Cannabis Concentrates: Dry Sift vs Bubble Hash
- 1. Dry sift hash
- 2. Bubble hash
- 3. Bubble hash vs dry sift hash
- 3. a. Dry sift hash cost
- 3. b. Bubble hash cost
- 3. c. Quality
- 3. d. Difficulty
- 3. e. Yield
- 4. Other solventless hash extraction options
- 5. In conclusion
It doesn't matter if you prefer regular, autoflower, or feminized seeds, cannabis concentrates can be made with different types of strains and several different techniques. Concentrates contain the full spectrum of cannabinoids and terpenes. This is because, unlike extracts, when making concentrates you’re removing the whole trichome head instead of dissolving it in a chemical solvent, where you can lose some compounds.
1. Dry Sift Hash
Dry sift hash is also known as kief. This is the traditional method of collecting trichomes, it consists of separating the trichomes from the plant material by sifting.
This method has been used for a long time all over the world, especially in places where hash is consumed a lot like Morocco, Lebanon, and Afghanistan.
2. Bubble Hash
Bubble hash (or water hash) is another way of making hash, it uses water as a way to separate the trichomes from the plant material and the result is fairly similar to dry sifting, although it can reduce the amount of impurity, resulting in a higher quality hash.
3. Bubble Hash vs Dry Sift Hash
Dry sift and bubble hash produce kief, the main difference being the process they go through. While dry sift is made by rolling the buds or trims in a fine mesh, bubble hash uses extremely cold water to separate the trichomes from the plant material. Both of these techniques have advantages and disadvantages, although water hash is considered to have better quality, the end result solely depends on the quality of the flowers going in and your experience.
You can achieve a very good quality hash either way if you know what you’re doing, although each way of doing it has its pros and cons. Either way, the only way to guarantee a good quality is growing buds full of trichomes.
Dry Sift Hash Cost
There’s a big difference between them when it comes to cost. Dry sifting only requires a sift screen and a flat surface while for bubble hash you will need bubble bags, ice, cold water, and a water hash machine.
Note: Instead of the extraction machine you can use several buckets and a long spoon to stir but it is not ideal if you want to produce the best quality possible. Obviously, the cost will depend on where you live, but you can find the material required for dry sifting starting at $15 up to $60.
Bubble Hash Cost
For water hash, the machine by itself can cost up to $250 and it doesn’t even come with bubble bags.
Not only is it expensive but also requires experience, making it better suited for more experienced growers.
Quality
When talking about quality, most growers agree water hash is better. Have in mind that the quality solely depends on the quality of the flower going in, but because water hash uses water to separate the trichomes, the end result can have way fewer impurities. Dry sift hash can also have great quality, but because the trichomes fall directly to the surface where you collect it, it can contain a lot of impurities.
If you’re making hash for your own consumption at home, this won’t be a huge deal, but commercial growers who need to produce the best hash they can always opt for bubble hash because it is better for producing 5 or 6-star full melt hash.
Difficulty
Neither of these techniques is actually super hard, although you will need a minimum amount of knowledge for both of them. When dry sifting buds, you need to know the amount of pressure so you don’t disintegrate the buds, and with bubble hash you need to know for how long you can run the machine and at what strength.
You can easily look up this information on the internet, so it's just a matter of preference when talking about the level of difficulty. Although you can make a mess when making bubble hash because it uses water but that shouldn’t be a problem.
Yield
Yield depends on the number of trichomes your plant material has and this also depends on the quality you aim for. When dry sifting there’s usually only one screen, this means all the trichomes fall in the same place, so they’re mixed and there’s no way to separate them. So you can actually get more hash but you cannot separate it by quality. With bubble hash you may (sometimes) get lower yields because the water (with the trichomes mixed in) goes through several bubble bags and sometimes it can be hard to collect everything, also it is really easy to spill water. Although the several bubble bags can be an advantage if you want to separate your hash by quality because the micron size of the filter separates the trichomes by size (and consequently, quality).
4. Other Solventless Hash Extraction Options
There are some other options when it comes to the solventless hash extraction game that can produce some even better results than what bubble hash offers. The one we are going to focus on here is the dry ice hash technique.
Dry Ice Hash
This works in a very similar way to bubble hash and uses almost the exact same equipment, without the need for an expensive machine that is needed to agitate the water. It works on the exact same principles of cold + agitation = trichome extraction but does so in a different way. With dry ice extraction, the list of the needed equipment is:
- Dry ice (about 2 pounds or 1 kg depending on how much bud you are looking to process)
- A minimum of ¾ ounce of high-quality bud or trim that has been ground down and left overnight in the freezer (check out Gorilla Punch Auto, Purple Punch Auto, or Bruce Banner Auto if you are on the search for the best genetics to make hash with)
- A set of bubble bags
- A large bucket
- A hand scraper (a credit card works fine)
- A large glass sheet or smooth metal plate
- Safety equipment (goggles, gloves, coverall)
Dry ice is pretty easy to find in any metropolitan area but can be harder to source in rural spots. In developed countries like the USA, Spain, Australia, the United Kingdom you can even find it in a range of supermarkets, but in less developed areas it can definitely be a little tricky to find.
Dry ice extraction is, by far, the quickest way to make hash without the use of solvents. It's also the easiest but does come with some safety hazards. To make your own dry ice has at home:
- Grab your frozen, ground-up bud and chuck it into the large bucket.
- Don your safety gear and add the dry ice to the bucket.
- Leave this for about five minutes and let the dry ice totally freeze all of the plant material.
- Transfer the frozen weed and the dry ice into your set of bubble bags.
- Over the glass sheet or smooth metal plate, shake the bag vigorously. Be sure that the falling trichomes are all landing on the glass or plate, otherwise, they will be going to waste.
- After a minute or two, you should see that the collection area is covered with high-quality kief. Scrap all of this up with your credit card.
- You can repeat this process with all the grades of bubble bags. Each bag will produce a different grade of hash. The 73-micron bag will offer the top grade, with lower grades coming from the other bags.
Dry ice extraction allows for much larger yields than the other 2 techniques. With bubble hash, you can expect a return of about 17 - 25% of the overall weight, while with dry ice extraction that number is closer to 40 -45%. That's over double the amount of hash that you are getting from just using dry ice over iced water. Some users report that bubble hash has a stronger effect than dry ice hash, but here at the office, we found it hard to pick a clear winner between the 2 in terms of potency. Dry-ice hash certainly comes out looking better and has way better bag appeal. And with almost double the expected yield of bubble hash, there's really no reason not to go with dry ice instead.
Rosin Hash
Rosin hash is actually the easiest way to make your own high-quality, full spectrum, solventless hash from your very own living room. It requires hardly any kit, you can do it even if you have zero hash-making or cultivation experience, and the results can produce surprisingly high-grade hash. This method of creating cannabis concentrates involves pressing your cannabis material with a heated press, to which “rosin” (a fragrant liquid resin) is then extracted from the plant matter and scraped away. The result is a full spectrum product, much like dry sift and bubble hash, but with one marked difference.
Rosin, as stated just above, is a liquid extract. Liquid extracts are typically more powerful and have a greater range of cannabinoids than dry concentrates. This makes Rosin hash ideal for those seeking strong, potent effects as well as connoisseurs looking to sample the plant’s full palette of potential terpenes and cannabinoids. Rosin also differs from bubble hash and dry sift in that it requires no mechanical agitation. This means, in terms of convenience, rosin is the way to go if you’re looking for something that can be made quickly and with minimal fuss.
The downside of rosin hash is that it doesn’t lend itself to being “worked” like bubble hash and dry sift. This means it’s much harder to shape into the aesthetically pleasing spheres and coins of bubble hash, for example. Additionally, due to its liquid consistency, rosin is a little more difficult to handle and store than dry sift or bubble hash. Don't let these two points pull you away from the idea though. Rosin is the bomb-diggity. The extraction process is much quicker than the traditional bubble and dry sift methods, as it takes only a few minutes to apply heat and pressure to your material. The quality of rosin hash depends heavily on the temperature and pressure used during extraction, which can be customized (if you have a proper rosin press) depending on the desired texture or flavor of the end product.
But you don't need a fancy press to get things going. All you need is some parchment paper, a standard hair straightener, and your bud. That's honestly it. Wrap your bud up in the paper, press it with your hair straightener, and scrape off the rosin. The result? Pure gold in its most concentrated form. If you’re looking to sample the full richness of your cannabis plant, rosin is definitely the way to go. It won't give you the same tactile experience as bubble hash and dry sift, but it will provide a highly potent product that contains a wide range of cannabinoids and terpenes in one easy-to-produce extract.
5. In Conclusion
Although water hash can be a little bit more expensive, both methods are fairly simple. The decision is obviously up to you and will depend on the amount of plant material you want to process and how much you’re willing to spend. Dry ice hash is the new kid on the block and offers even better returns than bubble hash. It's simple, quick, and although there are some safety concerns to heed - the results really do speak for themselves. If you are looking for a good strain to make hash, we recommend our new Gorilla Cookies Auto.
Not only does it have a delicious terpene profile but it also produces a huge amount of resin. Remember that although the way you make your hash can affect the quality of the product, it mostly depends on the quality of the flower that goes in.
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