Tobacco extraction using heated Ethanol

[happy valley]

Hello friends, old and new, lord been months since I've had a chance to visit this little corner of ECF. Busy summer, moved back to the home place, needing a ton of work, also got the fields cut, new outdoor wood furnace installed and 20 cords of wood stacked in the shed!
Delighted to relax a bit and catch up on this thread. Fall and cooler weather has me thinking about extracts again and this thread is both the perfect motivator and refresher course on the processes. Cheers all!

 

[brewbear]

One more question, when you cold filter, it was suggested the best practice would be to filter while keeping the extract in the freezer. That would not be very practical for me unless I have a dedicated freezer. Would immersing the "receiving" clean jar in an ice bath be acceptable?

 

[Str8vision]

Welcome back @happy valley it has been awhile.

I completely understand, I'm fixing to disappear for awhile, need to re-roof my front porch, do some painting and pruning around my property.

 

[leftyandsparky]

One more question, when you cold filter, it was suggested the best practice would be to filter while keeping the extract in the freezer. That would not be very practical for me unless I have a dedicated freezer. Would immersing the "receiving" clean jar in an ice bath be acceptable?

That’s what I did today. Now it’s back in the freezer doing it’s thing.

 

[brewbear]

Welcome back @happy valley it has been awhile.

I completely understand, I'm fixing to disappear for awhile, need to re-roof my front porch, do some painting and pruning around my property.

When you're done pruning at your house, could you swing by my house?

 

[brewbear]

Hello friends, old and new, lord been months since I've had a chance to visit ths little corner of ECF. Busy summer, moved back to the home place, needing a ton of work, also got the fields cut, new outdoor wood furnace installed and 20 cords of wood stacked in the shed!
Delighted to relax a bit and catch up on this thread. Fall and cooler weather has me thinking about extracts again and this thread is both the perfect motivator and refresher course on the processes. Cheers all!

Never had the pleasure of "meeting " you, but welcome back into the fold.

 

[leftyandsparky]

Hi @happy valley!

 

[Str8vision]

One more question, when you cold filter, it was suggested the best practice would be to filter while keeping the extract in the freezer. That would not be very practical for me unless I have a dedicated freezer. Would immersing the "receiving" clean jar in an ice bath be acceptable?

An ice bath really wouldn't help because the extract that has already been filtered (that which ends up in the receiving container) isn't what needs to be kept cold. It's the extract that hasn't been through the filter that's the problem, it contains the precipitate (gunk). If it warms too much, some of the precipitate might reliquify, pass through the filter and end up back in the extract.

While filtering inside a freezer would be preferable, not everyone has the space to do so. If I couldn't perform the filtering inside a freezer, I'd just slowly pour the ice cold extract into the coffee filter being careful to leave as much of the precipitate (gunk) as possible behind in the jar. Since the precipitate settles in the very bottom of the jar, this is fairly easy to do (with good lighting). As soon as the extract has filtered through, promptly dispose of the filter.

 

[Str8vision]

I used $1 pair of pantyhose from dollar general to squeeze out my large batch of tobacco.

Me: Honest honey, those are MY pantyhose, I use them for making NET!

My better half: .......

Me:


Seriously though, dollar store pantyhose are inexpensive, easily obtained and would work quite well, good idea!

 

[Boxster]

Let's address separating the tobacco from solvent after the extraction is complete.

Here are some pics showing how to separate the tobacco/solvent the way the basic step-by-step guide describes. You can click on each pic to enlarge it;


View attachment 691825 View attachment 691827 View attachment 691831 View attachment 691833

This way works well for extractions of less than 1 ounce of tobacco.

NOTE: For larger extractions involving 1 ounce or more, the coffee filter will simply be too small to hold and properly encapsulate all the tobacco. If the filter is packed too full it'll be prone to rupture when squeezed. Using additional coffee filters won't really help because, being dry and absorbent, the new filter will just soak up most of the extract you manage to squeeze out.

For a short period of time I used a nylon mesh nut milk bag for squeezing saturated tobacco. They're fairly inexpensive ($8), washable/reusable and they don't absorb extract (although some does cling to the fabric). You can fit a lot of tobacco inside one.

These days I don't "hand" squeeze tobacco anymore. I use a large Stainless Steel potato ricer ($16) like this one;

View attachment 691849

I pour most of the the loose extract into the coffee filter (like in the first pic above) being careful to leave most of the tobacco inside the jar. While holding the ricer over the coffee filter, I dump the tobacco inside it. I then apply pressure to the handle quickly recovering extract from the saturated tobacco. Afterward, I discard the spent tobacco. Because of its mechanical advantage, the ricer can easily exert 10X more force than hand squeezing can.

Of course a person doesn't have to recover the extract that is held in the saturated tobacco. By my best guesstimate on average there's only about 10ml of recoverable extract contained in each ounce of extracted tobacco. Some types of tobacco hold more, some hold less.

I use an Aeropress which serves both purposes, filtering & squeezing out extra extract from the tobacco. To be honest, there will be less extract to squeeze from a PGA vs PG extraction since the PGA drains so well.

 

[nostradadus]

I use a large Stainless Steel potato ricer

My ricer and aeropress have been my faithful companions in the DIY NET realm for quite some time now... Good tools are priceless!

 

[leftyandsparky]

Me: Honest honey, those are MY pantyhose, I use them for making NET!

My better half: .......

Me:


Seriously though, dollar store pantyhose are inexpensive, easily obtained and would work quite well, good idea!

I’ve taught my husband a lot about pantyhose. He keeps a cut up pair in his tackle box, for bait and such. Also, if your camping you can use them to make coffee by making a little coffee bag. Kinda like a tea bag. There’s a lot of uses for them and a lot of people keep some in bug/out bags since they take up no space.
Also there is a big request for them, from members serving over seas. They used them to cover their gun barrels and other uses.
So when you see stocking and such buy a pair, you never know when they might come in handy.

 

[leftyandsparky]

I have a question..... after the extract is made and is mixed with nic,
Will it darken up if I let it Age?

 

[Str8vision]

.....Could just get the filters wet with alcohol prior to using them for extract filtration thus decreasing the loss of extract?

Wetting the filter with ethanol before use certainly wouldn't hurt anything, sounds like a good way to reduce filter loss.

I’ve taught my husband a lot about pantyhose. He keeps a cut up pair in his tackle box, for bait and such. Also, if your camping you can use them to make coffee by making a little coffee bag. Kinda like a tea bag. There’s a lot of uses for them and a lot of people keep some in bug/out bags since they take up no space.
Also there is a big request for them, from members serving over seas. They used them to cover their gun barrels and other uses.
So when you see stocking and such buy a pair, you never know when they might come in handy.

As long as you don't mistake the pair used for holding stink bait on treble hooks for the pair used to make NET...

Necessity is the mother of invention. Use for pantyhose #101: In tropical/swamp environments soldiers learned to wear pantyhose under their uniform, leeches don't like pantyhose.

I have a question..... after the extract is made and is mixed with nic,
Will it darken up if I let it Age?

In general, yes. How much depends on the tobacco used to make the NET, some tend to darken more than others. The age of the NET also makes a difference, a two year old NET will be darker than a freshly mixed one. My Louisiana Red never changed very much. After 18 months it seemed to be a shade or two darker and perhaps lost a bit of its clarity.

 

[brewbear]

I have another question for you folks.
Once the extraction is complete, you allow the alcohol to evaporate, using a fan to have a more effective reduction. My question is: if you do this reduction, don't you also lose the aromatics/fragrances from the pipe tobacco?

 

[happy valley]

My question is: if you do this reduction, don't you also lose the aromatics/fragrances from the pipe tobacco?

In my experience, no, in fact the more the extract is expeditiously reduced the more robust it becomes.

 

[brewbear]

In my experience, no, in fact the more the extract is expeditiously reduced the more robust it becomes.

In that case, wouldn't a simple distillation be the most expeditious way to reduce the extract?
You could even recuperate the ethanol and reuse it for another extraction!

 

[Str8vision]

....wouldn't a simple distillation be the most expeditious way to reduce the extract?....

For those who don't have easy/inexpensive access to high purity ethanol distillation might be something to consider since the distillate would be re-usable ethanol. Excessive heat can harm the delicate flavor molecules in the extract so less heat is better. Vacuum distillation requires a much lower processing temperature which makes it better suited for the task of reducing a tobacco extract. Distillation has also been discussed as a method for concentrating ethanol. Try searching the term "distillation" within this thread and sub-forum.

 

[Str8vision]

In my experience, no, in fact the more the extract is expeditiously reduced the more robust it becomes.

 

[leftyandsparky]

Thank you!