This is about 30 minutes into a potentially 30 hour process.
The oven is set to 200f, and you put the Rosin (or any concentrate of your choice is my understanding) in a mason jar and let her rip until all of the CO2 bubbles stop forming. This turns the crystalline thc-a into the liquidy thc.
From there I’m going to do a few carts a few different ways, I have liquidizers to flavor and help thin if needed, but in theory I should be able to put the decarbed rosin liquid right into a cartridge and go.
It’s “Live” rosin because I froze my cannabis immediately after harvest. The “Fresh Frozen” cannabis was than put through a bubble wash machine to get Bubble Hash. From there the Bubble Hash was dried and cured and then pressed into rosin. And from Rosin to here now.
Thanks for sharing, this is a cool process!
Can you help me understand what the point of decarboxylation is in this context if it will be heated (and thus decarboxylated) before being inhaled anyway? I understand the point if you’re going to eat it, but I’ve never understood the reason for the extra step when making live rosins for cartridges.
I’m no expert, but from my reading, it’s so it’s “flowable”. THC-A, which is what concentrates are, are sticky due to the crystalline structure. When it’s converted to THC during decarb it changes into a more of a syrup and holds that state.
NOW, you can use distillate and thinners, like a liquidizer that I have, it’s supposed to dissolve the THC-A and make it flowable. And than as you said, you decarb it anyways when you vape it.
It’s basically to keep it as “pure” as possible? You can’t call it a live rosin if you use distillate or any other additive, so you HAVE to decarb it from my understanding. But also, there’s no real rules to this shit…. So eh…
That definitely make sense, I appreciate the elucidation. Also merrys up with my own observations of the more crystalized consistencies you get in concentrates as they approach higher purity levels. In fact, 99% pure thca pretty much looks like meth imo.
It’s also worth noting that during growing the process already naturally starts to happen, it’s the “ambering” of the trichomes. So if you smoke something that’s naturally more aged you get different effects than decarbing THC-A straight (ie clear milky trichomes). Leads to more creative high over THC laden couch lock. It’s also why the same processes can lead to variety of products, it’s just naturally in varied mixed states of THC-A and THC.
What you’re describing can also only happen with freeze dried, you basically need to minimize temp, or light exposure or it’s still gonna happen.
So is that why my shatter always stayed oily and wouldn’t harden into the more glass like stuff after being heated up once or twice?
I would imagine so, light, air and heat naturally turn THC-A into THC over time, but freezing it stops the process. So you should always freeze concentrates to preserve them.
I didn’t, which is why my rosin is already so dark.
Wow, that’s really cool! How long is the process from “fresh frozen” to a cart?
If you take it at single batch let’s say an OZ it’s only about 6 hours of work spread over a few days, but there’s some waiting at times.
After you freeze it, as long it’s not freezer burnt (the water sublimating out) the next stage can happen any time.
To bubble wash it takes a couple hours, but after bubble washing the hash has to dry which can be overnight with a freeze dryer, up to a 2 week long process air drying, or you can freeze it and shave it. So with the last one, same thing any amount of time can basically be there.
The rosin, same thing, couple hours of work, but then you need to let it homogenize which can take a couple weeks, then you can freeze it again.
And now here I am, decarbing for the next step.
Edit, a large portion of the time of each is actually cleaning, to press the rosin puck takes 5 minutes after its setup for example.
That’s so much work. I bet it’s worth it though. The journey and all. You’ll have to update us as you go along!
It’s honestly less work than work trimming, drying and curing. I’m also drying the bubble wash today to use in edibles.
I’ve got carpal tunnel, so the main reason I’m doing this is because it’s less physical work in the long run.
What do you do with the buds after the bubble wash?
I froze it this time around.
If you look closely at the picture, the bottom rack actually has some drying and decarbing with the rosin!
So you can still smoke it? Or are you going to do something else with it?
Ah sorry, no. That will be made into some cannabutter, or I may try making some oil capsules this time.
I’ve still got another 2 XL freezer bags worth after this as well.
My last grow I fresh frozen about 80% of the harvest.
