I’m sorry for bringing this topic up again, but I think this topic has not yet been fully explored
A few months ago, I started making my own e-liquids because of economy issues. But some friends started buying from me and it turned out to be a deal. Today, i´m selling the juices in some stores in my city and once again I entered the dilemma of Fast Steeping.
I always steeped my juice with the time in the dark room, but now I’m running some tests with my own e-liquids to analyze if there are changes in flavor, consistency, color and some other factors using fast steeping. One method that I found very interesting was the sous vide, in which we can steep large amounts of e-liquid with full control of temperature and time. Have you already tried a sous vide to mature your e-liquid? What was the result? In the coming days or weeks I will be posting here results obtained and comparisons in the steeping phase
Not so much sous vide, but I have a ultrasonic that heats up between 40-60 degrees celcius. This ultrasonic cleaner can be turned out without the ultrasonic part.
When I started mixing I tried the combined “breathing” while ultrasonic cleaning my glass bottles (they were reused glass bottles from beard vape I belive), and back then had some interesting discoveries with both strawberries and cream, and peaches and cream recipes.
Now in all honesty, I’ve not dabbled with it ever since, cause I have three drawers full of 100ml bottles steeping or readily steeped. But I fondly remember that strawberries and cream recipe (just without remembering exactly what I did diffrent from my actual elr recipe, cause it does not turn out the same, LOL /facepalm)
Not exactly a helpfull reply, but there might be something to it. However, it might as well be a gear issue, cause I’ve since then moved from stock coils onto wires and wicks. And thats the biggest change since then…
I use sous vide for heating the liquid prior to homogenizing. I do everything pretty much closed container so the focus is on blending not airing or off gassing. I am finding every recipe is different in regard to best amount of off gassing and blending. Have not used the sous vide for “steeping” or aging.
As I am selling my e-liquid in some stores in my city, I have already adapted to the maturation time of each e-liquid that I make, so I always have some bottles maturing to not let it end. The research involving sous vide, is more informative of what the maximum potential your e-liquid steeped in sous vide can achieve compared to all the notes and aromas acquired with the traditional steeping. So, as I mentioned in the post, we will explore a little more of sous vide as a method of steeping and compare with other methods.
Using the sous vide to acelerate the homogenizing helps to speed up the process?
I think the use of the sous vide need a combination of isolated sous vide heating for mixing ingredients, some breathing and then a dark room to get the maximum of a steeping
Two components to steeping, blending and off gassing. I heat the liquid to 40C to decrease the latitude of viscosity of the liquid. This helps the homogenizing process to be more efficient. I would imagine the same would hold true with letting the juice sit to continue combining over time. No idea how those time periods would work out.
Have you tried steeping large amounts of premixed concentrates with a small amount of pg and vg (no nic) that way it steeps, the flavors meld, then when it comes time to mix the juice all you have to do is mix vg based nic and vg in and bottle???
I do make one-shots for my favorite blends, i.e. just a combination of flavors in the ratios used in the recipe, and then add vg, pg and nic when I run out and want to vape it.
Unlike what some people told me, I do notice a big difference between this and mixing up everything from scratch.
You don’t need the PG and VG for the flavors to blend together, you already have plenty of that in your actual flavors. When you mix the one shot with your base liquids, you just need a couple days for them to blend well with the VG (much more than the PG), but no more weeks or even months of steeping when it’s already done a lot of that being a one shot.
I haven’t done this with all types of mixes (bakery, creams, fruits, tobacco, etc) but the few that I do all work well. You should give it a try.
Yep. It works really well. I’ve been doing that for my juice company for a long time. just add vg and nic (I thin my vg by heat before mixing) just a quick mix and out it goes
So, you are saying that we can make some one-shots and let it “steep” with the time without the PG and VG and then add the base. But, the time that the one-shot steeps plus the time to steep after mixing all will be the same ou less?
Seems very interesting! I can stock one-shots to let it steep with the time and only add Vg and Pg few days before selling. In my opinion, the one-shot can mix all flavors and put all flavor notes in it’s own place.
Thanks for your experience, i’m going to try this Asap!!
Please put one bottle away and store it somewhere at home or in the back of the store.
I would be very interested in seeing the results of shelf life, since I experienced that juices made following that method, are fully faded or off tasting after a month, in comparison to other methods.
Now we could argue that most people vape their juice within that time, but not everybody does and quality matters in my opinion. Looking forward to hear your experience. Thx
In a sous vide, we have both heat and a little vibration. So we can reduce de viscosity of the liquid with the heat and help it mix with the vibration, acelerating the steeping process.
I’m going to try this method in the sous vide and post de feedback here, thanks for your method!
It’s a very interesting method, I’m sure to take the test. As the topic is turned to the use of sous vide, I’m going to use it to warm up the Vg and then I’ll mix in the one-shot concetrate
Please do post results as they come in. I have been testing for some time now and it will be a lot longer before I have any real results. I only make juice as I need it. I’m seeing some promising preliminary results however.
I think it is a method little explored by the community. I will update the post, if possible, daily. It will be a long lasting post as we have long steeping times for some liquids.
The second benefit of the “one shot” process solves Business Problem #2 which is the square footage required to store product inventory (while it steeps). Now I’m wondering what folks in the Metric World call “square footage” (sq. meters?) …lets just say shelf space
Negative. What he is saying is that things homogenize differently when using a “one-shot” (and letting the base flavors meld into themselves) vs adding the ingredients separately to a bottle, and then adding PG/VG/nic.
I can confirm this.
The problem arises though (for your purposes), in that the base flavor (one-shot) still has to homogenize with the VG! This is the primary reason for steeping (or using an ultrasonic or homogenizer, or in your case: sous-vide). To blend the flavors into the VG.
It’s also worth noting that IME, pure extracts (eg: Medicine Flower), do not benefit as much as other flavors do from our various accelerated steeping methods. There is still some benefit, just not nearly as evident as with other “traditional” flavors (Cap, FA, etc).
My rule of thumb for non-extracts (in an ultrasonic) is as follows:
1hr at 110°F to 120°F = approx. 1 week.
2hrs = 2 weeks
3hrs = 3 weeks
IME, there’s not much improvement or reason to go beyond 3hrs.
Also, leave the mix solidly capped until it’s been at room temp for awhile. (I typically off-gass the next day or two, opening the cap only long enough to blow out the top gasses and immediately recap. NO extended time.) Mine are typically ready to go by day 3, once I’m sure all the alcohol is gone (varies by mix).
Hope this helps, and I’ll be interested in hearing your results.
Thank you very much for sharing your experience. Finally my sous vide arrived and I was able to carry out the first tests.
I picked up an e-liquid flavored tobacco that I make for my brand, in which the ripening time until it reaches 100% flavor is 40 days. I preheated the sous vide to 110ºF and threw 4 bottles of 30ml of the newly made e-liquid. I removed one vial every one hour and let the liquid stay at room temperature. After that I moved all and opened, letting breathe for 5 ~ 10 minutes.
Result:
Bottle 1 (1 hour no sousvide): Better than freshly made, but the taste of alcohol remains strong and the flavor notes are not so clear.
Bottle 2 (2 hours on sousvide): The notes of flavor began to be defined, the flavor became clearer and the alcohol gave a good reduced
Bottle 3 (3 hours on sousvide): The aroma and taste of the alcohol disappeared, notes of taste very clear. Very close to what I usually sell.
Bottle 4 (4 hours on sousvide): I did not see much difference for bottle 3. I felt that the taste was a little lighter, I think it overcame the maturation bridge a bit.
Thanks to those who are following up, I will do more tests during the weekend and post here!
