How to Dry Bubble Hash for the Best Final Product

After ice water extraction, it’s essential to dry bubble hash thoroughly before pressing rosin, selling it as-is, or using the hash in edibles or topicals. When done properly, you can create five or even six-star full-melt hash that fetches a premium price in dispensaries. When it’s not done right, mold growth can ruin your wet hash and render it completely useless.

The most traditional way to dry bubble hash is air drying, and people have gotten some great results using this method. However, when air drying, it can take up to two weeks to dry. A great deal of care is also necessary to prevent mold and microbial growth.

If you’re a commercial grower or processor, the best method—by far—is freeze drying. It’s quick, it’s controlled, and it preserves the terpenes better than air drying—creating the potential for a wide range of premium SKUs. If you’d like to learn more about the different microns of bubble hash and what they can be used for, check out our helpful chart here.

How to Dry Bubble Hash Using the Air-Drying Method

For the air drying method, you’ll need a controlled environment that’s set at 55°F and 35% relative humidity. A cold room or similarly controlled environment works well as long as it meets the temperature and humidity requirements and has adequate ventilation.

To air dry ice water hash:

1. Take the wet bubble hash and gently press it over a 15μm or 25μm screen to remove any excess water.
2. Freeze the wet hash patties for 24 hours.
3. Grind the frozen bubble hash using a stainless-steel sieve to break it up into tiny pieces.
4. Spread out the tiny pieces in a thin layer on food-grade parchment paper placed on top of a piece of cardboard (like a pizza box). Untreated corrugated cardboard absorbs moisture, helping the wet hash to dry.
5. Place the board in a controlled environment (as described above) and leave it there for 2-10 days, or until the hash is dried to your satisfaction. What you’re going for is a dry, sand-like texture that’s sticky but not damp when you squeeze it between your fingers.
6. Store the dried bubble hash in airtight containers in the freezer or press the bubble hash into rosin.

How to Dry Bubble Hash Using a Freeze Dryer

If you’re a commercial grower-producer, you’ll want to use a pharmaceutical-grade scientific freeze dryer for your drying process. Not only is freeze drying far quicker (taking only a fraction of the time), but it’s the only way to create live bubble hash and live rosin from wet live bubble hash as the cold chain is maintained. Last but not least, freeze drying eliminates any chance of mold growth and oxidation and preserves the cannabinoids and terpenes far better than air drying.

For a truly unmatched result:

• Start with live bubble hash made from premium buds. While you can make bubble hash with fresh, frozen, or dried-and-cured buds, using frozen buds will give you a truly live bubble hash that you can press into live rosin and sell for a premium price.

• Work in a cold environment. The colder you keep your cannabis from harvest to cure, the smoother and more flavorful your final products will be.

• Use The Original Resinator to make your bubble hash. As a bubble hash machine, the Resinator works quickly and cleanly without damaging the trichome heads. The Resinator also makes it extremely easy to maintain the cold chain during trimming and extraction because the rotating cylinder maintains sub-zero temperatures when you introduce liquid CO2 (for trimming and for pre-chilling in some hash washing applications) or ice/water (for the hash washing process).

Once you’ve created six-star wet bubble hash using the process outlined above:

1. Gently squeeze out the excess moisture using a 15μm or 25μm screen.
2. Spread out your wet hash in an even thin layer on top of food-grade parchment paper on freeze-dryer trays and freeze it for 24 hours. If you keep the collection tool in ice water, it will help to prevent the wet hash from sticking to the tool when you’re spreading it out on the trays.
3. Put the trays of frozen bubble hash in the freeze dryer and run a complete cycle. If you’ve spread it out properly (and haven’t overfilled the trays), wet bubble hash typically takes up to 24 hours to fully dry.
4. Jar the dried bubble hash in airtight glass containers.
5. If you want to warm or cold cure your hash, you can do that after jarring.
6. Store the dried or dried-and-cured bubble hash in the freezer or press it into rosin.

Interested in learning more about what you can do with your bubble hash once it’s graded and dry? Take a look at our Micron Chart here to get some SKU ideas!

Drying Bubble Hash Correctly Is the Key to Winning Extracts

Air drying bubble hash is the most accessible method for hobbyists and home-based extractors. However, if you want to create connoisseur-grade live extracts that will fetch the highest price in dispensaries, freeze dryers are the way to go.

While drying hash correctly is the final step in creating top-shelf extracts, the quality of your buds and the ice water extraction process also have a lot to bear on the final result. Using premium fresh frozen buds and maintaining the cold chain from start to finish can allow you to make live bubble hash and other live products that are truly unmatched.