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Greg here, once again kicking some interstellar knowledge down all of my humanoid growmies’ way. Today, let’s talk about some amazing DIY concentrates you can make at home with your trim, larf, and treasure chest of bud—hash and kief!
Growing your high-quality cannabis seeds in the most optimal conditions and taking care to dry and cure your harvest bounty properly means you’ve easily set yourself up to create potent concentrates like kief and bubble hash safely at home. Maybe you even want to take things into hyperdrive and squish your own rosin—that can be done without dangerous solvents at home, too! Growers with excess cannabinoid-rich plant material at their disposal and anyone looking to save an insane amount of money on concentrates—take note! If you’re buying from a trusted cannabis seed bank, you’ll have the genetics needed to maximize potency, terpene profiles, and yields for concentrates.
Until pressed hash rosin became the modern standard for DIY cannabis concentrates, products like wax, shatter, budder, and others required professional laboratories and technicians to ensure safety during extraction [1]. Despite your Uncle Bob’s insistence and burned scalp from trying to do his own BHO extraction, using combustible, chemical-based solvents like butane is not safe to do at home [2]. It’s not only safer for trained professionals to make these concentrates in a lab, but they produce a purer, less toxic, and consistent end product. That’s why the DIY nature of sifting your own kief and washing your own bubble hash is always such a game-changer because it avoids all of that stuff. Home growers who buy cannabis seeds online can skip risky solvent-based methods and still enjoy premium-quality results.
Solvents like butane are super-efficient in stripping away resins and trichome heads from the rest of the chlorophyll and plant matter to make wax, shatter, diamonds, etc. Essentially, molecular weight and solubility between the cannabinoids and solvents make this possible in something called a closed-loop system that separates the good stuff (potent trichome heads) from the bad stuff (non-psychoactive plant matter and chlorophyll).
BHO concentrates also undergo another chemical solvent process known as winterization with food-grade ethanol at very low temperatures. Winterization removes remaining plant fats and waxes while maximizing terpene profiles after the entire mixture is filtered again. Equipment like vacuum pumps and rotovaps should remove remaining traces of solvent left before stirring and curing the concentrate into its desired form.
If you’re thinking, “Dang, Greg, that’s a lot of chemicals; is it harmful to dab solvent-based concentrates?”, you’re not alone! Labs test for residual solvents after the concentrates are made to see if they meet the threshold for allowable levels. So that basically means, yes, the extracts with more than acceptable levels of residual solvents are thrown away, but the rest of the BHO-based concentrates may still have some levels of toxicity in them; it just depends on how thorough the manufacturer is in their controls and processes. If you ask me, that’s just another reason why using or making your own DIY hash makes more sense.
Besides the possibility of residual solvents, the fact remains that to be trained on how to safely and properly make BHO concentrates in an approved facility simply isn’t living in reality. The equipment costs alone would make you go broke before you even get a chance to blow your neighborhood up. The same fact applies to another solvent-based method known as Supercritical CO₂ extraction.
Supercritical CO₂ extraction uses pressurized gas shifting from liquid to gas forms during extraction, resulting in a purer concentrate without harmful waste. The super high cost of equipment and lack of know-how by the average Joe Humanoid make DIY supercritical CO₂ extraction not a common reality. It also has its drawbacks like less pronounced terpene profiles, potency, and yields also make it unappealing for some professional extractors compared to BHO extraction.
A lot of retail products with post-process terpenes added, like vape cartridges, and others without, like drinks and edibles, mostly use what’s known as concentrated supercritical CO₂ distillate. Solventless rosin-based products now reign supreme over distillate-based ones.
Winterization is a part of any high-quality CO₂ distillate product; it improves color, taste, viscosity, and aroma by separating and dissolving excess plant fats and chlorophyll.
While the supercritical CO₂ process itself only uses potentially explosive gas as its biggest danger, the ethanol used to winterize the distilled concentrate after supercritical extraction is where the potential for ingestion or inhalation of residual solvents still comes into play—and why supercritical CO₂ is still considered a solvent-based extraction method.
Many of my growmies like to use solventless extraction methods to make their own concentrates, and for good cause! Solventless methods don’t use any harmful chemicals or contain any explosion hazards, using only natural gravity, pressure, and water as the ways in which valuable trichome heads are separated for extraction or consumption. [3] Solventless extractions pair perfectly with homegrown flower from autoflower seeds, since these plants are fast to harvest and can provide plenty of material for bubble hash or kief.
Collecting kief is one of the simplest and affordable ways to obtain a nice amount of concentrates—it’s also the easiest and quickest after drying and curing your harvest. Kief is the collection of trichomes that fall and shake loose from properly dried and cured cannabis flower. Weed grinders typically have a screen-in chamber dedicated to collecting fallen kief, but additional micron dry sift screens and products, such as kief boxes, are the most efficient. All it takes is some shaking of the trim and buds inside the screen or box for a while until it collects in another chamber.
Kief is power-packed with a concentrated amount of cannabinoids—ranging anywhere from 35–80% THC—greatly exceeding the average 20–30% of today’s cannabis flower. Joints, bowls, and edibles with some kief added in greatly amplify the overall high. Some folks even like to press their kief into concentrated pucks using an inexpensive pollen press. For those who order feminized or autoflower seeds online from a cannabis seed bank, you can plan entire grows specifically for kief-heavy yields. Choosing the right cannabis strains from a seed bank—such as indica strains with heavy resin or hybrids bred for trichome production—can significantly increase your kief yields.
If you’ve ever heard the terms “bubble hash” and “ice water hash”, one refers to the bubble that forms when a flame is applied to full-melt, high-quality hash, and the other refers to the ice used as a “solvent” to extract it. Bubble hash has existed in one form or another for almost a thousand years, but the true modern art of making it didn’t become common until the mid-80s, when a humanoid named Bubbleman came out with filtration bags that simplified the process. [4]
There is some equipment necessary to make bubble hash; however, the main upfront cost is the amount of weed needed to make it. For all of my growmies out there with harvests full of plenty of extra bud, larf, and trim, congrats, you’re way ahead of the game! One full ounce of dried cannabis can produce anywhere from 3-5 grams of bubble hash on average. Fresh frozen plant material typically yields only about 1-2 grams, but the end product has a much more pronounced, terpene-rich, and tasty flavor profile. Remember, the better the product you put in, the better the end product you get in return—for this reason, using nugs from your harvest will get you the best product. Trim and larf also usually come through for you with some excellent results, but nowhere near that of using buds. If you want maximum returns, buying cannabis seeds online that are bred for hash-making ensures sticky, resinous buds ideal for ice-water extraction.
The combination of ice water, cannabis, stirring, and micron filter bags cleanly extracts the trichome heads without using any dangerous solvents [3]. Some folks like to use what’s known as a bubble hash washing machine that can save a lot of effort with automated settings that will stir and agitate the hash itself. For everyone else, here are the main tools needed to DIY your own bubble hash:
When you buy a bubble bag kit, it usually comes with a set of bags in different micron sizes. Think of each bag like a filter that catches different grades of hash as the ice-water wash passes through it. Each size has its own result:
Once you have all of the necessary tools, it’s time to start the bubble hash extraction. Follow the steps below.
Once your bubble hash is properly dried and cured, it’s time to enjoy smoking it with the satisfaction that you created it from seed! You can also take solace in knowing that there are no residual solvents anywhere in there that can affect your health. For my growmies that want to go next level with their bubble hash, you can press it into bubble hash rosin.
Pressing rosin requires accessibility to a rosin press, of which there are many types to choose from. The rosin press process isn’t entirely complicated; it’s really just a matter of applying specific heat and pressure on the bubble hash while it’s inside a rosin bag. Hash rosin is one of the most popular cannabis concentrates these days because of its potency, ridiculous terpenes, DIY nature, and safety from any dangerous residual solvents. Strains sold by cannabis seed banks that are labeled as “resin monsters” or “hash strains” are especially popular among growers looking to press bubble hash into rosin.
Concentrates sold by the local plug can come from any number of unverified sources, while even more expensive concentrates sold at the local dispensary can still have any number of contaminants that can affect your health over time.
Bottom line—if you grow weed, you can make your own bubble hash or sift your own kief to take your high to the next galaxy. Kief is so easy it practically falls off and collects itself, ready as a bowl topper or addition to a joint. Bubble hash is one of the simplest, most potent, and terp-tastic ways to make your own hash—and it doesn’t require a lot of know-how or equipment. So set aside that big pile of harvested larf, trim, and buds, and easily extract your own! And if you’re just getting started, purchasing feminized seeds or autoflower seeds from a trusted cannabis seed bank will set you up with strong genetics designed for heavy resin, high THC, and concentrate-friendly yields.
Ready to start growing your own premium flower for kief, bubble hash, or rosin? Multiverse Beans is your trusted online cannabis seed bank, offering a massive selection of feminized cannabis seeds, autoflower seeds, and hash-making strains. Whether you’re looking for resin-heavy indicas, terpene-rich hybrids, or high-THC sativas, we’ve got you covered with discreet shipping, expert genetics, and top-rated customer service.
Contact Multiverse Beans today to explore our catalog of cannabis seeds, get advice on which strains are best for concentrates, and take the first step toward growing your own potent harvest.