I ran into some yield issues when processing live material into water hash and it was suggested that our room was not cold enough to get the right returns, and that just sounds off to me. Do I really need the wash room to be 30-40 degree F? Currently it can get to 60F ish. So where did we mess up and why did we yield so little?
We did run auto flowers this time which could have been a problem, and were not “hash genetics” persay so that could be an issue, hopefully the only one. I understand that live material yields less per wash and needs many light agitations to capture all the cannabinoids and at the right quality. We used fresh frozen material. We washed the material 4 times, and collected them in different buckets. First time was a long soak with light agitation and that had the best yield over all surprisingly. We washed the rest of the material 3 more times for 20 min each, agitating every 5 min.
We processed 2400g of fresh frozen and ended up with 25 grams of hash. Albeit, fire fucking water hash, but so little none the less a 1% return is extremely saddening. So guys, where did I fuck up?
Did you make your own ice cubes? Did u PH adjust the water? Do you make up the ice water and put it back into the freezer to chill it as cold as possible?
Is the starting material fresh? Frozen?
There are a lot of variables not just the temp of the room.
I appreciate the search bar comment but ive spent hours on the site and other and exhausted it, otherwise I would not have posted. I understand that everything should be as cold as possible. It was live material in, and it all smelled great, was grown properly, and covered in trichs. We did not PH the water, ill look into that. And we do not make our own ice cubes atm, but have a ice machine ordered. Our water is constantly kept at 38 F by a giant recirculating chiller. So it comes in very cold, we let it sit in the water for a bit before adding the flower straight from the deep freezer which is at -14C.
We did not have the biomass tested, if I can find a place to test it thats feasible I was planning on doing so just havent had the chance.
Cant blast or ethanol the spent biomass yet to see if we get anything. The plan was to test the initial and then test the spent.
We have some genetics going that we know are good for hash, just needed time to grow mothers.
My main concern was that the air was too warm. We were talking to a few people and one person made it seem like all our problems came from having a 60F room. We have all the pots insulated hella, maybe getting smaller ice pellets would work better too. We currently use pre made RO ice chunkcs which I know are not ideal so thats another main concern.
Flowered for 64 days on all plants. It was trimmed from the stalk, no fan leaves, and the buds were pulled apart by hand and then placed into the water. Frozen within 2 hrs of harvest. Usually under 1 hr.
2 weeks or less from frozen to water hash.
U might have locked up the desired compounds with ice crystals. Blasting the spent biomass is your next move. Or dry some and smoke it. If you feel anything theres more to be caught.
Well I knew they grew lower cannabinoids but damn, they really suck it seems. Glad @Demontrich got we set right with clones little while back, cant wait to wash those proper genetics.
So really the room being 20-30 degrees colder is largely negligible for returns?
It depends. If it matters it matters and if it doesnt it doesnt. You certainly wont know until you try. There are situations where it would make a big difference.
When u say “returns” that could mean yeild in % or quality of the product. Clearly you are going for quality or you wouldnt be making water hash. Everything is dependant on the input material and the quality of the input material is dependant on a number of factors. For that reason you should stack the deck in your favor to assure the highest possible quality. Even if you dont need it 100% of the time it is always better to be in a colder room.
You dont need brakes until you go to stop but good luck arriving safely without them
Most believe ambient temperature matters…Which it absolutely does but more importantly what are the other variables? Fresh frozen or dry material? Are you using some form of automation or by hand? Are you familiar with the starting material from a extraction standpoint? Have you ever ran the strain before? My personal experience (anecdotal) is 1 out of 3 strains do well with mechanical separation. I personally view all my starting material through a microscope. Which, allows me to and take pictures of every sample I use. That way I collect data on my returns. Excel is so important…I hate the fact I had to throw a way all my logs and data when I was involved in the black market. Just to avoid enhanced charges. The law will give you a organized crime or criminal mastermind charge for being efficient. Data, data, data… and keeping notes besides SOPs are important in a home environment or commercial environment.
Have built cold rooms with less that still hold temp, just require a bit more AC running.
I’ve built cold rooms with more that I felt was a waste of money spent on insulation/design.
Normal wall thickness with R15 will work. R25 is best. Anymore is overkill imo any less and you’ll be frustrated that your spec’d equipment isn’t holding temp right.
Also pay attention to how well its sealed. R Value of walls mean nothing if it’s leaky at the joints.
Thanks for the info. R25+ is walk-in freezer numbers. I was hoping to go as low as possible to save space on wall thickness but 15 shouldnt be too bad with polyiso.