DET—PDX
Insanely Active Member
Hey fellow growers/processors, for months been making bubble hash for my Michigan Medical patients. Fresh frozen & frozen cured trim/bud. I’d like to explore some methods of preparation, freezing, machines vs bag, starting material, etc.
If you would like, please explain your process, and let’s keep it constructive. Please chime in if you have valuable info, let’s all get better together. It’s foolish thinking one could know everything about a particular subject; never underestimate knowledge to be gained from an individual. I use a 20 gallon bubble magic washer and 220, 160, 75 and 25 bubble bag dude set.
1) Place plant in darkness 48 hours, 2 weeks prior to regular harvest time. (Reduces oxidation increases THC). Weight and tare freezer bags, write tare weight on bag. Harvest chosen fresh-frozen plant by first removing all non-trichome covered plant material from healthy live plant, never touching buds. Cut off manageable sections of live plant one at a time, immediately Bucking small buds into quart bag, making sure to divide tops with scissors, ^ing surface. Place freshly filled quart bag in a gallon freezer bag, place in freezer ASAP. Do not use regular plastic bags as the final storage bag, freezer bags are cents extra. Cut new section and repeat, opening freezer & adding to gallon freezer bag only when quart bag is ready. Once frozen, it MUST remain frozen. Minimum temp -4, I freeze at -11. I have seen commercial growers go down to -35.
(If dry harvest, cover trim/popcorn/kief bin/tray to cure @ 40F 2-3 days prior to freezing, cured bud minimum 3 days jar 50-65F. Not sure about length of cure, my buds never sit for more than a few days before moving on).
2) Fresh Frozen: prepare to wash after freezing at least 24 no more than 48 hours, prep your washer/bags while material’s still in freezer. Place 2 Inch Ice layer on bottom of washer. Place clean 220 bag in washer half zipped, place 1 inch layer of ice in bottom of bag, begin filling water. (Gallons based on material weight). Pull up bag and hang it’s opening over the washer. Carefully add another 2-4 scoops of ice to the bag depending on material mass and then begin carefully inserting plant material using spoon. The less cellular damage you cause to material the less chlorophyll you will see. Use a scooper to carefully add ice in an interspersed way on top of buds. Now it’s time to act quickly, once in the water you are racing a clock till the wash turns green as frozen buds thaw from -35 or -11 depending on temp to (+/-) 32F and begin to add their own chlorophyll filled water content, cellular damage increases the speed and amount of chlorophyll diffusion in your mix. I would have to think the lower the temp the longer it can be washed for. Please chime in here. The secret is to add just enough ice to keep it as cold as possible without crushing the material as the washer agitates your ice/water/plant mix. Many will pre-soak material. I agree with this but you have to be careful if material is frozen. I will allow the frozen to pre-soak for the shortest amount of time possible as I double check the ice/water level and bucket positions. You are certainly gambling it seems with a freeze. On the one hand trichomes release easier, on the other chlorophyll lurks around ever corner. This is why I always add the bulk of the water first, less damage as buds float with the addition of more ice. I add ice as quickly as delicacy allows to avoid excess thawing. This allows the material to briefly persoak as I organize my work area for the drainage/filtering. It’s also difficult to remove Ice but water is easy to drain out and use for your plants etc. In fact you can reuse your wash water to deliver your plants some free infused nutrients.
3) I wash fresh frozen for 5, 7 and 7 minute cycles draining in between. I tend to wash cured for longer, 10 minutes washes until I see green, I never pass 5 for time purposes. I always freeze my material before wash, dried or fresh plant. After the cycle concludes I allow it to settle for 7 minutes if it’s under or equal an ounce and increase settle time 1 min for every added 20g of weight maxing at 10 min regardless of material weight. I have no data to back this just experience of lengthy settle times adding chlorophyll. I avoid using the power drainage function of the washer, it can be over aggressive and damage material. I simply unplug it and set it to drain and gravity does the rest. I angle the outlet hose up and then down in gradual loops to slow the flow and reduce suction in the wash as much as possible, I find more suction will pull more chlorophyll, the trichomes are weighted at the bottom and are water insoluble so they make it out no issue; avoid a forceful drain. Feel free to correct me if I’m wrong or you have another experience with the washers.
4) After draining the machine and filtering the resulting mix through the bags and into a few buckets, I allow the layered bags to drain as well. I begin spraying If it’s fresh frozen, right away, I typically will begin collection on the top bag ASAP despite extra water in the material, as time is constantly ticking on the chlorophyll dispersion and thawing. I use a cleaned metal spoon and a rubber scraper, alternating the use of the tools to collect as much off the screen bag as possible, spraying the material into a pile with RO water as needed to ensure max collection. I
Place the wet hash off the tools and onto a 25 micron drying screen laid atop several layers of paper towel. I then remove the first bag and survey the water content of the second screen bag. I will gently move the bucket itself up and down to try and free water molecules through the screen if it’s excessive. A small amount of excess water actually helps collect the trichomes, and can be dried very quickly from the hash without risking mold in a properly dehumidified room.
A freeze drier is best for drying but I have never seen the need to buy one. I like cold room dried/cured bubble hash consistency better anyway.
5) start the next wash ASAP and re-prep your bucket bags in the meantime. You should have already scraped/sprayed them clean, you could flip them half inside out and spray back through the screen to remove left over trichomes but I say bring them on and just relayed the bags with hopes to get it all this wash. Anyone want to chime in on cleaning bags between washes?
6) I place the hash to dry in the same cold dehumidified room it’s made in. The best fresh frozen is made and stored in cold to preserve freshness at all times of its existence. After a few hours of cold drying, I freeze it for another few. After removing it from the freezer, I carefully break up the frozen hash as much as I can with a dab tool, this will help it dry without a chance of mold collecting in pockets of water. I then place the hash back into the cold, low humidity room to finish its dry/cure. Never enclose wet bubble hash unless you’re freezing it to break it up, or you will get mold.
Questions:
1) do you find longer cured bud or trim yields better? Longer freeze time yield/quality? Shorter freeze time yield/quality?
2) what temperatures have you placed material into freezer? Do you notice a certain freeze temp dealing higher Yields And or terp quality? Do you freeze dry&cured trim/bud at all?
3) how long are your washes and how many? Does this differ for fresh frozen?
4) what is your approximate ice to water ratio based on 28 grams dry or fresh frozen? (8 grams fresh frozen = 28 grams dry, -70% water weight)
5) how are you avoiding chlorophyll? Do you remediate color? Is it possible to refine green material/color from dried bubble hash? (If it has been died green by chlorophyll I would think it’s color fate is sealed but totally curious about options if anyone has attempted color remediation, I know expensive CRC Chambers with filters can do this, some people always use a CRC no matter what)
6) how long do you let the wash settle for? Doe this differ for frozen material?
Slurricane #7 fresh frozen 25 75 and 160u.
If you would like, please explain your process, and let’s keep it constructive. Please chime in if you have valuable info, let’s all get better together. It’s foolish thinking one could know everything about a particular subject; never underestimate knowledge to be gained from an individual. I use a 20 gallon bubble magic washer and 220, 160, 75 and 25 bubble bag dude set.
1) Place plant in darkness 48 hours, 2 weeks prior to regular harvest time. (Reduces oxidation increases THC). Weight and tare freezer bags, write tare weight on bag. Harvest chosen fresh-frozen plant by first removing all non-trichome covered plant material from healthy live plant, never touching buds. Cut off manageable sections of live plant one at a time, immediately Bucking small buds into quart bag, making sure to divide tops with scissors, ^ing surface. Place freshly filled quart bag in a gallon freezer bag, place in freezer ASAP. Do not use regular plastic bags as the final storage bag, freezer bags are cents extra. Cut new section and repeat, opening freezer & adding to gallon freezer bag only when quart bag is ready. Once frozen, it MUST remain frozen. Minimum temp -4, I freeze at -11. I have seen commercial growers go down to -35.
(If dry harvest, cover trim/popcorn/kief bin/tray to cure @ 40F 2-3 days prior to freezing, cured bud minimum 3 days jar 50-65F. Not sure about length of cure, my buds never sit for more than a few days before moving on).
2) Fresh Frozen: prepare to wash after freezing at least 24 no more than 48 hours, prep your washer/bags while material’s still in freezer. Place 2 Inch Ice layer on bottom of washer. Place clean 220 bag in washer half zipped, place 1 inch layer of ice in bottom of bag, begin filling water. (Gallons based on material weight). Pull up bag and hang it’s opening over the washer. Carefully add another 2-4 scoops of ice to the bag depending on material mass and then begin carefully inserting plant material using spoon. The less cellular damage you cause to material the less chlorophyll you will see. Use a scooper to carefully add ice in an interspersed way on top of buds. Now it’s time to act quickly, once in the water you are racing a clock till the wash turns green as frozen buds thaw from -35 or -11 depending on temp to (+/-) 32F and begin to add their own chlorophyll filled water content, cellular damage increases the speed and amount of chlorophyll diffusion in your mix. I would have to think the lower the temp the longer it can be washed for. Please chime in here. The secret is to add just enough ice to keep it as cold as possible without crushing the material as the washer agitates your ice/water/plant mix. Many will pre-soak material. I agree with this but you have to be careful if material is frozen. I will allow the frozen to pre-soak for the shortest amount of time possible as I double check the ice/water level and bucket positions. You are certainly gambling it seems with a freeze. On the one hand trichomes release easier, on the other chlorophyll lurks around ever corner. This is why I always add the bulk of the water first, less damage as buds float with the addition of more ice. I add ice as quickly as delicacy allows to avoid excess thawing. This allows the material to briefly persoak as I organize my work area for the drainage/filtering. It’s also difficult to remove Ice but water is easy to drain out and use for your plants etc. In fact you can reuse your wash water to deliver your plants some free infused nutrients.
3) I wash fresh frozen for 5, 7 and 7 minute cycles draining in between. I tend to wash cured for longer, 10 minutes washes until I see green, I never pass 5 for time purposes. I always freeze my material before wash, dried or fresh plant. After the cycle concludes I allow it to settle for 7 minutes if it’s under or equal an ounce and increase settle time 1 min for every added 20g of weight maxing at 10 min regardless of material weight. I have no data to back this just experience of lengthy settle times adding chlorophyll. I avoid using the power drainage function of the washer, it can be over aggressive and damage material. I simply unplug it and set it to drain and gravity does the rest. I angle the outlet hose up and then down in gradual loops to slow the flow and reduce suction in the wash as much as possible, I find more suction will pull more chlorophyll, the trichomes are weighted at the bottom and are water insoluble so they make it out no issue; avoid a forceful drain. Feel free to correct me if I’m wrong or you have another experience with the washers.
4) After draining the machine and filtering the resulting mix through the bags and into a few buckets, I allow the layered bags to drain as well. I begin spraying If it’s fresh frozen, right away, I typically will begin collection on the top bag ASAP despite extra water in the material, as time is constantly ticking on the chlorophyll dispersion and thawing. I use a cleaned metal spoon and a rubber scraper, alternating the use of the tools to collect as much off the screen bag as possible, spraying the material into a pile with RO water as needed to ensure max collection. I
Place the wet hash off the tools and onto a 25 micron drying screen laid atop several layers of paper towel. I then remove the first bag and survey the water content of the second screen bag. I will gently move the bucket itself up and down to try and free water molecules through the screen if it’s excessive. A small amount of excess water actually helps collect the trichomes, and can be dried very quickly from the hash without risking mold in a properly dehumidified room.
A freeze drier is best for drying but I have never seen the need to buy one. I like cold room dried/cured bubble hash consistency better anyway.
5) start the next wash ASAP and re-prep your bucket bags in the meantime. You should have already scraped/sprayed them clean, you could flip them half inside out and spray back through the screen to remove left over trichomes but I say bring them on and just relayed the bags with hopes to get it all this wash. Anyone want to chime in on cleaning bags between washes?
6) I place the hash to dry in the same cold dehumidified room it’s made in. The best fresh frozen is made and stored in cold to preserve freshness at all times of its existence. After a few hours of cold drying, I freeze it for another few. After removing it from the freezer, I carefully break up the frozen hash as much as I can with a dab tool, this will help it dry without a chance of mold collecting in pockets of water. I then place the hash back into the cold, low humidity room to finish its dry/cure. Never enclose wet bubble hash unless you’re freezing it to break it up, or you will get mold.
Questions:
1) do you find longer cured bud or trim yields better? Longer freeze time yield/quality? Shorter freeze time yield/quality?
2) what temperatures have you placed material into freezer? Do you notice a certain freeze temp dealing higher Yields And or terp quality? Do you freeze dry&cured trim/bud at all?
3) how long are your washes and how many? Does this differ for fresh frozen?
4) what is your approximate ice to water ratio based on 28 grams dry or fresh frozen? (8 grams fresh frozen = 28 grams dry, -70% water weight)
5) how are you avoiding chlorophyll? Do you remediate color? Is it possible to refine green material/color from dried bubble hash? (If it has been died green by chlorophyll I would think it’s color fate is sealed but totally curious about options if anyone has attempted color remediation, I know expensive CRC Chambers with filters can do this, some people always use a CRC no matter what)
6) how long do you let the wash settle for? Doe this differ for frozen material?
Slurricane #7 fresh frozen 25 75 and 160u.
