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Apr 13 2015 Can't wait to hear your results Mike!
I keep my ND Sap liquid at all times. During the process, before, and after. I believe that the terpenes could potentially evaporate as it dries out. Terpenes are very delicate. They can also be fumy like alcohol.
Here is a little update from me.
My latest batch made with the KX. I believe it is getting done a little sooner because I left it in more of a liquid state. Probably 70% solvent 30% oil. One of my vials holds 8 to 10 grams, but I only have it half full. I kept it more liquid so I can shake it. I think it may help speed up the decarbing process, but not sure yet. I am sure of this, keeping it more liquid it can still overflow very quickly! You have to be extremely careful burping the vials. I think the oil is almost done because it is not building up very much pressure any more. As soon as I feel it is done, probably in a couple of weeksI will leave the cap off and allow it to evaporate more solvent off. When it gets to the thickness I like, I will then add a bit of 190 proof grain alcohol so I can use a dropper for dosing. The alcohol helps it to quickly dissolve in my mouth and does not leave the sticky nasty tasting stuff. It has been so much more convenient doing it this way, .especially with the ND Sap. The terpenes also help it absorb into the tissue. Terpenes are amazing and I believe that is where most early medicines were derived from.
medmanmike Apr 20 2015 HELP! gg, I must be doing something wrong. I'm in the process of making some sap and the product is looking weird to say the least. Take a look at the picture. This was made with one oz of my best bud and KleenXtract. I followed your method to a "t", but it looks like it was made with EC (your water issue) and looks very similar to an earlier picture of mine and one of yours in a recent post(low quality oil). It also has this sheen on the surface that is full of tiny droplets of oil. On the sides of the bowl (which I just cleaned before the pic) and the bottom, there are gobs of a gooey substance that is the color and consistency of warm caramel. There is also indications of water on the surface. [Thought: I'm beginning to think that the water might be coming from the air, either from absorption or a difference between the alcohol/oil so that the water vapor in the air "sticks" to the surface, sort of like dew on the grass in the morning.] I just don't get it. Your recent pic showing your oil/sap so nice and clean-dark, but clean looking doesn't look anything like mine. Can you give me any advice as to what may or may not be going on? One other thing: I can't get the gooey stuff to remix/blend with the KX. Suggestions on how to thin it out? Well, it appears I've lost my tool bar so I can't figure out how to post the pic. You can find it by searching through my gallery - medmanmike.
Apr 20 2015 I don't see a link to your picture, but can offer an opinion.
Off the top of my head I can imagine this. Maybe it wasn't really the 200 proof or somehow it got water in it, I doubt it, but that is a possibility. I have had that happen to me with everclear and I didn't know what was going on until I tasted the alcohol. I don't recommend that with the 200 proof though because that would be dangerous. Next would be the buds being moist and you extracted out the water from the buds or possibly just the environment being humid. I have not tried the KX in humid weather yet. I have heard that the 200% can absorb water from the air. Just my opinion here, I don't have a lot of experience yet. With my 4-g strain, which really surprised me because it is usually my cleanest oil making strain ended up being my more dirty strain when using the grain alcohol. It puttied up and I had to dilute it and filter it a couple of times with a paper coffee filter until it would stay in an oily state rather than putty. This could be a strain issue with a specific solvent. You may want to dilute it and filter it through a paper filter.
medmanmike Apr 24 2015 gg, more on my latest extract.
First, notice how clear the dish of extract is. Bud and KX sat in the freezer for 4 days. I ran three washes as you recommend. I let it sit in between filtering as you recommend so a lot of "solids" settled out. I really felt that this was clean.
The next pic shows the extract after sitting in a secondary bowl after it had evaporated quite a bit. Note the shiny, waxy looking "skin" on the surface. It is basically a clear (with one exception) material similar to what you would get after boiling a chicken or turkey carcass for a couple of hours when making soup. Its not fat, more like a greasy skin. The "exception" are the tiny darker brown dots that you can see. At first I thought these were droplets of oil, but they're firm.
The third pics shows what I scraped out of the bowl after drawing off 1 oz of a whitish, milky substance. Water? It reminds me of bird seed mixed in with suet!. I let it dry some more and pressed out more liquid (water).
The last picture shows the "block" of what I ended up with. As I worked it into a block, droplets of water would work out. The product is now dry to the touch, but pliably, sorta like caramel that softens when warm but firms up as it cools. I haven't cut into it nor have I tried it yet. Just don't know what to make of the final product, let alone knowing what to call it!
You can see oil/tar/?? on the parchment paper. It's very sticky/gummy more like sap or pine resin and can be rolled into a ball. Anxious to hear your thoughts on all of this.
Apr 25 2015 My first thought is it is strange how you can see the water, I don't have an answer for that one unless the buds were not fully dry when you did the extraction, but it still seems odd to me. It does not look as bad as when using 190 proof alcohol. Does that sound right to you?
Have you done an extraction with this strain before?
My cleanest extraction strain, 4-G, after extracting and the product is finished, it is so clean it looks like it was winterized. That is when using 99% iso. When I switched to grain alcohol, I am assuming 200 proof will have the same effect, it did the same thing you are showing, it puttied up and was dark brown. I did get it to somewhat of a liquid state by diluting it and running that through a paper filter. I have decided I won't use my 4-G strain with grain alcohol of ethyl anymore. None of my other strains have the same negative effects. Using the 200 proof ethyl or grain alcohol, all of my strains come out a more dirty looking extract. That might be a good thing though when it comes to ingesting. The 4-G strain and a few others coming out more dirty, consuming they seem to be top shelf material, just don't have the looks, and wasteful having to refilter it.
I wish I tried smoking a slice of my puttied up 4-G, like bubble hash. I was just too focused on getting it to an oil state, which I did. If you get a chance, try smoking some. It may be the bomb when it comes to smoking.
My suggestion is try a different strain and be sure the buds are very dry when doing the extraction. I am assuming the moisture could be attributed to the alcohol drawing in water from the air.
My best guess is the strain. I have been doing one strain at a time to determine the reaction with the ethyl. I do believe you can dilute it and run it through a paper filter and it will then become more oily. More importantly is to keep it in a liquid state for the natural decarbing.
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