Mephisto Genetics Any rosin aficionados out there in Mephistoville?

[terp182]

Added some just-dried, 1-day cured 3 Bears OG squish data to the spreadsheet. 17.3% return on 1 squish - the second squish at 195/300 lbs returned nothing significant. But the .52 g I got back from the 3 g I put in is incredibly dank, citrusy and it has an almost whipped cream like texture, fresh pressed. Two hits put me on my ass. Not the best return, and I'm glad I didn't freeze the whole plant since the yield from that probably wouldn't be great, but she'll be fun to squish as low-cure flower for sure! The plan is to cure her for a week, two weeks max and then vacuum seal and freeze until needed. She should then squish (and vape/smoke) just fine months from now.

I also have washable amounts of Skywalker OG and Sour Stomper ready to go in the freezer. Doing my final gathering task for materials this weekend and researching exactly how I'm going to do it. I'm going with two 5 gallon buckets, one jacketed, a 200 u zipper bag, and then 160, 73, and 45 bags. I'm going to 25 micron/cardboard dry for an hour or so, then freeze the pucks for 2 hours, then microplane onto parchment lined sheet trays which stay in my fridge, at 38F/30% RH for a couple days before collecting and squishing.

Any other tips or tricks for a first time hasher of WP, I'm all ears! I'm especially interested in a decent mini-washer for that 3rd (or 4th or 5th) wash.

 

[terp182]

Just added some Skywalker OG squish data to the spreadsheet.

20% return on 5-day cured flower, with 18% return on the first squish at 185. 2nd squish was just a bit more at 195. The fresh press is super light and fluffy, easy to harvest off the parchment, and a light tan/blonde color. I'm excited to bubble hash and press the rest of the frozen stuff soon!

 

[LearningMore]

Love this thread - have already learned so much. Starting to experiment with pressing (dabpress 10ton) I’ve been reading and I came upon references to “curing rosin”. I’ve been pressing flower (and some trim) that was dried to 62%RH and has cured a couple weeks. Is there a separate “cure” to the rosin itself?

 

[terp182]

Some things I believe I've learned about flower/hash rosin in the few months I've had a press.
- Curing rosin applies almost exclusively to hash rosin, as its texture can change significantly with time at a reduced temp and with whipping. I haven't seen any beneficial effects to "curing" flower rosin or whipping it for that matter. I also think that fresh pressed flower rosin is best if you're going that route, and the product gets worse with age. Just my experience so far.
- Pressing flower brings in some really off notes if you're going for terp expression in the final product. You'll definitely taste the cultivar's terp profile, but there will be a layer of funk/sour/nasty in there as well, relative to hash rosin pressed from the same plant. This is also evident in the residue left on the quartz - flower rosin is uniformly darker. I attribute this to some other plant material being separated along with the trichromes.
- For pressing flower, you're doing it right for sure. The fresher the flower (after a proper cure that is), the closer to 62% RH, the better the yield and quality will be.
- If you don't want to ruin your taste for flower rosin, don't start pressing hash. After moving to hash rosin, all I taste is off notes in my flower rosin. Just friendly advice - if you like the convenience of pressing flowers and don't mind the taste, don't rush to hash rosin because it will ruin you for flower rosin. After starting to press hash, I just use flower rosin for joints and edibles. This isn't some snobby shit either; I really wish I didn't taste the off notes in my pressed flower, because it's SO MUCH easier to press flower.
- Smoking flower rosin HAS to be healthier than smoking flower, just by virtue of the fact that you're combusting less inert matter and inhaling it, so from a harm reduction perspective (which I enthusiastically endorse), flower rosin is much healthier and more potent than smoking straight flower, obviously.
- If you do press hash, make sure to use directional flow folds in the parchment paper to ensure the rosin gets off heat as quickly as possible. My last press, the parchment broke and some hash buddered on the hot parchment which was over the plate. It never got back to consistency and was definitely sub par, though still quite potent. And if you do press hash, the cure and the whip are real and can improve the (refrigerated) shelf stability of the product, I believe. Good luck!

 

[LearningMore]

Some things I believe I've learned about flower/hash rosin in the few months I've had a press.
- Curing rosin applies almost exclusively to hash rosin, as its texture can change significantly with time at a reduced temp and with whipping. I haven't seen any beneficial effects to "curing" flower rosin or whipping it for that matter. I also think that fresh pressed flower rosin is best if you're going that route, and the product gets worse with age. Just my experience so far.
- Pressing flower brings in some really off notes if you're going for terp expression in the final product. You'll definitely taste the cultivar's terp profile, but there will be a layer of funk/sour/nasty in there as well, relative to hash rosin pressed from the same plant. This is also evident in the residue left on the quartz - flower rosin is uniformly darker. I attribute this to some other plant material being separated along with the trichromes.
- For pressing flower, you're doing it right for sure. The fresher the flower (after a proper cure that is), the closer to 62% RH, the better the yield and quality will be.
- If you don't want to ruin your taste for flower rosin, don't start pressing hash. After moving to hash rosin, all I taste is off notes in my flower rosin. Just friendly advice - if you like the convenience of pressing flowers and don't mind the taste, don't rush to hash rosin because it will ruin you for flower rosin. After starting to press hash, I just use flower rosin for joints and edibles. This isn't some snobby shit either; I really wish I didn't taste the off notes in my pressed flower, because it's SO MUCH easier to press flower.
- Smoking flower rosin HAS to be healthier than smoking flower, just by virtue of the fact that you're combusting less inert matter and inhaling it, so from a harm reduction perspective (which I enthusiastically endorse), flower rosin is much healthier and more potent than smoking straight flower, obviously.
- If you do press hash, make sure to use directional flow folds in the parchment paper to ensure the rosin gets off heat as quickly as possible. My last press, the parchment broke and some hash buddered on the hot parchment which was over the plate. It never got back to consistency and was definitely sub par, though still quite potent. And if you do press hash, the cure and the whip are real and can improve the (refrigerated) shelf stability of the product, I believe. Good luck!

This is great info, thanks so much!

As with many, I started with ILGM seeds - not having much luck pressing those strains (1-2%). My Mephisto strains are definitely yielding better, but I’m still in the 3-3.5% range. I’m using 120 micron bags (press club), packing 5g (gently crumbled) in a 2x4 bag using the “bottle tech” packing technique. I press for total of 3 minutes, with the plates just close enough to compress/heat the bag for the first 30s, but not actually pressurized. I get to peak pressure of 6tons (equal to 950psi at the bag, if I understand correctly, as the area of the bottle tech cylinder is about 3square inches). The bud I’m pressing is my first grow; dried to 62%; been curing for a few weeks.

Any experienced suggestions to help me improve? Thanks. I will hold off on trying hash; much as vaping means I am never combusting again, I can see where hash rosin would ruin flower rosin (But never would have thought of this without your input).

Cheers.

 

[TreyDogg]

I found leaving what I'm about to press in a jar with a bovada 84 over night got buds really gummy feeling next day. I got much better results after that get up to 17% off some presses. I stopped bottle tech and use a 2x4 pre press. I use a 6 ton dab press too. I'm still pretty new to pressing as well. Best results for me came from samsquanch, purple rolex, and purple scoops did awesome for me.

 

[terp182]

This is great info, thanks so much!

As with many, I started with ILGM seeds - not having much luck pressing those strains (1-2%). My Mephisto strains are definitely yielding better, but I’m still in the 3-3.5% range. I’m using 120 micron bags (press club), packing 5g (gently crumbled) in a 2x4 bag using the “bottle tech” packing technique. I press for total of 3 minutes, with the plates just close enough to compress/heat the bag for the first 30s, but not actually pressurized. I get to peak pressure of 6tons (equal to 950psi at the bag, if I understand correctly, as the area of the bottle tech cylinder is about 3square inches). The bud I’m pressing is my first grow; dried to 62%; been curing for a few weeks.

Any experienced suggestions to help me improve? Thanks. I will hold off on trying hash; much as vaping means I am never combusting again, I can see where hash rosin would ruin flower rosin (But never would have thought of this without your input).

Cheers.

No problem - it was a surprise for me, too, which is why I wanted to be clear on that. For your process I wouldn't crumble it at all, just squish buds into a bag. I imagine that extra surface area is wicking up the squish, resulting in those abysmal returns. I'd go no higher than 4g in a bag, as well. More than that in a bag seems like diminishing returns. But my LOWEST return on a squish was Zamadelica Express, at 10%. My highest was a freshly cured CDLC, at 28%. Like I said, the age of the cured flower has a huge effect on quality and yield - the fresher, the better. Also, I don't think a 3 min press at high pressure is needed, I'm usually off in 2 min max, including a 30 sec warmup at ~0 pressure. Then, I press until it gets hard to pull the handle on my Dake press, around 300 on the dial (whatever that works out to platen PSI), which isn't high. Doing a second squish on the same stuff at say 195 and 400 psi, you'll see the difference - darker, runnier, stinkier (when dabbed) material that is lesser quality. When I started, I did second squishes and collected those for edibles, but if I were to squish flower now, it'd be just at 180 and slowly rising to ~300 psi, for ~2 min. The second press was always about 8-10% by weight of the first press, and much worse quality. You didn't say your temp, but don't go higher than 180 - anything hotter results in no greater return and darker rosin, in my brief experience.

Good luck. And have fun with the research!

 

[LearningMore]

No problem - it was a surprise for me, too, which is why I wanted to be clear on that. For your process I wouldn't crumble it at all, just squish buds into a bag. I imagine that extra surface area is wicking up the squish, resulting in those abysmal returns. I'd go no higher than 4g in a bag, as well. More than that in a bag seems like diminishing returns. But my LOWEST return on a squish was Zamadelica Express, at 10%. My highest was a freshly cured CDLC, at 28%. Like I said, the age of the cured flower has a huge effect on quality and yield - the fresher, the better. Also, I don't think a 3 min press at high pressure is needed, I'm usually off in 2 min max, including a 30 sec warmup at ~0 pressure. Then, I press until it gets hard to pull the handle on my Dake press, around 300 on the dial (whatever that works out to platen PSI), which isn't high. Doing a second squish on the same stuff at say 195 and 400 psi, you'll see the difference - darker, runnier, stinkier (when dabbed) material that is lesser quality. When I started, I did second squishes and collected those for edibles, but if I were to squish flower now, it'd be just at 180 and slowly rising to ~300 psi, for ~2 min. The second press was always about 8-10% by weight of the first press, and much worse quality. You didn't say your temp, but don't go higher than 180 - anything hotter results in no greater return and darker rosin, in my brief experience.

Good luck. And have fun with the research!

This is excellent info, thanks! I was pressing in the 190-200 range, so will definitely try cooler and shorter (and less pressure…and less bud in the bags). I’ve had pretty wide variability on textures (oily brown from trim to some crumbly yellow). Definitely prefer the taste/smell of the yellow. Will keep at it!

 

[terp182]

Here’s some live rosin made from WP Creme de la Chem (Stardawg x Chemdogging), 3 ways. All from the same two plants, which were hashed together. I then split the batch in two, and hashed, dried and squished my half. I got terrible yields, less than 3% from wet weight, and less than 2% amazing dabbable rosin from my half, though what I did get is amazing. That’s the pic on the right. The poor yields were from my room and water not being cold enough; the colder, the better with this strain apparently. It also gummed up on the microplane a bit and I left a few larger chunks un-grated, which left them too wet to squish, I think.

The other half went to a buddy with a lot more experience hashing and owns a freeze dryer, who agreed to work it for me for a cut. He got just over 3% back and is confident on future batches that can come up to 4% or higher, given better prep. I think I converted him to seriously trying autos with this wash, actually.

His fresh press from the freeze dryer is on the far left, and the middle is the 2nd wash, buddered but not whipped yet. 3 distinct textures and a surprisingly muted smell on the fresh press, which explodes once whipped. Tennis ball terps. Black industrial rubber bands. CHEM.