Potential newbie here with a few questions for all you distillers with experience. I have a friend that owns a farm in Colorado. He has about 200lbs of trim from some high quality greenhouse cannabis from this years and last years harvest that he would like turned into “super clean” distillate. He is looking for someone to do this in house because he has been burned by 3 different extractors, but he doesn’t want to be involved at all and he doesn’t know many people because he spends all his time up on the mountain. He knows and trusts me so the deal he offered me is that if I learn the skills necessary to make the distillate and buy the equipment needed and then make carts with the distillate, then he will split the proceeds from the sale (wholsale) of the carts with me 50/50. Then after that I would be able to would be able to process the trim for him every year with the same deal, which would be 80 to 100 pounds a year. I’ve done some research about what this task would entail but now I would like some opinions please. Here are some questions I have:
Overall do you think this is a good opportunity or not so much? Thoughts? Advice?
My friend tells me we could expect to get 10L of distillate from the 200lbs of trim. Is this a reasonable estimate?
What type of setup would be ideal for processing this amount of material? I’m assuming some sort of SPD is the way to go, but what size setup would be best? Any recommendations on specific setups from specific manufacturers would be appreciated.
Would it be worth it to hire a consultant to train me to do this quickly and efficiently rather than going thru a bunch of trial and error myself?
About how long (ballpark) would it take a newbie like me working by myself to process 200 pounds of trim into “really clean” (more than a single pass) distillate if I was working 8 to 10 hours a day, 5 days a week?
Do you think it would be possible to pick up other growers as clients and process stuff for them in order to supplement my income from this or does everyone pretty much do this themselves? or is there already an abundance of distillers around and clients are hard to come by? (I’m in Colorado)
If the answer to #4 is that there are a decent number of growers in need of a distillate processor out there (in Colorado) and my goal is to make this a full time gig, would it be worth it to jump up to a small WFE setup or still best to learn on SPD? Note that I would probably have money to hire a consultant to train me if necessary to help get over the steep learning curve.
Thanks in advance for helping a potential newbie, much appreciated
200 lbs of trim isn’t worth learning a new trade for. That much I can absolutely tell you. This is something you really need to like or enjoy.
Distillate is really cheap right now. So the actual return for you on a 10L split in this market is going to be really rough after you buy all the gear to do the work. Maybe I’m wrong though…I don’t make distillate… because it’s so cheap to buy wholesale. Wiper labs just piping the disty out into the street…
He’s got the right idea and passion. Just, yea no you won’t get 10L off 100-200lbs not even close.
@Racks do you have basic understanding of making BHO or ethanol shatter? Or is this your first ever experience? If the answer is no, I’d have someone else who 100% knows what their doing process his trim. I came on here to learn extracting in general then jump into distillation and I’m just here to say, be careful… no way an expert but please just be careful…
Why would one turn GREAT, or even GOOD material to distillate?
especially if one doesn’t have the gear or the knowledge.
If the goal is “carts”, because that’s what your market demands, there are shorter routes, to better carts.
100kg at 10% potency. = 10kg of available THC. Getting 65% of that to distillate (6.5kg) is certainly possible. Maybe 60% if you’re aiming at two passes…but you’re not likely to manage that your first time out, and 200lb isn’t actually 100kg (just makes the math easier).
Your friend may not be an actual friend. He wants you to take all of the risk, so he can get some profits off of his unusable trash (trim). Keep in mind Distillation would just be the final step of the equation. Firstly, you would have to extract the biomass, which depending on the method (EtOH, CO2, or BHO) comes with its own challenges and tribulations. Secondly you have do all of the post processing (winterization/filtration/solvent recovery) which again comes with its own set of challenges. Lastly, would come the volatile strip and final distillation. Depending on our set up the amount of equipment/ solvents/ and ancillaries this would take could easily set you five to six figures back. On top of all that, distillate is selling for dirt cheap, like less than $5 a gram cheap, and no offence but you aren’t going to be making top dollar 99% distillate on your first couple of runs.
just a newb trying to find a good deal on a liter. Any suggestions?
I don’t think this is that kind of site but I’m also new here so who knows 