Archive for the ‘concentrates’ Category
Weed 101: A primer on cannabis consumption.
There are many, many ways to consume cannabis. Historically it has been burned, concentrated into hashish, distilled into oils and pressed into cakes dating back several thousand years.
- Burning:
Combustion of dried cannabis flowers, or Buds, is by far the most common use. It is also one of the worst methods due to the gasses and by products of burning plant material and breathing it. Placing burning cannabis in a bowl and placing a “tent” over it used to be a medical treatment. Rolling “joints” is quite popular, small hand pipes, chillums and even tin cans and fruit can be used to toke up. Water pipes help reduce some of the transfer of heat and combustion gasses and range from under $10 to several thousands of dollars. Vaporizing is the process of raising the plant oils to their vaporization temperature which is below the combustion temperature of the plant material, eliminating the CO2 and other combustion by products. - Hashish:
The THC and CBD and many other terpenes are concentrated in trichomes, small capsules of oil that give the cannabis flower a sugar coated or frosty appearance when grown properly. These capsules are on small stalks sort of like mushrooms. Traditional separation of these trichome nodules has been by placing the plant on a fine screen and beating or shaking it.
Water extraction of trichomes has become popular with the introduction of graduated silk screen bags market under the trade name “Bubble Bags”. They use the same silk screen method used for hundreds of years only they incorporate water and ice to facilitate transfer of separated trichomes through the successive silk screen sizes.
Trichomes will, when mature, be 120 microns (triple the stalk diameter), to a maximum upwards of 135 microns. Knowing this it is then possible to utilize just a 120 micron screen to isolate the separated heads. Placing the plant material in a freezer and then further reducing the temperature with Dry Ice will cause the trichome stalks to become brittle and break off. Then a minute or two of agitation will move most of the trichomes through the silk screen.
At this point, using dry sift, bubble bag or dry ice you will be left with “kief” which can then be smoked or eaten as is or further processed into Hashish by applying heat and pressure. Heating also “carbolizes” the THC increasing the potency. 
Concentrates: Concentrating cannabis removes most or all of the crude plant material. The primary method is Solvent Extraction and the two main types are Critical CO2 and Butane.
Critical CO2 extraction produces an opaque oil retaining more terpines and therefor flavor and the interaction of various terpines.
BHO results in a translucent “honey oil” or Shatter or opaque “crumble” depending on the processing after extraction. BHO is certainly the most common method due to the low cost and small learning curve required to create a usable product.
The process of pressing “Rosin” from fresh or dried cannabis has been gaining in popularity as it requires nothing more than a way to apply high pressure and/or heat. From simple hair straighteners to elaborate heated presses people are creating excellent rosin with minimal risk or expense.
Eating: Perhaps one of the first methods of getting THC in the body was to just eat the cannabis plant. The entire plant is edible, seeds, roots, stalks, leaves, flowers…there are no know toxins of any consequence in any part of the plant when properly grown (not using toxic chemicals). Cannabis can be made into healthy drinks, cooked into almost any food, used as a marinade, fresh leaves/buds used in salads, concentrates can be added to almost any thing. 5 to 10 milligrams is the recommended starting dosage for those new to edibles and their potentially greatly increased effects.
Sour Diesel CO2 Concentrate
Strain: Sour Diesel Concentrate
Type: Mainly a Sativa – (believed to have descended from Chemdawg 91 and Super Skunk.)
Potency: Estimated 80% to 90% THC
Origin: Art Tic Jester
Creator: Northern Botanical
Method: CO2 Critical Extraction
Apeks Supercritical 1L machine, extracted at 1300 lbs, decompressed at 420
Yield is anywhere up to 25% of the dry weight. The system will process up to 1/2 lb at a time.
Grower: Art Tic Jester – MatSu
Appearance: Think Caramel Carrot Soup
Smell: Bright and citrusy with more than a hint of carrots.
Taste: Excellent, milder than any BHO I’ve tried.
High: Just a Dab’ll do ya. This hits with an immediate impact, right to the brain.
Overall: A really exceptional product and perhaps the best use of trim that I have seen so far. I’m going to get a fresh coil for my dab pen and see how this does. It is a lot more viscous at room temperature than BHO so there will be no laying the dab pen down when it’s loaded. I’ll be striping a paper and rolling up a nice joint of this and it’s parent Sour Diesel for the weekend.
Making Dry Ice Kief
My first run with Dry Ice I used a DVD container.
A couple dollars worth of dry ice was more than enough.
I used some 120 micron silkscreen I had and got an excellent batch off some Purple Kush trim.
My next efforts went even better. I bought a Tupperware container that almost seemed to be made for the job.
This time I went with 200 micron screen and the results were even better.
After you have the trim or bud and dry ice in and the top sealed let it sit for 5 or 10 minutes to chill out.
Flip it and shake it for about 1 minute or less. This first run will be the very best, collect it and set it aside for personnel stash.
Turn it again and shake for a couple more minutes, depending on how much you are working with. It should all be virtually pulverized at this point.
If you shake too long you will just reduce all the plant material to dust and end up with crap. You just want to knock the trichomes off through the screen.
After you have your Kief put it in a hash press and heat it to around 120 degrees for a couple minutes and your done.
No water, no ice cubes, minimal mess and the finest hash you can find if you do it right.
