Dry sift hash making nuances

[browntrout]

Hi folks,

Been making dry sift a long while, however I’ve noticed a few things and am looking for some input.

I’ve got a good quantity of 2020 outdoor beautiful blonde that when sifted into a bag compacted under its own weight in a big round brick. It’s got some melting qualities. It was hard to break up to try and refine a smaller amount further.

However I’ve noticed a few things: during the aging (further drying and in a sealedbag/refrigerator) process after initial sifting, the powder seems to become crumbly and hard again, is this a direct relation of moisture content, or something that happens during aging? With a bit of heat 30c it becomes fairly playable however and will start to darken beyond that.

i suppose blonde has always been a bit harder when talking of imports?

How is it that the afghani hashes stay so soft and playable? Adulterants or further refining?

 

[tobedetermined]

Yes, iirc blond Leb was hard. Moroccan 'blonde' was hard to medium hard but more brown than blonde usually. Afghan or Pakistani Black was typically fingernail soft and black Nepalese was the softest and oiliest. I know I have seen a vid of Afghan’s hand working the powder over a hotplate. They added a bit of tea to get it forming and then using hand pressure and heat. Frenchie was accomplishing the same thing with heat and pressure to create his balls. But these are both blacks. From my attempts with bubble, pressure alone seems to yield hard hash but if I work it with heat I can make it stay semi-soft - but it does turn black.

Lately, I have started to jar it as crystal and just scoop out enough to make a ball or using it as is. But it does need regular mixing to keep it from turning into a solid.

 

[tobedetermined]

Ha . . . I just realized that these are all dated wrong. They are Jan 2022 . . . I must have been sampling when I made the labels.

 

[moose eater]

Hi folks,

Been making dry sift a long while, however I’ve noticed a few things and am looking for some input.

I’ve got a good quantity of 2020 outdoor beautiful blonde that when sifted into a bag compacted under its own weight in a big round brick. It’s got some melting qualities. It was hard to break up to try and refine a smaller amount further.

However I’ve noticed a few things: during the aging (further drying and in a sealedbag/refrigerator) process after initial sifting, the powder seems to become crumbly and hard again, is this a direct relation of moisture content, or something that happens during aging? With a bit of heat 30c it becomes fairly playable however and will start to darken beyond that.

i suppose blonde has always been a bit harder when talking of imports?

How is it that the afghani hashes stay so soft and playable? Adulterants or further refining?

My trichomes/glands are typically pretty dry when pressed, and though under mild to moderate heat in the press/form during pressing, after cooling, it is harder.

I'll wrap them individually in food wrap, then into a sealed jar, 'my hash jar' (my wife engulfed the thing in bead work, with images of the Northern Lights, mountains, sky, etc., done in beading), and we'll go mining in there every now and again.

Over time, even those pieces that were hard when cooled, become pliable and softer on their own, sitting in the jar.

If I had to guess, I'd say that over time, the oils in the glands are releasing, or finding an equilibrium or homeostasis of sorts, making the presence of oil more uniform throughout the material, thus the change in consistency/pliability over time.

Re. Afghani hash, it's my understanding that there are two primary methods used. The dry sieve method (which also has a sub-method or two, the primary being simply sieving and pressing, and another that also uses sieved hash glands, but uses small amounts of water, added to the glands, and formed into shapes that are/were then dried near heat, like a small fire, as opposed to pressing with heat on the form or mold).

The other Afghani method, in my understanding, is closer to the rubbed hash of Northern India (Kashmir) and Nepal. Flowers rubbed, gathering resin, and the resin is worked in the hands.

Using softer water, better organic nutrients (years ago), and a simpler nutrient regimen, gave me more resinous, pliable hash of the black variety, though I believe the 'blackness' was often seemingly a product of skin oils mixing with the glands in the hand-pressing process, and/or oxidization.

My pressed and heat-pressed hash still comes out with clearly blonde glands that darken to a light brown upon pressing/over time.

I'm using a # 100 stainless steel mesh on a custom-made hash tumbler wheel, powered inside a gathering box, by a Dayton 25 rpm gear-reduction drive 120-volt AC motor, spinning above an 11-inch by 17-inch no-stick baking sheet.

 

[tobedetermined]

I am jealous of your DIY tumbler, moose. Sometime I may try dry sift but my environment sees a lot of pet hair so bubble works better for me. (Plus a magnifier and tweezers of course).

 

[EastCoastGambit]

Any thoughts on dry ice with bubble bags? My experience with this was good but obviously the grade changed from 1st sifts (golden blonde) to more plant material coming through with further shaking (darker and green)

 

[tobedetermined]

Every method of trichome collection has its own challenges. Screen sift, tumbler, ice bubble, dry ice bubble . . . all require some finesse to minimize contaminants. Regardless of the process, too much agitation or for too long and you get too much plant matter, so you have to extract just up to the right point. And every plant is a new challenge to keep it interesting. Until Sam’s rumoured ultimate sift technique is revealed, we will just have to muddle through.

 

[Rembetis]

Dry resin requires a small amount of water along with gentle heating to make it pliable. Blonde Hash is often hash that has not been worked much. Pressed into slabs and thats it. As you know the outside will oxidize and turn a darker color. The skin that forms will help protect the resin. Working hash by kneading and pressing breaks up the glands releasing the oils which turn the hash into a darker color and more fragrant product. It becomes very perfume like if you work it enough. I have a chunk that was thoroughly worked and became super sticky and almost dab like. My opinion is that well worked hash is superior to just pressed hash or lightly worked hash. Aged hash will get to the same place as the compounds break down but if you dont have the patience to wait a couple years then it is best to work it.

 

[tobedetermined]

My opinion is that well worked hash is superior to just pressed hash or lightly worked hash. Aged hash will get to the same place as the compounds break down but if you dont have the patience to wait a couple years then it is best to work it.

I agree with you as far as I have experimented, but I only have three years of hash-making experience. I have squished just-cured bud, but I have never made hash from it so I don’t know if working it alone does the trick.

I have been rather excessive sampling hash over the last few years – both homemade and purchased from BM and legal sources. As far as I can tell, traditional imported hash has all but disappeared and it’s been replaced with bland black brick with fancy names - much of which is undoubtedly made here in NA. A lot of the legal hash is sift but it looks and tastes little better than pressed kief. Dry, crumbly and leaning on the harsh side of things with really bland flavor. It all gets you there but it is a cloudy, muddy stone. Stepping into the lala land of pricing, you get the smell and the flavor but there is still something lacking. It seems artificial – in taste and high - which never lasts as long as I want. Especially for $60(!) a gram. I think the lack of aging at any stage of the processing is the main problem with all of these.

So for my taste, aged bud - with at least a half a year of cure – seems to make the tastiest hash with the best effect.

 

[Rembetis]

Underdeveloped Resin is a major problem. Plants are cut early to flip the rooms. Traditional Hash was made from plants that made it to the first frost. Some plants like the ones that produced the Red Lebanese in the old days were left in the field until the plants were brown. Ane then there are the western genetics and attitudes. Everything is hybrid and even though a strain may be a cross of several Afghanis or Kush types it is still a hybrid. In places like Afghanistan they selected for particular qualities. Things like a clean and dreamy effect. Those lines were developed over many generations. They didnt constantly cross todays hyped line with yesterdays overhyped line. And then there are the various ideas about how much amber before harvesting and how much CBD versus THC. To achieve quality Hash making requires a lot of patience and dedication to developing a good line to work with in my opinion. I have used several of TRSC's lines as a starting point since they are still fairly pure regional lines. The Mazari seems to be taking over from things that have been said so we may lose some of the options we now have for preserving true Hash strains

 

[dirty-joe]

Every method of trichome collection has its own challenges./CUT/ And every plant is a new challenge to keep it interesting. /CUT

I agree it is indeed every plant is different, not just every strain. I did 4 plants this year of the same strain, they were of "about" the same dryness, yet I got very different % of return. In fact from a high of 13+ % to a low of about 4%. That is a wide variance, yet does about my 5 year average.

Dry sift is tough. Period. I am quite sure you can get a more consistent return with rosin, or QWISO. But I just simply prefer the taste, and simplicity of dry sift hash.

 

[Petrochemical]

It's amazing how good hash can get cuz growing up All I ever had access to was what whatever would come through the port of Montreal my Lord

 

[Redrum92]

Somewhere on this site I picked up a trick: get a super fine screen (25 micron or less, I think, I cant remember the exact number) and run the end product through that, and you'll often get a fine grey dust of contaminants come through, therefore ending with a better product left on top of the screen

 

[growsjoe1]

Older thread by bubbleman...even Sam gets on with his secret method. Many ways to skin a cat.
Some pros in that thread.

How to Make Full Melt Dry Sift!!! photo essay
https://www.icmag.com/forum/marijuan...ft-photo-essay

peace

 

[EsterEssence]

I have made dry sift in Nepal and here in my garage in the winter and have NEVER added water to it, if you get the resin to 99.9% heads they press with just a little heat. As I said before it is all about cold and watching what is on your hand when you are working the sift on a screen, not rocket science …

 

[EastCoastGambit]

Feel like someone needs to develop an electrostatic chamber to sort out contaminants from heads in a less "manual" way. Seen people using the glove and book with parchment methods and from personal experience while the end product is dope, the time, attention to detail, technique, and patience needed to get that full melt is just more than most will go be able to achieve. Not to mention you may be losing lots of end product in the process.