How To Make Hash Using Kief?
Hash or hashish is a concentrated form of cannabis that’s revolutionizing the weed industry due to its rich history and potent effects.
While there are many ways to produce hash, the key ingredient is kief. Kief refers to the collection of loose cannabis trichomes. In this blog, we’ll look at how to make hash from kief.
We’ll explain what kief is, its composition, and the collection methods. By understanding what kief is, you’ll be better equipped to learn how to make hash from kief.
What is Kief?
If you’ve ever looked at cannabis buds, you must have noticed the crystals or shiny hairs covering the flower. If you touch the crystals, your hands are likely to feel sticky.
These hairy, sticky crystals are called trichomes. When these trichomes dry and break off the flower, they become kief.
You probably already know this; trichomes are packed with flavonoids, terpenes, and a wide range of cannabinoids, including THC. These compounds are responsible for the unique aromas, flavours, and effects of different weed strains available for sale in Canada.
When you scrape off the trichomes from the cannabis plant, and they become kief, they retain most of these characteristics. This makes kief a darling to most weed enthusiasts who fancy adding flavour and potency to their flower.
Although kief is basically trichomes, it’s usually darker than trichomes. This is because it loses its freshness and becomes oxidized when it dries and falls off the cannabis plant.
For added potency and kick, you can add Kief to bowls, joints, or vape devices. However, if you’re looking to be more adventurous, you can learn how to make hash from Kief.
When learning how to make hash from kief, you can either decide to collect your own kief using a grinder or buy kief from an online weed dispensary near you.
If you decide to buy kief, remember that purer, more potent kief will be lighter in colour. On the other hand, kief with a bit of plant matter will look dark or green.
Before we explain how to collect and make hash from kief, we need to understand what hash is.
Kief Vs Hash; Understanding What Hash Is
Also known as hashish, hash is an Arabic word which means “grass”. Just like kief, hash boasts of a rich history and esteemed reputation and has been used both recreationally and medicinally for centuries.
To put it simply, hash is a more compressed, potent version of kief. Remember, kief refers to the fine powdery dust that gathers at the bottom of your cannabis packaging or grinder.
When this powder (kief) is exposed to heat and pressure, it undergoes physical changes that not only affect its appearance, but also its colour, texture, taste, and, most importantly, its potency.
Kief also transforms into a solid, more potent cannabis concentrate made up of compressed trichomes. This rich concentrate is known as hash or hashish.
Depending on how hash was made from kief, it can take different textures, colours, and appearances. For instance, some hash can appear like a ball of compressed trichomes or have a waxy/liquid-like consistency.
Hash is a highly potent concentrate, sometimes with up to 70% THC. If you are just starting out with cannabis or have a very low tolerance, it’s advisable that you start with a very small amount of hash or keep off it altogether.
After learning how to make hash from kief, you can smoke it on its own or with cannabis bud, vapourize or dab using a rig.
How to Make Hash From Kief
Now that we know what kief and hash are, it’s time to learn how to make hash from kief at home.
While trichomes will naturally dry and fall off the bud to form kief, this process may take a lot of time. This is why most people often use a grinder to scrape off and collect kief.
Here’re some of the ways that you can use to collect kief at home:
- Use A Grinder With A Kief Catcher
This is the easiest and most popular way to collect kief.
Grinders typically come equipped with a kief catcher, a separate chamber at the bottom on which kief falls and collects.
To collect kief using a grinder, you simply shred/grind your flower like you usually do. However, in this case, the screening compartment will allow the trichomes to fall into another chamber (kief catcher) from where you can easily collect your kief.
Pro tip: To collect more kief, you can use the “coin trick.” This involves putting a coin in the middle compartment of your grinder to help increase the agitation, forcing the trichomes to separate from the buds.
- Use Pollen Boxes
Maybe you don’t want to grind your herbs but still want to collect some kief? The Pollen Boxes method may work perfectly for you.
As the name suggests, this method involves the use of a box equipped with a pollen tray. To collect kief, simply put some herbs on the top and shake up the box.
This will allow the kief, in dust, powdery form, to sift through the filter and into the bottom tray.
This method is best suited for small batches.
- Silk Screens
Maybe you want to collect large enough batches to keep your friends entertained over the weekend? The Silk Screen method may work perfectly. If you don’t have a silk screen, you can easily buy it from a local head or art shop near you.
For best results, ensure your screen is between 80 and 270 lines per inch ( 80 and 270 LPI).
To collect kief using this method, put your buds on the screen and place a basin under the screen. Using an old credit or gift card, gently run your herbs on top of the screen.
This will help separate the trichomes from the buds, allowing you to collect the kief from the basin.
Once you’ve collected enough kief, it’s time to make your hash.
How to Make Hash From Kief: Step-By-Step Process:
There’re many ways you can use when learning how to make hash from kief. In this section, we’ll describe the most common ways of making hash with kief.
- Hand Pressing Method
This is one of the easiest ways that you can use when learning how to make hash from kief.
Unlike other methods, such as the machine-press hash-making method, the hand-pressing technique doesn’t require additional equipment, as all you need is to use your hands to press your kief, forcing the materials to bind together.
If you’re going to use your hands to make hash from kief, it’s advisable that you use fresh, high-quality kief with little to no vegetative matter.
This is because plant matter may make it hard for you to mould your kief into hash, and the trichomes may not stick/bind together properly.
To hand-press hash, hold a few grams of ground trichomes with your hand. Work this kief with one hand against the other until the materials start binding together, forming a solid piece. Rub this solid between your thumb for about 10 to 15 minutes. By this time, your trichomes should start to change in density.
If you’re using dry, aged kief, it may fail to stick together as compared to freshly ground kief. Don’t worry, though; you can deal with this stubbornness by applying some mild heat.
Wrap your kief in food-grade cellophane, making sure it’s completely sealed, and no air is trapped in. Wrap this package using wetted newspaper, paper towels or cloth, then warm it in a skillet at low temperatures. This will help get the materials to stick together, so you can work them into solid hash.
- Shoe Technique
Yes, you can use your shoe to make hash from kief! All you need to do is place the material in cellophane or parchment paper, seal it, and place the packaging inside the heel of your shoe.
As you walk, your body heat and the pressure within the shoe will help press the kief into a slab of hash.
- The Pen Technique
Another method that you can use when learning how to make hash from kief at home is the pen technique. This is a straightforward process; simply take apart the standard segmented pen. This will give you a chamber, unto which you should pour your kief. Using an unsharpened pencil, press down the trichomes until you can’t push anymore. And just like that, you have a neatly packed solid hash to smoke, dab, or make into an edible!
How To Store Hash
Now that you’ve learned how to make hash from kief, how can you store it to maintain its flavour, quality, taste and potency?
Like most other weed products, hash should be stored in an airtight metal, glass container or silicone.
Ensure that your hash is exposed to little to no light, heat and moisture. This will help keep it fresh and pungent for months.
Transforming Kief To Hash; What We’ve Learned
Kief refers to trichomes that have dried and fallen from the cannabis bud. Trichomes refer to the shiny, sticky white crystals covering the buds of the cannabis plants.
Kief is rich in cannabinoids, flavonoids, terpenes and other beneficial compounds found in the cannabis plant.
When learning how to make hash from kief, you must understand how to collect kief from the buds of the cannabis plant, then the various ways to compact these ground trichomes into a solid mass of hash.
Hashish is not for the faint-hearted, as it’s very potent.
If you’re looking to buy premium weed concentrates, including hash, at an affordable price, we welcome you to check ChronicFarms.com, the best mail-order online weed dispensary in Canada.
Apart from concentrates such as hash and kief, you can also order other weed products, such as edibles, vapes, flowers, etc., from our online weed store.
What are you waiting for? Order marijuana products online in Canada from ChronicFarms.com, and we’ll deliver them right to your doorstep!
