How to Make Live Resin
Live resin is a unique concentrate, distinguished by its rich flavor, potent aroma, and high cannabinoid content. Unlike traditional extraction methods, the process of extracting live resin captures the essence of the cannabis plant in its unaltered, fresh state. That’s why understanding the miraculous process of how to make live resin is a critical and fundamental factor for both cannabis enthusiasts and industry professionals.
The uniqueness of live resin extraction emphasizes the significance of the technique of preserving the plant's rich profile terpenes and cannabinoids. By elaborating on what live resin is and how it’s made, you’ll gain a better understanding of its properties and characteristics. In this article, we’ll explain each step in detail, from the initial harvest to storage and use.
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Understanding Live Resin
Live resin is a top-quality cannabis extract and one of the most exciting and sought-after products on the market due to its unique characteristics and exceptional profile.
It’s a special kind of concentrate made from freshly harvested cannabis plants that are immediately frozen after harvest, resulting in outstanding potency levels and well-rounded effects. The demand for this product has significantly risen as live resin is the only cannabis product available that isn’t crafted from dried cannabis.
Furthermore, the remarkable profile of live resin offers unique benefits that set it apart from other concentrates, including:
A higher concentration of terpenes
Authentic and aromatic characteristics
A synergistic interaction between cannabinoids and terpenes
From its exceptional flavor and aroma to its unparalleled potency levels, live resin offers a truly unique experience for consumers.
Typically, live resin exhibits a golden color partly due to the freshly harvested cannabis. It’s generally easy to shape and can be ground up into crumbs, whipped into butter, or molded into wax. However, live resin’s consistency is usually determined by the raw materials used to create it and the amount and type of terpenes. Hence, live resin could be sticky and mushy or thin and runny.
How to Make Live Resin
The process of making live resin can be divided into four main steps. This includes:
Preparation for making live resin
Choosing the live resin extraction method
Quality control and preservation of terpenes
Storage and use of live resin
Below, we’ve elaborated on each step separately, explaining in detail what you’ll need and how to prepare the material for the most optimal and quality results.
1. Preparation for making live resin
Firstly, selecting high-quality fresh cannabis material for extraction is a critical step for ensuring a potent and flavorful final product. Since resin is renowned for its rich terpene profile and cannabinoid content, using fresh and well-cultivated cannabis ensures the trichomes are at their peak, which contains the majority of the plant’s psychoactive compounds.
After harvest, you must immediately deep freeze the cannabis plants to preserve terpenes and prevent degradation. This step is going to preserve the essence of the live plant, and its rich terpene and cannabinoid profile is ultimately going to carry through your extract. Hence, the name “live resin”.
To efficiently freeze your material, you should:
Only use high-quality whole-plant herbs, including flowers and sugar leaves. However, make sure you avoid and exclude the fan leaves, stamps, and roots.
Deep freeze the material in a freezer at -20°C or lower.
Leave it in the freezer for between 24 to 36 hours.
After removing the frozen herbs, the extraction needs to be performed as soon as possible, so ensure the setup for extraction and the needed equipment are already in the workspace.
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2. Choosing the live resin extraction method
In the last few years, we’ve seen a significant increase in extraction methods for cannabis in the industry. However, the two methods that emerge as the most popular ones are butane or propane extraction and carbon dioxide extraction (CO2).
While both serve the same purpose, they exhibit distinctive characteristics and properties. So, choosing which method is more suitable is vital to optimize extraction and ensure the quality of final products.
Butane or propane extraction process
To start the extraction process, use a light hydrocarbon blend of butane and propane solvent to strip away resin from cannabis plants. Typically, a 50-50 blend is most suitable, but you can also use a 30% butane and 70% propane blend, which is also a common ratio. While the blend depends on a number of factors, remember that the more propane you use, the more terpenes you're going to pull from the herb.
Furthermore, just as low temperatures are essential for preparing your biomass, so is chilling your solvent. When making live resin, make sure you chill your solvent before use at a minimum of -40°C.
Next, you’ll need to put the biomass through a closed-loop extraction system, which is a multi-chamber piece of equipment that washes your biomass with the chilled solvent. During this process, the trichomes form a homogenous solution with the solvent and transit to the collection vessel. Heat is then applied to the collection tank, separating the solvent from the extract through evaporation, hence creating your cannabis extract.
CO2 extraction
CO2, also known as carbon dioxide extraction, is a popular method for producing oil used in vape cartridges. The process involves using a high-pressure form of carbon dioxide as a solvent for stripping live resin. To start the process, you’ll need high-quality fresh cannabis material for extraction, a CO2 extractor, liquid solvents, whether butane, alcohol, or other chemicals, and a CO2 extraction machine.
Technically, the process of extraction is known as “supercritical fluid extraction”. This is because carbon dioxide extraction uses CO2 extraction equipment to freeze and compress CO2 gas into a cold and “supercritical” liquid state. The plant is then washed with this liquid, stripping the resin and the chemicals it contains, including CBD, THC, and terpenes.
Lastly, pressure is put on the CO2 liquid containing the live resin and other components, reverting it into gas, which then evaporates. Hence resulting in high-potent CO2 oil extract.
3. Quality control and preservation of terpenes
Rigorous quality control and testing measures are crucial steps when making live resin. From maintaining optimal performance in the used equipment to selecting premium starting material and undergoing post-production testing, each step is imperative.
Implying a quality assurance program for live resin, like monitoring temperature, humidity, and precise handling procedures, ensures the final product’s high quality and contributes to preserving the exceptional terpene profile of this herb. Since these contents are highly volatile and sensitive to heat and oxidation, maintaining ideal extraction conditions and precise extraction procedures are essential to avoid degradation.
By prioritizing quality control, you can deliver live resin with robust and authentic standards, capturing the essence of the plant with its rich terpene and cannabinoid profile.
4. Storage and use of live resin
Lastly, proper storage of cannabis plants plays a crucial role in preserving the quality, terpenes, and potency of live resin. Ideal storage conditions for live resin material are a cool, dry, and dark place. Exposure to light, heat, or oxygen can harm the contents in the concentrate and degrade its cannabinoids and terpenes, leading to discoloration and loss of potency.
Furthermore, when it comes to using live resin, you'll find that it’s an extremely flexible cannabis concentrate and can be consumed in various ways. This includes:
Vaping – Vaping is a popular method of consuming cannabis concentrates. This method heats the live resin to specific temperatures, turning it into a vapor that you can inhale. Unlike regular cannabis vapes, live resin vapes offer more flavor, smoother highs, and exceptional aromas due to their full spectrum extracts content with terpenes and minor cannabinoids, enhancing the entourage effect.
Dabbing – Dabbing is another popular method for consuming cannabis concentrates like live resin. Much like vaping, this method also works by vaporizing the concentrate, offering an unparalleled flavor and potency experience.
Edibles – You can also consume live resin by adding concentrates to food and making edibles. However, note that infusing live resin into brownies or gummies requires decarboxylation to activate the THC and other cannabinoids in the concentrate.
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Conclusion
In conclusion, knowing how to make live resin and understanding the extraction process ensures the preservation of the plant’s natural content profile and complexities. By executing a precise operation, you can craft a high-quality concentrate rich in cannabinoids and terpenes that delivers unparalleled effects and exquisite flavor.
However, as with any cannabis product, responsible consumption and dosage consideration are paramount, especially with live resin, as it can be extremely potent. We advise users to approach with caution and mindfulness to avoid any diverse and undesired effects.
