Rosin and other extracts are becoming more populair by the day. You can find them in most dispensaries and social media is full of detailled pictures and videos of this yellow goo. Especially videos of rosin being pressed are populair and these often inspire people to press their own.
The temperature of your press is very important when it comes to the quality and quantity of your rosin. The best temperature can be different with every press as it depends on multiple things:
- The type of pressing material (flower, hash, dry-sift)
- Personal wishes (Taste, amount and quality)
- The freshness of your pressing material
The most important aspect of pressing good rosin is the material you use. The saying goes Gold in = Gold out and this is absolutely true! However, using a certain temperature can also have a big influence in your final product in multiple ways, this will be fully explained in this article!
You should always adjust the temperature with every press you do. So experimenting is a big part of finding the right temp to improve your rosin, so be patient and try things out! By using a certain temp, you can determine the quality of your rosin big time.
There is not “one perfect temperature” for rosin, it varies and depends on multiple aspects:
Type of pressing material
The most important factor of choosing the right temp is knowing what kind of material you press. When pressing flower, you warm up the cannabinoids and waxes and push them out of the plant material. This could take quite some as it needs to warm up the whole plant material before it can be pushed out.
On the other hand, if you are pressing hash, the material is already filtered and it takes less heat to push out the mixture of cannabinoids and other compounds. This kind of rosin often tastes better as there are less evaporated terpenes.
These are the approximately temps are for differentent kind of materials:
- Hash and dry-sift: between 170° and 190° F
- Flower or trim: between 215° and 235° F
Make sure you experiment between these ranges to find the perfect temp!
Personal wishes
The temperature you want to use, depends partially on your personal choice. It’s possible to press and identical strain on 2 different temps, resulting in 2 different types of rosin. One thing I always keep in mind when pressing rosin is:
- The higher the temperature, the bigger the yield. (But lower quality in taste, colour & potency)
- The lower the temperature, the smaller the yield (But higher quality in taste,colour & potency)
So let’s say you start experimenting with pressing some flower at 220° F. The smell and appearance is good but you are a bit dissapointed on the yield (amount). In this case you should put the temperature a bit higher to increase the yield. (In exchange for some quality loss)
However if you would start pressing at 235° F but the result looks dark or doesn’t taste/smell as you wanted. You might could improve it by lowering the temperature a bit. Just try to experiment between the ranges we mentioned before and find the one that suits you!
The freshness of your pressing material
When cannabis matures and it’s saved for a while, many things happen inside the trichomes. First of all the composition of all cannabinoids changes due the fact that THC will turn into Cannabinol over time. This results in the trichomes getting a amber colour which could also influence the colour of the final extract. Always try to press material thats fresh end harvested at the right moment.
But what has aging of the material to do with temperatures?
These changes will also affect the structure of the bud, cannabinoids and trichomes, making it harder to press them out:
Moist
We all know that older cannabis gets more dry every day and this does not help with pressing rosin. If there is still a bit moist (not too much) in the cannabis buds, it will get hot and flows out of the material, taking the rosin or “cannabinoids” with it. This helps the outflow of rosin on a lower temp. (which is positive, lower temps means more cannabinoids and taste).
If you use older cannabis without any moist at all, it will be harder for the rosin to get out at lower temps and you need to increase the temperature. This will lead to more evaporated terpenes and cannabinoids which results in lower quality rosin.
Lipids
Lipids are fatty bio-active compounds found in cannabis trichomes. The amount of these compounds highly depends on the strain and growing-method but it has much influence on the way cannabis acts in a rosin press. These lipids are firm compared to the other compounds so they determine the stability of the trichome/cannabinoids.
Once cannabis ages, some liquids and terpenes will evaporate leaving a higher percentage lipids in the trichomes. This makes them more firm which could make it harder to press out the cannabinoids with lower temps. In that case you should increase the temperautre of the press.
