Buying hash may be the easiest way to get your hands on a cannabis extract. It’s not the only way to get hash, though. With a little bit of background knowledge and some hands-on practice, you can start making your own high-grade hash.
There are actually several different ways to make hash. Each one offers varying degrees of difficulty and quality of the final product. If you want to learn how to make your own hash, check out our hash making guide on this page.
Making Hash – the Background
Although there are several different ways to make hash, they’re all based around the same idea: removing cannabinoids from plant matter. Bubble hash, finger hash, and finger hash all use different techniques to achieve this goal.
Hash has some advantages over cannabis flower. First and foremost, it has a higher THC content than flower does. While cannabis buds usually have a maximum THC concentration of 20 or 30 percent, many types of hash can clock in at 60 percent THC or more. As a result, you need to use significantly less hash to get high than you would from smoking flower.
Different Types of Hash
Bubble Hash, finger hash, and pressed hash are the three most common types of solventless extracts. While these three types of extracts are made without solvents, that’s where the similarities end – they each have their own appearance and are all made from different processes.
Bubble Hash
If you’ve smoked hash any time in the last three decades, chances are it was bubble hash. Bubble hash has been a mainstay for cannabis smokers since the 1980s. It goes by many names, including “full melt” and “ice water hash.”
Bubble hash is a sticky, viscous goop that’s actually made of millions of tiny grains of resin. It’s usually tan- or amber-coloured, with lighter tones usually being higher quality. Bubble hash has high terpene content in comparison to other types of hash, giving it a powerful and robust flavour profile.
Making bubble hash is a significantly more involved process than producing other forms of hash. The basic idea involves taking cannabis flower and pushing it through a mesh filter in cold water.
In practice, this involves using plastic bags called “bubble bags” with tiny holes in them. You can find these bags for sale online. These holes can range from 36 to 72 microns in diameter. To put that in perspective, the average human hair has a diameter of 50 microns, and the biggest human chromosome is about 10 microns long. The bubble bags act as a sifter or strainer does with cooking. They allow trichomes to pass through while holding back plant matter, which gives bubble hash its granular texture.
Making high-quality bubble hash requires multiple sizes of bubble bags. You’ll need to start with a bag featuring 200 – 300-micron holes. Then, gradually decrease the micron size of each bag. The final bag should feature holes between 25 and 30 microns wide.
After you strain the trichomes through the bags, you’ll need to dry them. Trichomes can be left in bubble bags to dry or spread out on a screen. Trichrome need to be left in the dark for about a week to dry. You’ll know it’s ready if it’s solid instead of wet. Bubble hash can be stored in glass or plastic containers, and shouldn’t be kept in direct sunlight.
Pressed Hash
Pressed hash is made from kief with pressure applied to form it into hard, brittle slabs. Then, pieces of the slabs can be cut off and smoked. Pressed hash is most closely associated with Morocco. Moroccans first began making pressed hash in the Middle Ages, and Morocco is still famous for its hash today.
It’s easy to make pressed hash yourself. You’ll only need one ingredient – kief. However, you’re going to need a lot of it. You’re also going to need a way to put a lot of pressure on your kief. The easiest way to do this is using a pollen press, which are widely available on the internet.
A pollen press is a hollow tube with caps on the end. To make pressed hash, open one end of the tube and pack in as much kief into it as you can. Then, screw the top back onto the tube. This will press the kief together into a hard cylinder. Let the kief sit for a few hours to set into its new shape.
Next, you can apply heat to decarboxylate the kief, activating the THC within it. First, preheat your oven to 250 degrees. Then, wrap the cylinder of kief in wax paper and a wet paper towel. Let it cook for about 5 minutes. Unwrap the cylinder of kief and re-press it. Repeat this process one more time, and then let it sit in your freezer overnight. You now have a disc of pressed hash ready to smoke!
Finger Hash
Finger hash, also known as “Charas,” is one of the oldest types of cannabis extract in the world. Originally invented in central Asia and India, finger hash is essentially built up resin. Although humans have produced Charas for thousands of years, it’s actually illegal to produce or possess in India.
While making bubble hash requires modern materials and processes, making finger hash utilizes ancient techniques. Making finger hash is one of the easiest ways to produce your own hash. As a result, it’s a popular technique for beginners.
Finger hash makers rub mature female cannabis plants between their fingers and palms to collect resin front the plant. Resin is a thick, goopy, sticky substance made from trichomes. After collecting the resin from cannabis flowers, finger hash makers scrape it from their hands and form it into balls or long cylinders. These balls are sticky, hard and dense.
Hurray for Hash
Making your own hash can be rewarding. Learning different techniques will give you a better understanding of extracts as a whole, and it’s always fun to share your creation with your friends. However, making hash is never easy. Even simple hash-making techniques like producing finger hash take significant amounts of time and effort.
It’s much easier to buy hash from a dispensary who has perfected the technique. At MMJDirect, we offer high-grade hash shipped directly to your door. With new types and strains added continuously, we strive to offer the best online hash experience. Check out our entire hash inventory in our online store.