Live dry sift, or dry sift made from fresh frozen cannabis, is a relative newcomer to the hash scene; in contrast to older hash-making methods that are performed at room temperature, live dry sift requires modern technology to keep the cannabis buds and sift cold from harvest to consumption.
Anyone can make this solventless extract fairly easily with the right equipment. If you begin with high-quality starting material and perform each step carefully and accurately, the process should result in a terpene-rich concentrate with a robust flavor.
What Is Fresh Frozen Dry Sift?
“Fresh frozen dry sift” is something of an oxymoron. The term refers to dry sift that is extracted from fresh frozen cannabis plant material at sub-zero temperatures. The dry sift itself isn’t fresh frozen. Rather, the resulting extract is more accurately described as “live dry sift” because it consists of live trichomes that haven’t been dried or cured prior to sifting. In contrast, regular dry sift hash consists of dry trichomes that are separated from dried cannabis plant material, often at room temperature.
The main difference between live dry sift and regular dry sift from the consumer’s perspective is that live dry sift is much richer in terpenes and hence has a more complex and robust flavor with the full spectrum of terpenes. Live extracts contain more delicate, easily volatilized terpenes compared to their non-live counterparts, which is what imparts that special “live” typically floral essence people love nowadays.
How to Make Live Dry Sift
There are various methods you can use to make live dry sift. We will explain our process, which utilizes The Original Resinator and a freeze dryer.
You Will Need:
- Fresh frozen material (either cannabis buds with the fan leaves removed or fresh frozen trim)*
- A cold room (optional but strongly suggested)
- An Original Resinator (OG, XL, or XLS Pro)
- Mesh screens (75-120μm for premium sift, pore sizes outside of that range for mid-grade and food-grade sift)
- Liquid CO2 (or liquid nitrogen if using the XLS Pro)
- A collection tool
- A freeze dryer
- Freeze dryer trays
- Parchment paper
- Airtight storage bins
*At the point of harvest, we recommend removing the fan leaves and placing the freshly harvested buds in turkey bags standing upright in a freezer to maximize freezer space and avoid damaging the buds. You can store them in a deep freezer for up to one year without any noticeable loss in quality. The minimum freeze time before extraction is 4 hours but ideally 6-8 hours.
Method:
- Set up your Original Resinator, preferably in a cold room.
- Fit the Original Resinator with a micron-rated screen. Start with a 75-100μm size screen to collect the most premium trichome heads. You can follow up with smaller and larger micron sizes to collect the mid-grade and food-grade trichomes.
- Place your fresh frozen buds or trim inside the Original Resinator drum. The Resinator OG can process up to 10 lbs of wet biomass at a time and 432 wet lbs/day. The Resinator XL and Resinator XLS Pro can process up to 14 lbs of wet biomass in a single cycle or 2,016 wet lbs/day.
- Inject liquid CO2 into the chamber and run our suggested Cryo-Sieve® cycle. The live dry sift will collect in the chamber below the drum.
- Use the collection tool to sweep the live dry sift onto freeze dryer trays lined with parchment paper. Alternatively, store it in airtight storage bins in the freezer for processing at a later time.
- Repeat the process with smaller and larger micron screens to collect the mid-grade and food-grade sift. The trichome head diameter and stalk length change as the cannabis plant matures and we generally find that the highest quality trichomes are in the 72-125μm range. Larger and smaller trichome heads tend to be of a slightly lower quality.
- Freeze dry the sift, taking care to keep your premium, mid-grade, and food-grade sift separate.
- Store the dried sift in airtight containers in a cool and dry place, preferably in a freezer or fridge.
At this stage, you can use your mid-grade sift for joint infusions or economy rosin and food-grade sift to make edibles and tinctures. For your premium-grade sift, use Static Tech to remove the remaining plant material. The process is time-consuming but it’s the only way to make dry sift hash that’s suitable for dabbing or pressing for rosin.
A note about full-melt dry sift: For full-melt dry sift, Static Tech is also required. However, since full-melt dry sift is rare and hard to make, it’s not a requirement for making a sift that’s good enough to be pressed into great rosin.
Making Live Dry Sift Without Professional Equipment
If professional equipment is out of your budget, you can try making live dry sift with a freezer, bubble bags (micron-rated collection bags), an air-conditioned room, and a pre-chilled surface to collect the live trichomes. You can then allow the wet sift to dry in a controlled, cold environment.
The challenge here is to keep the trichomes cold enough that they won’t pass the freezing point of 32 °F at any point between harvest and drying. When live plant material is frozen, the cell walls rupture. If it is then allowed to thaw, the trichomes will oxidize and become degraded.
Please note: In practice, it’s virtually impossible to make good live dry sift without liquid CO2. If you’re serious about making this extract, consider investing in our affordable Resinator OG Base Model.
Benefits of Live Dry Sift
Live dry sift has a few key advantages over other kinds of solventless extracts:
- As it’s made from fresh frozen plant material, live dry sift preserves a higher percentage of terpenes than regular dry sift.
- It’s faster and easier to make than ice water hash (hash made with dry, frozen, or fresh plant material, cold water, ice cubes, agitation, and bubble bags).
- It’s much purer than dry ice hash. The dry ice method leads to an extract that’s abundant but contains a lot of plant matter and is always low quality.
The most important trick with live dry sift is to use Static Tech to clean up the premium-grade sift and get it to 4 or 5 stars, which is great for rosin. This process does take time but the results are well worth it.
Applications for Live Dry Sift
There are a range of commercial applications for this solventless extract:
- You can press premium live dry sift and sell the resulting live dry sift rosin. When pressing, start below 180 °F and use the smallest micron rosin bag. You can expect a 30-60% yield compared to the dry starting weight.
- Mid-grade live dry sift can be used for joint infusions and economy rosin.
- You can turn food-grade dry sift into edibles or use it to make tinctures.
While dry sift products are usually sold for more economical per-gram rates than bubble hash products, the cost to produce live dry sift is lower than the cost to produce live bubble hash. It’s a great way to introduce affordable while still high-quality solventless rosin and other solventless SKUs.
An Exciting Opportunity
Live dry sift, enabled by cold technology, is an exciting addition to the world of hash-making. CO2 extraction machines like The Original Resinator make it easy to maintain the cold chain when processing fresh frozen material and allow for effortless clean-up at the end.
If you want to market your live dry sift or press it to make live dry sift rosin, it’s essential to have the right equipment. Contact us to discuss your goals and learn how The Original Resinator can take your extraction process to the next level.
