Making Hash From Weed Stems

We all have our favorite style of cannabis to consume; raw flowers, concentrates, edibles. Something that probably doesn't make most people's list, however, is weed stems.

Today, though, we’re going to explain how to turn your weed waste into a useful by-product. That’s right – we’re showing you how to make hash from stems.

How Potent Are Weed Stems?

Stems contain very few cannabinoids compared to the flower or leaf of the plant, which is why instead of smoking them, we make stem hash from them! Although you need a fair amount of material, you’ll at least get a little return from something you would have otherwise thrown away.

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Making Stem Hash

The stem is also much denser than flower or leaf and thus burns at a higher temperature, creating a very harsh smoke. For these reasons, it’s much better to learn how to make hash from the stems. When you make hash from stems, there are at least four different methods to choose from, each requiring a few tools and techniques. Let’s explore each of them.

Method 1: Making Hash Oil

The first method, making hash oil from stems, yields the purest product.

All you need to do is grind your stem into a powder, either with an electric herb grinder or scissors, before soaking it in 99% isopropyl alcohol for 2 minutes. After that, simply strain out the alcohol into a shallow glass dish and leave it to evaporate at room temperature in a well-ventilated space. When the alcohol has evaporated, you’ll have a concentration of all the cannabinoids that were stripped from the stem, which is your hash oil.

Method 2: Making Bubble Hash

The next method of making hash with stems is the bubble hash technique, which is created using an ice water bath to freeze the trichomes and make them fall from the stems.

First, you’ll need some bubble bags, which are bags made of fine mesh screens. Place these in a bucket and fill it with ice, cold water and your stem material (that has been roughly chopped). Let it sit for around 10 minutes to freeze the trichomes, then stir or agitate the water for 5 minutes, before removing the first bag layer along with the ice and stem.

In the next layer, you’ll have a fine catching of trichomes. Each layer of bag will give you a finer product – it’s your choice whether you want to combine them all or keep the cream of the crop for those special occasions.

Method 3: Making Charas

Proper Himilayan charas is something completely out of this world. Making stem charas is... different. Same, but different.

Whereas traditional charas is harvested from live plants, stem charas is, of course, harvested from the leftover stem. Other than that, however, the technique of simply hand-rubbing the plant and then scraping your palms of any tar-like resin collected is the same. And you'll get the same black gold that is created in the foothills of the Himalayas – albeit a lot less of it.

Method 4: Making Kief

While stem kief is not hash, strictly speaking, it still easily beats consuming raw stems. Keif is the collection of loose trichomes before they’re pressed into hash, and so have very similar effects.

To make stem kief, all you need to do is rub your collection of stems together over a clean plate, collecting what falls off. Once finished, use a card to scrape together all the dust that has settled on the plate; that’s your precious kief.

Your Source Of High Until Better Times

In a perfect world, we’d all have a bottomless jar of our favorite flower to last a lifetime. There are lots of times, though, where that simply isn’t the case. And when that happens, there’s nothing better than knowing how to tide yourself over by making hashish from stems!