How to Winterize Rosin: A Complete Guide
How to winterize rosin has been a topic of interest by a lot of cannabis extract enthusiasts. There’s a limited amount of information out there in terms of DIY. A video by John Brown, a WeedTuber, breaks it down to a few easy steps.
Below check out the video guide from John, and keep reading to see everything written out step by step.
What is Winterization?
Rosin winterization is the process of using food-grade alcohol to separate the fats, waxes and lipids from concentrates. Winterized rosin can be used in edible recipes, vapes, and even dabbing.
Why Winterize Rosin
Some enthusiasts use rosin winterization because it is a relatively inexpensive way to remove impurities, like wax, left behind in your rosin. By removing the impurities in the rosin, it keeps and looks fresh for longer and also increases in THC content.
Perhaps, it might also work with reclaimed concentrates — recycling it for further use. Make sure you remove any alcohol before you smoke or vape anything winterized.
Why Not to Winterize Rosin
There are people wary of the impurities from this extraction method. Fear of BHO extraction is an excellent example since people are moving to smoke solvent-less extracts. However the ethanol can be completely purged from your rosin to make it “solvent-free.”
Although, understanding why flavor is more appreciated than a high THC content is understandable. Live resin keeps the terpenes high thus making the cannabis concentrates flavorful.
Either way, since most concentrates aren’t really solvent-less, this little experiment or winterizing rosin proves to be interesting.
Tools Needed for Rosin Winterization
- Dab tools
- 2 – 3 Beakers
- Hot Plate
- Food-grade Alcohol
- Syringes
- Filters
How to Prep for Rosin Winterization
- To begin winterizing rosin place rosin into a beaker or shot glass. Using a heated flat or spiked tool tip to handle the rosin proves to be easier.
- Put alcohol into the beaker with a 1:10 rosin to alcohol ratio and place on heat source. Note: Everclear is a food-grade alcohol is used in the video as it has a more neutral flavor.
- Set your heat source to low then place your beaker on it. Stir the rosin mixture well to let the alcohol remove the remaining clumps of rosin.
- Once the mixture turns into a bright shade of amber you will see how the fats and waxes have separated from the rosin.
- After the separation place the alcohol solution into your freezer for fourteen (14) hours. Then remove from freezer. You should see the fat, wax, and lipids have fully separated from your rosin and settled at the bottom of you beaker.
How to Filter for Winterized Rosin
- Take a syringe and carefully pull the alcohol until the beaker is empty. Using two or three syringes makes the work easier because you’ll need to sift the fat and waxes from making it too difficult to push through micron filters in the next step.
- Replace the needle points with .22 Micron Filters. After the filter is secured, gently push the rosin through the filters and into a clean beaker.
- Once you’ve pushed all your rosin through, the process of rosin winterization is complete.
Safety Note: Make sure you have proper ventilation evaporating the alcohol.
How to Further Refine Winterized Rosin
Further refining your winterized rosin is best for dabbing or filling in a vape cartridge is possible.
- Place your filtered rosin onto a heat source at a low temperature, stir continuously. This process could take a couple of hours and using an automated stirrer is advised. Stirring is important to keep your rosin from burning and speed up the the refining process.
- Place a larger beaker over your rosin-filled beaker and raise the temperature of your heat source to medium-high heat (95 degrees Celsius/ 203 Fahrenheit should suffice).
- Let it sit for about two hours. After this step, your rosin will be the purest you could get it without the need for a vacuum.
The process to winterize rosin is not difficult, It’s time consuming, but it familiarizes you with the possibilities of handling and understanding extracts.
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