New to Forum - Looking for some DIY advise!

[dbrannon79]

Hello all, I'm new here and have been reading a lot of good information here in the forums. now attempting to get into doing some diy juice of my own!

I have been using a itaste vv battery switching between the Kanger protank mini 2 and the smok rda dripper, now just purchased the new protank mini 3.

Lately I have been switching to different flavors left and right seeming to get tired of them very quickly! I wanted to start making some diy flavor extracts. I found a cooking recipe on making coconut extract by soaking grated coconut in vodka, was thinking of using the same method for coconut as used for extracting tobacco flavors. seeping in vodka for about a week, heating the vodka mix to evaporate most of the liquid till I get down to just the flavor and mixing into some vg. I wanted to get some advise on using this method for things like coconut, tea, and also leaves from a mint plant.

Thanks

 

[Vwls]

Instead of vodka, I recommend Everclear. You should be able to make quite a few interesting extracts and tinctures by soaking fresh items in Everclear. Fruit rinds, floral parts, and herbs will all work well. Mint will definitely work. However, if you want menthol flavor, the simplest way is to pick up a bag of food grade menthol crystals - they dissolve easily in PG and VG base.

To sweeten your DIYs, try organic Stevia crystals in unflavored base. Make it the same way you would simple syrup, but don't bring to a boil. Instead, pour the Stevia and base into a mason jar, then microwave for 10 seconds only, and place the jar in a warm bath for 20 minutes. Store in a dark cupboard, shaking often. The crystals may not ever completely dissolve, but you can remove liquid from the top with an eyedropper without getting any solids.

Another suggestion - you can make delicious tea-flavored e-juice using a real tea bag and unflavored base. Use the method described above and leave the teabag in the base for a full day. With a rubber glove, lift the tea bag out once the flavor has permeated the base, and squeeze the bag thoroughly. Be careful with green teas though - they tend to get bitter when they steep too long.

Be sure to check out the DIY forum here on ECF - lots of good information.

 

[Milkhoney]

For more delicate things, like flowers and other herbs, you may want to use just PG or VG to extract rather than ethanol. It'll take more time, but you'll also avoid bitter or harsh flavors that you may get from extractions in alcohol with certain things, especially if you let it sit too long. PG's a better solvent than VG, either can be used with heat.

If you're not really, really experienced with heating ethanol, don't do that. It's fairly dangerous, fumes and being flammable and whatnot. If you use Everclear or other high proof alcohol you can let it evaporate without adding heat to get more of an absolute, or just dilute the extract into PG and then let that air out for awhile so some of the ethanol can evaporate.

 

[on a moose]

I'd suggest seeking out information specifically on making PG extracts, rather than alcohol based. Unless you like the throat hit from the alcohol, and want that to be a prominent characteristic of your juice. Many things can be directly extracted into PG, and its bacteriostatic or antibacterial properties make it one of the safer solvents to use for organic extracts. You will also want to work out a good filtering method to clarify and remove sediment from your extracts. This isn't really my focus on DIY yet, so I don't have a lot of specific resources to point you to, but maybe these ideas will help you search.

If you get really ambitious, look into fractional distillation of herbs and such. This is how essential oils are produced, and it can be done on a small scale, without a huge investment. There are some good clips on Youtube showing the minimum glassware needed. Essential oils should be used very sparingly, and commercially available ones absolutely must not be in any kind of carrier oil. Pure essential oils are usually much more expensive, and at that point it's better to use PG based flavourings. But from a DIY angle, producing them can be a fun and interesting experiment.

 

[dbrannon79]

Thanks guys, great advise. I think Ill try experimenting with both Everclear and some base pg to do some extractions! as for heating the liquor, I had a small candle warmer in mind. that way it could be left unattended fro most of the day!

 

[Stockl]

Thanks everybody. Great Advises.

 

[gjbateman]

I have had luck dissolving 20 g of menthol crystals in 150 ml of 50/50 PG/VG. It dissolves readily when warmed and then goes back to the crystaline when cooled to 65 degrees F. You can draw off what you need when warm and it will be a saturated solution.

 

[RocketPuppy]

And make sure to visit the DIY section: DIY E-Liquid

Welcome to ecf, vaping, and all things related!!

 

[dbrannon79]

Thanks everyone.

Sent from my SGH-I927 using Tapatalk

 

[dbrannon79]

Instead of vodka, I recommend Everclear. You should be able to make quite a few interesting extracts and tinctures by soaking fresh items in Everclear. Fruit rinds, floral parts, and herbs will all work well. Mint will definitely work. However, if you want menthol flavor, the simplest way is to pick up a bag of food grade menthol crystals - they dissolve easily in PG and VG base.

To sweeten your DIYs, try organic Stevia crystals in unflavored base. Make it the same way you would simple syrup, but don't bring to a boil. Instead, pour the Stevia and base into a mason jar, then microwave for 10 seconds only, and place the jar in a warm bath for 20 minutes. Store in a dark cupboard, shaking often. The crystals may not ever completely dissolve, but you can remove liquid from the top with an eyedropper without getting any solids.

Another suggestion - you can make delicious tea-flavored e-juice using a real tea bag and unflavored base. Use the method described above and leave the teabag in the base for a full day. With a rubber glove, lift the tea bag out once the flavor has permeated the base, and squeeze the bag thoroughly. Be careful with green teas though - they tend to get bitter when they steep too long.

Be sure to check out the DIY forum here on ECF - lots of good information.

what do you recommend for the unflavored base when using tea? I had attempted that a few months back using one Lipton family size tea bag and some vg. the tea bag soaked up nearly all the vg and was a chore to squeeze out! I was able to only get a 3rd of the vg out into a small bottle, although it smelled really good, after a few days it started getting a top layer of foam like bubbles on the top of the liquid. I tossed it thinking that it was brewing with some bacteria. would pg be a better choice?