Papa's Extraction

[papabogart]

Finally got around to starting. This attempt is a perique and an air cured burley. 1 oz. of tobacco and 120 ml pg in 8 oz canning jars.
Trying both heat and cold extraction, so one perique and one burley in a crock pot, the others sitting on a shelf.

Heat extraction:
So far, 1st day: 8hrs on low heat (190 degres F) then let it cool overnite. 2nd day: 4 hours at 190 then cool overnite. 3rd day 1hr at190 then coll in the morning, then another 1hr in the afternoon and now cooling.


Question is: Should I alow it to sit for a couple days? week? or strain and filter it tomorrow? I didn't realize it would get so dark--looks like motor oil--no light at all gets though now. Is that right or did I over-do it?

Thanks.

 

[billherbst]

Question is: Should I alow it to sit for a couple days? week? or strain and filter it tomorrow? I didn't realize it would get so dark--looks like motor oil--no light at all gets though now. Is that right or did I over-do it?

First off, color of the liquid depends of numerous variables, most obvious among them being the tobacco itself (type, cut, freshness, moistness, etc.) and the extraction method used (how much heat? how long a cook? and so on). I'd hazard a guess that once you filter out the tobacco, the resulting extract liquid will become transparent again, even if it remains dark-colored. You'll find out, one way or the other, of course.

Next, about letting the extract sit or steep for awhile. Please don't take what I write as advice---it's just what I do. I don't steep my extracts. Many home NET makers do, but I don't. I figure they'll steep naturally without my doing (or not doing) anything. Once I've decided that the extraction process is over (either because I've waited long enough for a room-temp slow-steeped extraction or at the end of a two-day heat-assisted extraction), I filter the liquid immediately. And then I mix up a small bottle of DIY NET right away and start vaping it.

With my extracts, I haven't noticed much change over time. They haven't "improved" or "degraded" over the months since I did the extractions. Some changes in flavor balances may have occurred, but nothing substantial enough that I noticed the change.

But then, that's how I am with juices. I vape everything when it's new and fresh. If I like it, I keep vaping it. If I'm not pleased, I put away the juice for a quiet steep---sometimes for a week if I sort of liked it, but other times for six months if I really didn't like it much.

As always, YMMV.

 

[papabogart]

Thanks Bill. I guess what I really was trying to ask is: when do you know the extraction process is done? If it's by colour, do you stop before it gets motor oil opaque, strong coffee, medium tea? It seems you go by time with your heat extraction. As always, thanks.

EDTI: NM, it's not anywhere near as dark as it appeared in the jar--going to keep brewing.

 

[billherbst]

Thanks Bill. I guess what I really was trying to ask is: when do you know the extraction process is done? If it's by colour, do you stop before it gets motor oil opaque, strong coffee, medium tea? It seems you go by time with your heat extraction. As always, thanks.

papa,

I have a career that I've been doing for 40 years. Much of my expertise in that career is the result of long, hard-won experience, with the end result being an impressive distilled wisdom.

My NET home extractions are as far from that as they could be. I've been lucky---most of what I've tried with extractions has worked out either fairly well or extremely well. I run on the basis of that luck. Oh yes, I'm beginning to log some accumulated experience, but not a great deal yet. I'm still mostly flying by the seat of my pants, and none of what I do in my NET extractions is "scientific" or the result of great wisdom, although I do apply a certain amount of common sense. For instance, I "believe" that less heat is better than more heat, just because gentleness in extraction makes sense to me. Is that true? I don't know. It's just my way.

None of my tobacco extractions has ever turned opaque. They've all darkened, of course, but they've remained transparent. If I had an extraction that became opaque or cloudy, I think I'd probably wonder if it was over-cooked or over-extracted, and I'd be worried that it might gunk up coils something fierce. Now, those concerns wouldn't keep me from filtering the extract liquid and trying it out. Who knows? It might be fantastic. But I do prefer that my extracts be clear and transparent.

So, the answer to the question, "When do you know?" is that I don't know. As I say, I've been lucky so far, which leads me to assume that the whole process of macerating natural tobacco to make flavor extracts is probably not rocket science and is fairly forgiving in its tolerances. In other words, there's lots of play in the rope. I'm not worried that the soufflé's gonna collapse if I look at it funny.

My investment is minimal, the risk is small, and I'm relatively fearless. The fact that all but two of my 16 macerated extracts (13 tobaccos and 3 coffees) have turned out beautifully is a nice surprise, and exactly the kind of hobby I want at this stage of my life.

 

[papabogart]

Decided that it has cooked long enough.
Dumped the cooled contents into a funnel lined with a coffee filter.
Decided it wasn't draining fast enough and tried Bill's twist method and the filter broke and everything fell out.
Collected everything and put it back in the jar and put it all back in the crock pot and heated it up.
This time I just poured the liquid off into the coffee filter lined funnel and it drained rather quickly.
Did a second filtering with a new filter.
Got about 75 ml of extract from the perique and about 90 ml of extract from the burley.
Neither had an enticing aroma-the burley at least had the smell of the inside of a lawnmower grass catcher bag.
Let both cool for 6 hrs. and mixed .9ml of each extract with 2.1 ml of VG--no nic.
Both were shaken and not stirred and steeped for an hour.
Vaped. 1.3 ohm, Phoenix single coil rda at 6.6, 7.2, 8.2 nad 9w.
The perique was a full bodied tobacco vape but very little of the sour/spicey funk, I was looking for, but not totally unexpected as the tobacco was bought at a local pipe shop and was not the black moist tobacco I know as perique. The tobacco itself had very mild aroma to begin with. I'll order bulk on-line next time and also get a tine of McClelland's.
The burley was earthy (dirt) and grassy/hay. Nothing special, but then again, it's burley.
Both are vapable, but nothing to write home about.
Conclusion: meh.

 

[papabogart]

Decided to dump these extratcts as the perique was just too bland to be useful as a representative of perique and the burley was unexpectedly grassy/hay like (maybe just vegetative would be a more accurate description). I figured nothing to loose, so I combined them (maybe 50/50 (wasn't paying attention--maybe slightly more burley= 60/40.
What I ended up with is a really interesting and pleasant vape. The burley gives it a dry solid base and the mild perique gives it an interesting flavor. It's not like a pipe, nor any cigarette in taste, but it is very much like a cigarette in body and dryness. Weirdly, this is the closest I've come to smoking in vape form. It's similar to a slightly stale cigarrete, but the suble perique freshens it just enough to keep it alive. I keep getting the urge to load this up for a vape.
Conclusion: even bad results may be frankened into something quite satisfying. This is way too much like smoking and like the monster, needs to be destroyed.