How to make hash with CO2 or dry ice
List of contents
Hashish, as we all know, is a by-product of the cannabis plant. It?s the concentration of resin glands that are attached to the cell walls of cannabis buds.
There are different cannabinoid extracting methods, either with dried - like Dry Sift or Water Hash - or fresh plant material - Nepali Charas, Fresh Frozen. In this way, several resin extraction methods have been created depending on the needs and preferences of growers who want to enjoy their own creations for personal use.
In this case we present you a resin extraction method using Co2 - also known as dry ice - a technique derived from the classic dry sieving method.
Preparation and needed materials to make hashish with dry ice
Before getting started, you should prepare all the needed tools for the extraction with dry ice. We don't need much stuff to make extractions with CO2, although quality materials are always necessary for best possible results.
First of all, we obviously need the base material, our homegrown cannabis buds. After few months taking care of the plants, avoiding any possible issue or pest that could reduce the final quality of the crop, it is time to get the most out of them. As always, remember that top grade concentrates come from properly grown marijuana.
Secondly, we need Ice-o-Lator extraction bags or similar. These bags are exactly the same than those used for resin extractions with water and ice. In this case, and if you have different bags of different screen sizes, you should start with a 120 to 160 micron bag (depending on strains and needs) and gradually reduce the screen size according to the gland concentration you want.
As we have already explained in other posts, there are different types and sizes of trichomes. The morphology of these glands mainly depend on plant genetics, so we can find glands of up to 160mc and others measuring even less than 25-50mc.
To obtain a clean and professional extraction, you should try to recover those glands measuring between 70 and 120mc, which normally yield the best quality. If the screens are smaller then the collected glands with the dry sift extraction will also be smaller (the used screen size mainly depends on user preferences).
The third element is the dry ice or CO2, the solid form of carbon dioxide. This product isn?t very difficult to find, but it is difficult to carry and store. You can buy it easily and quickly on the internet at companies who work with frozen or cold materials and deliver them at home.
The main problem with dry ice is that it degrades fast when not stored under very special conditions, so we'll have to use it as soon as we get it.
This is the main reason why it?s essential to have everything ready for a quick use, since we must use the solid CO2 as soon as we get it, otherwise it will quickly evaporate.
We will also need a plastic cup (to catch and pour the dry ice) and waterproof gloves to avoid burns: always remember that CO2 can cause severe burns in those parts of the body exposed for a few seconds to it.
How to use dry ice for cannabis resin extractions?
The first step will be to take the plant material out of the freezer freezing it isn?t really required but recommendable) so when the organic matter goes in contact with the dry ice the resin glands are released easier and faster than with plant material at room temperature, thus achieving better yields and quality.
The second step is mixing the marijuana with the dry ice into a container (made of any non-toxic material which does not degrade with cold temperatures) and gently mix it a bit. We can now take our 120-160mc Ice-o-Lator or Cristalizer hash extraction mesh and pour the mix inside it. The amount of grass to be used may vary, depending on both the bag size and the needs of the grower.
It?s possible to make a large extractions in one go, although using around 20-30 gr and gently sieving for no more than 15-20 seconds is recommended to get top grade hashish.
If the buds are large and compact, we'll gently crumble them in smaller buds to increase the plant surface in contact with the dry ice. In this way, and without grinding the flowers, you reduce the amount of plant debris that could contaminate your resin.
Once we have a smooth and clean surface prepared (PTFE film, glass, parchment paper, etc) and the dry ice with the buds inside the Ice-O-Lator bag, we can start shaking the bag gently and slowly for a few seconds. We'll see how the resin glands fall through the screen.
The duration of the extraction mainly depends on two aspects: type of glands - some glands are more easily removed than others - and the desired quality - the more we shake, the lower the quality.
Most growers make a fast first extraction to collect the best trichomes, and then perform a second run adding more ice in order to recover more resin. Normally, this second run is more contaminated with plant debris than the first one, since plant matter is gradually shredded as we shake the bag.
Once you have the resin on the surface, it is time to collect it with a card for proper storage. Notice that, unlike happens with hashish made with water and ice, we don't need to dry this resin, so we can taste it instantly.
Still, it should be noted that due to the condensation of the ice the resin can get sometimes a bit moisturized during the extraction process, so letting it dry completely for few hours would be ideal. We can dry it with a heating mat at around 37 °C, a good temperature for resin curing.
https://youtu.be/DZrt--2MD-o
Extraction with dry ice step by step (First run)
1. Prepare all materials: dry ice, dry cannabis buds, ice-o-lator bags, waterproof gloves, clean surface.
2. Mix the marijuana buds and the dry ice and let it rest for few minutes so buds are completely frozen.
3. Pour the mix into the sieving bag.
4. Gently shake the bag to start removing glands: for this run we just need to remove the best trichome heads, so we should stop shaking before contaminating the extraction with plant debris.
5. Collect the resin and repeat the extraction process for another 20-40 seconds (second run). You can repeat the process until you see the first signs of plant matter.
6. Finally, we made a total of 8 runs with the same screen size and different times of extraction: 5, 15 and 40 seconds.
7. Let the resin rest on a heat mat to evaporate any remaining moisture from the condensation of dry ice when it changes to gaseous state.
Second extraction with another type of cannabis
In this second extraction we have slightly varied the method and times to observe and show you the differences. Once we have prepared the materials to use for the extraction:
1. Mix the cannabis and the dry ice in a bowl to freeze the weed and the glands in order to make the extraction easier.
2. Pour the mix of dry ice and marijuana buds into an Ice-O-Lator extraction bag and shake for 2 minutes with care to avoid producing too much plant debris.
3.Collect the resin glands with a card and store it. You can press it with a manual hashish press .
4. Continue with the extraction if you want to get the most out of your plant material. This run will have much more plant debris than the first one.
5. Collect the extraction with plant matter (don?t mix it with the first one!)
Conclusions of the extraction with dry ice
First of all, this method is not very popular due the price of dry ice, which is around 50-60? for 5 kg. The ideal would be purchasing the ice with other growers so everyone makes his own extraction, since we really don't need 5kg unless we have lots of buds.
The amount of plant material used can vary; you can use about 1.5 kg of dry ice for every 60gr of dried buds. After 2-4 minutes of use, only a small part of dry ice had evaporated.
This extraction method offers very good yields, being perfect to easily and quickly make a nice, standard quality hash piece. While it is true that the most experienced growers in resin extractions claim that this is not the ideal method for getting the highest quality, it is truly an appropriate method to make large amounts of standard grade hashish with just a 160 micron mesh anf few minutes.
Precautions for handling CO2
Using the correct safety measures is important if we want to avoid problems.
Dry ice reaches temperatures of (-74ºC / -42.5°C) or -109.3F, so using waterproof gloves to avoid burns on your hands is absolutely necessary. Dry ice is really cold!
Also, use safety goggles to avoid contact with your eyes.
