S1 E02 - Cannabis Biomass Selection And Extraction Preparation

Learn the tricks of the trade when it comes to selecting the highest quality biomass and preparing it for extraction. Jason talks to Bri Tolp of Futurola about how their shredders are the best tool for getting to your ideal mill size.EPISODE TRANSCRIPT:Jason Showard - 00:00:10 Hello and welcome to Episode two of The Modern Extractor, a podcast focusing on the processes, equipment, and science found inside a cannabis extraction lab. I'm your host, Jason Showered, and I work professionally in the cannabis extraction field. If you've listened to any of the previous shows, you know that season one is focused on ethanol extraction and post-processing. And each episode focuses on a particular stage in that process following the material through the lab from start to finish. If you haven't listened to any of the previous shows, welcome to the Modern Extractor. Jason Showard - 00:00:40 In today's show, we'll be talking about how to select the right biomass for extraction, as well as how to prepare that biomass for the most efficient extraction possible. We'll have Bri Tolp from Futurola on with us later in the show to talk about how their shredders are the best tool to get you to your ideal mill size. But first, let's talk a bit about how to find good material to extract from. Obviously, the easiest way to do this is to get a sample, send it to a lab, wait for the results, and then purchase material that meets the right cannabinoid concentration specs for whatever you're trying to produce.  Jason Showard - 00:01:12 In a perfect world, there would always be time for this and it's absolutely how it's done for the large-scale industrial operations. It's really important to buy this way if you're a CBD producer buying hemp, so that you can ensure the material is not too high in THC content. Buying hot hemp could actually cost you more in chromatography to remediate the THC from the final product than the CBD will be worth in the end. There isn't always time to wait for lab results in the procurement process.  Jason Showard - 00:01:38 And this is where an experienced eye can make a big difference in your bottom line. If you're at the scale where you're extracting a thousand pounds or more weekly, it's unlikely that all your biomass is coming from the same farm all year round. That means that there's likely to be a broker involved who is collecting from a bunch of different farms to sell to extractors. With that being the case, there are often many different batches of biomass added to one load.  Jason Showard - 00:02:00 Hopefully they're separated, often they aren't. Hopefully the broker will tell you the story behind the load, but well, brokers. And even if you trust your broker, he could have been misled. So a thorough inspection isn't rude. It's just good business. First things first. We're going to look at all the different bags. The actual physical bags that the material's inside of. Not every farm packs their material up the same way. Not every store sells the same bags.  Jason Showard - 00:02:26 Is there any tape on any of the bags? How are they closed or tied? This will be our first clue as to whether or not there are multiple batches in the load. If there does appear to be multiple batches, we're going to want to open and inspect a couple of bags from each. Dig down past the top and into the middle of the bag. Get a good handful, pull it out, palm up, give it a good squeeze in your hand and then let go.  Jason Showard - 00:02:48 Good material will stick together when you let go and keep the...