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4 responses to “Curing in a Thermoelectric Wine Chiller”

1. 

   jmystro

   07/03/2018

   That wine chiller will work great for long term storage. Drying and curing involves two separate processes. You dry the plant matter. Then, you can cure the trichomes. Curing trichomes at low temperatures helps preserve the essential oils and slows the terpene’s interaction with cannabinoids. Temps and humidity should start about 60-70 F (lower the better) with 55-65% humidity. You can not remove all the necessary moisture at 60% humidity. After you chop off a branch, it takes about 3 days to die before it can really start drying. Photosynthesis stops but respiration doesn’t right away. Off gassing off water vapor and CO2 from the plant matter need to be removed and the buds shouldn’t be in a confined area yet. After about 10 or so days at low temps with around 60% humidity the buds should start to feel firm. The bud to stem ratio will affect drying times. Stems may never snap at 60% humidity and it’s advisable to lower the humidity to around 50% to finish the drying process. From day 10 to 14-21 the bud’s should have pulled enough moisture from the stems for them to snap. Buds in a room with too low humidity too soon will get crispy with pliable stems. If your bud is getting crunchy with bendable stems, you’re drying too fast and your humidity is too low. There is no need to jar up and burp wet weed. Bud sitting in 50% humidity will never over-dry. Under 40% and it will turn to dust. I will not jar up anything for at least a month. No need to burp anything. If I want to store bud for months or years it can be done. Now I’ll explain more on trichomes. Trichomes have a soft waxy membrane that protects the oils inside. It’s real soft when the plant is alive. After the plant material is dry that soft protective waxy membrane hardens. This is the curing process and is why dry sift doesn’t smear while live resin like scissor scrapings will. Terpenes can act as solvents and break down cannabinoids over time. Heat speeds up this process. Milky trichomes turning amber is this process among others. To get a clear extract, you need to separate those waxy membranes from the oils in a process called winterization. After about a month, finishing up at about 50% humidity for a few days at least. I’d then drop the humidity to 40% while you jar up your buds. Then you can keep the trichomes preserved as long as possible by keeping the temps just above freezing for months-years sealed in the wine chiller with no worry of moisture or condensation.

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2. TwontoToke

   07/03/2018

   5

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3. 

   Quentin Terpenetino

   07/05/2018

   Thank you so much for taking the time to respond Jmystro. I really appreciate it greatly. So for you even after the moisture has off gassed enough that the stems snap you still keep them hanging for 2 weeks or so more before you jar them up to finish curing? I guess I need to kick my plans into high gear as far as finding a space I can cool as much as possible for the initial drying period.

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4. 

   jmystro

   07/05/2018

   First two weeks while they hang dry I’ll keep the room around 60ish F with 60% humidity. The next two weeks I’ll keep the room 60ish F with 50% humidity. After the first 14 days you can remove the buds from the large stems. Most will jar their buds up at this point and have to burp the jars. There is no reason to do this. A real easy way to ruin bud is to jar it with wet stems. The bud I smoke never get’s sealed in anything. I keep it in a cool, dark, wooden cabinet with 50% humidity until it get’s smoked. You should have no issues jarring up bud after a month though. I would only put bud in a jar for long term storage. 6+ months is what I’d use the wine chiller for in my situation. Being able to control the environment for drying and curing is crucial and can cost a bit of money depending on where you live. Good luck bro.

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