Hey everyone, I was looking to polish my bubble hash knowledge and I noticed there isn’t much on the forum about bubble hash recently. I have pounds of trim laying around so I decided to throw up some info about how I do things. hopefully, someone can learn from my experiences and I would love critique on my process if anyone has better ideas. Buckle up buttercup It’s gunna be a long day of washing.
You will need
- Weed
- Ice
- Clean water( I use 5-8 gal
of RO or distilled each run) - Bubble bags 45, 160, 190, 220 micron
- 25 micron pressing screen
- Clean dish towel (one that has been washed a few times. They have less lint to drop)
- 5- food grade 5 gal buckets (more is better)
- Big spoon for stirring
- Scraper( an old credit card or a butter knife that has been ground smooth on the concrete is perfect)
- Nitrile gloves
- Parchment paper(not freezer paper or wax paper)
- Large cardboard box( you may need more than one if your washing a lot)
- Waterproof thermometer(Optional)
*Note before you get started cut the bottom couple inches out of 3 buckets. I call these the bag buckets. They will be used as a skeleton for your bags. You will also need to make drying boxes. I wipe any dust out of the box with a damp rag then give them a good spritz with H2O2 solution to sterilize. Place a sheet of parchment into the box. the parchment should be slightly larger than the box so the edges turn up. This will help prevent spillage while handling.
Edges of parchment turned up
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The night before you wash put your product in the freezer. I don’t mill mine as I want the cleanest product possible and am willing to sacrifice a little yield to achieve that goal. If you want max yield you can mill the product before it goes in the freezer.
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Get all your tools together and sterilize everything, don’t forget your work surfaces and hands. I use 99% Isopropyl alcohol for anything resin covered or sticky and H2O2 spray for everything else. If your one of those people who likes to waste nothing, you can also use grain alcohol for a food grade alternative. After an evap you can get some pretty decent oil for dabs or tincture.
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When it comes to ice, less is more. Let the cold water do the work. Once the water is chilled maintaining a single layer of ice on top of the water keeps it cold. Too much ice will grind the product and contaminate your hash. Throw a few scoops of Ice in a bucket then fill 2/3 with water. Add small amounts of ice as necessary until the water reaches freezing. If you don’t have a thermometer its cold enough when the ice melt slows down. While you wait put your 220 bag in a separate bucket. When your water reaches freezing add your frozen product to the 220 bag and pour your cold water over the top. Let that soak for 20-30 minutes until everything is good and soggy. This will help keep the plant matter from breaking down during washing. As always add small amounts of Ice along the way to maintain freezing temp. This would be a good time to get your other bags ready. Place a bag bucket inside each bag and fold the excess over the top and into the bag bucket. make sure the bottom of the bag is tight. Stack them with the empty catch bucket on bottom, then the 45, then the 160, and finally top it off with the 190. Set them aside for later. I also have 2 spacers I made by cutting the top off of some extra buckets to give me a little more room in my catch bucket. These are optional.
Bottom of the bag nice and tight.
Fold the excess into the bag bucket
Spacer to help lift the bottom bag up(optional)
Sieving frame
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Now its time to wash. Gently stir for 3 minutes, just hard enough to make a vortex in the bucket. Pull the 220 bag up enough to get it off the bottom of the bucket and let everything settle for a few minutes. Later on we will be repeating this this step with progressively longer stir times. just add a minute or two each time you repeat the process.
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Now it’s time for sieving, this is the meat and taters of bubble hash. Remove the 220 bag from the wash bucket and set aside in another clean bucket. Slowly pour the wash water into the sieving frame we built at the end of step 3. Do it slowly so you don’t flood any of the bags. Any flooding is a chance for contamination. the water should flow through the sieve without puddling. You may have to switch the catch bucket a few times as it will fill up fast. pick up the whole rig by the bottom spacer and swap to an empty catch bucket. This is where the more is better part comes in.
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Finally the fun part. most of the good stuff will be sitting on the 45 bag. you will need to scrape this every round to prevent clogging. the 190 and 160 won’t collect much so they can just be scraped once when you are done. Place the clean towel on a sturdy table with your pressing screen on top. Use your scraper to scoop the hash out of the bag and put it on the pressing screen. Fold the screen and towel over the hash and give it a good press with your body weight. Unfold and set the chunks aside in your drying box.
- Repeat steps 4-6 with progressively longer wash times until you stop getting hash in the 45 screen or the hash starts turning green. Whichever comes first. usually 5 or 6 washes gets most of it. If your hash turns green in the first wash or two it is likely that you are stirring too hard or have too much Ice grinding the product so adjust your next wash accordingly.
4th wash. Notice the color.
5th wash. Getting a little dirty. With a close look you might see a green hue.
6th wash. Lots of green hue. I stopped here. You could pull more off if you want. The quality will just be lower.
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Finally scrape out your 160 and 190 bags. Sometimes the 160 is decent smoking and worth drying. The 190 will be mostly plant matter. I just throw it away.
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Now that your done washing it’s time to dry the hash. Bust the clumps as finely as you can onto the parchment in the drying box. try not to crowd the parchment. If you are running a lot at once you may need a few boxes. Store the boxes in a cool dry place. 50 degrees and 30% RH is ideal, but that can be hard to achieve without a dedicated space so as cool and dry as you can find. It can take anywhere from a few days up to a few weeks for your hash to dry completely. This is the hardest part, just be patient. It’s dry when you can easily powder it between your fingers. You can feel the lack of moisture in your finger tips.
Spreading the hash out will ensure quick and complete drying
- Once the hash is dry you can powder it up in a joint or bowl and enjoy. You can also do a quality test at this point. Kneed and roll some of the hash between your fingers till it sticks together in a tiny log. Hold one end and slowly move your lighter toward the hash. The further the flame is form the hash when it starts to melt, the cleaner the hash.
Medium quality temple ball made from Gorilla Cookies auto trim with 9 month cure.
If you want truly spectacular hash, I take it a step further and make temple balls. A temple ball is a preserved hash ball that has been cured over a long time(90 days up to years). If done well with high quality hash it will dissolve itself into a nougat center with a protective candy shell. There is no other concentrate like it and it is well worth the wait. This is the stuff wet dreams are made of. That topic coming soon, as soon as this batch dries.
