There have been some other threads on this subject as of late and I wanted to share my method and experience.
I have made hash 15-20 times and used the below method for most of those. The first few times I made water/ice hash I used a set of "Bubble bags" with 5 screen stages. I really liked the method and the result but the bags are expensive.
I thought about it for a while and decided that I could accomplish the same result in a simpler way. The theory of "Bubble Bags" is that Resin/trics are heavier than water so they sink through different size screens to the bottom, green matter on the other hand floats to the top. With this in mind I developed the following system that I have used many times. I have compared this way to other ways and found exactly the same result in yeild.
First of all, I trim my plants and buds when they are harvested not after they are dry. I also do not process the fan leaves. When I trim, all fan leaves and big leaves (that contain very little obvious crystals) get tossed into the garbage. This reduces the amount of product that I need to process by 75%. I do this for convinience, less to process makes it easier and faster. Although the fan leaves might contain 5% of the trichs it makes the job 5 times harder.
Secondly, I prefer to dry shake/sift most of my trim. I prefer the pure crystal for smoking and pressing into hash. I generally just use the water to get the hash that dry shaking misses. For this post I am going to make both dry shake hash AND water hash. I will be using the clippings of 2 plants (not fan leaves etc) mainly the fine trim and popcorn buds. The total wieght was 65g bone dry.
Instead of making you wait till the end to see the final result, here is a pic of the fianal reward. 4g of very clean 1st shake, 1.5g of 2nd shake, 2g pressed water hash and 1g water hash I worked to putty. Total take was 8.5g.
Well lets get started here!
Part 1- Dry sift hash.
First I will do a dry shake method. For this I use a cheap basic strainer, a cooking splatter screen, and a pot grinder w/ kif screen. I highly recomend the splatter screen as it has a very fine stainless steel mesh about 75-100 microns. I also use a old serving tray to catch the final shake. (as pictured)
First you will need some shake/trimmings. just used scissors to pre-chop it to a basic consistancy, not to small.
Tip- Do not use a grinder or food processer etc. This just smashes the triches and smears them into the leaves which greatly reduces the amount of final result. Grinding is fine for oil or hand rub hash but not good for dry sift or water/ice hash.
I now use a strainer with fairly big holes to seperate the majority of the green matter from the finer matter and trichs. Under the strainer is my grease splatter screen and below that is my smooth catch tray. REMEMBER- the dust is very fine and even the slightest breeze will blow away all of your hard work. Durring the shake be very gentle. I then use a spoon to mix it in combanation with tapping on the side. I DO NOT try to press or grind it through the strainer, just light stir/shake/tap action. I spend about 5 mins doing this.
I now have a nice pile on my finer screen.
I now use a card to geltly shuffle the pile around on the screen while tapping the screen. Once again I don't want to grind the green matter through the screen, I just want the trichs to fall through.
Now I have a very fine sifted powder which I put into my kif screen.
Now 10 mins of shaking in my kif grinder and I am done. after some shaking and tapping I am left with a beautiful golden powder. Taste Test!
I decided this time to do a 2nd shake, the whole prossess one more time yeilded another pile of kif, still good but you can clearly see it is greener than the first.
Well that wraps it up for my dry shake method. You can now use it for butter, press it into hash, or smoke it as is.
Now it is time to make sure I didn't miss any. I will do a water wash.
Part 2. - Water/ice hash.
As stated above, I do not use bags or screens for this. I also have tested it and if I would not have dry sifted the above trim I would have got an equal amount of hash, but since I did, this water hash yeild will obviously be light.
Tip- Cold is important. Cold water, cold trim! This only works well if your water is ice cold, I normally put the jars of water in the freezeer and stir them every few mins till they crystalize and I also freeze my trim for an hour or so. If the water heats to room temp then the trics will melt and the water will turn golden and the resin can not be captured. I also put the jars in the freezer durring the process whenever I have down time waiting.
I am doing 2 batches/jars this time.(no reason just 'cause.) The jars are 3/4 full of water. Everything is cold so lets go!
I now add the trim to the jar....
Now I shake the hell out of it for 20-30 seconds and set it down.....
Tip - Do not re-shake it... defeats the whole purpose. Once the trichs settle to the bottom you must take care not to stir them up. I normally use a fork to sort of push the trim down and agitate it without diturbing the bottom water in the jar.
After it settles for a few mins I slowly and carefully add enough water to top off the jar, then I wait a few more mins for more settling.
Now it is time to remove the trim. I use a spoon carefully scoop the trim off. I add more cold water to top off jar and keep spooning/adding water untill all the trim is gone.
Now I take the jar and run it all through a coffee filter. It doesn't matter what style, any coffee filter is fine. I find it convenient to use a permenent coffee filter to hold the paper one but a funnel etc would work also.
You can see the last bit has alot of trichs...
Now I wait for it to drip through and I then place the filter on paper toel to wick most of the moisture out.
I then lay the coffee filter out on a smooth counter and use a "scraper" to scrape the wet hash off the filter. Tip- credit cards do not work well as they have a flat edge, I am using a plastic buisness card but a sharp plastic spatula or the like would work also.
Now let your fresh hash dry and then the most important step... Taste Test!
That's it folks. Thank you for letting me share and I hope this info helps out many people.
Jonny
I have made hash 15-20 times and used the below method for most of those. The first few times I made water/ice hash I used a set of "Bubble bags" with 5 screen stages. I really liked the method and the result but the bags are expensive.
I thought about it for a while and decided that I could accomplish the same result in a simpler way. The theory of "Bubble Bags" is that Resin/trics are heavier than water so they sink through different size screens to the bottom, green matter on the other hand floats to the top. With this in mind I developed the following system that I have used many times. I have compared this way to other ways and found exactly the same result in yeild.
First of all, I trim my plants and buds when they are harvested not after they are dry. I also do not process the fan leaves. When I trim, all fan leaves and big leaves (that contain very little obvious crystals) get tossed into the garbage. This reduces the amount of product that I need to process by 75%. I do this for convinience, less to process makes it easier and faster. Although the fan leaves might contain 5% of the trichs it makes the job 5 times harder.
Secondly, I prefer to dry shake/sift most of my trim. I prefer the pure crystal for smoking and pressing into hash. I generally just use the water to get the hash that dry shaking misses. For this post I am going to make both dry shake hash AND water hash. I will be using the clippings of 2 plants (not fan leaves etc) mainly the fine trim and popcorn buds. The total wieght was 65g bone dry.
Instead of making you wait till the end to see the final result, here is a pic of the fianal reward. 4g of very clean 1st shake, 1.5g of 2nd shake, 2g pressed water hash and 1g water hash I worked to putty. Total take was 8.5g.
Well lets get started here!
Part 1- Dry sift hash.
First I will do a dry shake method. For this I use a cheap basic strainer, a cooking splatter screen, and a pot grinder w/ kif screen. I highly recomend the splatter screen as it has a very fine stainless steel mesh about 75-100 microns. I also use a old serving tray to catch the final shake. (as pictured)
First you will need some shake/trimmings. just used scissors to pre-chop it to a basic consistancy, not to small.
Tip- Do not use a grinder or food processer etc. This just smashes the triches and smears them into the leaves which greatly reduces the amount of final result. Grinding is fine for oil or hand rub hash but not good for dry sift or water/ice hash.
I now use a strainer with fairly big holes to seperate the majority of the green matter from the finer matter and trichs. Under the strainer is my grease splatter screen and below that is my smooth catch tray. REMEMBER- the dust is very fine and even the slightest breeze will blow away all of your hard work. Durring the shake be very gentle. I then use a spoon to mix it in combanation with tapping on the side. I DO NOT try to press or grind it through the strainer, just light stir/shake/tap action. I spend about 5 mins doing this.
I now have a nice pile on my finer screen.
I now use a card to geltly shuffle the pile around on the screen while tapping the screen. Once again I don't want to grind the green matter through the screen, I just want the trichs to fall through.
Now I have a very fine sifted powder which I put into my kif screen.
Now 10 mins of shaking in my kif grinder and I am done. after some shaking and tapping I am left with a beautiful golden powder. Taste Test!
I decided this time to do a 2nd shake, the whole prossess one more time yeilded another pile of kif, still good but you can clearly see it is greener than the first.
Well that wraps it up for my dry shake method. You can now use it for butter, press it into hash, or smoke it as is.
Now it is time to make sure I didn't miss any. I will do a water wash.
Part 2. - Water/ice hash.
As stated above, I do not use bags or screens for this. I also have tested it and if I would not have dry sifted the above trim I would have got an equal amount of hash, but since I did, this water hash yeild will obviously be light.
Tip- Cold is important. Cold water, cold trim! This only works well if your water is ice cold, I normally put the jars of water in the freezeer and stir them every few mins till they crystalize and I also freeze my trim for an hour or so. If the water heats to room temp then the trics will melt and the water will turn golden and the resin can not be captured. I also put the jars in the freezer durring the process whenever I have down time waiting.
I am doing 2 batches/jars this time.(no reason just 'cause.) The jars are 3/4 full of water. Everything is cold so lets go!
I now add the trim to the jar....
Now I shake the hell out of it for 20-30 seconds and set it down.....
Tip - Do not re-shake it... defeats the whole purpose. Once the trichs settle to the bottom you must take care not to stir them up. I normally use a fork to sort of push the trim down and agitate it without diturbing the bottom water in the jar.
After it settles for a few mins I slowly and carefully add enough water to top off the jar, then I wait a few more mins for more settling.
Now it is time to remove the trim. I use a spoon carefully scoop the trim off. I add more cold water to top off jar and keep spooning/adding water untill all the trim is gone.
Now I take the jar and run it all through a coffee filter. It doesn't matter what style, any coffee filter is fine. I find it convenient to use a permenent coffee filter to hold the paper one but a funnel etc would work also.
You can see the last bit has alot of trichs...
Now I wait for it to drip through and I then place the filter on paper toel to wick most of the moisture out.
I then lay the coffee filter out on a smooth counter and use a "scraper" to scrape the wet hash off the filter. Tip- credit cards do not work well as they have a flat edge, I am using a plastic buisness card but a sharp plastic spatula or the like would work also.
Now let your fresh hash dry and then the most important step... Taste Test!
That's it folks. Thank you for letting me share and I hope this info helps out many people.
Jonny
