DIY E-Liquid in large batches

[cloudy2day]

I am thinking about making 2-3 of my favourite flavours: Honeydew, RY4 Double and Watermelon in 250mL batches for my brother and I


I am planning on making them all in 50% PG and 50% VG and storing them in 250mL Glass Jar containers.
I also have a bottle of nic at 50mg/mL 50/50
Will be steeping the fruit flavours for 3-4 days and the RY4 more than a week at least.

Three questions:
1) Can I increase/decrease PG or VG when I pull it out of the batch and put it into a 30mL as my brother and I prefer different bases.
2) Should I add nicotine now (say 12mg strength) or do it when I am extracting it to 30mL bottles?
3) If #2 is okay, can I decrease/increase my mg strength if I so desire? lol

Cheers,
cloudy

 

[David1975]

If your looking to change or alter so much after mixing it, why mix so much at once? I ask because in the long run, it will be easier.

 

[NightSky]

I am thinking about making 2-3 of my favourite flavours: Honeydew, RY4 Double and Watermelon in 250mL batches for my brother and I


I am planning on making them all in 50% PG and 50% VG and storing them in 250mL Glass Jar containers.
Will be steeping the fruit flavours for 3-4 days and the RY4 more than a week at least.

Three questions:
1) Can I increase PG or VG when I pull it out of the batch and put it into a 30mL as my brother and I prefer different bases.
2) Should I add nicotine now (say 12mg strength) or do it when I am extracting it to 30mL bottles?
3) If #2 is okay, can I decrease/increase my mg strength if I so desire? lol

Cheers,
cloudy

Hey Cloudy2day,

I think I'll be able to help you out.

1) Yes, you can!

2) Add it now so that the flavoring can molecularly bond with the nicotine.

3) Yes, just add more pg/vg/flavor. I'd let it sit again though if you do.

-NightSky

 

[cloudy2day]

If your looking to change or alter so much after mixing it, why mix so much at once? I ask because in the long run, it will be easier.

We want to try different bases/mg level that fits with the juices we have been using.
Being that it is DIY, it will take a few tries for us to perfect it.

So.. after the batches, and we feel that we can make the flavours spot on, we will make them in 100mL or something smaller than 250mL that we can use for 3-4 months lol.

 

[cloudy2day]

1) If I am increasing my PG or VG, I assume that I would also need to add flavour to make sure it doesn't get too diluted too much, right?
2) Read somewhere that nicotine, if it is sitting too long (not sure how long), it can oxidate and the nic level may actually be lower than what we intended it to be.
3) Not too long I hope? Maybe we'll extract it out of the batches 2-3 days in advance to let the added flavour to steep

 

[David1975]

We want to try different bases/mg level that fits with the juices we have been using.
Being that it is DIY, it will take a few tries for us to perfect it.

So.. after the batches, and we feel that we can make the flavours spot on, we will make them in 100mL or something smaller than 250mL that we can use for 3-4 months lol.

I understand that, went through that "sampling" when I first made my all day vape. Here's the problem with doing it the way you asked. When you first mix your liquid, you have your PV/VG based on your nic base and flavoring base. While you can adjust the PG/VG after the liquids mixed, adding one or the other will mess with both your flavoring and nic level. For instance, 100mg/ml PG base, I like my RY4 with 15% flavor, 14mg/ml, and at 70%PG. Lets say I want to decrease this to 60%PG.... I'll need to add VG, no problem... except this dilutes my flavor and reduces my nic level. To compensate, I would need to add nic AND VG and also flavoring. It's doable, but easier and more accurate (to reproduce if I like it) to make a few different batches at 5ML to try.

 

[David1975]

1) If I am increasing my PG or VG, I assume that I would also need to add flavour to make sure it doesn't get too diluted too much, right?
2) Read somewhere that nicotine, if it is sitting too long (not sure how long), it can oxidate and the nic level may actually be lower than what we intended it to be.
3) Not too long I hope? Maybe we'll extract it out of the batches 2-3 days in advance to let the added flavour to steep

1) Yes, but the %flavor would be an unknown at this point unless you measure everything left after you tested it. And the reason for measuring so accurately, is to reproduce the flavor we like over and over again, with the same results.
2+3) Yes it will, but it take a long time based on what I've read on here.... even longer if you "freeze" the 100mg base you wont use in the next month or 2. I buy 2 liters at a time, I freeze all of it except for 125ml that I am using.

 

[Alien Traveler]

If you’ll want to change one thing, you’ll need to change all other things also (to keep everything in the same proportion). I.e. if you add VG, you’ll need to add flavoring and nicotine. You’ll spend too much effort and computing power. Much easier to make smaller batches simultaneously and taste them.
As for adding nicotine, I’d rather add it when preparing main batch. Do not worry about oxidation too much – in closed bottle in dark place it will be good for at least half a year, may be even for a year or more.

 

[williebb123]

sounds like too much work , if you like lets say 6mg 50/50 and brother likes 12mg 30/70 just make 2 bulk bottles and pour into your 30ml bottles when needed , i hate cleaning up all the time reminds me of when i had kids

 

[Spazmelda]

What you might could do is make batches at double strength (double nic and double flavor) and then adjust when you bring it down to regular strength. It would take some math and I don't really see the benefits over making two separate batches. Just more math and diluting...

 

[cloudy2day]

What you might could do is make batches at double strength (double nic and double flavor) and then adjust when you bring it down to regular strength. It would take some math and I don't really see the benefits over making two separate batches. Just more math and diluting...

I didn't think about doing that!
Let me tinker with my numbers and hopefully it works

 

[Spazmelda]

Assuming you and your brother are both wanting the same strength nic and same flavors, you might could do it like this:

Put in your calculator for 24 mg/ml nic and double whatever the flavorings are, use 50/50 VG/pg as your target (may have to change this, but it's a starting point) say you want to make uh.. 50 ml. This is your double strength juice recipe.

Then for your dilutions, use 24 mg/ml 50/50 VG/pg as your nic base, put in 12 mg/ml as your target. Whatever volume you want to make, and put what you want your new VG/pg ratio to be. Don't even enter the flavorings for this calculation because they are already there and shouldn't affect the math. That should work to tell you how much pg and VG to add to get the two different ratios that you and your brother want at 12 mg/ml.

Hopefully if I'm incorrect someone will point out where I went wrong.

 

[Crunktanium]

Can be done but it's a pita what I do is batch up my flavoring then add nic as needed. Going from 6mg to 12mg is not an issue and I don't make anything stronger than that anyway. So you could in essence do the same in reverse with your VG/PG.

Make a 10ml batch get everything measured to where it needs to be for each base. Then make your larger batch 50/50 at half dilution. So if you normally use 180ml VG/PG you would use 90ml. Now get the percent of VG/PG needed for a 10ml full batch and add whatever is missing. If you were going to do like 80% VG or PG it wont work in a 50/50 mix at this ratio however. In such a case you can make a super concentrate with say 20ml of VG/PG/Nic/Flavor and add what is missing. To do any of this you will want a calculator like Ejuicemeup to ensure the math on the final dilution is correct. You could even simply mix your nic and flavor without any VG/PG which is what I would do. But it will take a bit to steep though not as much since mixing steeped with un-steeped juice does cut the overall steeping time.