Ice o lator vs bubble hash discover these two extraction techniques

Until just over a decade ago, Moroccan hash, the classic dry cannabis resin extraction done on fine-mesh sieves, was spoken of as the best-known method of how to make hash ; or cannabis oil extract , extracted in a rudimentary way with ethyl alcohol.

Then in recent years, first in the Netherlands and then throughout the world, the Ice O Lator technique, cold extraction of cannabis resin, with ice water, has spread. Better in some respects than alcoholic extraction because it leaves no residue and no solvent is used.

Ice O Lator is perhaps the best known technique, which has led lovers of the sector to research new methods including BHO Butane Hash Oil or Butane Honey Oil extraction , performed with butane gas. The technique is based on the same principle as ice o lator: the crystallization of the trichomes, due to the low temperatures released with the butane gas, detaches the glands from the leaf surface. A gas under pressure appears to us in a liquid state but when it passes into a gaseous state, due to the pressure difference with the external environment, the reaction suddenly lowers the temperature.

In this article we will compare Ice-O-Lator and BHO, we will understand the extraction techniques together, what is the difference between the two with relative advantages and disadvantages

What is ice o lator hash

Ice O Lator is a type of cold extraction in which the separation of the resin from leaves and inflorescences occurs with ice water and special micro-mesh sieves of different sizes, Ice or Lator bags.
The technique was born in the Netherlands and then spread throughout the world, becoming the best known method among experts for obtaining hashish with high concentrations of THC.

This technique bases its foundations on the physical properties of the resin and the vegetal part. The resin, which as we know well is fat soluble, capable of dissolving in fats but hydrophobic or incapable of dissolving in water and therefore can be easily separated from water but above all it is heavier and sinks. The vegetal part instead floats and partly remains in suspension.
But to detach the trichomes, loaded with resin, from the plant part, ice water is used with a temperature below 5°C, which crystallizes the trichomes, favoring their detachment.

ice o lator hash which tools do i need

To obtain the Ice O Lator we must obtain a series of tools and materials.

• First we need to get special bags for this type of extraction, called Ice or Lator Bags. They are a sort of waterproof bags that have a micro-mesh net of different sizes on the bottom and are used to retain the trichomes. The mesh sizes are in microns (µ), a thousandth of a millimetre, and depending on the sieve used, a different quality of extraction will be obtained. But the final product is also influenced by the genetics used, each variety can have trichomes of different sizes ranging from 150µ to 500µ. The bags we find on the market are: 25µ, 45µ, 90µ, 150µ, 220µ
• Then we need one or two 15/20 L buckets. The dimensions must be such as to allow the bags to adhere to the edges. Otherwise on the market we can find, for example, Ice Washers.
• An electric egg beater or a drill with a stirring rod
• Plenty of ice, possibly fine-grained!!! The water must remain categorically below 5°C. More or less 6/8 kg of ice are sufficient to process 100 g of plant matter.
• A thermometer.
• Greaseproof paper. Excellent for drying the still wet extract.
• Finally the raw material. Both flowers and leaves are fine, obviously taking care to discard the larger primary foliage without trichomes. It is understood that if we use only the inflorescences, the final product will have a superior quality and purity.

How to proceed to make a good ice o lator

We have said that the main action that favors the detachment of trichomes from the leaves and flowers is the crystallization of the glands by means of ice water. So to speed up this procedure many recommend pre-freezing the plant matter for at least a couple of hours.
Another procedure of fundamental importance, before starting our extraction, is cleaning the tools we will use; the environment where we will carry out the extraction must also be as clean as possible, almost sterile. Obviously this procedure is valid if the plants we will use have grown in a hygienic environment, otherwise it will be easy to find impurities in the inflorescences: dust, soil, animal and human hair, etc. which will compromise the purity of the final product. An excellent practice is also to "grind" the plant mass to facilitate the detachment of most of the trichomes.
After these preliminary operations we can move on to our extraction.

• Place the sieve in the bucket or in our Ice Washer so that the edges of the sieve adhere to that of the bucket. If you use more than one sieve, make sure there is no air between each screen. Also make sure to place the sieve with the smallest mesh size first, then the next size up. We turn the sieves over the edge of the bucket and make sure to tighten them with the appropriate ties.
• Place the plant material in the bucket, being careful not to use too much. For 6 L of water, 200 g of raw material may be enough, otherwise if there is not enough space in the bucket, the resin will not be able to settle properly and will partially remain adhered to the vegetable waste.
• We can now fill the bucket with cold water. If we use 15/20 L buckets we will not use more than 6/8 L of water, keep in mind that after adding the ice, blending everything will increase the volume. We therefore try to leave a 20 cm border to prevent the liquid from overflowing later.
• We add the ice and wait 5 minutes for the temperature to drop and the matter to cool. We always monitor the temperature with a thermometer, making sure it remains between 2° and 4°C. Mix the mixture evenly. Then we can finally proceed by lighting with the mixer for a few minutes, about 3-6 minutes for the first session. Since the whisking times affect the quality of the material, it is a good idea to practice more than one session, sifting from time to time, adding water again and increasing the whisking times from one session to another. You can also beat for 10 minutes or more.
  The longer the duration, the greater the quantity extracted but also the more impure the final product. It is important to let everything rest for 10 minutes so that the resin slowly descends and settles on the bottom.
• We take out the bag and let the leftover vegetable mass drain thoroughly, if necessary, immerse the bag again several times to better detach the crystals remaining between the meshes of the first used bag.

• If we have used a single bucket (which we do not recommend) on which we have mounted both sizes of sieve, after we have removed the first sieve with the vegetable mass, all we have left is the second bag and the bucket full of water full of crystals.
  Now we will delicately remove the second sieve and with a jerking/circulatory movement we will try to keep the resinous mass in the center. If the water filters with difficulty, it is a good sign, it means that the trichomes are trapped between the meshes of the second sieve.
  Once the last sieve has been extracted, we will remove the still wet extract from the mesh. A quality product should be yellow/brown in colour, if it tends towards greenish unfortunately it will be less pure because it is more contaminated with plant material.
• Once the extract has drained well, we gently turn the bag over and spill the resin, perhaps with the help of a card, onto a couple of layers of baking paper, where we will let it dry.
• If we use more than one bucket we can repeat the operation with the same water. If we did the first extraction with a 150µ sieve, we can place a 120µ sieve in the second bucket, pour in the same water and repeat the operations described in the previous points. Remember to note down the size of sieve used on each extraction made; the smaller the sieve size used, the purer the extraction will be. The color of the hashish obtained also changes depending on the size: a 70µ sieve will give a light product, while a 25µ sieve will give a dark, oily extract. But it must be said that the final color is also influenced by the quality and freshness of the plant.
• Our extractions must now dry because they are still full of humidity. We spread the resin on the baking paper, taking up as much surface area as possible so that it dries faster, it can take even several days to send away the remaining humidity.
• It's time for conservation. We can store the various qualities of Ice-O-Lator in separate plastic sachets, leaving it in powder form, or we can press it in various ways. It is possible to mix various qualities of Ice-O-Lator, for example the 150µ one with the 45µ one, allowing us to experience different tastes and sensations.
• Once the work has been completed, all the equipment must be washed with ice water immediately after use. If the residues dry out, a wash can be carried out with 95° alcohol.

How to make bubble hash with butan extraction

With BHO, which has been around for several years but has recently become popular among enthusiasts, it is possible to obtain extractions of Cannabis essential oils at high concentrations. Let's take a closer look at what BHO is and how it is made.

Cannabis extract with butane is known by several names including Honey Oil due to its classic density and honey-like color.
The extraction takes place through the injection of butane gas under pressure into particular ducts, where the plant matter is contained, from which the gas rich in trichomes will emerge which will be purified with a subsequent operation. Very widespread as a technique but equally dangerous.
It is appropriate to make a premise on the dangers of this technique linked to the high flammability of butane gas

Although there are different types of gas on the market, some of which are specifically designed for extraction, they still remain petroleum by-products and as such are highly flammable. There are many cases of fires, even with tragic outcomes, resulting from distractions or little theory before practice. We strongly recommend that you pay attention during extraction operations, taking care to:

• operate in open environments or with excellent air exchange,
• do not smoke and in any case stay away from heat sources and electronic equipment, including electrical sockets,
• wear gloves because the low temperature of the gas can cause damage to your hands,
• a mask to protect your mouth and nose from gas fumes,
• avoid gases of dubious origin as they could be toxic and leave residues in the extract,
• use stainless steel or borosilicate extractor tubes
• have a fire extinguisher available in case of fires

Let's now see what we need and how to proceed with BHO extraction.

Bubble hash what do i need

Unlike the Ice O Lator technique, BHO requires specific equipment that we can only find on the market: unless we are engineers we avoid "do it yourself" extractors so we will not have a toxic final product or accidents during execution, remember that the gas in addition to being flammable, it is a product sold under pressure.

In addition to the equipment listed above, useful for ensuring the safety of the various extraction operations, we need:

• Gas : On the market we find various gases for extraction including the 400ml Colibrì Gas or the 500ml Dexo Organic Gas
• Extractor tube : extractors for essential oils and BHO are cylindrical containers, made of stainless steel or Pyrex, inside which the raw material is placed. The gas canister will be connected to one end of the tube, while at the other end there is the exit nozzle, from where the gas will come out, still in liquid form, rich in resin. The best sellers are the stainless steel models such as the Roller Extractor BHO
• A container made of glass or silicone material, ideal for easy collection of the product.

Bubble hsh how to proceed

Before starting, let's establish a generic proportion on which we will base ourselves to tackle our extraction: on average, to obtain 2/5 g of final product we need 20/30 g of plant material and we will extract it with 400/500 ml of gas. Obviously, the quality and quantity of the extract is influenced by the raw material, whether it is composed of only inflorescences or also other parts of the plant (in cannabis almost the entire phyllosphere contains trichomes in different percentages). Many use the foliage that results from cleaning the buds after harvest, rich in glands, mixed with inflorescences.
Therefore, to describe the fundamental operations for our extract, we assume that we use 20/30g of raw material composed of foliage and inflorescences.

As with Ice or Lator, also for BHO the hygiene and sterilization of the equipment and cultivation environment is essential for an excellent quality product, without the presence of impurities. Now we can proceed with our BHO:

• Before starting, let's make sure we have adopted the safety measures listed above.
• We grind the vegetable mass so as to have a chopped product that can be loaded evenly into the extractor tube without the presence of empty spaces. Be sure to use only completely dried plant material.
• We can insert the plant material into the BHO extractor, arranging it evenly without excessive pressure. Then, depending on the extractor model, whether it is equipped with a stand or not, we position ourselves on top of the container that will collect our extract.
• The collector or baking dish that we will use will be made of Pyrex glass or silicone material, for easy collection of our honey oil. Remember that our hash will not come out directly from the extractor but will be a mixture of resin and gas still in a liquid state, so we will be careful to use binders with fairly high edges, no flat plates!!
• Let's now move on to injecting the gas into the BHO extractor. During the operation the extractor will reach low temperatures, we recommend the use of gloves. We will unload the entire can without ever stopping, don't worry if we don't immediately see something coming out of the lower part, it will take a few seconds before the roller extractor becomes saturated with gas.
• After a few moments the gas should begin to flow through the raw material, then exit from the lower nozzle of the tube, dripping onto the baking dish as a mixture of liquid butane and precious essential oil. If, however, you notice that the gas is starting to vent from the upper part too, reduce the injection pressure, the pipe is probably saturated.
• Once all the butane has been consumed, wait for the remaining liquid to drip completely out of the extraction tube.
• Once the tube has been emptied, let the liquid poured onto the Pyrex dish evaporate. What should remain on the surface is a golden-tinged brown substance. This is the first crude form of BHO.
• Now it must be purified from any traces of gas. As we know, cannabis extract is composed of both cannabinoid and terpene molecules, the latter influencing the organoleptic properties, i.e. flavor and aroma, and depending on the purification process we use, these properties will change.
  If we use cannabis essential oil for oral use we must subject it to "cooking" over a low flame for a few minutes, but this operation will compromise the organoleptic properties without however altering the active ingredient we need for medical use. However, if we want an extract for recreational use we must try not to alter the flavor and aroma, and the best way is to heat in a bain-marie and use a vacuum pump to eliminate any trace of butane.

ice o lator vs bubble hash let's compare the two techniques

Given that the final product, whether Iceolator or BHO, will always depend on the type of material from which you extract resin, i.e. on the quality and quantity of dry flowers or leaves that you have available.

Ice O Lator shares the physical principle of extraction with BHO, i.e. low temperatures are used to crystallize the glands, facilitating their detachment from the plant surface. In the case of Ice O Lator, the pre-freezing of the raw material and the use of ice water can affect the organoleptic properties of the final product; the humidity present in vegetables can damage the trichomes, and therefore also the terpene molecules, by freezing. Instead, the aroma of a BHO hash is influenced by the type of "purging" we do at the end of the process. Having said this we can say that a BHO extract has a greater quality and set of properties than Ice or Lator hashish.
The raw material, in both techniques, after the extraction process is excellent for composting, it cannot be "reused" unlike dry extraction techniques.
On the quantity of extract, assuming that we always use inflorescences and resinous foliage without too much waste, undoubtedly with a BHO extraction we have less final product but with a higher quality; with Ice O Lator only the use of more sieves can, perhaps, bring us closer to the purity of BHO. In the Ice O Lator procedure many plant particles remain trapped in the extract.
As regards the presence of toxic residues present in the extract or not, we can only say, as regards Ice O Lator, that there is no residue deriving from the process, an absolutely non-toxic technique. For Butane Hash Oil there are several schools of thought, some of which are more conservative and distrustful towards a by-product of oil refining, which is butane (how not to be all wrong, after all); others more confident in the latest cutting-edge products in the field, such as organic gases and suitable purification techniques.
The execution times are significantly longer with the Ice O Lator, from how we start until using the product, considering that it has to dry, even more days can pass.
From the economic point of view, assuming that we have all the tools mentioned to deal with both techniques, the extraction technique with BHO is certainly more expensive.

They are two different techniques, where they share some aspects, while other characteristics highlight one technique over the other or vice versa. All we have to do is get to practice and see which extract will satisfy our senses.

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