Thanks Bill. I've also enjoying the 50/50 PG/VG mixes. Kind of best of both worlds.
Here are my third extract notes with VG this time:
Tobacco American Spirits Organics Cigarette
Quantity 2 cigarettes
Base VG
Base Volume 22 mL
Method 70% Power microwave in shot glass
6 x 4s mix in between
Mix 60s
4 x 4s mix in between
Mix until OK to touch
Filtering 2x through boiled cotton
Notes Smells more tobaccoey and less oily, dark blond color
Overall less intense smell than PG extract
Filtering a pain, 1 drop per second
10 mL extract overall
The shot glass was internally very hot, mixing it made hotter
This time the color of the extract is much lighter than the PG extract. But the extract smells more interesting than
the PG extract overall, more crushed tobacco notes in it. But the aroma is dimmer, I'd say 1/3 of the PG extract.
I tried very hard not to overcook it. I mixed the concoction after 4 seconds of nuking each time. The VG captures the heat and releases the heat very very slowly. As I mix it, I noticed that the shot glass got hotter and hotter. Obviously, much different heat conduction and capacity property than H2O... I cooked until I smell the tobacco.. I could have cooked it more but just wanted to stop at this stage and see how the extract steeps.
Filtering was a big pain. I sweated filtering 10-15 mL of extractI put so much pressure on the syringe plunger and only 1 drop / second came out!..
This whole process took about 1 hour! Very artisanal and hand-crafted, LOLIt better vape and taste great !
Next time, I'll try 50/50 PG/VG base.
i find a bit of e.m. in the juice mix helps, sometime just one drop of smooth and ive made some awesome cigar extract with just 2drops of oak wodd added!!! but e.m. does really help the final mix
Great writeup!! (IKWYM about the syringe... I thought I was going to break the plunger.)
Interesting that you are noticing more notes with the VG even though overall it's not as strong smelling as the PG NET. I could say the same. The PG was stronger in my experience but the notes and overall smell was less fragrant. At least until it steeped a few days. But even still the VG ended up more closely representing the tobacco smell I wanted.
So which of your NETs are you happier with at this point?
i find a bit of e.m. in the juice mix helps, sometime just one drop of smooth and ive made some awesome cigar extract with just 2drops of oak wodd added!!! but e.m. does really help the final mix
What is e.m. ?
I haven't yet made up a juice with the VG extract. But the extract has a muted aroma so far. Early next week, I'll make a juice and vape it. The PG juice keeps gaining intensity, still not as what I'd like as a flavor profile. But it keeps changing.
Ethyl Maltol, the most common sweetener used in eliquids.
Personally, I use liquid stevia rather than ethyl maltol for sweetening juices, specifically KAL Pure Stevia Natural Extract. I mention the particular retail product because different brands of stevia are all over the map in flavor, potency, and aftertaste (or absence of). Some formulations of stevia are absurdly potent, others weaker, and many are accompanied unpleasantly by an acrid, bitter aftertaste. KAL Pure Stevia has moderate potency, so you won't ruin your bottle of juice if you use one drop too much, and no aftertaste. Just pure sweetness that approximates the taste of cane sugar from an all-natural source. I'm not sure that stevia is "healthier" than ethyl maltol, but I like it better.
I tried this method with tobacco from two organic cigarettes and 35-40 mL of VG. I used a 5.5" diameter stainless steel sauce pan with lid. I also moistened the tobacco with about half teaspoon of water. There was a lot of evaporation going on so I didn't wait until I saw the bubbles coming out of VG. When I added tobacco into hot VG, the tobacco sizzled, it smelled good for like 3 seconds and then the mixture had a slight burnt smell to it. I put the sauce pan back on heat. The tobacco just got darker even before I saw any bubbles coming out. The smell was almost like burnt tobacco. I think VG got too hot. Overall, I think the tobacco got scorched -- it didn't smell and look good anymore. Anyway, I had to dump it.
Did this happen to anyone else? I think the VG gets too hot for tobacco and scorches it. After trying this, I'm surprised this doesn't happen more often to others. I don't know what I did "wrong" -- the VG didn't even boil... Somehow did I manage to super heat the VG? I don't know how that would happen though...
Thanks.
In my extractions, I never expose the macerations to direct heat, only indirect, and I use only low heat, never high or intense.
I put a trivet in a large pot (the size one would use to make pasta for a large dinner party), place the jars of maceration (closed, with lids) on the trivet, then add enough water to the pot to reach about 2/3 the way to the top of the jars. I then remove the jars and, setting the electric burner to high (maximum), heat the water in the pot until it starts to visibly vaporize into steam---but before it boils. Then I turn down the heat to the lowest setting (keep warm), place the maceration jars back in the pot on the trivet, cover the pot, and let the macerations "cook" gently in the not-quite simmering water for six hours. At that point, I turn off the heat and let the jars rest for six hours. I repeat that 12-hour process four times over two days, then I filter the extract liquid.
My macerations aren't really "cooked," per se. The gentle heat of the water bath just speeds up the extraction process.
I'm not suggesting that anyone should do what I do. I'm just sharing what's working very well for me, since all my tobacco extractions---ten so far---are turning out wonderfully. I triple-filtered my most recent batch of four, done last week, and they all hit that sweet spot of being very flavorful but remarkably easy on coils. They're easily on a par with many of the best retail NETs I've had, and considerably better than some.
Have you tried using PG and VG macerations (separately) for the same tobaccos? If you did, do you prefer one or the other one?
You all got me curious now. I just threw together an extraction process that went like this:
Tobacco American Spirits Organics Cigarette
Quantity 2 cigarettes
Base VG
Base Volume 21 mL
Method:
I am heating our place with a wood stove as it is storming outside. I put the tobacco and the VG into a 50ml brown glass bottle and set it on top of the wood stove for a nice slow cook. I just set the top on the bottle (did not screw it on at all). I will let it cook overnight and see what we have in the morning.
Stay tuned...