mark bagg
05-30-2006, 04:51 PM
Howdy, I"m working on some detailed directions on use of bubblebags. I was hopeful that I could get some feedback on the ease of following the directions along with some questions that I could add to the product information sheet.
I can be emailed with suggestions/Questions at: [email protected]
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General Instructions-
This process is also known as Cold Water Hash Extraction, and there are versions of these instructions in such places as bubblebag.com
Needs-
Bag Set
Leafy Material(buds do not work as well)
Ice/Snow and Water
Power Mixing Tool
Wooden Spoon(long)
Drying Surface(cardboard, plaster of paris, dry wood surface)
Mixing-
Put the smallest screen size bag in the bucket first(23mic), then put the next screen in after that, and continue until all bags are in the bucket with their flaps pulled outside the bucket. The draw strings should allow you cinch the bags tight to the bucket at the top. Then add Green material, ice/snow, and enough water to come about 4 inches from the top of the bucket. If green material is not already frozen allow to drop to temp for roughly 1/2 hour. Then mix vigorously for roughly 15 minutes, BE CAREFUL NOT TO HIT YOUR BAG, as the screen is delicate, and a power mixing tool can easy rip it. After your mixing allow to settle for about 15 minutes and then agitate the screen with your rounnded wooden spoon. I like to use a round handled spoon as a wisk and roll it between my hands. The spoon you can gently put on the screen, and agitate the materail that has settled there to allow it to pass throught the screen. Give it another 15 minutes then agitate with spoon again. One more 15 minute rest and then you can power mix again. One complete mixing cycle should take about an hour to complete. Repeat this mixing cyle 4 times for best results. Most users of this method will continue to get decent results into their 4th mix. If you ice/snow starts to melt and bring your water temperature up, add more water/ice. Keeping your materials in a cold environment while it is resting and being mixed can be very helpful. Be careful not to freeze your material solid if you happen to leave it outside on a winter night and it's very cold. Waiting for it to thaw can be rather timely. It is important that you mix material remain as cold as possible.
When you are done with four full cycles of mixing and agitation you are ready to take the material out of your bucke and put it aside. I like to pick the green out by hand and set it aside, then hang the first bag and allow it to drain into the lower bags. What is left in your mixing bag is probably not going to give you any more signifigant results by continueing to run through your bags, BUT this material is great for cooking at this point, you can cook it with the water in it, and add butter. I like to cook for at much as 8 hours, and then press all the remaining liquid out of the green material. The liquid should be allowed to cool, and the butter cut off the top. This butter may not be as strong as butter made out of fresh green material but is more than strong enough to do the job, and it will help you to take as much of the valuable matter out of the green material. After the green material has been cooked, I find that there is little to no valuable material left in it.
Once you have drained your bags one by one by letting them hang, you will want to rinse the crystals you have collected. Dipping the bottom of your bag in a fresh clean bowl of water will rinse all the crysals of the chlorophyl in the water, you will want to pour the contens of each bowl back into your bucket, so if anying came through the screen you will catch it in the next screen. The final screen should allow no material through even when you rinse it. You can then turn the bag inside out over a bowl and easily scrape the material off the bottom of each bag(not the mixing bag, that material is your "waste"). The drying screens are included and sized to each collection bag so you can take your material off the bottom of the bag and put it on your drying screen. I find the drying screens works best when it is on a drawing material like cardboard, plaster of paris, or even a bone dry piece of wood. It is best not to press your material with force because you break the crystals exposign them to oxidization. It is also preferred not to expose them to much heat, as again it will speed degradation. It is imporant that you dry as bone dry as possible.
Alternate Mixing Method-
This was passed to me by a young man from Northern California. He was taught to mix his ice/water/material in a separate bucket from where his bags were. This helps to avoid tearing your bags, and allows you to really "go after it" with your mixing. After mixing in a separte bucket from the bags, he pours the mixed material into his bag-bucket, squirting a small amount of water up into the bucket to wash down any settled residue. This method seems to return more sucess in shorter time than the careful mixing in the same bucket as your bags are in.
He also like to mix 5 times instead of the suggested 4, though is first mix is for only a couple minutes, he's trying to "shake the tree" for the ripest fruit before he really breaks all of the resin free in later mixing. Using this short first mix he get's the best material out in his first mix. He then does the 4 15 minute mixes after that and still get's all the material that one would get normally.
I can be emailed with suggestions/Questions at: [email protected]
------------------------------------------------------------------
General Instructions-
This process is also known as Cold Water Hash Extraction, and there are versions of these instructions in such places as bubblebag.com
Needs-
Bag Set
Leafy Material(buds do not work as well)
Ice/Snow and Water
Power Mixing Tool
Wooden Spoon(long)
Drying Surface(cardboard, plaster of paris, dry wood surface)
Mixing-
Put the smallest screen size bag in the bucket first(23mic), then put the next screen in after that, and continue until all bags are in the bucket with their flaps pulled outside the bucket. The draw strings should allow you cinch the bags tight to the bucket at the top. Then add Green material, ice/snow, and enough water to come about 4 inches from the top of the bucket. If green material is not already frozen allow to drop to temp for roughly 1/2 hour. Then mix vigorously for roughly 15 minutes, BE CAREFUL NOT TO HIT YOUR BAG, as the screen is delicate, and a power mixing tool can easy rip it. After your mixing allow to settle for about 15 minutes and then agitate the screen with your rounnded wooden spoon. I like to use a round handled spoon as a wisk and roll it between my hands. The spoon you can gently put on the screen, and agitate the materail that has settled there to allow it to pass throught the screen. Give it another 15 minutes then agitate with spoon again. One more 15 minute rest and then you can power mix again. One complete mixing cycle should take about an hour to complete. Repeat this mixing cyle 4 times for best results. Most users of this method will continue to get decent results into their 4th mix. If you ice/snow starts to melt and bring your water temperature up, add more water/ice. Keeping your materials in a cold environment while it is resting and being mixed can be very helpful. Be careful not to freeze your material solid if you happen to leave it outside on a winter night and it's very cold. Waiting for it to thaw can be rather timely. It is important that you mix material remain as cold as possible.
When you are done with four full cycles of mixing and agitation you are ready to take the material out of your bucke and put it aside. I like to pick the green out by hand and set it aside, then hang the first bag and allow it to drain into the lower bags. What is left in your mixing bag is probably not going to give you any more signifigant results by continueing to run through your bags, BUT this material is great for cooking at this point, you can cook it with the water in it, and add butter. I like to cook for at much as 8 hours, and then press all the remaining liquid out of the green material. The liquid should be allowed to cool, and the butter cut off the top. This butter may not be as strong as butter made out of fresh green material but is more than strong enough to do the job, and it will help you to take as much of the valuable matter out of the green material. After the green material has been cooked, I find that there is little to no valuable material left in it.
Once you have drained your bags one by one by letting them hang, you will want to rinse the crystals you have collected. Dipping the bottom of your bag in a fresh clean bowl of water will rinse all the crysals of the chlorophyl in the water, you will want to pour the contens of each bowl back into your bucket, so if anying came through the screen you will catch it in the next screen. The final screen should allow no material through even when you rinse it. You can then turn the bag inside out over a bowl and easily scrape the material off the bottom of each bag(not the mixing bag, that material is your "waste"). The drying screens are included and sized to each collection bag so you can take your material off the bottom of the bag and put it on your drying screen. I find the drying screens works best when it is on a drawing material like cardboard, plaster of paris, or even a bone dry piece of wood. It is best not to press your material with force because you break the crystals exposign them to oxidization. It is also preferred not to expose them to much heat, as again it will speed degradation. It is imporant that you dry as bone dry as possible.
Alternate Mixing Method-
This was passed to me by a young man from Northern California. He was taught to mix his ice/water/material in a separate bucket from where his bags were. This helps to avoid tearing your bags, and allows you to really "go after it" with your mixing. After mixing in a separte bucket from the bags, he pours the mixed material into his bag-bucket, squirting a small amount of water up into the bucket to wash down any settled residue. This method seems to return more sucess in shorter time than the careful mixing in the same bucket as your bags are in.
He also like to mix 5 times instead of the suggested 4, though is first mix is for only a couple minutes, he's trying to "shake the tree" for the ripest fruit before he really breaks all of the resin free in later mixing. Using this short first mix he get's the best material out in his first mix. He then does the 4 15 minute mixes after that and still get's all the material that one would get normally.