CULTIVATE WITH SCOTT SWAIL & DREW EMMER
What does humidity control have to do with making concentrates? Good product in = good product out. As do-it-yourself rosin heats up the world of home grow, learn what’s pressing from PurePressure’s Eric Vlosky. PurePressure makes top quality rosin presses, rosin bags and accessories in Denver, Colorado.
Cultivate, the Rosin edition covers:
• What is rosin and how it is made
• Why press with quality well-hydrated flower
• Why extracting from moldy cannabis is dangerous
• How Boveda ups rosin yield
Subscribe to the Cultivate podcast on the Boveda Cannabis YouTube Channel or on iTunes.
What is rosin and how is rosin made?
Rosin is a cannabis concentrate made without using solvents. Rosin pressing produces a purer product than using butane or carbon dioxide to extract THC and cannabinoids to make wax, shatter, budder and butane hash oil (BHO). Forgoing chemicals, rosin pressing uses intense pressure and heat to extract pure cannabis oil. People use rosin for dabbing, in cartridges and as an ingredient in premium cannabis edibles.
But read the feeds and you’ll get some bad advice about rosin extraction. No, you shouldn’t make rosin out of just any old flower. Pressing cannot save your bad buds, PurePressure’s Eric Vlosky said.
“A lot of places take pretty scary trim, that would never be sold in any other way because it’s been contaminated, press it and make low-grade rosin,” Eric said.
Smoking or vaping contaminated rosin is especially dangerous for medical cannabis patients.
Some producers may try to pass off rosin made from flower that’s tainted by powder mildew, molds or mites. That’s why it’s important to buy rosin from a reputable dispensary. Some dispensaries also make and sell their own rosin. But there’s a rush for good gold, so quality rosin might be hard to find. (At legal markets, budtenders often snap up the full-melts before they even hit the shelves.)
So many home growers and cannabis enthusiasts do it themselves. As Eric explained, it’s a very simple extraction process. Anyone can enjoy solvent-less hash through the technique called “rosin tech.” Instead of using chemicals, rosin tech uses intense pressure and heat to extract pure cannabis oil AKA solvent-less hash oil.
At home, people can make rosin with an ordinary hair straightener, parchment paper, metal dabber and well-hydrated flower. Or many invest in small- to medium-scale industrial presses, like PurePressure’s Pikes Peak.
Designed specifically for rosin pressing, PurePressure presses are made in the U.S.A. They give full control over every aspect of the rosin extraction process—temperature, speed and press time. And digital readouts of temperature and pressure save the last run data, so you can easily replicate your best yields. Definitely a step up, way up, from the hair straightener method.
What are the best cannabis strains for pressing?
Any strain with fruit in the title with high terpene content produces good flavor, such as Clementine, White Berry or Banana Split, Eric said. For people who prefer pressing gassy strains, Gorilla Glue is a popular choice. And super-trichome whites simply drip with resin oil.
Why press with quality well-hydrated flower?
“If you’re pressing flower rosin, humidity is crucial.”
-Eric Vlosky, PurePressure, maker of top quality rosin presses and accessories in Denver, Colorado
In Eric’s home state of Colorado, the year-around humidity is well under 60%. Indoors, humidity levels can dip to 20-30%.
“Leave nugs out on the counter and they’ll crisp up,” Eric said.
When cannabis dries out, its trichomes break off. And trichomes contain the THC, CBD and other active medicinal cannabinoids. Storing buds with Boveda preserves trichomes. Plus well-hydrated flower produces better rosin yields.
How does Boveda work?
One reason rosin pressing is so popular is that it eliminates the use of chemicals. Likewise, inside each Boveda is pure water vapor and natural salts. Just toss in Boveda with your flower in an airtight cannabis container.
Boveda’s 2-way humidity control adds or absorbs moisture to lock in a precise relative humidity level. Cannabis-specific Boveda comes in 58% and 62% RH levels. And Boveda is available in many sizes to keep every weight stash well-hydrated–whether it’s a pressing matter or not.
Into cannabis podcasts? Catch every episode of Cultivate–subscribe on the Boveda Cannabis YouTube Channel or on iTunes.
