Curing with dry ice?

:sunglasses:_emphasized text_Co2 Dry Ice Cure (freezer Drying) All U Need To Know!
DRY ICE CURE (FREEZER DRYING) ALL U NEED TO KNOW!!

  • What is Dry Ice? ā€œDry Iceā€ is frozen Carbon Dioxide. CO2 will change from its solid, frozen state to its gaseous state without passing through a liquid state - hence itā€™s name ā€˜dry iceā€™. This process of solid changing to gas is known as sublimation. What is Sublimation? Sublimation is a simple process which depends on the fact that the surface of a frozen solid is actually quite active at the molecular level. In the case of water ice, water molecules are constantly leaving and binding to the frozen surface. In a moist atmosphere, more water molecules bind to the surface than leave, and ice grows on the surface (e.g frost inside your freezer). In a dry atmosphere however, more water molecules leave the frozen surface than adhere, so the solid dries out. The same process occurs with Dry Ice. As there is a fairly low CO2 content in air, the dry ice sublimes away completely, leaving no residue or liquid - hence its name. What is Freeze Drying? Freeze drying (scientific name: Lyophilization) depends upon the process of sublimation (explained below), and on the fact that like CO2, frozen water at low temperature will go through the process of sublimation under the right conditions. Dry ice has a very low water content, as it is made up of almost pure CO2. In theory it IS pure, but even from a lab suppliers, it will have a small amount of impurities - these do not matter for our purposes. In effect the dry ice vapour has near zero relative humidity. Now: (this is the important bit) When material containing water is placed into this almost zero humidity environment, the water molecules are drawn out of the material and into the CO2, raising the relative humidity of the CO2 and lowering the water content of the material. If the CO2 around the material is steadily replenished then the process will continue until all moisture has been removed from the material. All this happens at low temperatures, below the freezing point of water, which means that the material is preserved in a totally ā€˜freshā€™ state. How Do I Freeze Dry Grass? Use a container (I use a Tupperware box) that is twice as big as the volume of grass you wish to dry. Make a few small holes in the lid, to allow the gas to escape. Put equal volumes of bud and dry ice inside, loosely packed, with the dry ice underneath the bud. Put the lid on and make sure it is properly sealed so that the only way for gas to escape is through the holes in the lid. Put the box into a freezer, lid upwards. This is to keep the material as cold as possible, prolonging the sublimation process for as long as possible. The dry ice will begin to sublime pushing all air out of the box and surrounding your buds with bone dry co2. The totally dry atmosphere will begin drawing water molecules out of the plant material. Check the tub after 24 hours and then every 24 hours until the dry ice has all gone. When the ice is all gone -the buds should be completely dry and smokeable. If you find that they are not quite dry then put some more dry ice into the box, place the lot back in the freezer and wait until they are done. Can I use a fridge? You could use a fridge instead of a freezer, but the dry ice would evaporate very quickly so youā€™d need a lot more of it to dry the buds, hence the expense would rise rapidly. Better would be to use a ā€˜cool boxā€™ - one of the plastic insulated boxes for food storage when camping. Again - make sure that there are holes so that the gas can escape. Do I need to prepare the buds? Itā€™s better to partially dry the buds so that they are nearly dry, then finish them off with dry ice. If you use fresh, wet grass then you can expect the process to take much longer and to use more dry ice, pushing the cost up. I find that using partially dry buds in a freezer the dry ice has gone after about 48 hrs. What I do is give them a week of slow dry, then manicure, THEN freeze dry them. What are the advantages? The advantages of this method are increased potency and a ā€˜fresherā€™ taste. As the material is preserved in a totally ā€˜freshā€™ state, the THC glands suffer as little degredation from heat, light and air as is possible. No other drying process preserves the resin glands is such a fresh state as can be achieved with freeze drying. Why should I freeze dry? Freeze drying is good if you plan to freeze your bud anyway. If you donā€™t want to keep it in the freezer then there isnā€™t a lot to be gained by using the technique, as the ā€˜freshā€™ thc will rapidly degrade as usual once outside the freezer. Where Can I get Dry Ice? You can get dry ice from most lab suppliers (expensive) but many industrial ice houses or ice cream suppliers sell it for considerably less (preferred option) Just try the yellow pages. My Opinion Based on Experience To be honest, In my experience the dry ice cure is a lot of trouble for little benefit, as the final taste isnā€™t as good as you can get by slow drying and glass jar curing. Generally itā€™s greener tasting and somewhat ā€˜mintyā€™ due to the remaining chlorophyll. Strangely enough, some people like this minty taste and associate it with strength. (weird, I know - but they do.) Does it really increase potency? I have tried comparison by using a control sample, and freeze drying definitely seems to give you a slightly ā€˜higherā€™ hit with a ā€˜mintierā€™ taste than the jar cure, but the overall strength didnā€™t seem hugely different. Itā€™s a connoisseur smoke, perhaps. In a blind test at a party with about thirty people involved it came out about evenly split as to which was the strongest, but that was a subjective test, and was only conducted in a very stoned manner! According to The Frank & Rosenthal Guide, anecdotal evidence suggests that freezing improves potency, which is why I got into the process in the first place. Iā€™m not convinced either way, but it was a fun technique to play with for a while.
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    04-28-2008, 02:11 PM #strong text
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Found an article in 420 magazine check it out

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Max. I live in Michigan too!!! The law needs to change drastically cuz itā€™s got medical use so being a schedule 1 is not right at all . Hmmm maybe I could help after all. Iā€™m near Flint!!

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Iā€™m near Battle Creek. So not real far away

Do you have a grow journal going

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I donā€™t use a journal Iā€™m not very good at reading and writing do to my attention span so I would never b good at keeping up in s journal. I started off doing one but I never followed through. I grow pretty much one strain so Iā€™m pretty familiar with its temperament from seed to finish is a 12 wk process . We visit Muskegon a lot my wife is from there. Somehow when I harvest we should try to hook up and I would give you my trim and what I call baby buds if that would help u. Iā€™m about a month out from harvest but Iā€™ll look you up and see if we canā€™t make things happen

`

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Sounds good. We canā€™t hook up through this site, but there are other ways, so when the time comes, we will figure it out.

Thanks again for the post and the offer. @timmyv324

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I now what your saying. I will try to catch up to you but Iā€™m the mean time ! Fight the good fight brother. May the force b with you !!!

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closest I come to freezing my plant matter is pre processing after cured since water in any form interferes with BHO extraction so even after drying I freeze to lock any remaining moisture in. I canā€™t argue that fresh herbs basil cellantro thyme have better flavor than dried but on same token I couldnā€™t picture making RSO trying to evaporate all the water trapped in plant matter without burning and evaporating terpene as well. Freeze drying is just rapid dehydration which evaporates any moisture leaving behind oils when they say processing fresh they mean fresh not freeze dried.

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Thanks @timmyv324 I will never give up. God has my back and has keep me alive for a reason. Most people with this cancer are dead after 5 years and God has kept me alive for 10 years

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I think we are forgetting that these tests were lab tests (lab) being key word this means they had any equipment they needed to process oils. The equipment to process raw material is multi stage high cost and by most of our standards way too expensive for the small scale growers.

I was pretty much tapped after buying my closed loop BHO unit and upgrades nearly $2k and most co2 extractors I have looked at are price of new truck

Sounds like cancer has a fight. And with RSO you gonna give it the knockout punch. :facepunch::facepunch:

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Yeah that equipment is very costly but Iā€™m sure you would get it back if you have to ability to move it. I havenā€™t done much other than smoke my stuff I have made bubble hash and RSO once but like I said I thought I messed it up but I didnā€™t. I need to find better things to do with my trim and I think oil is the ticket so I can help folks out if possible. I actually got some RSO for my boss cuz he wife had cancer but they never used it and she had passed so that sucked but I thing freezing it and the extracting sounds like the way to go but not to freeze if your gonna smoke it

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Thatā€™s one thing I know will happen if things are fully anc federally legal you know some big corporation will get in on this a try to take over the world with there commercial pot. Thatā€™s kinda why the way it is now seems like itā€™s working good

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@timmyv324 @MAXHeadRoom so do you guys think freeze drying would be good for making butter? That way less chlorophyll would be leeched into the butter? Or would that still happen, but maybe at lesser amount.

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Honestly I think any type of extraction process will work better if frozen. When I make butter or hash I put the stuff in the freezer for a day or so before I start . And bubble hash u use the ice to freeze the trichomes and that what makes them fall off to my understanding. So my answer is I think it helps

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Clarify what kind of butter? if you are talking BHO wax/oil butter than freezing is important step as it locks chlorophyll in water which doesnā€™t mix well in solvents. If you are talking canna butter decarboxilate is standard practice, I would assume since butter is melted to leach oils off plant matter frozen wouldnā€™t matter and if herbs have moisture in them it will leach into butter.

@Donaldj @timmyv324 thanks for the answers. Just regular butter. I do intend to make wax, and Iā€™ll remember the freezing before using, and itā€™s always a plus to not have chlorophyll leeching. It makes for a better result.

Yeah Iā€™m just talking canba butter for cookin treats. I have the magic butter machine . Honestly I just freeze all my trim cuz of the smell and itā€™s a good place for me to store it. So that how I really came about freezing it but when Iā€™ve done the bubble has some say freezing before helps and also adding sunflower extract too ?? My old lady does all that so Iā€™m not the best to answer really.

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The extract is a delivery agent which makes oil easier to process in your body

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