Marijuana Blog
Bubble Hash: What It Is and How It Is Made
Sep
Bubble hash is cannabis concentrate made with nothing but ice, water and agitation. No solvents, no heat, no pressure. You freeze the trichome heads until they turn brittle, knock them off the plant in ice water, and catch them in a stack of mesh bags graded by micron. What comes out is a sandy, resin-heavy concentrate that can run two to three times the strength of the flower it came from.
Key Takeaways
- Bubble hash is solventless. The only inputs are ice, water, agitation and mesh.
- The micron rating of each bag decides what it catches. The 73 to 120 micron range is where the best material usually lands.
- Full melt is the top grade, meaning it melts completely and leaves almost no residue. Lower grades are for pressing or cooking, not dabbing.
- Expect roughly 30% to 60% THC depending on grade and starting material, against 15% to 25% for flower.
- Keep it cold, dark and airtight. Heat and light degrade it faster than almost any other concentrate format.
What Is Bubble Hash?
Bubble hash is a concentrate made by separating trichomes from cannabis plant material using ice water. Trichomes are the resin glands on the surface of the flower, and they hold nearly all of the cannabinoids and terpenes. Everything else in the plant is fibre, chlorophyll and water weight.
The method works because of a physical property rather than a chemical one. Trichome heads become brittle when they are very cold, so gentle agitation in ice water snaps them off at the stalk. They are also denser than water, so they sink while the plant matter floats. Filter what sinks through progressively finer mesh and you have sorted your resin by particle size.
It is called bubble hash because the best grades bubble and melt when heat is applied, rather than charring the way lower grade hash does. That behaviour is the traditional quality test and it is where the name comes from.
How Is Bubble Hash Made?
The process is simple to describe and fiddly to do well.
- Freeze the material. Fresh frozen flower or trim gives the best results. Dried material works and is more forgiving.
- Layer the bags. Line a bucket with the mesh bags, finest at the bottom, coarsest at the top. The coarse bag at the top is the work bag and it holds the plant material.
- Add ice and water. Ice first, then cannabis, then more ice, then cold water. The mix needs to stay close to freezing throughout.
- Agitate gently. Stir for 10 to 20 minutes by hand or with a paddle. Aggressive stirring shreds plant material into the resin and drags the grade down.
- Pull the bags in order. Lift the work bag out, then each bag in turn from coarse to fine, rinsing the collected resin to one side of each screen.
- Dry it thoroughly. This is where most home batches are lost. Press the water out gently, break the patty into small pieces, and dry in a cold dry place for several days. Moisture left in hash is what makes it mould.
Repeat washes of the same material are normal. The first wash gives the highest grade and later washes give progressively more plant contamination.
What Do the Micron Numbers Mean?
A micron is a thousandth of a millimetre, and the number on each bag is the size of its mesh openings. Trichome heads are not all the same size, so the bag stack sorts them.
| Bag | What it catches | Typical grade |
|---|---|---|
| 220 micron | Plant material. This is the work bag, not a yield bag | Discard |
| 160 micron | Large heads plus contamination | Low |
| 120 micron | Large mature heads, some plant matter | Good |
| 90 micron | Prime mature heads | Often full melt |
| 73 micron | Prime mature heads | Often full melt |
| 45 micron | Smaller heads, very clean | Good to full melt |
| 25 micron | Immature heads and fine debris | Low, usually pressed |
The useful shorthand: 73 to 120 micron is where the quality sits. Anything coarser is carrying plant matter and anything much finer is collecting immature heads and dust. When a commercial product states its micron range on the label, that range tells you what you are buying before you open it.
What Is Full Melt Hash?
Full melt is the top of the quality scale. It means the hash melts completely and cleanly when heated, bubbling into a clear oil and leaving little or no black residue behind.
The trade grades hash on a six-star scale. One to three star still contains noticeable plant material and is destined for pressing into rosin or for cooking. Four star is close. Five and six star are full melt and are the only grades worth dabbing, because anything lower leaves a carbon mess on the banger and tastes like it.
What decides the grade is contamination, not potency. A five star wash and a two star wash from the same plant can test similarly for THC. The difference is how much leaf, wax and immature material came along with the resin, and that is set by the starting material, the water temperature and how gently it was agitated.
Bubble Hash vs Dry Sift vs Traditional Hash
| Bubble hash | Dry sift | Hand rubbed | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Method | Ice water and mesh | Dry screens and tumbling | Rubbed from live plants by hand |
| Solvent | None, water only | None | None |
| Typical purity | High, gradeable by micron | High, harder to grade | Lower, more plant matter |
| Texture | Sandy, or pressed into slabs | Fine powder, kief-like | Soft, dark, pliable |
| Best for | Dabbing at full melt, pressing, cooking | Bowl topping, pressing | Smoking and traditional use |
All three are solventless, which is the family they belong to. What separates them is the separation method. Bubble hash is the most controllable of the three, which is why it is the one that gets graded by micron and sold by grade. If you want the version of this that has been pressed further, live hash rosin is bubble hash put under heat and pressure until the resin flows.
How Strong Is Bubble Hash?
Most bubble hash falls between 30% and 60% THC. Flower typically runs 15% to 25%, so a rough rule is two to three times the strength by weight.
Grade and starting material move that figure more than anything else. A six star wash from resinous fresh frozen flower sits at the top of the range. A low star wash from dry trim sits at the bottom. Because it is a cannabis extract rather than dried flower, the regulated limit is different too: Health Canada caps extracts at 1,000 mg of THC per immediate container, and that calculation explicitly accounts for THCA converting into THC.
The same rules restrict what may be in an extract at all. Carrier substances, flavouring agents and ingredients needed for stability are permitted, while nicotine, added sweeteners, colouring agents and vitamins are not. Solventless hash tends to be the simplest product in the category, because there is nothing in it but resin. It is worth knowing that extracts and edible cannabis sit in different regulatory classes, with edibles capped far lower at 10 mg of THC per container.
How Do You Smoke Bubble Hash?
Four normal routes, and the grade decides which are open to you.
- On top of a bowl. Works at any grade. A small piece on packed flower, lit gently at the edge.
- In a joint. Crumble it through the grind or roll it into a thin snake along the length. Lower grades suit this well.
- Dabbed. Full melt only. Lower temperatures than you would use for shatter, because you are chasing terpenes and there is no solvent to burn off.
- Pressed into rosin. Heat and pressure turn good hash into hash rosin, which is a different product and arguably the best one solventless extraction produces. If you want the solvent-based side of the shelf for comparison, crumble sits at the other end of the category.
It also works in the kitchen. Hash needs decarbing first like any other raw cannabis material, at a shorter time than flower because it is concentrated and scorches easily. From there it goes into cannabutter and behaves like a much stronger version of the same recipe.
How Should You Store Bubble Hash?
Cold, dark and airtight. Heat is the enemy, and it is a bigger problem for hash than for flower because the resin softens, sticks and oxidises.
A small airtight glass or silicone container in the fridge is right for anything you will use within a few months. The freezer is right for longer, provided the container is properly sealed so condensation cannot get in. Full melt is the most delicate grade, because the qualities that make it full melt are exactly the ones that degrade first.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is bubble hash?
Bubble hash is a solventless cannabis concentrate made by agitating frozen cannabis in ice water and filtering the resin through mesh bags of different micron ratings. The trichome heads snap off when cold and sink, which separates them from the plant material.
Why is it called bubble hash?
Because the highest grades bubble and melt when heat is applied instead of charring. That behaviour is the traditional test for quality, and it is where both the name and the phrase “full melt” come from.
How strong is bubble hash?
Typically 30% to 60% THC, against 15% to 25% for flower, so roughly two to three times the strength by weight. Grade and starting material decide where in that range a given batch lands.
What does full melt mean?
Full melt is five to six star hash on the six-star grading scale. It melts completely when heated and leaves almost no residue. It is the only grade worth dabbing, since lower grades leave carbon behind and taste burnt.
What is the best micron for bubble hash?
The 73 to 120 micron range holds the best material in most washes, with 73 and 90 micron usually the prime bags. Coarser bags collect plant matter and much finer bags collect immature heads and debris.
Is bubble hash the same as dry sift?
No. Both are solventless and both separate trichomes from plant material, but dry sift uses dry screens and tumbling while bubble hash uses ice water. Bubble hash is easier to grade precisely, which is why it is sold by micron and by star rating.
Can you make edibles with bubble hash?
Yes, and it is an efficient way to do it because there is very little plant material to strain out. Decarb it first at a shorter time than you would use for flower, then infuse it into butter or oil as normal. If you would rather not cook at all, the edibles range is already made up.
How long does bubble hash last?
Months in the fridge and considerably longer in the freezer, provided it is fully dry and stored airtight. Hash that was not dried properly will mould rather than age, which is the most common way a good wash is lost.
Where to Start
If you want to try it rather than make it, the hash category carries graded product with the micron range stated, and the wider concentrates range covers rosin, shatter and the rest. For material to wash yourself, shake is the sensible starting point, since appearance does not matter once it is in the bucket.