Great. I assume that 5-micron filtering is not as squeaky clean as 2.5-micron filtering, but I feel no need to go lower than 5 microns. I'm very happy with the relative improvement in performance of my extracts/liquids over paper coffee filters.
Slow Cooker Extraction of Tobacco and Tea
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Great. I assume that 5-micron filtering is not as squeaky clean as 2.5-micron filtering, but I feel no need to go lower than 5 microns. I'm very happy with the relative improvement in performance of my extracts/liquids over paper coffee filters.
May have to look into that as well. I have at least another week before i plan to filter anyway
On factory Kanger silica wicks I could get 4 or 5ml if I rinsed the head and let it dry between each 1.5ml tank. 2.5 micron filtered juices will get you into the same neighborhood. Also, mixing at 15% instead of 20% will extend the life. You might lose a little flavor though. The thing is, nearly every commercial tobacco is treated with some form of sugar. Plus, there is a bit of organic material in the juice. That means you are facing some caramelization and cooking. I couldn't imagine going more than two or three days on a juice. However, that is mostly a wick issue. The coils hold up fine. I have some I have rewicked at least a half dozen times with just a dry burn on the coils.
Has anyone looked into using whole leaf instead of processed tobacco? Its unprocessed, of course, and gets past the tobacco taxes. There would be the natural sugars, but no additional sugars you get from casing.
since I use PGA to extract, there is minimal sugars extracted from the cased stuff ( PGA doesnt dissolve sugar that well)
My current three extractions are being done using just PG. I skipped the heat cool cycle ant went with a hybrid form of cold maceration ( placed extraction jar in a pan of hot water and let it cool room temp) i tried the heat cool cycle method my first time around and the results were very disappointing. No flavor to it at all. There were a lot of factors involved that could have caused this though.
I may give a straight PGA extraction a shot here soon. Im in the process of buying another house so i dont want to get anymore experiments goimg until thats all done.
I may give a straight PGA extraction a shot here soon. Im in the process of buying another house so i dont want to get anymore experiments goimg until thats all done.
Working on my first extractions. Put them in my crock pot and monitored the temp of the warer. Was getting too hot so I turned it off and left the extracts in. Later I turned the crock ppt back on and got busy. When I realized I forgot about them the water temp was 200!!!! @$!!# turned it off, removed extracts and cooled the water. Put them back in. Think about 1 hr @200 would ruin the extract?? @$!#/^^&*(
pardon the typos, on my phone
pardon the typos, on my phone
All eliquids made from natural tobacco extract---I'm thinking simple soak macerations, but this applies to steam-distillation and CO2 extraction also---will eventually carbon-crust coils and gunk wicks. The question is not if, but how fast and how much.
Methods of extraction and filtering are not the only variables---many more factors impact performance: the particular tobacco, the wattage used, etc.
As a general rule, flavor and performance are inversely related in NETs. Better performance = less flavor. More flavor = worse performance (in terms of crusting/gunking).
I can't give a hard-and-fast answer to your question. I can tell you that I'm pleased, and that many people on the Natural Tobacco threads have had juices made from my 5-micron filtered extracts, and everyone has been impressed with the performance/flavor balance. No, my extracts are not as clean as retail Ahlusion Aromatics or HHV steam-distillled extracts, but they're not far off. MVJ cigar extracts might be cleaner, but mine have much more flavor.
I use coffee filters with my PGA-based macerations as a final filtering pass to remove the bitter oil globules that PGA produces. With PG/VG macerations, I don't use coffee filters at all, and a single pass on the dual-stage French Press works beautifully.
YMMV, of course.
I think it'll be OK. Is it nice and dark, real dark? If so, its probably done. Mix up a sample, if it has a bit of taste, its probably good to go. If its very faint in flavor, keep cooking, at a lower temp.
Home extractors who have used uncured, whole-leaf tobacco have reported disappointing results. Some people have even used unprocessed tobacco that they grew themselves. Those results have been lousy as well. Cured tobacco seems to be an essential element in making tasty natural tobacco extracts. Yes, nearly all retail tobacco is cased, but the amount of casing and potency of the sugars vary dramatically.
Also, compared to buying retail NET eliquids, DIY NETs made from home-based tobacco extract flavorings are amazingly inexpensive, even after buying some of the best and most famous retail tobacco blends or cigars.
It was a thought.
A few simple things could give you the ability to cure the tobacco yourself. Air curing is simple. A wood fired smoke house could potentially yeild you a fire cured tobacco.
A few simple things could give you the ability to cure the tobacco yourself. Air curing is simple. A wood fired smoke house could potentially yeild you a fire cured tobacco.
Depends on the tobacco and solvent used, of course, but probably no serious damage from one hour at 200° F.
As of today I'm on my 47th extraction, and the best extracts I've made so were a batch of four cigars in a heat-assisted warm-water-bath maceration this past April. After the second day of heat-steeping in the water bath at 130°, I used an eyedropper to siphon off a little clear solvent and mix up a small test bottle. The result was disappointing, almost no flavor. I did the same test after Day 3, with similar result---still not enough flavor. This was my first batch of cigars---before that, I'd done only pipe/cigarette/RYO tobaccos, and I didn't know that cigars were not as easy or quick to extract. So, frustrated, I cranked up the heat to about 180° and let the macerations cook for another two days.
I fully expected that the four extracts would probably be ruined and taste burned or even bitter. Boy, was I wrong! The Rocky Patel Vintage 1990 Churchill Maduro cigar from that batch is now my single favorite extract of all time, with the Nub Cameroon and Carlos Torano Exodus 1959 50 Years cigar extracts not too far behind.
This is Brave New World. We're learning as we go. There are no hard-and-fast rules (i.e., never go above 150° with heat). Sorry, but no authoritative manual exists for making natural tobacco extracts. Vaping is less than a decade old, and no one had a reason to make tobacco-flavored extracts before that. We experiment, we have successes and failures, and we learn by experience and sharing.
I've blown a couple of macerations over the past 17 months by using jars that had previously held chopped garlic (trust me, I thought I had cleaned the glass jars thoroughly in hot water and soap, but the plastic seals in the metal lids had absorbed enough garlic flavor to ruin the extracts, which tasted ever-so-subtly like garlic---not a good thing---and had to be thrown out), and yes, I've got some extracts in the big drawer that I'm not real fond of. So what? My successes far outweigh my failures, and I enjoy making extracts.
If your maceration is ruined, don't despair. Just try again. This is an inexpensive hobby, and we don't need to hit home runs every time.
Don't let me rain on your parade. If this interests you, by all means go for it!
Not raining on my parade mate. This is what a forum is all about..sounding off ideas and experiences, getting feedback on those ideas. Sharing what we have all learned. It moves the whole community foward.
Well, I took the plunge! Got a cigar and split it into 2 containers of PG and one with some watkins raspberry extract. The third is coffee, a dark roast. Cant wait!
So, I pulled the coffee after 4 hours looked and smelled pretty good! Straining now!
My father and I were just discussing that, the vacuum treating process, I know in meats it opens up the pores to absorb more marinade, I would assume that it would do the same for our extracts... I have a foodsaver, I lack the vac attachments. I have been looking to get one for other stuff, but I think now I should pull the trigger... But, if anyone has done this, I would love to hear about it!
This is what I had in mind...
http://www.foodsaver.com/accessories/T03-0023-01P.html#start=3
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