run, but when I’ve done it I’ve been surprised at the size of the secondary yield.
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