Written by Chewberto420
Winterization Is the process of removing all residual, solvents, waxes and fats from the final product using ethanol to make an “Absolute” product.
We do this to create a pure product that is easy on your lungs and safer for consumption.
If done properly you can create some tasty and super stable products.
1. Provide Quality single solvent Butane Hash Oil of any consistency.
We have a small batch of 6.0 Grams of crystalline BHO flake to winterize.
2. Use ethanol that IS NOT Denatured, I am using Everclear for this process.
3. Get your product ready!
4. Grab a Clean Mason Jar with Lid and your Temp Gun…
5. Pour the Everclear into the Mason Jar, you want to use around 1-2 oz of ethanol per gram of oil product. if you’d like to expedite the emulsifying process, you can heat up the ethonal to about 85-90 degrees Fahrenheit (No Open Flames), use your Infrared Temp gun and check your temps, make sure to stay around 85 degrees to preserve terpenes.
6. After your ethanol has reached a nice temp of 85 degrees,
Get Your BHO product ( Firestomper OG from Firehouse Genetics Colorado)
and pour it into the ethanol mix.
7. Put the lid on the Mason jar, and swirl the ethanol hash blend around to begin breaking down the mix until it is emulsified, and is one solution.
Nice and Clear…
8. After you’ve mixed up your Ethanol and hash into a single clear solution, you are going to put this jar in the freezer for 24-48 hours. The freezing process will occur more rapidly under lower temps.
At this time, throw another clean Mason Jar into the freezer to prepare for the liquid transfer..
After 24-48 hours, you will notice Plant waxes and fats (lipids) coagulating within the liquid mix.
It is now time to filter..
9. Grab your Unbleached Coffee filters and a funnel.
Now Pour the Frozen Ethanol hash and lipid mix, into the other frozen mason jar, do this with a funnel and unbleached coffee filter. Make sure you do the filtering process inside the freezer the entire time, until it has finished.
You can also secure the Coffee filter to the jar, by attaching just the ring for the lid to the jar.
10. After the product has filtered down into the new Frozen Mason jar, you will be left with a pristine golden liquid product void of plant waxes and fats…
What you see here, are all the residual Lipids that were removed from our initial product that have no medicinal value . These lipids make for a harsher dab/smoke, and are a serious burden to your respiratory system…
Now, Time to pour and Evaporate.
11. Grab a Pyrex dish of your choice, and pour your new filtered liquid onto the dish.
12. After you’ve poured the solution onto the Pyrex, Be sure to cover the dish with something breathable to deter airborne particles from contaminating the liquid while it is evaporating.
I put My dish into an empty cupboard.
Set the dish in any Room Temp area, and wait till it starts to evaporate and reduce down to oil.
13. When your product looks something like this, and is no longer a liquid state, but a goo state, you are now ready to scrape up and Vac-purge.
If you don’t have a Vacuum Oven/Chamber, you can allow it to reduce on a warm water bath, trying not to allow the oil to exceed 90 degrees.
Now, Scrape up your oil onto an Oil Slick pad, or unbleached parchment paper for the final step.
14. After you’ve scraped up the oil onto a non stick surface, put it into a vacuum oven/heated chamber to begin warming the oil mass until it has reached 85-90 degrees. Don’t vacuum until it has reached temp. After it has reached desired temps, you can begin vacuum purging the remaining ethanol from the oil.
15. After the product has purged, you are all finished.
The amount of time to engage in the purging process is relative to the amount of oil that you are winterizing. This could take anywhere from 12-48 hours to purge.
You now have a beautiful “absolute” dewaxed BHO product, residual free from lipids and butane.
Pictures of finished product.
Firestomper OG winterized/dewaxed Shatter
Any Questions?
Stay High…
Colorado Bud Blog 
Oh man, thanks a lot! I’ve been looking for an easy step-by-step dewaxing process for some time. The pics and simple steps are very much appreciated ✌️
You’re very welcome! Glad we could help, that’s what we’re here for 🙂
-brokenlungz
would this process work the same with denatured ethanol? I can’t get Everclear where i live (canada)
Sorry for the delay. I wouldn’t recommend Denatured Alcohol because it usually has a smell added to it. Can you find organic grape alcohol?
What’s the loss in yield from before/after winterizing? Thanks!
-Matt
hard to say.. It is relative to the strain and how aggressive you were when breaking down the material.
What vac pressure do you use? The standard 29.5-29.9 inHg?
Yes, you want to have a full-vacuum. If you live above sea-level, the “rule of thumb” is you subtract .5 hG for every 500 feet you are above sea-level.
When you place the dish in the cupboard approximately how long does it take to eavaparate into a goo
I think i didn’t put enough ever clear because when I let it sit for 2 days it separated but all the wax at the bottom wouldn’t come out the jar
How much do you put in of the everclear I heard it was 10 ounces per g of material but that didn’t work I think it’s to little. But when I tried 10 ml per g of material it worked but it took me like 3 days to evaporate all the everclear
The everclear is where you went wrong. I had the same problem. The wax just clumped at the bottom and didn’t mix with the everclear. I strained it out and used 91% iso alcohol and it worked perfect.
Do not ever use iso for extraction purposes. It is poisonous. You only need 1-2 oz of ever clear per suspected gram. Do the math and consider a return of no more than 18% (you can get more) and you will be happy with the amount you used. I run close to 3 oz at a time and I put in 1 pt of everclear every time. You will see a wax floating around even after you initially pour in the everclear and shake. This is the waxes. Put in freezer for 2 days and then strain it. After 20 minutes of straining in the freezer just throw that remaining white splooge out. I then let it sit in front of a fan for a day to 2 days (in a room that does not get used often for dust purposes) to let the alcohol evaporate. It really is mainly gone over night but there’s a bit of additional alcohol left.
Can you blast directly into a mason jar and start the dewaxing process immediately or does one need to scrape up and go through the standard vac oven process first?
Unfortunately we Cant advise on BHO anymore since it is a felony here, and we dont want to be held responsible for any accidents. That being said, never bring a pool of butane into your home or into the freezer, it is very dangerous. Check out Rosin tech, or my Tutorial on Bubble Hash to avoid any accidents or felonies. Thanks
Great info man!
Can i use 99.9% isoproply alcohol?
Thanks
Great info dude..thanks. Can i use 99.9% isopropyl alcohol ?
Is this the same process a person would use with CO2 oils?
Is your finally product hard like glass? Ever time?
Yes It should be.
Depends on the strain. I’ve gotten really great crumble this way.
How much did you end up with?
I’ve only seen a 3-5% loss in weight (I did the testing). Honestly, I can’t see myself ever going back to not doing this step. The flavor difference is really worth it!!
A 10% loss is common
As a professional chemist, I have 2 requests: 1) In your extraction process would you mind reminding our friends that when heating the ethanol that an open flame is never to be used. Everclear is a mixture of water and ethanol. When it is heated pure ethanol vapor will come off of it and it is explosive. An open flame for any extraction is bad news. 2) You told our friends here to use any ethanol. I STRONGLY discourage that. Lots of ethanol sold has poisonous METHANOL in it as a means to “denature” it (denaturing is the act of adding poison to prevent people from drinking it). Only two kinds of ethanol are acceptable (non-poisonous) – a) Everclear b) Absolute Ethanol (100%, which requires a special permit so it’s likely you can’t it unless you own a business). Safe extracting folks!!
Thank you for the Concern and friendly bits of clarification. You’re correct, and I should be more specific. I did note that denatured is not recommended in the comments, but I will go ahead and clarify in the main article for virgin readers. Many thanks to you, Take care 🙂
Thank u so much i to was looking for the step by step of winterizing and so far it’s been just the way u show and I want but one thing do u flip as u would if u were not winterizing and if so how many hours apart thank u for what u do
Sure, it would expedite the process of more surface area is exposed to air.
Great read thanks ,have you got a tutorial or process to liquefy the wax into a liquid for oral intake for under the tough ,i have a mate that sick and prefers ingesting rather then smoking .
After the final process is done can you use parchment paper and a heat gun to get one solid piece? (Roll it out with a rolling pin while heating with a hair dryer or heat gun?)
If it’s still soft, sticky after evaporation,
Does that indicate ethanol is still present? Would that be harmful to smoke?
Typically yes, unless it’s some super Terpy And Oily Stuff..
Does this process make the wax usable for edible purposes
It would have to be decarboxylated first, but yes you could absolutely use it in edibles.
Ya know what this was? A waste of wax. That’s what it was.
tell us a bit more. why was it a waste?