New to DIY-Stir Plate/Steeping Question

[numsquat]

Background: ex-smokeless myself, wife up to 2 packs/day, ex-users doing the vaping thing. Been dig it longer than wife (using non-tobacco snuff + vaping for nic myself + vaping for wife) but both doing well. Looking into DIY recently, been reading a lot of threads. Wife into Halo juice, especially the minty/menthol flavors plus localish vapeshop flavors, I'm still a little all over the place for flavors. Personally been into homebrewing/distilling over 20 years, so some interst in the DIY (several other areas in the home life DIY also).

In my homebrewing/distilling I repitch/build yeast and have many of the items needed, including multiple stir plates. I brew/distill over 400 gallons a year, so I have a large amount of equipment.

So my question is for those that use stir plates for steep, what is your process? I figure I will use time and temperature in my steeping, I'm guessing there may not be a large amount of difference in my from homebrewing. Making up several 100ml at a time won't be a problem as i have friends who vape and would love for me to blend for them.

So any suggestions on stir plate time, temp controlled steeping times (I do have 3 temp (heat/cool) fermenting boxes at various temp regions), anything you you may be doing would be great. My Christmas request have been for Amazon cards, already have 500ml @ 100mg nic in the freezer ready to go, been through the DIY by weight thread (which makes sense to b=me because of my brewing) and have recipe ideas from the TPA/TFA thread so a shopping list for Wizard Labs. So just needing to order supplies and get some procedure advice before the holidays.

 

[Tbev]

I use a hot plate / stirrer and I pretty much only use it to sir, everyone days adding heat is like adding another ingredient, it will change your juice, for the better or worse you won't knew till you try it but your trying to get as much consistency / repeatability as possible so you can get better at making adjustments. I love it, I side everything I make, I mix by weight, right into a beaker that will go on the stirrer. I try to be nice on my stirrer, 8hr @ a time, but I do each juice a lot, I leave it in the breaker and sir it on and off for a few days until I get around to bottling it. I also had a hard time getting stirrer rods that worked well bc thick juice is really hard on my stirrer, any stirrer prolly. I ended up makin turning my own on a lathe. I realize that's not doable for most ppl, get the dumbbell shaped stirrer rods, they work much better with the convex bottoms of most beakers or bottle. I mix and sir (by weight, it's a must IMO) right into bottles, (Boston Round) a lot of the time B.C.you want to stir with a cap/plug/cork in, you want it closed up. Basically as fast as you can get your stirrer rod to go without losing balance, fit a much time as you have patience for. If you get a lot of stirrer rods you can mix, bottle, stir and store your juice with the stirrer inside the closed bottle (or whatever), and just keep putting it back inv the stirrer till it's empty, that's what I do.
If you have any questions in happy to answer anything. I highly recommend diy, find some recipes you think took like adv order the flavoring for them, that's the best way to start, don't just order a bunch of flavors you think you'll like or you'll be reordering again to make the next good recipe you find. Good luck!

 

[johnny hotsauce]

One of my local vape shops taught me how to mix DIY and encouraged me to get a hot plate stirrer and also to mix by weight.

They have me using heat while stirring and keeping the temp at 90C and keep it on the stirrer until I have a nice vortex, start the RPM's low at 200 and then stabilize it at 750 RPM's as the juice heats up and thins out a bit as it's mostly max VG. Supposedly, the heat accelerates steep time by a week according to them.

They make great house juice so I trusted their feedback and so far all my DIY has turned out great. I just make sure I don't "over cook" it

 

[numsquat]

Thanks for the information, gives me some good direction. Have been researching many recipes, starting to narrow some down, and have been reading as many threads on DIY when I have the time. Planning to make the leap around Christmas-New years holidays, have some time off then.