Black & Mild flavor extraction process - Please critique

[twolostminds]

Tonight I will be starting my first NET flavor extraction and would like you all to critique my plans and make any suggestions you see fit.

2 Jars and a couple ounces of shredded Black & Mild birch tipped cigars

Jar 1:
100 ml 50/50 PG/VG
1.25 oz Shredded Black & Mild cigar

Mix tobacco and PG/VG solution. Place jar in 150 deg oven for 3 hours. (My oven can be set from 120 - 600 deg and has a convection setting) Cool, cover and let sit 5 - 7 days in utility room.

Jar 2:
100 ml PG
1.25 oz Shredded Black & Mild cigar

Mix tobacco and PG. Cover and let sit for 2 - 3 weeks in utility room.


Filtration:
Step 1: Aeropress (using metal and paper filter) The paper filter filters at 20 - 25 microns (thats what Aeropress claims) and the metal filter will be for good measure.
Step 2: Either filter via the cotton ball syringe method or purchase some mesh syringe filters from Amazon. Would this be overkill? If not, what micron filtration level should I shoot for?

A few questions...
1. Should I raise the temp in the oven? Would 175 or 200 be too high?
2. Should I filter Jar 1 immediately after it cools or let it steep for the week?
3. Should the jars be covered with airtight lids or should a cover them with cheesecloth to allow for oxidation?
4. I am assuming the extracts will have a 1 - 3 mg/ml nicotine level.
5. Also assuming when it comes time to use the extracts they will be used at a 5 - 10% level.
6. Am I forgetting anything?

 

[Aheadatime]

3. I always shoot for air tight. In my experiences oxidation does not benefit the flavor of my NETs, although I haven't noticed it decreasing flavor either. There's also the possibility of dust/impurities entering the container if you use a loose lid such as cheesecloth, and I like my NET's to be as pure as possible.

4. I don't bother measuring nicotine content, although I will in the near future. I haven't noticed any increase in throat hit or 'nic buzz', thus I assume the nicotine content is negligible.

5. For the cold steep method, my NETs usually taste good in that range. Try 5% at first, and work your way up.

I didn't answer any questions regarding the heated extract as I've had nothing but bad luck with those. In my experiences, heat drastically increases the amount of 'gunk' (oils, sugars, chlorophyll), which imparts awkward flavors at times and makes filtration a pain.

For your cold steep, I'd recommend waiting 3 weeks. This is the time frame I've settled on. Try gently (and I mean gently) stirring the jar(s) once a day, as the tobacco tends the float atop your PG/VG mixture. Gently stir the jar to the point where the tobacco has reached the bottom of the jar. I generally store my jars in a temperature controlled environment (room temp) away from any light sources (natural and artificial).

Regarding filtration, I filter the material once through a cheesecloth/metal strainer to remove the tobacco itself. I then filter the extract using .5 micron syringe filters. The reason I use such small (and tedious) filters is because in the past, I relied on multiple-layered coffee filters followed by a cotton ball syringe method. The extract still gunked my coils within the first 3mLs of vaping, which made it rather useless to me.

The only recommendation I have would to not use Black n Milds. Since they're so heavily and aggressively mass produced, my assumption is that they're flavored with something, be it a spray or a soak. You want to extract tobacco leaves themselves with nothing added, since the flavors may taste awful after extraction and may gunk coils. I always search for cigars that are whole leaf only, or I buy the untreated tobacco myself for extraction. Best of luck man, let us know how they turn out.

 

[twolostminds]

Thanks for all the great advice. Think I will do just a cold steep when I start over. Learned a valuable lesson when I got back from my trip. Never leave extraction jars near the recycling bins. Our cat sitter tossed them in the recycling and took them out on pickup day. SMH

 

[Aheadatime]

That's a huge bummer. Hopefully you let him/her know that those aren't to be messed with for future reference.

 

[twolostminds]

Yeah Going to make a quick warm extraction today....guess I'm a victim of the instant gratification society. lol

0.5 oz (5 B&M cigars with outer wraps)
100ml 50/50 PG/VG
3 - 4 hours 180 deg convection oven
Filter through Aeropress coffee press

Mix test bottle 10% flavor 80PG/20VG 18mg nic

Will report back.

 

[twolostminds]

Ok...here goes my fast and dirty...
100ml 50/50 PG/VG + 0.5oz Black & Mild cigar tobacco = 63ml filtered through Aeropress coffee press with 2 paper filters and 1 steel filter.

Just whipped up 2 3ml batches for quick steeping...

Batch 1: 10% Black & Mild NET Extract mixed 80/20 18mg nic

Batch 2: 10% Black & Mild NET Extract 80/20 18mg nic
1.5% Bavarian Cream TPA
1% Vanilan TPA
1% EM

Shook the living daylights out of them. Batch 1 tastes like a Marlboro Red with a hint of Black & Mild cigar. Going to wait a little bit for the flavors in batch 2 to meld and try it later tonight.

 

[twolostminds]

Ok...here goes my fast and dirty...
100ml 50/50 PG/VG + 0.5oz Black & Mild cigar tobacco = 63ml filtered through Aeropress coffee press with 2 paper filters and 1 steel filter.

Just whipped up 2 3ml batches for quick steeping...

Batch 1: 10% Black & Mild NET Extract mixed 80/20 18mg nic

Batch 2: 10% Black & Mild NET Extract 80/20 18mg nic
1.5% Bavarian Cream TPA
1% Vanilan TPA
1% EM

Shook the living daylights out of them. Batch 1 tastes like a Marlboro Red with a hint of Black & Mild cigar. Going to wait a little bit for the flavors in batch 2 to meld and try it later tonight.

Batch #2 also tastes like a Marlboro Red with a hint of vanilla but slightly smoother. The vapor even has a hint of smokey smell too it. While vape-able I'm chalking 10% up as a failure. Going to make a batch with 3 or 5% and see how that goes.

 

[cessnapix]

I am doing a one day in the fridge, next day at room temp, back into the fridge, etc. Tested at 1 week in and working great. I think temp change from the fridge to the room temp is helping the pg breath through this whole leaf tobacco(cut up). It did take a lot of pg. My week was a mix of total 60g of sweet air cured virg., 10g flue cured aged Burley, 4g air cured aged dark leaf. with aprox 300ml pg and 30ml of distilled water. At one week it was a bit too strong as far as the tobacco mix. So I did a rough filter and added 24g of new sweet air cured virginia and the filtered mix. I had to add another aprox 100ml pg. and another 10ml of water along with 1ml of EM for flavor enhancement.

Now repeating the process of 24 hours in the fridge and 24 at room temp for another 2-3 weeks. will let you know ho it turns out. This whole leaf tobacco is very dry and needs more pg to extract the flavors but dry usually means more concentrated?