10 Top Tips for Making Water Hash

Preparing the trim in advance
When you are harvesting your plants, you can plan ahead when it comes to reserving the trichome rich plant material. Growers who wet trim their plants will have an opportunity to carefully cut away fan leaves and smaller sized leaves, and smaller buds. Keeping the trim intact will produce the best water hash, so try and plan ahead with sorting the material into bags ready to be placed in the freezer in advance.

Washing machine spin times
Using a washing machine when making water hash has many benefits, and can help save a grower time and labour. Once you have filled the washing machine with the adequate amounts of cold water, ice and plant material, you should aim for short spin cycles of 30–60 seconds, with the intention of using fresh iced water every time you filter the bags.

Time in the freezer
Allowing the plant material to thaw and become hard yet brittle, will pay off massively when it comes to the agitation process. When the frozen plant material comes into contact with the motion of the ice and water spinning around, the trichomes will break off into the water much easier. Keeping your plant material in the freezer for 3–5 days prior to making hash will often produce the best returns. 

Plenty of ice
The reason why ice is so important when making water hash is not only to help keep the water ice-cold, but to allow the trichomes to become agitated and separate. Ice can quickly melt and when doing multiple runs, you will want to have lots of ice in the freezer, or in bags ready to be opened and used every 20 minutes. Running out of ice will result in warm water and the hash produced being difficult to collect off the screens. 

Wash bags thoroughly
I am referring to using a shower head between each run, to make sure that there are no leaves or contaminants that have passed through. Make sure that each bag is washed inside out and there is nothing on the sides of the bags. You would be surprised how easy it is to contaminate the next screen without even realizing it. 

Contaminated plant material
The contamination in this case will be darker mouldy buds, leaves that were covered in powdery mildew, spider mite infested flowers or sprayed with chemical pesticides. Any buds or leaves that have these symptoms should be thrown away and never used. Making hash or extracts with bad quality material will only result in a concentrated refined form that will be harmful to consume when smoked, or as edibles.

Mixing old and new 
One of my favourite things to do when making water hash, is to save as many different bags of trim from previous harvests as possible, and then to make one big hash run at the end of the year. 

The reason I love to do so is the fact you will get a wide variety of strains, terpenes, cannabinoids and medical benefits all in one. Not only will doing this ensure you have the best return possible from one hash making session, you can also look forward to the big hash run at the end of each year.

Cold environments are best
Not everyone has a freezer or cold room they can work inside, however when it comes to making water hash or dry sift, working in a cold environment is best. The reason being that the ice water will slowly increase in temperature, causing the micron filtered hash to become more sticky and harder to collect. 

Clean bags with alcohol
Using alcohol to clean the screens of the bubble bags is essential, and will stop the screens getting blocked. Concentrated water hash can also be hard to remove afterwards, so using a bowl of cleaning alcohol to wash and gently wash over the micron mesh screens is advised. Keeping each bag totally clean will ensure that the bags drain properly. Always keep a bottle or two of alcohol close by and never let your bags become dirty and unwashed. 

Micro plane, the hash
For those who do not enjoy patiently waiting 5–7 days for their hash patty to dry, and are concerned about mould, then why not try micro planing the hash? This can be done by taking a frozen hash patty free of water, and to grate it over a small cheese grater. 

The hash will break down into tiny sized pieces that will dry out much faster than the typical patty block. Plane your hash onto parchment paper and place inside a cardboard pizza box, and within 48 hours the hash will look totally different with a wet and shiny characteristic. 

My final thought
With so many online tutorials and blogs to read up on, making water hash is a straightforward hobby, and you only get better at it with time. Not every plant will produce the same quality or quantity, and using a washing machine is also highly advantageous. 

The most important thing to remember is to avoid contaminated leaves and buds, especially if you know it has been sprayed with a chemical pesticide. Good luck finding out which techniques and methods work best for you, and spend a few hours learning from the pros online to become the absolute best!