Beyond Buds, Next Generation: Marijuana Concentrates and Cannabis Infusions
Beyond Buds, Next Generation, a completely updated edition of Ed Rosenthal’s best-selling book on marijuana concentrates, is available at bookstores everywhere.
More than a practical manual for curious consumers and would be extractors—though it certainly checks those boxes—it’s a vivid snapshot of the contemporary science and culture around cannabis at a crucial historical moment: the dawn of the regulated cannabis industry.
From those just discovering the benefits of cannabis — or rediscovering — to investors, entrepreneurs, content creators and other intellectual professionals who seek a sharply focused picture of the new frontiers in cannabis commerce and culture, Beyond Buds: Next Generation offers a panoramic view of the rapid evolution of cannabis consumption.
Consuming cannabis through inhalation is an ancient practice, so there aren’t too many truly new ideas when it comes to getting the active ingredients into your lungs. Still, it’s hard to point to a more revolutionary shift in contemporary cannabis consumption than the emergence of dabbing. Concentrates used to serve a supporting role to the undeniable “star” of the cannabis market: raw buds. Now, with the widespread embrace of dabbing, concentrates have taken center stage in the commercial and cultural conversation around cannabis.
With high potency cannabis concentrates, a person can experience the effects of smoking an entire joint or more in a single breath, using only enough product to cover a pinhead. Think of it as the difference between drinking beer and liquor. If you drink a standard can or bottle of beer with an ABV of 5%, you’re drinking twelve ounces of liquid but only 0.6 ounces of actual alcohol; if you drink a typical “shot” of 80-proof spirits, you’re still consuming 0.6 ounces of alcohol, but you’re only drinking 1.5 ounces of liquid.
Side-by-side comparison between raw buds and concentrates can’t be done quite as precisely as comparing beer and liquor. But the analogy provides a foundation for understanding their relative potencies. You might drink a 12-ounce beer at a picnic, but you (probably) wouldn’t chug half a fifth of vodka — and if you did you’d almost certainly regret it, even though you’d be consuming roughly the same volume of liquid. In the same way, you might be able to take a massive bong rip of raw buds, but trying to use the same approach for your first dab could result in an unpleasant experience. If you keep this in mind when dosing your dabs, you’ll avoid the potential discomfort and anxiety of overloading your senses.
If you do choose to purchase a press, a big factor is the amount of pressure it produces. You don’t have to purchase expensive equipment you don’t actually need. You don’t need to buy a press that produces 25 tons of pressure when all you need is two to five tons. That is all that is required to press small quantities of hash or bud. Pressing several ounces of bud or hash at one time requires more pressure:10 to 25 metric tons.
Most commercially available rosin-specific presses are designed to press hash only. If you’re planning to press flower, choose a machine that is designed to handle it. They require more pressure than hash pressing models.
Lowering temperature usually results in higher quality but this is not always the case, and lower temperatures will reduce yield, sometimes drastically; it depends on the starting material quality and “personality” — the collective idiosyncrasies and physical quirks that affect how it reacts to pressing. A good way to judge how long the keep the bud under pressure is to watch the color of the oil and the degree to which it is flowing. Once the flow starts to darken and slow down it’s time to remove pressure.
Some producers choose to start high and work their way down, but we recommend starting at a low temp and working up until you notice a deterioration in quality. Your goal is an even balance between yield and quality you should be able to roughly dial in your ideal temperature for a given strain within four or five test runs. If you want to refine your temperature to the precise “Goldilocks zone” for pressing you might need eight to ten test runs. But once you have a batch dialed in, you’ll be able to use the setting, or combination of settings, for the rest of that batch.
Most rosin extractors heat the material 1500 to 2500 F range. This varies based on the material’s relative humidity, which also affects yield. Always check yields and rosin quality at different temperatures to determine the best setting for a particular batch.
Make sure to be consistent with the amount being pressed. Spread the bud so it forms an even layer. Don’t over-process your buds before pressing. Many processors feel like they get a better press from mostly intact buds versus broken or ground material, but others just break everything down to the same size and make an even layer.
Once stems are removed and flower is weighed to the desired amount, using a bag opening tool to keep your bag open, place two small buds in first and make sure they’re packed into the corners tightly. This prevents loss of oil to the corners. Once they are packed, fill the bag with the remaining material evenly with no voids and an even thickness of between a quarter inch to a half-inch, leaving a one-inch flap for a fold. There will be two additional corners after the fold, fill these voids to ensure even flow and prevent loss.
Once you’ve preheated and the trichomes have melted, apply full pressure. You should start to see oil flowing from the platens. Depending on how fast the extraction is happening and amount being pressed, keep pressure on the material for 35 to 90 seconds. The reason for the time variation is that flow rates vary by variety and freshness. Slow flow flowers require pressure and heat for a longer time period. Fresh flowers with fast flowing oil should be pulled off the heat quicker.
Excerpt from Beyond Buds: Next Generation
There was a first lucky human who discovered the intoxicating powers of cannabis. Perhaps this early hominid collecting tinder and kindling inadvertently snatched up a few sticks of sativa and tossed them on the fire, realizing the powerful effects the smoke had, only after awaking to the grisly evidence he’d eaten an entire antelope the night before. It is certain that once humans discovered the power of cannabis, we immediately poured our collective energy into harnessing it.
Consuming cannabis through inhalation is an ancient practice, so there aren’t too many truly new ideas when it comes to getting the active ingredients into your lungs. Still, it’s hard to point to a more revolutionary shift in contemporary cannabis consumption than the emergence of dabbing. Concentrates used to serve a supporting role to the undeniable “star” of the cannabis market: raw buds. Now, with the widespread embrace of dabbing, concentrates have taken center stage in the commercial and cultural conversation around cannabis.
With high potency cannabis concentrates, a person can experience the effects of smoking an entire joint or more in a single breath, using only enough product to cover a pinhead. Think of it as the difference between drinking beer and liquor. If you drink a standard can or bottle of beer with an ABV of 5%, you’re drinking twelve ounces of liquid but only 0.6 ounces of actual alcohol; if you drink a typical “shot” of 80-proof spirits, you’re still consuming 0.6 ounces of alcohol, but you’re only drinking 1.5 ounces of liquid.
Side-by-side comparison between raw buds and concentrates can’t be done quite as precisely as comparing beer and liquor. But the analogy provides a foundation for understanding their relative potencies. You might drink a 12-ounce beer at a picnic, but you (probably) wouldn’t chug half a fifth of vodka — and if you did you’d almost certainly regret it, even though you’d be consuming roughly the same volume of liquid. In the same way, you might be able to take a massive bong rip of raw buds, but trying to use the same approach for your first dab could result in an unpleasant experience. If you keep this in mind when dosing your dabs, you’ll avoid the potential discomfort and anxiety of overloading your senses.
Low Temp Dabs — The First-Class Ticket to Terp Town
Hot dabs are how most dabbers were introduced to dabbing, but thankfully this is no longer a necessary rite of passage now that low-temp dabbing has become the majority practice. The key to effective dabbing is finding the ideal balance between preserving the terpenes while activating the cannabinoids and THC. The problem is that the volatization point of most terpenes is far below the boiling point of most cannabinoids. Compromises must be made. Lower temps mean higher terps and less activated cannabinoids, higher temps mean lower terps and higher cannabinoid activation. Thankfully, low temp dabs utilize low pressure, achieved through restricted airflow via a carb cap. Carb caps restrict and direct airflow, lowering the pressure and by extension the boiling points of both the terpenes and cannabinoids present. This allows for a flavorful, low temp dab that still contains higher levels of active cannabinoids.
The Rosin Revolution: Making Concentrate Yourself
Dabbing rosin is where many new dabbers start. Rosin is a concentrated blend of terpenes and cannabinoids extracted using a method called “rosin tech” (RT). It’s the simplest, least expensive way to extract concentrate from raw buds or refine hash for more effective dabbing. Instead of a chemical process, RT uses heat and pressure to squeeze cannabinoids and terpenes from the source material. It is a very fast process. A batch of rosin can be produced in moments and consumed immediately. Another advantage of RT is that it poses minimal risk of physical injury. The physical science of RT is simple. Applying heat melts the terpenes and cannabinoids into a pliable resin inside of the source material. When the material is squeezed using a press, it pushes the resin outward. This results in a flat patty of starting material surrounded by an aura of rosin. The finished product is not as refined as the products using some other methods. The three tradeoffs are RT’s low startup costs, speed and ease of use. A wide range of tools and equipment can be used to make rosin. The choice depends mostly on the quantity being pressed. On the hobby level you can use household items like a flat iron. Industrial processors use pneumatic or hydraulic presses.Starting Material
There are three basic types of material you can press rosin from: buds, hash and kief. Within those categories there are different types and grades. In this article we describe the process for creating rosin from buds. Hash and keif production are described in detail in our book, Beyond Buds, Next Generation.
Buds
Freshly cured resin rich flower (small buds and trim are ideal) results in the best rosin because it is rich in terpenes and high in cannabinoids. Conversely, older, drier material results in lower yields of a darker, less flavorful and less potent rosin.Kief
Dry sift kief generally contains a high percentage of plant material. The more plant matter removed from the trichome heads, the higher the yields and the cleaner and smoother the resulting rosin.Hash
When rosin is pressed from hash it’s a secondary concentration, a refinement of an already concentrated product. This results in a higher concentration of cannabinoids in the resulting rosin.Pressing Rosin
Rosin processing, though not a cold process, occurs below the volatilization point for most of the terpenes, and doesn’t reach the temperatures needed for decarboxylation. The rosin is mostly a concentration of THCA and/or CBDA, the acidic precursors to the cannabinoids. The result: the material is great for smoking but will not be intoxicating if eaten.Machine Pressing Rosin
Choosing a press
One option for those new to concentrate production, is to choose an entry-level, mid-sized tabletop model press that offers higher volume capacity than a hair straightener without the investment and storage concerns of a large press.
If you do choose to purchase a press, a big factor is the amount of pressure it produces. You don’t have to purchase expensive equipment you don’t actually need. You don’t need to buy a press that produces 25 tons of pressure when all you need is two to five tons. That is all that is required to press small quantities of hash or bud. Pressing several ounces of bud or hash at one time requires more pressure:10 to 25 metric tons.
Most commercially available rosin-specific presses are designed to press hash only. If you’re planning to press flower, choose a machine that is designed to handle it. They require more pressure than hash pressing models.
Tools for Machine Rosin
Pre-press molds
In addition to the press there are a number of other items to consider. Press molds are a crucial component of many smaller rosin presses, so it is important to pay attention to the specs. Pressure affects yield. To maximize pressure use the same force in the smallest area possible.Filter Bags
It’s possible to do a “naked press” on a bud—pressing it without the use of a bag, using a prepress or just pressing bud as-is. A press allows you to press more material in a smaller surface area, creating more pressure to larger amounts of material. But if you want to further refine your product and confine your material to a condensed area (without the trichome loss incurred using molds or hand pressing) filter bags are an excellent option.
Parchment Paper or PTFE Sheeting
No matter what approach to RT you choose, parchment paper, is absolutely essential. That’s parchment paper — NOT WAX PAPER. Make sure the paper you choose doesn’t have any coating.Machine Pressing Flower
Pressing buds yields between 10% and 35% of the original material — roughly corresponding to the cannabinoid content of the starting material. If a strain tests around 20%, expect a yield of about 20% of the material’s weight in rosin under optimal conditions An ounce of buds, yields about 5 grams of rosin. Before pressing, make sure the relative humidity of the material is just right: too low and your yield and quality will suffer, too high and your rosin will be difficult to collect or will smell and taste like chlorophyll and may even turn green. Generally speaking, you’ll want to use material with a relative humidity level of 55% to 60%. You can measure this using a hygrometer, either a basic analog model like what’s found inside a cigar humidor or purchase a digital hygrometer, which can be purchased for $30 or so. If your bud is too dry, you can use a humidity pack like those sold by Boveda specifically for cannabis use. Always cut and fold parchment paper before pressing. Filling or ripping parchment in the middle of a job is messy, awkward and inefficient.
Lowering temperature usually results in higher quality but this is not always the case, and lower temperatures will reduce yield, sometimes drastically; it depends on the starting material quality and “personality” — the collective idiosyncrasies and physical quirks that affect how it reacts to pressing. A good way to judge how long the keep the bud under pressure is to watch the color of the oil and the degree to which it is flowing. Once the flow starts to darken and slow down it’s time to remove pressure.
Some producers choose to start high and work their way down, but we recommend starting at a low temp and working up until you notice a deterioration in quality. Your goal is an even balance between yield and quality you should be able to roughly dial in your ideal temperature for a given strain within four or five test runs. If you want to refine your temperature to the precise “Goldilocks zone” for pressing you might need eight to ten test runs. But once you have a batch dialed in, you’ll be able to use the setting, or combination of settings, for the rest of that batch.
Most rosin extractors heat the material 1500 to 2500 F range. This varies based on the material’s relative humidity, which also affects yield. Always check yields and rosin quality at different temperatures to determine the best setting for a particular batch.
Make sure to be consistent with the amount being pressed. Spread the bud so it forms an even layer. Don’t over-process your buds before pressing. Many processors feel like they get a better press from mostly intact buds versus broken or ground material, but others just break everything down to the same size and make an even layer.
Once stems are removed and flower is weighed to the desired amount, using a bag opening tool to keep your bag open, place two small buds in first and make sure they’re packed into the corners tightly. This prevents loss of oil to the corners. Once they are packed, fill the bag with the remaining material evenly with no voids and an even thickness of between a quarter inch to a half-inch, leaving a one-inch flap for a fold. There will be two additional corners after the fold, fill these voids to ensure even flow and prevent loss.
Once you’ve preheated and the trichomes have melted, apply full pressure. You should start to see oil flowing from the platens. Depending on how fast the extraction is happening and amount being pressed, keep pressure on the material for 35 to 90 seconds. The reason for the time variation is that flow rates vary by variety and freshness. Slow flow flowers require pressure and heat for a longer time period. Fresh flowers with fast flowing oil should be pulled off the heat quicker.
