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Winterizing with 151

Gingerbeard

New member
I don't know how to ask this question.
Winterizing is best with 190+ ETOH. I can either use isopropyl or Everclear 151.
Will the extra water content in 151 effect the lipid precipitation that makes the lipids... harder to deal with... remove... filter?
If you want me to further explain what I am talking about, I ain't gonna. If you don't know, you don't know.
 
Pretty much imposible to do with water content. Winterizing is an industrial process that requires fancy lab equipment and HAS to me maintained at least -20C up to almost -80C. At this temp water is frozen solid. You could however first freeze the ever clear and the water will solidify and you can just remove the pure ethanol to use in your process. I'm just curious how you gonna achieve those temps? Dry ice or liquid nitrogen?

Also the vacuum filtering must be done at those temps too so I'm wondering what you gonna use as filter plates?
 
Hey-ya, 9FL! Long time, no read.
I am super small scale and have one experience with winterizing about 10 grams with what I had in my kitchen, and my neighbor's freezer. I use the word 'winterize' loosely but technically accurately because I am getting results.
Some of this might read to you like scratching fingernails on a chalkboard. Bear with me:
10 grams of my made, column extracted resin in a jar with more than a cup and a half of ISO.
When the resin is dissolved, the jar goes into a -20°F freezer for a couple hours until a noticeable layer of lipids can be seen floating.
The solution is gently poured into a coffee filter and strained into a bowl and gravity goes to work. The bowl gets put on some heat to evaporate.
What remained on the coffee filter was a 'good amount' of wax. Just what I was trying to do.
Lots of loss. More time freezing. I know. If I can get a little knowledge, I can up my game.
My column has a dewaxing sleeve and I have used it for both live resin as well as cured. Sourcing dry-ice has become off putting enough either by travel or delivery cost and amount that I have to plan something without it.
I am in California where the highest proof booze I can find is 151. Ordering food grade alcohol is cost prohibitive.
Blasting a -20° freezer column is not an option as condensation gets in the column unless it is sealed in the freezer, which is not big enough for the column.
This might be the end of my blasting career. The reason I started making resin and spending the money on the column and vacuum chamber setup was to make the cleanest product I can make. I've done that. What I make is cleaner than the weed it came from but still smells and tastes like burned klingons in a banger. I have one more harvest to decide.
 
Sup my gingerbread. I've been lurking in the background chiming in once in a while. Hope you doing great my friend

I see what you mean, low tech garage lab, in that case then using a wide container to first freeze the ever clear will separate the water from the alcohol. Never done it myself. It's called fractional freezing. Basically as it freezes some ice layers will form on the top of the container. Need to me removed and then the solution stirred and cooled again several times. Letting it getting colder and colder every time untill no more ice forms. At that point you reached your maximum concentration achievable with that temp (usually this is done up to -100C) then just make your solution and do a gravity filtering still inside the freezing. Surely you'll have to filter a few times too and it's going to be slow because of the temperature but I do think you'll remove a lot of lipids. Wish you the best of lucks my friend
 
Thanks, 9. Kitchen lab. Much smaller and ghettoier than a garage lab.
I am familiar with what you are talking about from a good-ol'-boy buddy telling me about freezing 'apple jack' and removing the ice to up the proof when he was a kid.
I had thought the other route of further distilling 151. Still considering that one if I can find something that does not require a chiller.
There has to be a market for micro scale processing.
 
Mollisol it is very interesting if you are into all of it. Not just the process but what is happening during the process.
The downside is how much the resin gods require in sacrifice. Probably lost a third just getting sucked up in the coffee filter.
 
That fractional freezing.
In one of my dry ice column extractions, I filled the sleeve with ISO. After the bubbling calmed down a bit, the ISO thickened. It stuck to my finger like smoothe, loose applesauce.
I know. It's different freezing in a separate jar.
 
Were I to do it again, a little more proper, I would lose less than a dab and have a little bit cannabis wax to smear on something.
Like I got my resin making down to only spent leaf matter loss. A little experimentation and widget making goes a long way.
 
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