My ISO METHOD

[Kuntjoose]

I made some ISO hash the other day and since I have so many people ask me about it all the time I thought I would take some shots of how I do it and my results so others can compare or learn.
All I need for supplies are:
-2 mason jars or other glass containers
-1 Bottle of Isopropyl Alcohol anything 91% and above which is what I use. Also I have heard people have excellent results with Everclear.
-Pyrex dish whatever size you got handy
-Some sort of metal style strainer- I use 1 half of a tea ball
-A razor blade for when it’s finished

NOTE​

I try not to use any plastic when I work because the ISO can pull flavors or residues out of them. The larger the Pyrex dish you use the faster the ISO will evaporate. The strainer you use can be just about anything. Some people use sink drain trap screens. One thing though, some people like to take a coffee filter and use that as the strainer. This is not suitable for your primary filter as it takes far too long for the liquid to drain and it ends up sitting with the plant material far too long for our purposes. If you wish to further filter the mixture after you have separated the plant material a coffee filter would be suitable. Though actually I prefer a slightly dirty hash so I skip the second filter.
I use a “Quick Wash” method to get a more solid finished product that is easy to handle and use.

 

[Kuntjoose]

Step 1

Step 1- Take your material (trims, buds, hash, etc.) and crush it up. DO NOT POWDERIZE IT OR GRIND IT SUPER FINE (you will end up with different results). I like to take my trim and buds and just crumble them up with my fingers on a plate.

 

[Kuntjoose]

Step 2 & 3

Step 2-If you are using a lot of material you will want to “wash” in stages. Place a small amount of material in 1 of the mason jars that’s your “dirty jar”. Next add ISO to about 3 times the volume of material. At this point I like to cap my jar and shake for about 8 to 10 seconds or so. You can stir it if you do not have a lid.
Step 3- Place your strainer on your second jar the “clean jar” and pour the mixture thru the strainer. I like to press the material to squeeze out the last little bit. I then repeat the same procedure only pouring the used ISO from the “clean jar” back into the “dirty jar” to wash the next bit until it’s all gone.

 

[Kuntjoose]

Step 4 & 5

Step 4- At this point you can do a secondary filtering of the ISO mixture with a coffee filter if you so choose. I only do it if I am going to mix it into edibles. I would also like to note that some people are concerned with phosphates and would use the brown coffee filter vs. the white ones which are bleached and may contain phosphates.
Step 5- Make sure your Pyrex is clean and dust free, then pour in your mixture. Now find a nice non humid place with decent ventilation to let it sit and evaporate. Please do not heat it up to evaporate the alcohol. It may go faster but you will get different results. Also I do not condone the “flash hash” because it is unsafe and leaves a burnt taste/residue in the finish product; also I find that it tends to be quite oily. If the room is very humid the alcohol will absorb moisture from the air and cause water to pool on top taking longer for everything else to dry. You can put a fan near to speed the evaporation. I like to set it on top of my computer so it gets warm air circulating around it. Plus I have an A/C in my bedroom so it stays very dry and cool. If I make a batch at night before bed it is usually dry by morning and ready to scrape up for my morning bowl and coffee.

 

[xX Kid Twist Xx]

thx for this post bro. this is how i will be doing mine next time. so you use the same ISO over and over the 1st jarful to keep running the new trim through?

 

[Kuntjoose]

Step 6

Step 6- Once it is all dried up and be sure it is fully dry, you may see what look like droplets still sitting in the dish they may just be sticky oily droplets just poke it to check. If it’s all good just grab a fresh clean razor blade for best results and start scraping.
Now depending on your preference or purpose you may want leave the scrapings as is, a crystal like powder, or squish it all together into a hard lump. I find the powder to have a very complex and sophisticated flavor and a superior taste and find that it blends very well into edibles. When exposed to higher temps it will melt into little crumbly chunks. The lump style has a very pungent in your face hash flavor and will last longer when topped onto a bowl of weed.

 

[Kuntjoose]

Overview

On this run I started with 8 grams of trim and after it was all dried and scraped it came in at .8grams. This is very consistent with what I would normally get from trim, about 10%. Although from primo buds I can get as high as 25+%. The finished product will be close to full melt when it’s all said and done. I still get crusty ashes with mine because of the left over trichome stalks and some plant material. You would have to do a second filtering with a coffee filter to get full on pure full melt. I hope you find my method interesting and informative. If you have any questions just ask and Ill see if I can help ya out.

 

[Snafu]

does this iso method work with dried and cured greens or can you just cut fresh and freeze, then begin your method?

thanks for the input!

 

[SmokeyPipes]

Nice post!! gonna give it a try!! thanks Kuntjoose:cool0041:

 

[Kuntjoose]

thx for this post bro. this is how i will be doing mine next time. so you use the same ISO over and over the 1st jarful to keep running the new trim through?

Fo sho KT, you just keep reusing the ISO till u have "washed" all the material your going to run. Though I imagine at some point the solvent will lose effectiveness as it accumulates a higher percentage of soluble material. In which case use more solvent. But a good rule of thumb would be to seperate your starting material into 3 similar sized piles put 1 of them into ur jar or recpticle and then use about 2-3 times the volume of ISO to 1 pile of material.

does this iso method work with dried and cured greens or can you just cut fresh and freeze, then begin your method?

thanks for the input!

Snafu it does work with fresh or dried or even to clean up shitty soap bar or dirty bubble hash. however the quality is far far better with dried. If you use fresh material you end up with a sludgy harsh mess, plus its hard to get all the water out as it seems to bind more to the sludge.
Anyway I did it a cpl times and really didn't like it I wont be doing it again.

Nice post!! gonna give it a try!! thanks Kuntjoose

Thanx Smokey if you do give it a shot let us know how it goes.

 

[Snafu]

so dried it is, but does curing make a huge difference? or would you be able to cure the ISO once you have run the process?

sorry for all the newb questions~

-Snafu

 

[Kuntjoose]

so dried it is, but does curing make a huge difference? or would you be able to cure the ISO once you have run the process?

sorry for all the newb questions~

-Snafu

Its all good Snafu. Sure a good curing of trim or buds will definitely effect the flavor of the finish product. But in the long run the difference is minor and I don't think whether or not material has been cured will effect the texture or consistency. As far as curing your hash goes the longest I have ever had 1 run of iso hash around was like 2 months and only because I was making a new batch everyday. Otherwise I go through the shit like it was the air I breath. Im sure some may contend that long term storage will effect potency. However I have heard stories of hash makers in india storing and saving charras and creams for 5 or more years and were still mind blowing.

 

[motherlode]

great post KJ, I am gonna give this a try now!

 

[Mud Man]

tagged.. cool info and thread :)

 

[OneLuv]

Thanks for the tip bro, would u say u prefer this over bho?

 

[Kuntjoose]

Thanks for the tip bro, would u say u prefer this over bho?

Oneluv I cant say I prefer one over the other because I haven't been able to sample any real decent BHO. I did try my hand at making it once tho. I used Colibri butane and made a crappy extractor out of a Makin clay extruder I had previously modified into a hash press. Anyway my results were only as good as the effort I put into to build my extractor, in other words very sub par results.
However I do think I should play with 'tane a little more. Though the high cost of butane is prohibitive in my research. And ISO is like for $2.83 for a bottle I can make about 10 grams of dank ISO with.

 

[budmonger]

hey there Kuntjoose heres a little trick for ya man you will even get better oil by freezing the iso and trim first then do your wash with it try it out man,be well.Peace and stay safe...budmonger

 

[squarepusher]

nice QWISO batch

 

[dextr0]

Snafu it does work with fresh or dried or even to clean up shitty
soap bar or dirty bubble hash. however the quality is far far better with dried. If you use fresh
material you end up with a sludgy harsh mess, plus its hard to get all the water out as it seems
to bind more to the sludge.
Anyway I did it a cpl times and really didn't like it I wont be doing it again.

I get this same "sludge" when using other solvents and extracting fresh plant material. All I do is
heat up a LITTLE and let water evaporate. Slow evaporation is necessary or you will end
up with a very oily substance instead of taffy like resin. I do not know if this will make shatter/glass
this way as i dont use ISO, but it should make nice taffy like hash as long as you do not heat to much.

After heating with a lighter (decarboxlyzing) and whipping a little...

 

[SmokeyPipes]

hey there Kuntjoose heres a little trick for ya man you will even get better oil by freezing the iso and trim first then do your wash with it try it out man,be well.Peace and stay safe...budmonger

was thinking the same thing,going to pick some iso up and give it a try this weekend!!