Dry Hash Extraction

What is Dry Extraction? 

Dry extractions are cannabis concentrated made without using chemicals nor water. These techniques allow for aromatic, flavourful resin extracts, although it can be hard to separate trichomes from your flowers without having some plant material filter through also. 

The traditional method of extracting resin was done on a cold winters night, using a metallic mesh grid and a thinner fabric mesh acting as a second filter, as well as a silk mesh designed to allow high quality pollen through. 

Nowadays, instead of waiting for a cold night, we can just pop our plant material in the fridge, although the mesh filter method hasn’t changed much at all. 

What do I need to Make a Dry Extract? 

The first thing you need is your cannabis. Keep in mind that the quality of your cannabis will determine the final quality of your extract. 

If you use the small leaves from your buds (sugar leaves) and trimmings, keep in mind that the quality won’t be the best, but you’ll be able to make the most of your leftover trimmings. If you’re looking for the highest quality, you’ll need to use buds. 

Both traditional techniques and modern techniques (Dry Sift) require hard work and a cool environment. The ideal way to do this is in temperatures below 0 in order to achieve the best return from your plant material. 

How to Make Dry Hash 

This is one of the simplest and safest extraction methods, and to do it you just need to follow a few simple steps: the secret to success is in selecting your material carefully and making sure it’s cooled down enough. 

Materials: Flowers and Trimmings 

Choose your flowers and trimmings wisely: 

• Make sure there’s no branches or pointy parts which could damage mesh filters. 
• If you’re using buds, make sure that they’re all similar in quality; don’t mix them with leaves or the quality may be lower than expected. 
• Freeze your cannabis; this is necessary in order to achieve maximum resin yield, as it’s easier for trichomes to fall from the flowers when cold; larger yields with less effort. 

The Extraction Process 

The extraction theory suggests that the amount of time you spend shaking your flowers on the filter is directly proportional to the quantity and inversely proportional to the quality. The more you shake, the larger the yield, but the lower the quality; if you’re looking for the highest quality, don’t shake for too long. 

Fortunately you can avoid this issue by doing different rounds with the same material; the first round should be done lightly with little shaking, and the next rounds should produce lower quality hash. Make sure not to mix the different results. 

How to Treat Hash Extrtacts 

Don’t try and grab the hash with your hands or it will stick to you and you’ll lose some of it. Remember, you’re making a hash extract via shaking, it’s not charas. Use a plastic card to pile the resin up. 

Glass and acrylic jars are ideal for storing your extracts in separate containers, classified by quality. 

The best way to conserve your dry extracts is by pressing them into slabs, which helps to avoid the material and cannabinoids degrading. We recommend using a pollen press for this; if you plant on making a small extract, the Hash press is ideal for you. However, if you’re going to make a large extract you can use the Jack Push 2 tonne press or the Jack Puck 8 tonne press, which allows you to make rectangular or cylindrical pucks of hash. 

What Extractor do I Need for Pollen 

Our catalogue has various types of extractors designed to separate trichomes from your buds and leftovers. You can then clean the pollen by sieving it through even more filters in different sizes. 

Un this section you can find different manual resin extractors, ideal for filtering trichomes. There are various types of extractors used depending on the method: 

Manual Hash Extractors 

These extractors are perfect for growers that like to enjoy their own hash on occasion. 

• Shake Me: an extractor which is ideal for growers that don’t have many plants and want to make the most out of their trimmings and smaller buds in order to make some hash. It’s ideal for 5 – 10 grams of buds.
• If you’re an extract aficionado, we recommend using the Polenmaker, which can hold up to 570cc which is enough for about 30g flowers. The Polenmaker has a stainless steel mesh filter between 140 and 150 microns. 

Electric Hash Extractors 

Electric extractors are ideal for growers that want to make the most of their harvest or most of their harvest for making hash. 

These systems come with speed adjusters so you can lower the speed to obtain higher quality hash, and a 150 micron mesh filter: 

• Secret Box 150: this device can hold up to 150 grams of cannabis, and it’s the more affordable version of the Pollinator. This system is great quality for the price. 
• Pollinator 500: this high quality professional extractor can hold up to 500g. 
• Pollinator 3000: this is the largest model in our catalogue, allowing you to shake up to 3kg of cannabis in just a few minutes. 

Other Related Products 

This section contains other utensils that can be super helpful when it comes to making dry extracts such as the 00 Box and 00 Pocket Box, with which you can passively collect resin while storing your flowers. These boxes come with a 136 micron mesh which allows all trichomes to filter down to the bottom. They’re made out of cedar wood, which is considered the best type of wood for curing and storing flowers. 

You can also add natural aromas to your extracts using Terps Spray. Check out our catalogue to discover many different types of of Cali Terpenes strains.

If you have any questions regarding how to make dry extracts, at La Huerta Grow Shop we have an entire team of experts ready to help you out.