Live Rosin: Why Fresh Frozen Makes Sense for Most Businesses

About 10 years ago, if you were to tell a medium to large scale cannabis grower to freeze their harvest - you’d be laughed off of the property. Today, an increasing number of growers and processing facilities are adopting total use of fresh frozen for their processing; both for economic reasons and consumer-focused ones. 

Here’s why using fresh frozen cannabis for your live rosin, ice water hash, and other premium cannabis products will almost certainly make sense for your business.

Macro shot of fresh frozen Dosi-Dough cannabis from @Erik.Nugshots

Live Rosin - No Longer the Best Kept Secret of the Cannabis Industry 

Live rosin is a high-end product produced by using fresh frozen cannabis flower that is washed in ice water hash baths, freeze-dried, and then pressed. Connoisseurs understand how SKUs made with live rosin preserve terpene profiles while offering a pure solvent-free extract. Everyday consumers are also catching on, as live rosin products become one of the most popular and best-selling items at dispensaries. With live rosin, facilities can process the end product into edibles, vape cartridges, and many other top-selling products that consumers love. Not only is live rosin versatile, but making it is cost-effective for several different reasons.

Demand for Hash Rosin is Higher than Ever

Along with cannabis legalization in states like Colorado, we’ve seen numerous innovations and changes to the industry as a whole. Much of those changes have been consumer-driven, as the market for high-end concentrate products like vaporizer cartridges and edibles are quickly surpassing the popularity of traditional dried and cured flower. Consumers demand premium solventless-based extract products like hash rosin and bubble hash because they are pure and potent. Solventless products like hash rosin using fresh frozen cannabis will give a better representation of terpene profiles as well as cannabinoids than other extracts like solvent-based products. Studies have shown that freezing freshly harvested “live” cannabis preserves these precious terpenes and THC much better than drying and curing harvested flower.  

Business owners seek rosin presses for their facilities because they are inexpensive compared to most solvent extractor machines, require less space, and call for fewer resources to operate. For a much smaller initial investment, cannabis businesses that use chemical-free rosin presses can set themselves apart from extraction facilities that use solvents like butane, ethanol, hydrocarbon, or CO2. To produce the best solventless products, the best way to start is to use fresh frozen cannabis. 

What Makes Fresh Frozen Cannabis So Cost-Effective?   

From a cannabis business owner’s perspective, using fresh frozen cannabis is cost-effective in many ways:

• First, there is no drying or curing time needed. The drying and curing process of the cannabis flower takes time, space, energy, and staff resources that aren’t necessary with products utilizing fresh frozen material.
• Extensive trimming is also not required with fresh frozen cannabis material, saving businesses time and money.
• When you use a rosin press and ice water hash washing vessel from PurePressure - along with the right planning, execution, and strain selection, you will achieve predictable, high-volume outputs and consistency that you can replicate again and again.
• Perhaps most importantly, your product is freshly preserved at the highest quality standard of potency and flavor, creating a huge selling point. Doing so allows your product a higher chance of desirability if you use fresh frozen cannabis.

Due to factors like water weight, you are getting much more bang for your buck with fresh frozen cannabis material than dried. A pound of fresh frozen cannabis tends to be equal to about only a quarter pound of dried cannabis. In other words, for every pound of fresh frozen cannabis, you only get the equivalent of a quarter of that when you take the time to dry and cure. 

While the majority of rosin pressing is done to extract THC, CBD-specific cultivars are now being bred for solventless extraction and rosin pressing purposes that could soon sway the market. We will likely see solventless-based CBD products being sold in 2021. If THC serves as any proof, the CBD market could be incredible for producers. 

How Does the Live Rosin Process Work? 

With fresh frozen cannabis, or “live” plant material, the plants are harvested, the leaves and stems are removed, and then vacuumed sealed in plastic containers. The plastic containers are then placed in industrial freezers, which preserves cannabinoids and terpenes. The fresh frozen cannabis is then put in an ice water hash bath at least once, then freeze dried, and finally pressed using a rosin press. In addition to all of the benefits of fresh frozen cannabis mentioned above, trichomes of fresh frozen cannabis break off more easily and gently than if it were dried and cured.

Ice Water Hash Washing

After fresh freezing cannabis, the next step in the process is the ice water wash. When shopping for an ice water hash washing vessel, be sure to look for one that is food-grade, uses minimal ice consumption, and offers customizable ports that route drain water.

• The first step in ice water hash making is to soak it in the ice bath for 20-30 minutes to further breakdown trichomes so they are brittle enough to separate. Not all ice water hash washing machines are created equal. You can help maximize the efficiency and output volume with open hash wash liners.
• After the fresh frozen cannabis soaks in the ice bath, it is then stirred for anywhere from 5-20 minutes, depending on the desired end product.
• Next, foam and debris are removed from the ice water hash washing vessel’s skim port to rid the end product of contaminants. 
• The ice water hash washing process is repeated at least twice but sometimes up to four times or more times, depending on the facility and end product. 
• The trichome-rich liquid is then poured into mesh bags that filter out trichome heads from the hash-washing liquid. 

Fresh frozen cannabis being washed with ice and water to mechanically separate the trichomes from the plant material. 

Freeze Drying

After the ice water hash washing process is complete, the next step is freeze drying. To get there, the wet hash is gently taken out of the mesh bags and placed on freeze dryer trays that are lined with parchment paper. Freeze dryers will remove the moisture that is absorbed during the ice water hash-washing process. When the freeze dried product is ready, it can be sold just like that. However, hash rosin products are more popular and command higher price tags. Next in the live rosin process comes the use of a rosin press.

Rosin Pressing 

While full spectrum and full melt bubble hash are frequently sold as-is, most ice water hash gets pressed on a rosin press. This is the last step in the rosin making process. Contrary to popular belief, the best rosin presses don’t just use brute force. Conversely, precision, evenly distributed heat, and customizable controls are just as important, if not more so. 

There are rosin presses that are available for just about any budget. Whether you are looking for an automated commercial rosin press capable of high volumes of 230 grams or more, or a smaller rosin press that is transported and hand-operated, there has never been a better time to shop rosin presses. Check out the full line of some of the best rosin presses on the market today.

PurePressure Pikes Peak Rosin Press

Why PurePressure?

By now, it should be clear that the solventless extraction market is booming, and it will only continue to expand as more states legalize and the layers of prohibition continue to come to an end. You will want to get in on this rapidly growing industry trend as soon as possible to differentiate yourself from the competition.

The best way to do this is to purchase ice water hash making products and rosin presses from PurePressure. Our rosin presses feature customizable Pressware technology, which is user-friendly and easy to operate. Each of these devices is made by hand in our Denver facility and comes with a 2-year warranty.

Our rosin presses and ice water washing vessels are the best in the businesses. At PurePressure, we oversee every rosin press and Bruteless hash washing system manufactured right here in Denver - offering quality that few can claim. Since day one, our top priority has been to make the last rosin press you will ever have to purchase. Each of our top-of-the-line rosin presses comes with a customer satisfaction guarantee for as long as you own the device. With each of our products, you will get free shipping and free returns on all non-equipment items so you can feel confident and worry-free with your rosin pressing operation.  

Your venture is unlikely to find better value anywhere around. With PurePressure rosin presses and bubble hash making vessels, you will achieve the superior ROI that is unmatched. When used correctly, your rosin press can quickly pay for itself in under a year - sometimes less than that, with the right planning and usage. 

Because solventless extraction and live rosin making are still relatively new, we understand that you likely have some questions. Check out some more of our valuable rosin education content. Don’t hesitate to reach out and contact us - either by phone or by filling out the handy form on our website. Each of your questions will get answered promptly and thoroughly - for the duration of your ownership of any PurePressure products.