thanks for your help I appreciate it 
2 Likes
Remember:
Fruit Flavours: Generally more volatile (faster moving molecules)
Custards / Creams: Generally more docile than fruit flavours (slower moving molecules)
Therefore the custards / creams take longer to really blend with everything
If you steep fruit flavours with the lid off you will lose flavour
Shake the bottle horizontally to make use of the elongated air bubble alternating between upright and upside down, this really helps to mix everything up
6 Likes
In my brief experience of heavy experimentation, it seems that many things affect the required steep time.
- You and your taste buds. (I for instance, prefer longer steep times because they taste better to me.)
- Size of the bottle. As said, it seems that 120ml takes longer than 10ml.
- Flavor type. Fruits take less time than custards or other dessert flavors.
- The slowest ingredient. Mixing fruit into a custard doesn’t make that recipe steep faster - you have to wait for the custard.
- The number of flavors in a recipe. A 3-flavor dessert recipe reaches maturity sooner than a 12-ingredient one.
- Temperature. Steeping in my 65F basement takes longer than in my 82F of the top shelf of my upstairs closet.
- Mixing. A quick shake doesn’t help as much as vigorous shaking or frothing or the Sawz-All treatment.
Note that I’m not an expert here, but I try many things, take extensive notes and try to apply scientific methods to my testing. The above is how I feel so far - but I don’t really have enough data to confirm all those things - and I’d love to hear others’ opinions on such things.
10 Likes
thanks this has opened my eyes to a lot of factors. it helps me out
1 Like
Oh, and never give up on a batch until 2 or 3 months has passed.
3 Likes
For my mixes I make my first serious taste at the lowest number of days listed
Fruits only 7 to 10 days
fruits with booze 10 to 14 days
fruits with creams 14 to 21 days
Creamy desserts 18 to 28 days
After the first taste I get an idea of what it will need to finish but some flavors just take longer.
http://forum.e-liquid-recipes.com/t/very-newbie-question/81686/57
7 Likes
I always recommend 4 weeks specially when using vinilla or custard cream flavours, they take a good 3 weeks before they start coming thru in taste, also the more flavours in your mix the longer it takes but from my experience 3 to 4 weeks no matter how many flavours in your mix, your mix wont go bad or off unless your consentrates are out of date.
Shake Mix everyday or 2 taking the lid of for a minute to let fresh air into your mix and do that for 4 weeks, dont rush to vape your mix or you will be disappointed.
3 Likes
I have about 90-100 bottles going through the steeping process right now. Since you’re describing about 2 hours of work per day for me, I don’t do this. Which may explain why I have to let things steep a long time.
3 Likes
i started steeping with 1 hr hot water bath - then “age” - i get good results after 3 days, regular shaking and remove the lid - color and smell are great
can more experienced mixers share knowledge if this approach saves some of the regular aging time? i really can’t still get the patience to wait 4-5 weeks on a mix?
2 Likes
2 Likes
Sorry then, you will never achieve the full potential of the flavor you seek.
My advice is make a few simple mixes to shake-n-vape, then make a bunch more to throw in a closet and forget about them…fuggettaboutit…
I mix in 60ml and 115ml batches because I believe it makes the best juice in those quantities.
It doesn’t matter to me if it’s fruit or creams, once mixed and bottled, I throw them in the aging closet and don’t even look at them for over a month. No shaking, no breathing, no touching at all, but I only mix [well, I blend] using a magnetic stirrer, and there is a reason for that which came with my lab experience over the course of 50+ years.
When I do pick up one of the bottles that has been untouched for 5-6 weeks or more, it has absolutely no separation…
because it was blended at the start. Blended? Have you ever picked up a bottle of blended scotch and had to shake it before using?
I never add heat because I get it gradually, while blending, from friction alone. I use an infrared thermometer to make sure the temperature never exceeds 110F, and usually slow the rpm’s down at 105F-107F
I understand that many people use a frother or a paint stirrer, but until you make a batch properly with a magnetic stirrer will you know the true difference. Hot water baths, ultrasonics, crock pots, etc…nothing will blend like a mag stirrer.
I have a Badger 121 paint stirrer, and use it sometimes, but on herbal tinctures, not e-juice.
Nothing hidden in my method, just proven science.
Aging can surely be accelerated, and they use it in wines all the time, but nothing is as good as natural aging.
Enhanced wines and liquors are cheaper than naturally aged ones, and there is a reason for that.
Everyone has their theory and opinion, and if it works for them, great…or at least good. My approach is from a
lab science standpoint.
We want everything [right now] in this “microwave” society, but some things still require good old fashioned time to become their best.
I pray you find some insight in my jibberish. I am not here to snark or blow smoke, just an attempt to shine a small light on the path we are all on.
7 Likes
thanks for your help! I just learned a lot. ill leave them be and make my self a fine wine
1 Like
You quoted the wrong person there, just to be clear. I have nothing to do with that post beyond posting the link for someone who asked for info.
1 Like
I’m a newbie at mixing and really haven’t done much e juice steeping until last week and I’m actually blow away at the difference it makes with my juices. I mixed two 30ml btls & started using one btl right way simply cause I out but the other btl I steeped open for a week and the flavor difference is huge. Now I can’t wait to see what 3 n 4 weeks of steeping has to offer. lol
2 Likes
I keep rather extensive notes for everything I vape, and I will often pick a juice and read the notes to see how my notes progress. It’s kinda interesting to see something like:
Steeped 14 Days: Sharp fruit fumes, too much apple, bitter.
Steeped 21 Days: Still too much apple, a little bitter but better. Kinda boring though.
Steeped 28 Days: Kinda tasty apple but the background flavors are still limp and boring.
Steeped 35 Days: This sh*t is f**king delicious.
6 Likes
Great advice. I keep notes on my flavor mixes but keeping notes on progress has got to be just as important so that is a must for now on. Thanks @Scottes777
Yeah it’s key to having some idea when a recipe is ready. The next time I make some of that stuff above, I’ll know not to even bother tasting it until 35 days of steeping.
Maybe 28 if I’m desperate. It’s kinda brutal to make a batch of something that delicious and then have to wait 35 days to vape it.
And I’m starting to get an idea of steeping time after tracking 25 different fruit recipes, and 10 custards, and 30 desserts.
2 Likes
@ozo hmmmm, i’m usually a patient person - guess it’s just the excitement of being relatively new to mixing - so want to hurry thru and “try it”. guess if i can hold myself for 3-4 weeks on one of those creamy mixes, and see the difference, that would convince … Oh, but some of these speed steeped are not really that bad
1 Like
Yeah…that’s kind of where I’m at. If I can get to 90% (or more) satisfaction, at least until my supplies build up, then I’m MORE than happy with the fast results of the UC (using the 1hr = 1 week steep method that was arrived at in a 2000+post ECF thread that I read from start to finish.)
With having so many to test, and yet “support the daily habit” (of usually 30-45ml, but sometimes more) the hardest part of all of this is not just being “patient” but supporting the damned habit in the meantime. Even with having acquired a ‘few more’ bottles (you’d think 40 or so was enough… HA! No.), I’m finding that I really need to order 4-6 more 120ml’s (possibly even 8 -need to do the math lol), fill those with my two ADV’s, and that way I can not be as tempted to launch into some of the ‘testing’ bottles.
I’ve still managed to do right by my testing, but it’s just that for awhile, there was not as much to test when each comes to full maturity (that’s when I switched from making 10ml test batches to 15ml, and some that I KNOW I’ll like up to 30ml), so that has set me back further (timeline-wise) than where I feel I should be by now.
Once I get enough supplies (primarily flavors and bottles) built up to be able to “set it, and forget it” (as the old commercial goes…) THEN I’ll worry about refining things down to the wire with a fine-toothed comb.
@Sprkslfly, i’m really surprised with your daily rate. 30-45ml? are you considering cutting down on that?
i honestly don’t know what’s a reasonable level is, but too much of anything is scary - and that’s in the “too much” category for me. pls be careful.
1 Like