Choosing bags based on trichome size in ice water extraction

hugaddiction

Active Member
Different strains have different trichom sizes, how should one select which bags to be using for best results for a particular strain. For example, should someone who uses a 220, 160, 90, 73, 25, be usuing this for all strains, or can that person benefit from using a 40 bag in place of the 90 for strains with smaller trichomes.

Also, what is the best product by micron size for indica dominant and sativa dominant strins and what strains are better for ice water extraction than others and why? Thanks!
 

drolove

Well-Known Member
didnt think you had to worry about all that....as far as i know strain doesnt matter.
 

technical dan

Active Member
I think you will have to figure the best bag/strain combo yourself. Try it with all the bags first then adapt from there.

As far as grades go I believe 90 and 73 are the highest regarded ones with 25 being broken trics if memory serves. And then 220 and 160 have a more plant material in them. You will want to see for yourself about the grades as I do not have much experience making hash. Bout to start tho, or bout to in a couple weeks once I have material.
 

Jogro

Well-Known Member
Different strains have different trichom sizes, how should one select which bags to be using for best results for a particular strain. For example, should someone who uses a 220, 160, 90, 73, 25, be usuing this for all strains, or can that person benefit from using a 40 bag in place of the 90 for strains with smaller trichomes.

Also, what is the best product by micron size for indica dominant and sativa dominant strins and what strains are better for ice water extraction than others and why? Thanks!
You're going to be catching the same stuff no matter what sizes you use; it just gets distributed a little differently depending on which bag sizes and the quality of the material you have. So this is mostly subjective and more a matter of personal preference than anything else. EG how many different grades do you want to make, and how do you want them sorted?

In general, most people use something to catch the leafy crud (most use a 220 or 190 for that), something to catch the mid stuff (you could use 160 120 or 90), and then something to catch the high grade "bubble" stuff (73, 45, or 20). I'd say you do want at least one bag less than 73, or you'll be losing some stuff you want to keep. Also note that it takes a LONG time for water to drain through the 20 bag, and some think its not worth it, since this bag catches a lot of broken trichrome stalks and the stuff may not be as good as the next bigger two sizes.

You can make it more complicated that than with more bags, but it doesn't have to be. If you're not after the purest "bubble" stuff, you could do just a 190 and a 45. The 190 to filter out the junk, and the 45 to catch all the hash.

Indica strains typically have slightly larger trichrome heads, but the general principles apply. Some think outdoor vs indoor grown stuff will have different sized trichrome heads too.

Since all resin heads become hard and break off with shearing in ice water, the technique should work with any strain. The "best" strains for making hash, are whichever ones have the flavor or other characteristics you're looking for. In general, the more resinous the strain, the more hash you'll get.
 

hugaddiction

Active Member
thanks Jogro, great information. You answered a lot of questions there, but to be more specific and describe the situation a little better, I added a 90 bag to get the 73 looking better. Is that howit works?

And now I am thinking about getting a 40 bag to separate some material before it gets to the 25. I didnt want to use all six bags (not sure why not, now that I think about it, but was just trying to do keep it at 5) so I wasn't sure, with what strain I would be working with, or plant type, whether it would be better to use the 45, or the 90.
 

Jogro

Well-Known Member
thanks Jogro, great information. You answered a lot of questions there, but to be more specific and describe the situation a little better, I added a 90 bag to get the 73 looking better. Is that howit works?

And now I am thinking about getting a 40 bag to separate some material before it gets to the 25. I didnt want to use all six bags (not sure why not, now that I think about it, but was just trying to do keep it at 5) so I wasn't sure, with what strain I would be working with, or plant type, whether it would be better to use the 45, or the 90.
Again, just the 73 will catch anything the 90 will. Whether or not having both is 'better' is subjective and will also depend on what exactly you're running through the bags. Eg crumbled fan leaves have a lot more "junk" in them than crumbled buds.

Ditto for putting an extra 40 in between the 73 and 25. Again, I will say that in my opinion/experience, you do want at least one bag smaller than 73, and if you had to choose JUST one, you'll catch more stuff with the 25. But you could do both if you wanted.

Six bags means five grades of hash, and somewhat more work than three or four bags. Remember, the more bags you use the longer it takes the stuff to filter through, and each bag requires you to hand separate out the collection from that bag and dry it. Also depending on much stuff you're starting with, if any bag only contains a small amount of stuff, it may not be all the easy or worthwhile to try and retrieve it. In other words, it probably doesn't pay to try and make five different grades of hash if you're just starting with an ounce of stuff.

It up to you to decide if more bags are worth the bother or not. If you've never done this before there may be some merit to using all the bags on your first run, just to get some better sense of how this works and to see what exactly gets caught in each for future reference. You can then test all the grades, see which (if any) are true "bubble" hash, and then take it from there to decide for next time which bags you think you can omit.

One thing that may help is you can always inspect the "catch" from each bag with a good loupe to see what's in it. Is it just trichrome heads, is there leaf in there, etc.
 
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