By Eric Vlosky, PurePressure

Nothing can beat the taste of a toke off a bowl topped with ice water hash, or a low temp dab of some true six star full melt. Making this solventless concentrate in the most exceptional way possible involves equipment and knowledge of the process.

Ice Water Hash: Origin Story

As with so many things related to cannabis, ice water hash washing has its roots in Amsterdam. As the legend goes, a man named Sadu Sam determined that the resinous trichomes on the cannabis plant are packed with oil-based compounds. Trichomes are the “mitochondria” of the cannabis plant—the part full of precious cannabinoids. The trichomes’ oil results in the compounds sinking in water. Meanwhile, the rest of the plant floats to the top. This is the basis of hash washing, or “Sadu Sam’s Secret.”

With the “secret” she learned from Sadu Sam, Mila Jansen [The Hash Queen] of “The Pollinator” perfected the first method of extracting trichomes. Pollinator eventually invented the Ice-o-lator bags and as well as the Bubbleator. Ice-o-lator bags came about when Mila married the two techniques of extracting trichomes and dry sieving. She designed a bag made from nylon with a sieve attached to the bottom. Her bag filtered out the trichomes that sank to the bottom while the unusable plant material flower rose to the top. Thus, modern-day hash washing was born. From there, Bubbleman perfected Mila’s bubble hash technique by adding more bags to the process as well as placing openings of various sizes on the filter screen. Bubbleman’s bubble hash bags eventually became the basis of ice water hash products we all know and love today.

The origin story of ice water hash is a thing of legend and a relic of a bygone cannabis consuming era. But we can’t forget our past. It’s essential to know the roots of the process to understand where we are headed.

The Ice Water Hash Making Process

With an awareness for the players that made it possible, it’s time to get into the production.

 Creating premium ice water hash can be a complicated process. To make it less overwhelming, break it into five relatively easy-to-follow steps:

1.    Start the ice water hash making process by choosing fresh frozen plant material from a solventless bubble hash-friendly cultivar. Place your fresh frozen cannabis in a hashing washing machine. Let it soak for 20 to 30 minutes so the brittle trichomes can separate from the rest of the plant.

2.    Stir your ice water hash mixture for 15-20 Minutes, ideally in a figure 8 pattern to separate the trichomes from the rest of the plant matter.

3.    Remove any foam and debris from the skim port of your hash washing machine. Now, watch the magic happen as the cannabinoid-rich trichomes detach from the rest of the plant.

4.    Pour the liquid into a hash washing bag to filter the trichomes from the rest of the solution.

5.    Remove the wet material placed on a tray before freeze-drying. After the bubble hash is freeze-dried, you can sell it just like that or press it into premium hash rosin.

Keep in mind that this is a brief overview. For more information, check out articles on our blog to go in-depth on many of these steps. Now that you’ve got the process familiarize yourself with the tricks of the trade.

5 Expert Hash Washing Tips

Tip #1 Using fresh frozen cannabis for your hash washing is crucial

Live resin is referred to as such because connoisseurs know it’s an end product resulting from fresh frozen material. There’s a reason why consumers “in the know” choose live resin concentrates more often than any other product. Using fresh frozen flower preserves the terpenes, flavor, and aroma of your end product.

In addition to producing the highest quality product, fresh frozen cannabis requires the least barrier to entry to making premium, chemical-free solventless extracts. Using fresh frozen cannabis saves time, space, company resources, and more. For every pound of fresh frozen cannabis material you utilize after harvest, you would only get about a quarter of that yield if you went through the long, drawn-out drying and curing process. Fresh frozen cannabis requires no space or investment in equipment to dry and cure, and you will get much more end product with fresh freezing your bubble hash than if you used dried flower.

Tip #2 Use RO Water

Using fresh frozen cannabis is as essential to the process as using reverse osmosis, better known as RO water. Using RO water is vital to creating top-tier concentrates. When you use a RO system, it filters out impurities and other undesired materials that could end up in your final product. Hash washing with water that isn’t filtered results in low-quality extracts. More so, the contaminants could be harmful to the consumer’s health.

As such, you must change your filters and membranes in your RO system regularly. Changes may be required weekly, monthly or quarterly, depending on your ice water hash processing facility’s output.

Tip #3 Use Industry-Specific Equipment

Don’t use plastic buckets and trash cans for your ice water hash making process. Far too many high volume processing facilities use plastic containers that shouldn’t serve as vessels for ice water hash making. Using plastic trash cans could result in microplastics ending up in your bubble hash. Smoking anything with microplastics is not only disgusting, but it’s also potentially dangerous. It is certainly not something a top-shelf bubble hash maker, or anyone for that matter, should ever sell.

Instead, find a sanitary, FDA food contact approved hash washing vessel, like stainless steel. We recommend purchasing a dedicated piece of equipment, like a washing vessel. A quality vessel should be welded securely and made from durable material that won’t result in nasty residual contaminants.

Bruteless stainless steel ice water hash washing vessels are all FDA food-grade compliant. Made by hand in Colorado, you won’t find another hash washing machine that produces volume and quality like the 30-gallon Bruteless system. Not only will your production produce top yields, but it can also wash up to 5,000 grams per washing cycle.

Tip #4 Use Freeze Dryers

Invest in a high-quality freeze dryer to dry your ice water hash. With a freeze dryer, you maximize your chances of ridding your product of mold, microbials and other harmful contaminants while your product dries.

It saves time too. Air drying your bubble hash is a long and drawn-out process that could take up to a week, or even more in some cases. With a freeze dryer, that amount of time is reduced to 24 hours or less. Not only is the cut down in time beneficial to production creation. The now available time allows for additional bubble hash production cycles. Or you can use the time to focus on other efforts that improve the company.

As is the case with using the fresh frozen method, freeze-drying your hash retains the best flavors and preserves terpene profiles. It also enhances your final hash product’s light color, an excellent selling point for shelf appeal. Lightly colored concentrates command a higher premium than lower quality concentrates do.

Tip #5 Chilled to Perfection

Keep your bubble hash making facility on the cool side. One of the main reasons a cold environment is preferred is that the warmer the environment, the higher the chance of terpene volatilization. Volitation is what occurs when terpenes evaporate or disperse into vapor. On the other hand, a cooler space lessens the likelihood that the terpenes in your SKUs will be volatilized.

Besides preserving terpenes, keeping your facility cool helps the trichomes of your fresh frozen cannabis flower become more brittle. Trichomes that are more brittle detach easier in your ice water hash mixing vessel. Those additional trichomes should lead to higher potencies as well as enhanced flavors and aromas in your SKUs.

Premium Bubble Hash Requires Premium Equipment

You can have the best ice water hash information at your hands, but it won’t mean a thing if your bubble hash making equipment is subpar. Less than stellar equipment results in suboptimal concentrates. Avoid ruining your time, sweat equity, and flower. Invest in industry-leading equipment made for ice water hashing.

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