Xinhong Heat Press

You may have read or heard the hottest new concentrate on the block, rosin, and perhaps wanted to dig deeper into what it actually is & get some questions you have about the topic answered. Well, you've found the ultimate resource on the Internet on everything you need to know about rosin. In this post, we'll cover what exactly rosin is, how to make rosin, what variables affect the quality of your rosin, and finally, the best instruments & tools to make rosin out of.

What is rosin?

Rosin is the process of extracting the oils that give a cannabis plant its unique taste and smell by using heat and pressure. The whole process is fairly simple and does not require the use of any foreign substances, unlike other methods that use butane and/or propane. As you can imagine, since Rosin does not require the use of any other solvents or substances to produce, the final product is very potent, pure and tastes & smells exactly like the strain that it was extracted from. There's a very good reason why rosin is gaining rapid popularity and why it's poised to take over the extracts market

How do you make rosin?

Making rosin is very simple because it only requires minimal equipment and minimal investment. You can produce rosin at home and put together a rig for less than $500 or buy one from a reputable brand for about the same cost.

A typical rosin production setup consists of:

1. A rosin press
2. Choice of starting Material (this can be cannabis flowers, bubble hash, or kief)
3. Rosin filter extraction bags 
4. Parchment paper (unbleached, if possible)

There are three only three variables that go into play that determines the quality of the rosin produced: heat (temperature), pressure and time. A brief word of caution: not all strains produce rosin equally. Some strains are known for producing more rosin, while some strains barely produce any rosin at all.

Starting Material

You can press flowers, bubble hash, kief, or even high-quality trim but each material will give you different yields.

What Yields Can You Expect?

• Trim: 3% - 8%
• Shake: 8% - 15%
• Flower: 15% - 30%
• Kief / Dry Sift: 30% - 60%+
• Bubble Hash / Hash: 30% - 70%+

Pressing flowers will give you the best quality rosin but not necessarily the best yields. Generally, strains that are frostier on the inside when you break the bud in the middle are the best ones for making rosin. When pressing flowers, try to go with the smaller nugs since they have more surface area, the more surface area means more travel for the rosin as it is being pressed. Pressing kief or hash, on the other hand, will give you great quality and decent yields.

Temperature

Temperature is key to making good rosin! A good rule of thumb to remember is:

Lower temperatures (190°F- 220°F)= more flavor/terpenes, less yield, end material is more stable (butter-like/honey consistency

Higher temperatures (220°F- 250°F)= less flavor/terpenes, more yield, end material is less stable (sap-like consistency)

Bearing these in mind, if your press is more than capable of delivering the right pressure, we don't recommend you going higher than 250°F.

Pressure

While it's tempting to go out to build or buy a rosin press with the highest capacity, science has shown that higher pressure does not necessarily equate to higher yields.

Sometimes the higher pressure can, in fact, produce less desirable results because the increase in pressure actually forces less desirable materials such as lipids and other fine particles into your rosin.

Time

The time it takes to produce rosin varies depending on the material, a strain that you’re using and if there’s enough pressure.

Use the timetable below as a starting point to determine how long you should be pressing based on your starting material.

Which rosin press should you buy?

There are different types of rosin presses in the market; you've got your DIY heat plate kits, hydraulic presses, manual presses, variable-hydraulic presses, pneumatic presses, and finally, electric rosin presses.

Here are a few guiding questions to ask yourself to help you determine which rosin press you should buy:

1. Will you be using this for personal or commercial purposes?
2. How much demand will you need out of this press?
3. How important is space for you?
4. Do you want something that is portable?
5. Would you mind buying extra accessories for the press? (An air compressor and perhaps valves for pneumatic presses).

Without further ado, let's dive into the extensive world of rosin presses.

DIY Rosin Plate Kits

As the name suggests, these heat plate kits are typically used when putting together your own rosin press. Putting together your own rosin press is simple and typically involves buying a 10-ton or 20-ton hydraulic shop press and rigging it with ready-made heat plates, heaters and a controller to control the heat on the plates. As for the rosin press kits, so far there are 3 styles, i.e. separate plates (= style), caged design and H size style.

Manual Rosin Presses

What's not to love about a simple, hand-crank, hand-powered rosin press that requires nothing but elbow grease to produce rosin?! Typically entry-level presses are manual presses and pressure is generated by a pull-down lever or through a twist-operation.

Hydraulic Rosin Presses 

Hydraulic rosin presses use hydraulic pressure to generate the force needed to produce rosin. The force is generated through the use of a hand pump.

Under hydraulic presses are your entry-level rosin presses which are typically manually operated and on the higher-end, you've got your variable-hydraulic rosin presses which are powered by an external pump.

Pneumatic Presses

A pneumatic rosin press is powered by an air compressor. With an air compressor, it's literally as simple as pushing a button and you can even increase pressure in small but precise increments (if the press is equipped to do this.).

A lot of commercial-scale producers love using pneumatic presses because of the accuracy, consistency, and rigidity of these units. They do, however, require an external air compressor to run, which may not be the quietest unit to operate.

Electric Presses

Electric rosin presses are fairly new to the market but are gaining rapid adoption and popularity. It's obvious to see why because electric rosin presses don't require any compressors or external pumps to function. All you need is an electrical outlet and you're good for extraction.

There’s not much downside to electric presses because they’re able to output enough pressure to produce rosin. They’re also small, compact and portable. They’re also very quiet—a very popular choice for people who came from DIY setups who want a reliable press. It’s also very popular among prospers and commercial extractors having been tested to run between 6 to 8 hours at a time without any problems.

We hope this guide had been valuable to you in not only knowing how to make rosin but in helping you make the right decision in choosing your press. Thanks for reading our guide to making rosin.

Clicking the following link if you want to know more: https://www.xheatpress.com/rosintech-products/