I picked up a dab press a couple of weeks ago and have been really high since then. Actually my reasoning was I wanted to smoke less and get just as baked so I figured pressing some rosin so I can top my bong hits with a little goo was a good way to accomplish it.
Anyhow just wanted to see who else is pressing their own rosin and start a discussion about techniques and products that you like to use.
I’m using a dabpress 4ton model with 90micron bags. I’m getting a decent product with decent yield. My rosin is dark amber and melts and bubbles although It does need a good deal of flame to get it melted and lit. Thinking maybe if I go down to a 72 micron bag I might get a meltier/bubblier product.
I’ve been pretty frustrated with trying to break off appropriate sized doses and have settled on sticking my rosin in the freezer for 10-15 mins after making it and then shattering it and scooping up the shards to toke on.
Bag size/strain/temp/rosin curing all play a part in the texture and taste.
Smaller micron bags will lower your yield but produce a lighter rosin. If you’re pressing bud that has been cured a long tome, the tricomes will be darker and that will make your rosin even darker. Nothing wrong, just doesn’t look like what you see in a store.
Lower temps will give you less yield, but generally will be more stable at room temp. Meaning it won’t shatter, but it won’t be sappy.
High temps will make more, but will make it more like a thick oil at room temp. Certain strains need higher temps (200f). If it’s really high on the indica side or super sticky try 160-180f through a 75 or 90 micron bag. Then put the rosin in a silicon container and put that back on the press at 140. When it melts and is more of a liquid mix it with a dab tool and stir in some air. Cover it and put it in the fridge for 24 hours. You should get something more like wax. Also at room temp, you can take a dab tool and scoop of some rosin that’s sticky and then heat the dab tool to make it drip off on to the bowl. Not too much where it vaporizes just enough to get it to slide off. You can also get some terpenes to add a small drop to the rosin when it’s warm, mix it in before putting in the fridge to add a new flavor profile and make it more like oil. I put mine in a glass syringe for dripping on J’ and bowls. Watch vids online about curing rosin, it will take you down a rabbit hole. Nugsmasher has get videos to get stoned and watch.
If you want to see what you might find in the store harvest it a week or two early and blast it with a solvent.
I have pressed a few pounds of flower and a kief and all sorts of temps, pressures and time. I have a DIY press made with a 10T Strongway shop press and a 4x7 heated plate kit.
I just harvested an average outdoor plant and I plan to dry it, run it all through a dry sifter, collect the kief, and then press the kief.
It’s like tree sap but thicker. Based on what you said I dropped the temp and got a product that’s much less of a sticky mess and a nicer more
Golden color.
I had started out pressing for 2 mins at 197 degrees (which I now thing was either too high or too long) but have now tried a couple of runs of low and slow 180 for 2mins and a couple of hot and fast like 220 for 90 seconds. Both low and slow and hot and fast produced a nicer result than the first few runs. I only have 90 micron bags right now so haven’t experimented with bag size yet.
I’d love to get that cake frosting texture. From what I understand I need to be pressing bubble hash to make really good extract… that said I get high on just pressing leftover shake!
Once you collect it, put it back on the hot plate around 100F, whip air into it and place in the fridge sealed air tight for 24-72 hours. You should get a wax/buttery/frosting like texture. Not a pro but I’ve follow these directions and have enjoyed the results. Enjoy cloud nine.
I haven’t done any pressing yet but I’m interested.
Could you please tell me the difference between the micron bags you use? I’m catching on to the different temps and times and even pressure making a difference but I don’t quite understand the difference with the micron bags.
I have no experience other than the 90 micron bags I use. My understanding is that if you are pressing flower 90 is a good sweet spot between quality and yield which is why I started there.
If you go with a higher micron bag like 120 its got bigger holes in it so you’ll get a bigger yield but a lower quality ( i have not tried this myself so I do not really know what “lower quality” actually looks/smokes like).
Each terpene has a different evap point. So not only will you get a less oily rosin (more like taffy that snaps) at lower temps, you also get more flavors. Lower temps with smaller bags will yield easy to handle full of flavor dabs, but less % flower to rosin ratio. 75micron bag pressing at 160, and I got butter almost straight off the parchment paper. Indica and hybrids generally press the best as they tend to be stickier.
Save you left over chips from pressing too. You’ll be surprised how much gets trapped in the bags. I save a half mason jar and then make coconut oil for edibles.
Ok that’s something I’ve been wondering about. When I press I typically pull the flatten bag bag out of there and just throw it out but I assume I can still do something else with it because I’ve noticed that some of the bags have some oil like soaked into them
All I’ve done with em so far is chew on the corner a little. Tastes great.
@Deez the potency is kind of unknown. I try to go by some math like weed in an illegal state is probably 15-18% thc. I have 12 pucks from 7g presses, I yielded 18-22% after pressing… lol I just eat a treat and see. I know how I feel after 100mg edible and base it in that. My last batch was 50 size 00 pills and 50 small matcha mochi treats. One mochi treat or two pills messed me up. Also the press won’t decarb the weed much at all since the press is under 230 and for a very short period of time. If I want to have exact dosage I cook with distillate. Another recipe beside the below One is to make sugar. I’ll put that below too.
My process oil:
I take all my pucks and put them in a mason jar with foil over the top and put it in the oven at 235 for 30 minutes. Then let cool down put oil in the jar until it’s about a half to 3/4 of an inch over the pucks (about 1 cup of oil) place in my crockpot for 4 hours on low on a silicone trivet to not burn the bottom, and fill the crockpot with water until the water is half way up the jar. Every 1-2 hours I gently swish the jar around. If you want less pot flavor mix water in with the oil. The terps will separate into the water and the thc into the oil. Once the jar is room temp, put it in the fridge. The hard puck of oil will be potent and you can dump the water out with all the terps and chlorophyll.
Sugar:
Weigh the pucks (for a step later on)
Decarb pucks let pucks and jar cool to room temp (important!) hot alcohol is dangerous.
Add everclear or at least 190 prof food grade alcohol (NOT isopropyl) Do a 2-1 of alcohol to weed by weight (pucks weigh more due to bags) if your pucks weigh in at 20g add 40g alcohol.
Put in fridge for 30-40 minutes swishing around a few times.
Empty alcohol solution into sugar with enough sugar to make a paste.
Mix
Spread wet sugar out in a thin layer on parchment and let the alcohol evaporate. The sugar will get dry again like normal sugar but a little sticky.
Now put that sugar in anything you want. Coffee, tea, baking.
I’m getting the hang of this. Last week I pressed some at about 165 for 4 mins and left it sealed up in a cabinet for a day or two. When I checked in on it it was cake frosting. Beautiful.
Jartech for the win. Ok I don’t like that term but it’s what some guys are calling it.
I was able to repeat my previous results and forgot to mention both times I did load my pressed rosin into one of those little silicon storage containers and laid it on the plates at 120 for 5 mins or so after it was all done then sealed it up for a day and bingo.
Also picked up a puff Co peak pro. Won’t be here til next week.
@Deez@Tastebuds. Here is a texture I got from pressing in 75 micron bags at 180 with some really sticky hybrids. Cured for 48 hours made them stable at room temp and I could handle them without my body heat making them sticky. This was way longer than needed but the more I messed with this taffy like texture, the more golden color as it blended. Plus I was stoned AF on dabs already.
