Think you are talking about simple wine ā¦ all the good wine steep in a tempered, dark and quietly place. All in all, I belive in patience 
Correct, down in the wine cellar they age. Can round out & mature flavours. Iām no expert but know the basics. There is a lot of similarities, the wine community to speed up aging use heating, ultrasonic, sounding familiar!
Just to be a little clearer, modern sommeliers rather then decanting their wine to be served to a customer in decanter bottles, they have taken to putting them in high speed blenders & pulsing. The idea is that it introduces as much surface area to the āairā in the shortest amount of time. They put the wine back in the bottle & voila, the wine has ābreathedā. Try it at home, do half blended then see if you can taste the difference.
So I donāt think this can hurt when it comes to ejuice. Personally I use a milk frother to mix my recipes. I had to have something to stir or shake the mix. The frother introduces oxygen in my mind, more than other methods. I havenāt compared to others, but it seems sound.
If continue to do your research as you have, you will find many methods. Itās up to you, your budget and/or what you have on hand. I already had the frother.
Enjoy your juice!
I am afraid I have to respectfully disagree with you. And your follow-up:
The wine comparison is flawed because this is desirable at the end of storage/ immediately before consumption. NOT at the time of bottling. The truth is exposure to air (oxygen in particular) is one of the classic āwine faults.ā Likewise, oxygenating (e-liquid is usually considered undesirable, unless one is intentionally trying to oxidize nicotine, for flavor, or throat hit.
The desired intent of ābreathingā e-liquid (and heating, and stirring to a point as well) is to off-gas, or release unwanted volatile compounds, such as ethyl alcohol, and others that can lend an artificial, harsh, unwanted, or chemical taste to our mixes. However, we have to weigh the accelerated loss of these unwanted components, with the loss of wanted ones like aromatics.
Just like most things in life; there are ārightā and āwrongā times for most everything. Same with various mixing methods. Heat, violent stirring/shaking, and exposure to air, may indeed benefit a tobacco, or custard, or chocolate recipe (esp. if it has a high alcohol content). But it will absolutely destroy a light fruity, or floral recipe. So āyesā it can hurt when applied in the inappropriate situation.
That darn watermelon that is never strong enough, or that lemon that always seems to fade after a week and a half, may give you better results if you just give it a good shake and commence to vaping.
It drives me nuts to read posts of āI just age everything a month before I even taste it!ā WHY? How can you know how it has changed, or even IF it has changed, if you donāt know how it tasted in the beginning? If I did that with my lemon recipes I might as well be vaping an unflavored blend. Because, for me, they are over the hill and all but gone before the end of the second week after mixing. I stopped mixing large batches of those for precisely that reason. Iād get through 15-20% of the batch only to find the primary flavor had left the building.
If it works for you; God bless you! I am genuinely glad for you. But I donāt understand how anyone can understand what they are truly doing if they donāt taste, taste, taste, and taste some more. I follow a tobacco thread on another forum and tobaccos are notorious for needing weeks and weeks before they are ready to vape. But, even within that flavor class, people are routinely commenting that they prefer certain tobacco flavors fresh because they do indeed change. Just not for the better (to their palate). They would never learn this if they were not tasting early and often.
I have been through most of the āspeed steepingā methods, and it wasnāt until I started tasting my mixes fresh after mixing, and then again after treatment, and even dividing my fresh mixes in two and treating half while allowing the other half to age naturally, that I realized (for me) that they more often did nothing, or hurt, rather than helped, my mixes.
Donāt get me wrong. I believe they can have their usefulness and I still use some to this day. I always use the little Badger hand paint mixer to blend my newly combined mix (for convenience; not because I feel it adds anything to the end product. And I chose the Badger specifically because it introduces less air than a regular frother). I will still use a gentle, slow heat (e.g. open crock pot or even thermos w/ warm water) on a stubborn custard or tobacco. I have even been playing with seed steeping which seems to actually offer some benefit to those same long-wait custards and tobaccosā¦ though it doesnāt offer anything noticeable (for me) for those mid-, short-, and no-steep recipes.
And, of course, it all depends on what the individualās desired outcome is too. Am I willing to sacrifice (if any) flavor and/or depth for speed? What do my own taste buds tell me? Am I satisfied by the results? When does all the fiddlinā stop being a passion and start to become a PITA? Each of us has to answer these questions for ourselves.
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Iāve said it before in other threads too it would seem a rotary evap is an ideal tool for e-liquid and from what I can gather from your post, would you agree
If you are familiar with them you will know what benefits it could provide. For those that are not familiar. the rotary evap could dial in temperatures specifically and because itās under a vacuum. it boils/evaporates at lower then the equivalent not under vacuum. Hence the balancing act for losing aromatics is balanced more in your favour. Accurate distillation/gassing off with minimal aromatic & nicotine loss.
My experiences with DIY have not nearly been as intuitive as I have with my cooking I am finding it very challenging. Its a very different discipline. I always seem to find my thoughts finding analogous situations that I 'm familiar with and finding the links, as is what we do, However, this is different. I am especially glad it is as I like a challenge and more ground to be discovered.
From a speed steeping point of view, Iām happy to wait and just let them do what they have to do on their own. But I thought the speed steeping was using methods that were just accelerating the process. You described some things you do which is great. Badger, etc. From what I can gather you only really do a bit of work on custards and cream. other then that you do fresh and have taken the time to learn the point when certain flavours fade. Gosh can i have your experience. I was particular interested to learn of flavour fade. All my mixes I taste every 3 days from mix. As you state it gives me a perspective of change as best I can and as much as I keep notes it is very hard to compare from each lot of days along the way. Iām comparing my tastes to the memory and notes from 3/6/9, etc days previous. Very hard and open to all types of brain fizz playing tricks. wish I could be bothered to do like quick fresh tank mixes. then I could do that. In my mind Iām really looking out form major alterations, any perceived minor changes I put down as negligible. Thatās just me.
Great post. I know more and also have more questions too. Youāve taken the time to go through your process in detail and give us a window into a well tuned system and earned knowledge. Keep em coming.
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Thanks for articulating what Iāve been thinking for the last month. I started vaping 10 weeks ago and knew I wanted to DIY after the first week due to the difficulty in sourcing ejuices (Iām in the Middle East). So I researched, searched across continents and managed, with help from some great people, to source everything I need. I made my first batch 12 days ago following recipes from this site. Some are pretty good, to my surprise, some are horrible.
However, I feel like Iāve been sucked into the rabbit hole. I rationalize it by saying itās better than smoking and eventually Iāll find 4-5 ADVs, mix them up once a month and get on with my life. Iāve read so much in the last two months and so much of it is conflicting and conjecture. Iām just venting I guess.
Thanks for your input, itās greatly appreciated as it serves as a signpost to where I want to be.
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Welcome to the Fire my brother 
Thanks for the civility my peeps. This thread is a quest. Any secrets we can only hope to stumble upon utilizing our (mostly) home-brew gear, example using a cream whipper instead of a rotary evaporator 
I would think any real secrets would be protected under the most stringent Intellectual Property guidelines at E-Juice Corp HQ.
In our little micro-brew DIY adventure most discoveries lay in-between ā¦if we look carefully we may catch a glimpse. In this foggy endeavor I listen more closely for a clue than right and wrong, so many thanks to all. This is all tasty treats for a curious mind. If I found a real secret would I share? ā¦or have I already Muhahaha 
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Really only two words needed for your post.
Thank you
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I know OF them; I would not even pretend to say I am acquainted, let alone familiar with them. While I could see the benefit; that type of lab equipment is W A Y beyond the scope of the average DIYer (including myself). So I (my opinion only) feel they really belong as part of a DIY discussion. Perhaps for a small high-end commercial boutique it would be worthy of consideration. If you have professional access to one, and the boss lets you play with personal projects, give it a try. I would be curious of the results.
I would be so bold as to say that perhaps you are over thinking DIY too much? CAN you apply scientific principles to DIY? Sure. Some of us like to know the āwhysā behind the āhowsā but is it really required to make good juice. No.
I think (once again; my opinion only) that really knowing your individual ingredient, knowing how they taste, knowing what too little and too much taste like, how they interact with other flavors, and how YOU relate to them, is 95% of GOOD juice making. You can know all the tricks and techniques under the sun but they wonāt help you one lick if you donāt know your ingredients. And, sadly, the only way to learn that is TIME and PRACTICE. Unfortunately most of us are not willing to invest the time.
And it only gets worse as you get older; welcome to MY world!
Add to that the fact that our perception to taste is constantly changing and you can drive yourself nuts. That is why I keep referring to DIY as a journey. It is those individuals that come in, and want to be perfect right out of the gate, that will get discouraged and give up. Know that time and repetition (and failures along with successes) are part of the process and we all go through it. Donāt get frustrated; wear it as a badge of honor. Learning is growing.[quote=āVolition, post:154, topic:21024ā]
Great post. I know more and also have more questions too. Youāve taken the time to go through your process in detail and give us a window into a well tuned system and earned knowledge
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Thank you; just trying to give back a little of what so many others have already given to me. But please understand; I still consider myself VERY much a novice. I DO NOT have all the answers. There are A LOT of FAR BETTER mixers here. I am on the same journey as everybody else. Hopefully, together we can shorten the learning curve a little, and make it more enjoyable.
Thank you for your kind words (and even being willing to red my drivel).
Merry Christmas to everyone!
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Iāve tried enough of my juices after mixing and waiting 1 week, 2 weeks, 3 weeks etc that I know they are the best for my taste after about a month. I do just a thorough shake, then store the bottle in a cool dark place upright for a month. I did not care for the results i obtained on all my juices with a frother, so I quit using it. I vape sweet fruits and wish I liked creams haha, but i donāt really. Iāve just learned to do it the way I do it, Iām not going to quit even if it drives you nuts
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Love it!
You put the time in, you found what worked for you, and you are now able to apply it for repeatable satisfying results for you! I have no problem with that what so ever and wouldnāt dream of trying to change your mind.
You also demonstrate nicely that one method can work well for one person while not working for another (my wimpy paint stirrer works for me; you didnāt care for your results with a frother and rightly moved on to something else). I do not fathom how 4 weeks can benefit a fruit mix (and yes I have tried); while that is precisely the sweet spot for you (and I respect your results 100%). I firmly believe that DIY has room for any and everyone who wants to invest the time to find there own āsweet spot.ā
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Thatās what Iām aiming for have the knowledge of my established mixes. That I know exactly when itās ready to be picked from the tree.
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wellā¦ iām making fruit juices only with 3 mg nicotineā¦ as long as i know itās shake and vape juicesā¦ but i always feel a strong hit in my liquids while i vape 9 mg liquid from the shop without any problemā¦ what am i doing wrong ?
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most probably the PG/VG ratio, try 50/50 as that is the ratio most vape shops use.
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The vape shop most likely has been steeped/aged
Give your mix a week. If itās still sharp add 0.5% marshmallow FA. Or 0.25% fresh cream FA. Or other cream on a low percent.
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Currently unavailable, but keep your eye on it, they may just get one in.
https://www.oreillyauto.com/flux-capacitor
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AWESOME!!! to bad its not for sale
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So if you jumped 2 mo. into the future to grab some juice then crossed back to the present would your juice get younger or would it be steeped? 
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Damn well better be steeped!
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I think the question is whether having the same juice from two different times in the same place would cause a quantum event.
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