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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I’ve done really a lot of batches (that amount of time with preparation, process and cleaning it absurd 
)
At the start I’ve probably always tried second run just to see the results. From that experience I came to opinion that amount of kief is highly dependent on variety. When 1st run is done properly, 2nd has only about say average 10-20% yield. I’ve never got anything sensible from 3rd run (probably 1-2% of 1st).
As you said sometimes you can be surprised by the amount even on the second run (these are probably those very frosty varieties), but in general it is time consuming and I resigned on re-mixing used stuff. But sometimes if I don’t have enough material for the run I add some already used just to top it off.
“Yield” can be increased by prolonging the time and mixing “harder”, but it will be greener stuff.
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I’ll add a point about the pail, since LemonadeJoe brings it up.
My first effort at bubble I used a three gallon somewhat flexible plastic pail with the product, ice, and water together. I decided to use one of those paint stirring devices you attach to your hand drill to mix everything. It’s basically 2 feet long, one end fits into your hand drill the other end flares into 4 nylon plastic “paddles.” It looks kind of like a flower on it’s stem.
I set up in the living room on our large central rug. I decided to not use any bubble bags at this point figuring I could pour my mixed contents into the bubble bag stack afterword. I didn’t want to accidentally have my mixer attachment grab and tear up my new bags.
After a few minutes of mixing from my perspective things seemed to go well. In reality, the cold was making my plastic bucket hard and brittle. All of a sudden the mixer broke off a piece of the side of the pail near the bottom about the size of my fist, with water, ice, and product all gushing out onto my living room floor.
My wife didn’t take this situation with the calmness and grace to which I had become accustomed.
Long story short, use the big hard plastic buckets from Lowes, Home Depot, or Canadian Tire I guess in Canada. And a good outer mixing bowl or something to contain things if the pail fails. Plus I 'm ditching my paint mixer attachment.
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Sorry guys didn’t mean to not reply to your comments…been on the east coast visiting and trying to lessen my dependence on technology but I cannot stay off OG. I was a member in my mid teens years which I am very thankful for the wealth of knowledge obtained. I am flying back to Denver early tomorrow. Talk to you guys soon!
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I’ll have those for you tomorrow!
YES, I want to revive this topic–it’s almost harvest time! 
I’m seeing Frenchy using up to 12oz of material in his 5 gallon washer… fwiw re: ratio of mat’l/water. That’s explains my miniscule yields from a couple ounces.
One component I haven’t seen much if any discussion of is water qualities; i.e pure/distilled/RO/tap water, pH’s, combining small amount of isopropyl(!?)… just some thoughts. I am wearing out my kitchen water filters too fast using only Brita water but my tap water is potentially bad(hexavalent chromium, mmm).
And another question. Can material that still retains resin after some washing be re-purposed for cooking oil/butter? Dehydrate in freezer?
Finally, what are your preferred micronic grades of sieves & hash? Do you prefer the full spectrum?
And furthermore, what about re-hydrating resin & blending different batches after the fact, i.e. post-production? Can it be done/anyone try?
gotta go stir, quick!
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I usually just use RO water or buy distilled water. I have used tap before and dont see a whole lot of difference, but I have very hard water and prefer not to add the extra mineral deposits.
Yes, you can dry out the material and extract it with coconut oil or alcohol later. I just spread it out in a thin layer on parchment paper, but I live in the desert.
Different grades vary from cultivar to cultivar. Generally I just turn the 120-45 micron bags into rosin anyway. But sometimes I will smoke it. I dont press my hash like Frenchy though. I prefer it loose.
You can easily mix up a few varieties when it loose. Once you press, I’m not so sure.
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I’m interested in hearing more info about the stalks. I recently began adding the higher number bags back into the final mix and combining the 25, 45 and 73, basically making one hash. I began looking at the higher bags under a lighted loop and was impressed seeing the stalks and a few tricomes. Everything combined has the best smell (before burning) that I’ve ever noticed with the bubble. My theory is there are other cannabinoids and goodies in those other bags, i dont have testing results, besides smoke reports, but I’m interested in hearing opinions or first hand knowledge.
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…my last batch I only used the work sieve/bag(220) and the 25 and it wasn’t too bad. i’d like to get a finer work sieve(and a whole new setup).
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Rob Starke, who literally wrote the book on hash, says trichome stalks are the primarily constituent of hash that stimulates coughing, its a throat irritant. So its best to eliminate stalks that have separated from the heads.
I use 25, 73, and 120 micron bags under the 220 bag. I throw out the 220 and 120 stuff and dry the other two. The 120 catches a lot of stalks and pulverized leaf matter with almost no potency. Yields on recent runs of mixed rough leaf trim (Sweet Tooth, C99, Generals Daughter) averaged about 10 grams per dry pound. This was with very rough trim, everything from the plants except branches and trimmed bud.
In my experience after 20 minutes of strong agitation and sieving, there is another 10-15% of yield left in the material for another run. Simply a matter of time and economics whether it is worth retrieving. Third run yields are typically nominal.
-b420
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Thanks for this. I just got a new set with 8 and did a couple with the micron-sizes that frenchy cannoli demonstrated 180, 160, 45(toss180); Yield was good but quality suffered. I see your sieves make a lot more sense and appreciate you aren’t a beginner. 
I’ll try your spec’s next & think I’ll do better.
missing dry-sieved 
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Hash is extremely strain dependent. You are sieving trichome heads so trichome head size is important among other things. Strains selected and bred with hash in mind do a lot better than ones that are not. If hash is just a byproduct of your flower run it’s not that big of a deal but if your running a lot of hash or sacrificing whole plants you want to be able to yield. Just because strains are potent does not mean they will wash either. One of my friend just washed a full plant of Forbidden Shoes (forbidden fruit x Cement Shoes) and got almost nothing back even though the plants were coated in thc and were squishing 20% yields on rosin. So get you a cultivar that will dump hash it really makes all the difference in the world. Another often overlooked thing is ambient room temp. Cold temps might not help on your first or second wash but does seem to keep later washed doing a little better. Washed material can be repurposed and will contain small amounts of thc and other cannibinoids. One option is to dry it out and get it distilled. Return will be low so stack it up and keep it stored until you can do a big distillate run. I’m not a fan of distillate “hot dog water” is what it’s known as in my neck of the woods but waste not want not. 
And finally full spectrum is great but people are lying to you if they say they prefer that over some 90u heads:+1:
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Hash on! 
When do you consider material to be depleted of resin? How do you determine that?
I’m curious to hear because I have some mat’l that is still yielding after 10 washes. It is stored refrigerated & immersed in water. In the past experience 12 was the most I’ve gotten but this stuff is kinda crazy. 
It seems that quality doesn’t really deteriorate very much either as the input mat’l just get’s cleaner but eventually the plant fibers disintegrate and it’s a slippery slide downhill then.
And, fwiw, Mr Frenchy claimed 40 was the most rinses he’d gotten but that was a freak.
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