Relatively new to running hash and encountered an issue today. Yesterday we pressed some of the nicest hash to date. Today we tried to press a different strain, and it didn’t melt well at all. It took 40 minutes to melt, and didn’t melt great. We chalked it up to strain variance. We then went back to the same hash from the same wash as yesterday, and again, it wouldn’t melt where yesterday after 2 minutes at 170 with no pressure, it was pouring. We checked the plates and temperature and they were OK.
The only difference from yesterday and today was that the hash came out of different freeze dryers. Both batches were originally frozen for 24 hours and then freeze dry cycle started with max temp of 5 F. Both batches were flipped and frozen again for 12 hours and dried again. Is it possible to over dry the hash at such low temps? Any help would be much appreciated. Thanks.
We pressed both in 25u bags. Again, the big issue is that the same rosin from the same wash was pressing totally different. The only difference was the day and the freeze dryer.
You can definitely over dry hash in a freeze drier very easily. By 5f are you referring to the shelf temp? I like to keep mine set to 45f on the shelves and run extra freeze time before a solid 8 to 12 hr dry time.
The same batch not flowing on the plates is weird… I’d double check your pressure… thinking maybe you pressed too quickly at first, its best to follow the flow of the hash as it warms up between the plates and then begins to flow out.
Is there a chance the 2 batches weighed differently and needed different dry times?
Keeping anything on the plates for 40min is a really bad idea… I’d shoot for 2 mins, 2 and a half or so of max plate time no matter what the pressure is.
What temp was your press at? What type of press? I’m curious if it could be caused by only one plate heating correctly.
What do you mean by over dry? The point of a freeze dryer is to remove moisture while minimizing exposure to heat.
Overly freeze drying will cause no degradation, only negative impact that would come along with totally drying the biomass is potential loss of terpenes
It’s about consistency not degradation when you over dry. You loose most of the terpenes, creating a dry crumble consistency, as opposed to a wet badder when timed right.
The freeze drier has the ability to remove almost 100% moisture, but do you want that? Its not just water weight being removed.
