The Basic Concepts

• The process involves separating the gland heads (crystals) from your bulk plant matter. The quality of the essences is the same whether it's made from actual flowers or just leaves.
• This separation is done by submerging the trim in ice water and agitating it for 15 to 30 minutes.
• This water is then filtered through the bags.
• This separation occurs because of the temperature-- the ice is very important!
• The amount of plant essences you get in return depends on the amount of resin on your starting material. It does not matter if you use dry material- fresh works just as well. Sometimes starting with dry material will give a higher yield but the product is not as pure.
• Be sure to freeze your starting material before use!

Bubble Bag Step by Step Instructions

In addition to the BubbleBag kit, you will need ice, water, a spoon, a mixing device such as a hand mixer and a bucket (the size will depend on the kit used).

1. Line the inside of the bucket with the bags, starting with the 25u micron bag. Continue with each bag, increasing size by number (as indicated by the little tags attached to the embroidered logo) until you have all the bags lining the bucket nested inside one another. The final bag to go in is the 220u micron work bag.

2. Fill the bucket about half way full with cold water. Make sure that the water level covers the screen at the bottom of the upper bag, as this will allow the plant matter to float above the screen.

3. Pour your plant material into the bucket.

We recommend that you use dried or frozen plant material for best results. In this example we are using mint leaves.

4. Add ice to the bucket and fill it almost to the top.

It is important that there is always some ice chunks in the mixture, as the ice keeps the mix at a lower temperature and is integral to the process.

5. Use your electric hand mixer to agitate the water,plant,ice mixture for 15 to 20 minutes, at which point the mixture will have a nice frothy head on it.

It is important to keep ice mixture at all times, because the ice keeps the mixture cool enough to cause the resinous glands to seperate from the plant and be collected.

6. Allow the mixture to settle for 30 minutes. After the mixture has settled, pull the bags out of the bucket one at a time, allowing the water to drain through the filtration material at the bottom of the bag into the remaining bags that line the bucket.

To drain the bags, lift each bag out of the bucket and twist the top shut while pulling down towards the bottom of the bag while allowing the water to drain into the bucket and the bags remaining in the bucket. The first bag that you will pull is the 220u micron work bag which contains all the plant fibres. This bag contains waste matter, but you can run water through a second time to ensure that you have collected all of the resinous glands. The remaining bags will contain your extract in varying degrees of purity.

7. After the bag has drained of the water, turn the bag inside out over a bowl and collect the deposits on the filtration screen at the bottom of the bag.

This should be collected using a tool with a clean edge, e.g. metal soup spoon, credit card, etc. If you are using a seven bag kit, you will have six grades of extract.

The purest grades will come from the 73u, 45u and 25u micron bags, although the extract from the 190u, 160u and 120u micron bags are also usable despite the presence of some plant fibre contaminant.

8. Once you have collected the herbal extract, it needs to be pressed to remove any excess moisture. Lay down a tea towel and place the 25u micron pressing screen flat onto the towel.

scoop all six of your extracts onto one half of the pressing screen, taking care not to let each of the extracts mix with one another, fold the other half of the pressing screen over the extracts, creating a sandwich.

Then fold the tea towel over the pressing screen and lightly press down onto the screen with a rolling pin or similar object to squeeze the remaining water out of your extracts, which will be absorbed by the towel.

This will create a patty of herbal extract which can then be used immediately. If you wish to keep your extract for a long period of time, you should chop up each patty onto a clean piece of cardboard and place the cardboard into your freezer for 12 to 24 hours. The cardboard will act as a dessicant and draw out the remaining moisture, which eliminates the danger of mold forming during long term storage.

Weed World Article by Bubble Man

The unadulterated cannabinoid high. This is what my agenda has everything to do with cannabis these days. You often have to wonder what is a persons agenda when they are using, dealing, growing or just plain giving away of cannabis. Well we know that for the most part the plant is a miracle. It has more to offer than any single plant on this planet. Even in the Sumerian tablets, which predate all major religions, it states that cannabis was one of the three plants given to man by the so-called GODS. I know that when my agenda was hemp, we wanted to access all the plant that could produce commercial products, as well as the healthy oils for boosting ones essential amino acids. The plant can be used for paper, when taking out the cellulose and fibres, for clothing when going straight for fibre, for health purposes when grown for seed, either dehulled, crushed, or made into milk or butter. Its only in the aspect of acquiring that magical profile we call mostly by the name of THC, or trichomes, or crystals. What is more accurate in saying is that the entire profile is what we seek; one that has different ratios in almost every plant grown. Complex ratios that make up what I call the cannabinoid profile. Along with the cannabinoids you have a group of terpenoids (you can learn all about this in Robert connel Clarks excellent book Hashish.)

These terpenoids are what gives the plant the incredible smells and tastes that we associate with our favorite strains. So how come, if the entire profile exists inside this glandular head, do we smoke the entire plant to get the message? I have been saying for some years now, that herb is the messenger, and bubble, trichome heads, gland heads, crystals, ice o lator, colligulator, what ever you want to call it, is the MESSAGE.

For all other aspects of this plant we have figured out to use the one, but for smoking, we choose to burn the entire plant. Even more disturbing is with the disinformation, or lack of information over the course of the last ten years, in regards to producing high quality hashish; a product has reared its evil head called SOAP BAR. This is a disgrace to the cannabis family and is nothing more than greed profiting off ignorance. It is for this reason more than anything else, that bubblebags are finding their way to London, and the rest of Europe. With London cannabis users becoming more familiar with growing, and access to strains (seeds are legal in the UK) hash making is becoming more of a possibility than it ever was before. With growing comes trim, and with trim, comes the key to unlocking the unadulterated cannabinoid high. However you can of course produce high quality hash using bud, but due to the black market pricing, and the fear of prohibition, the concentrated cannabinoid high is not economically feasible. However I say this, the way we buy and sell herb is a sham. And the veil shall soon be lifted. For those who make the hash will be the first to realize that a very small percentage of this plant is active. 3 to 10% on a high end. Now there are many ways to go about accessing these bountiful glands, from dry sifting to wet washing, to even (god I hate to think about it) chemical extraction. I wont go to deep into this year, but I truly feel the chemical extraction process of making oil, using butane or iso proponol is a nasty one. In particular with information I have learnt over the last year, disturbing. Sulfides and mercaptins are contaminating the butane that is being sold, and they are oil soluble, meaning once run thru your cannabis, you get a product that is contaminated with deadly dangerous chemicals. I urge you all to do your own research, as we smoke and vaporize cannabis and its resins with the knowledge it is not cancerous, this completely changes that.

As many of you will know from my name alone, I have been studying the aspects of water hash for the past five years. This is a process that has allowed people for the first time to make a product that is truly concentrated. Without the use of dangerous chemicals, you to, with the right genetics can produce hash that melts and turns to liquid when lit. From the photos accompanying this article you can clearly see, the quality is astronomical. For a recreational user they will see the light, for a medicinal user they will see god. This is truly how cannabis was meant to be used medicinal, in concentrated form> the diluted version on non-active vegetative matter takes away a lot of the medicines abilities. Im certain that part of prohibitions agenda has been to keep this knowledge down, and even in offering medical exemption here in Canada, as well as throughout the west coast of the United States, it is still illegal for them to concentrate their medicine into hash.

With a product like the bubble bags this can be done safely and efficiently either with water or without. Yes that is correct, there is no need to lose valuable water soluble terpenoids (this will leach out in your water when making water hash), you can add them back to your water hash, by simply doing a light dry sifting with the bags before running your material thru the water. Many people are doing this now with their water hash, and finding it to be a much tastier product. However I can tell you there are strains out there, like the mk ultra, and sage from thseeds, that will produce lovely alcohol soluble terpenoids, so even after being washed thru water. They still hold their wonderful unique flavours. I will give a low down on how to both do dry sift, and wet wash with the bags now.

First off, in order to do a proper dry sift using I have developed a product called the bubblebox. This is a three-screen box, that using a variety of sizes of screen can allow one to remove the contaminant that is trichome material, i.e. cystolith hairs, and capitates stalks. These are the parts of the trichome that are not active. Of course there will also be small amounts of plant matter, dust and debris. I would gently rub the herb over the top of the box, letting the dry sift material fall thru. My top screen is about 140u. A little big for dry sifting, if it werent for my second screen. Now I have this set up like this as the stuff that falls onto the second screen, makes the most amazing vaporizing material. Its perfectly diluted to give powerful vapor hits. I will however take the majority of the heads in that, and rub them thru the second screen gently with a card that comes with the box. Once I have my materials sitting on the third and last screen. Which is around 40u. I can gently scrape the resin back and forth in order for the contaminant to push thru, while leaving the heads sitting atop the final screen. This gives me my water-soluble terpenoids, and any flavours I would have lost in the water wash. If you do not have a bubblebox, you can simply do this process with your 120u, 73u and 45u bags, placing the trim inside each bag, and gently shaking over a plexiglass sheet. (Neat trick to add if you can is to take a balloon and rub it on your head. This will create static electricity, unless youre bald. Then rub the balloon over the plexi glass sheet. This will charge up the plexi, allowing the resin to separate out using natural currence. I have done this in the past and its most impressive what it can pull out. The glandular heads will pile up in the middle making a small white mtn of glands. Where as the contaminant being much lighter, gets pushed out in rings around the little mtns. Collect only the mtns in the middle, for adding to your water hash later.

Now lets get using these bags, I sell the only 7-bag kit on the market, unless someone has decided to copy us since my writing of this. We introduced the first three bag system into the world, as well as the first six, and now seven bag system - why all the bags you ask. Well we have found use for each and every one of them. Truly the bubblebags are a learning tool to teach people about aspects of the plant they have taken for granted. For instance, its the resin that gets you high, not the plant. So why are people interested in only growing for vegetative yields, wouldnt it be more interesting to be growing for glandular resin yields. After all that is the active part of the plant. By using seven bags, we can run material thru and separate out glands by size. This has a most unique effect on the profiles. Starting with a 220u bag, I place my plant matter, usually around 56 grams in my one-gallon kit, 200 grams in my five-gallon kit, and 1000 grams in my twenty-gallon kit. For you Europeans, that is 4 litres, 20 litres and 80 litres. Before placing my material inside the bag, I place all the bags inside one another, starting with the lowest micron size, the 25u. Placing that in a bucket first, I then follow thru with the rest of the bags. Placing the 45u, inside the 25u, then the 73u inside the 45u, and so on thru out all sizes, 120u, 160u, 190u, and 220u. The reason I use all the bags each time, is that often gland sizes change per strain, as well as contaminant. Using all the bags will in sure you know what has happened with your resin each run. For example, I have run strains that produce melty bubble hash even out of the 190u bag. This is rare however had I not used this bag, I would have never found this out. Learning and mapping my progress is important in my advancement in hash making.

So we have all our bags inside one another inside a bucket. I now fill the bag up with water to about the halfway point. Making sure to get the water higher than the screen level. Next I will add my materials, the leaf, trim, bud, stalk what it is your dealing with. You can even use dry sift. Once the material is in, you can ad the ice. More than you think will be needed. The ice is a very important factor, as it not only makes the glands brittle by freezing the wax membranes that hold the profile inside. It also gives the surface area to knock the glands off their prison bodies. For those that dont understand what I just said. The glands need to be broken free of the plant matter in order for their density to work for them. Once broken free they can sink in the water, because of their density they are still affected by gravity even in water. Where as the rest of the material floats.

Going back a few steps now, with the ice added, you top up the water and start mixing. I always tell people a cake mixer is more than enough and a drill really has no use in this process, but to each their own. For the best quality product use a wooden spoon and just the natural energy of your arm. This is how I do it in Jamaica when im there.

For mixing time I do 10 minutes in the one-gallon/ four litres, 15 minutes in the five-gallon/ 20litre, and 20minutes in the 20gallon/80litre set. The mixing is bashing the ice back and forth and knocking our gland heads free. Allow settling time of 20minutes for the one gallon / four litre 30minutes for the five gallon / 20litre, and 45minutes for the 20gallon/80 litre set. Once your settling has occurred you can simply pull the bags on by one. Starting with of course the blue bag, 220u. Pulling this bag out will pull all the plant matter out from the bucket, leaving you with small contaminant and resin heads. At this point being a veteran bubbler I simply toss the material, but I should mention there are other ways. You can run it again to see how successful you were the first time, or you can dry the material out and soak in oils to remove what little left there is for cooking. I have had many customers tell me the bubble left over makes great butter.

The 190u bag is the first to pull with actual product in it. Almost always contaminant, some would say its actually worth puffing. I am a complete and utter snob, and only puff the melt but for someone who thinks soap bar is good hash, this would blow his or her mind. Scraping the resin out from the screen, you simply place it on the pressing screen that comes with the bags. Allowing no time for waste, quickly rinse the 190u bag out inside out under cold water. Never use warm water to clean bags, as it will melt the resin and clog your screen. If this happens an alcohol solution on toothbrush is a good way to clean the screen, without exposing too much to the solvent. Next we pull the 160u, this can be a decent grade, but often in my opinion, is also not worth smoking. Especially if you have a nice stash of 120u and 73u. Which are the next bags. These bags are constantly the ones that make peoples eyebrows go up. The 120u bag is our newest bag, and although doesnt often produce melty hash, it produces an incredibly savory hash. Very flavorful indeed, with some of the nicest tastes often residing in this bag. The next bag is bar non the most powerful of all. I rarely get a bag that is stronger than my 73u, the yellow bag. The colour of gold, and often the colour of the hash, I made this bag yellow on purpose. Most of the incredibly melty shots in this article are 73u hash. I would like to add here that some of those incredible clear dome shots, and amber bubbling on the screen shots were not taken by me, but by another member of my community overgrow.com, his name is perhapsyourgiddyaunt, I wanted to give him props for his photos, as he has proven that anyone with the right focus, the right genetics and the right tools, can produce a product for you that is of that quality. I would also like to ad that the hash shots taken by pyga, was all made in London. So that is UK FULL MELT. Also props go out to maximo another OG member, who has supplied me with the wonderful how to shots that bear his name.

Going thru the rest of the bags, and pulling the resin out with a spoon, then water washing each screen, using cold water. I cannot stress this enough, please clean your bags as soon as they are pulled and cleared of hash. You will notice very murky coloured water once all the bags have been pulled. This is mainly water-soluble terpenes that have melted into your water. I have drunken it and fed it to plants, feel free to experiment.

So we have all our grades of bubble pulled and sitting on the pressing screen. We can now remove the majority of the water. The pressing screen is sewed into two parts, so simply fold over the second part, and with towels on the bottom and top, press lightly. This will push water thru the screen where it will be absorbed into the towel instantly. This is in no way shape or form going to dry the hash. Its only going to make it so we can work it. How I dry it is I take the wet paddies out of the screen, and place them on a thick cardboard. Writing the micron size of each screen, being careful not to mix. I cut up each paddy with a razor or sharp knife into powder. Spreading it thin over the cardboard. The cardboard will act as a desiccant and pull the water out from the bottom with the help of, once again, gravity.

The powder should be left on the cardboard for at least 24 hours, although feel free to finger press small amounts to keep you going till its dry. I place my cardboard in the oven, not using heat at all, but the safety of an enclosed place from pets, children, and natural air borne contaminants. This powder once dry will be for some of you, what I like to call THE LIFTING OF THE VEIL. One little hit thru a pipe pure, will send you reeling. Offering you for the first time an unadulterated cannabinoid high. One that cannot be obtained by smoking diluted resin on veg matter, especially with the mixture of tobacco added. It is time for these bags to make their way into the UK market, and im happy to announce our partnership with www.puresativa.com a company that has already established itself in the UK as a successful distribution company with high integrity and a focus to quality that has brought us together. I look forward to next years show in London to meet many of you readers and answer any of your questions.

Give thanks to the Most I One love,
Bubble man