How do I get the Kief out of my jar?

We recently covered some of the ways to put your kief collection to good use, and we thought it would be a good time to talk about the other ways you can collect it.If you want to collect kief without the use of solvents, you can shake it off, freeze it, or force it through a screen.Collection methods combine to capture as many trichomes as possible.Start collecting that precious kief by taking a look below.

The most popular method of collecting kief is to use a four-piece grinder.A two- or three-piece grinder has a chamber in the bottom of the screen to catch the kief that falls off of your buds when shredded.

Budtenders and head shop workers will usually give a good tip on which grinder to use.

The coin trick is used to get better efficiency out of their kief catchers.If you put a coin in the middle chamber, you can push the flowers through the screen to the collection chamber below.It is important to wash the coin well before putting it in with your flower to avoid contaminants and ridge-less coins tend to work best.

Small pollen boxes can be time consuming for getting large yields, but are easy and tidy for small personal batches.Put some buds in the shake.You don't have to worry about a wind blowing your work to the wind if you use a pollen box.You will want to scale up for larger yields.

You can collect a decent amount of kief with the help of silk screens.To get a silk screen, you need to go to your local art store and buy a few band t-shirts.A basin or clean surface is set to catch the kief underneath, and then ground or shredded cannabis plant material is run over the screen to separate it.

Medium-sized batches of plant matter are ideal for this method.Silk screens can tear easily from stems.Picking out jagged pieces is best done slowly.It can be hard to find metal screens in this size.

A drum with a silk screen is the oldest kief method.The screen is stretched over the whole drum basin and then covered with a selection of bud or trimmings.The plant material is locked in between the tarp and the silk screen when a tarp is secured over the top.The kief falls through the silk screen after being beaten with sticks.One could easily make a traditional kief drum at home with the right silk.The setup is easy to scale in size and ideal for larger amounts of plant matter.

A little science is introduced for the ultimate kief collection method.The reason for this is that it won't be dissolved in water, and the colder the trichomes, the more brittle they become.This means that any method of freezing won't make the kief harder to collect.Dry ice alone, or even your freezer, can be used to cool the buds to a point where you can shake the kief off in a jar or container.The coin and grinder trick will improve yields if you freeze prior to it.

One needs to be able to collect the kief back out after submerging the plant in an ice bath to get the most out of it.To make bubble hash, producers use a dry ice bath and a sieve sleeve that is five times faster.The bud is forced against the screen by the ice bath after the plant matter is put in the middle of the bag.Underneath the screen, the kief is collected.

The freezing method with a screen and collector attached to it is ideal for collecting some of the highest quality kief, as the process can be repeated with fine and coarse bags to get only the head.It works well for large batches, and it is possible to get quality hash out of things like trim and clippings.

In order to maximize yield, ask your budtender to help select well-sugared strains.Wearing gloves or using an object to manipulate the plant matter will make the kief clump up.Happy kief collecting!

Do you know how to collect kief?We'd love to hear about your favorite methods in the comments.