Panelists:
Hunter Greene, Lab Director, W Vapes
Justin Pullman, President, PMP Labs
Frenchy Cannoli, Hashishin, Aficionado
Jason Beck, Founder & Executive Director, Alternative Herbal Health Services
Mara Gordon, Founder, Aunt Zelda’s
Moderator:
Aaron Justis, Founder, Buds & Roses
Get a bunch of concentrate makers on a panel and watch the gloves come off. Topics covered include what solvent (CO2, Ethanol, Butane, Water) is preferred, whether extracting from indoor, outdoor or greenhouse plants makes a superior concentrate, what the market is demanding, and whether it is OK to introduce terpenes from other plants into a concentrate. Panelists also talked about emerging trade groups to support concentrate makers.
I followed up with Hunter Greene after the panel:
Peter: What’s your choice of solvent?
Hunter: I come from the world of hydro carbon solvents but i am now lucky enough to be in the premium co2 world. Butane, propane, hexane, ethanol and co2 are all great solvents. It’s my personal belief that it doesn’t matter what the solvent is as long as it’s not in the final product and is used in the safest most controlled way possible. Refining is an “art’ within the whole process and is extracting.
Peter: Some on the panel think it is sacrilegious to introduce terpenes from other plants rather than reintroducing the flowers naturally occurring terpenes. Are you ok with introducing terpenes from other plants (lavendar, rosemary, lemon, etc)?
Hunter: The guy that was claiming the things about terps contradicted himself by saying they put fruit peels etc into their extractors to add flavor. I use the natural cannabis terpenes but if I had a batch (which I haven’t yet) that didn’t meet my par for flavor I don’t see anything wrong with adding food grade organic terpenes. If you use chromatography to see your terpene profiles it’s not hard to mimic the cannabis flavor. Myrcene in hops is the same myrcene in mangos and in cannabis as limonene, linalool etc. I think what the guy meant was people adding in artificial flavors to make their oil taste like fruity pebbles and jolly ranchers.
Peter: Indoor vs. outdoor grow? Or middle ground with a greenhouse??
Hunter: I think cannabis is a lot like music. There is good in every genre/style and a lot of bad. Good cannabis is good cannabis and it doesn’t matter to me how they got to that point as long as it’s clean and organic. I like greenhouse mostly just because the sun is a free source of energy and it saves you from the power bills you from indoor. I’ve had amazing cannabis grown every way possible.