Hey so I am looking at putting a new video together and would just like to pick the brains of all you experienced mixers out there about your general thoughts on steeping, I don’t mean by using ultrasonics or heat baths I mean just by leaving the bottle to age.
So have you noticed any trends with flavour companies and steep times? Do certain companies flavours steep faster than others? What are your thoughts on the typical steep times of fruits, custards, creams, tobaccos and everything else? Are there any hard and fast rules you go by? Anything that has surprised you at any point?
Any help or thoughts are much appreciated ,
thanks for your time
Let’s keep it simple. If it can’t steep for 4-6 weeks and be good then it’s no good. Lol
I know there are some, well a lot that may really shine at one to two weeks then fade. But for me I like having at least 15-20 mixes ready to vape at all times. I do this by mixing every two weeks and occasionally mixing enough to cover three weeks. So if a mix struggles at 4 to 6 weeks then there is a problem imo.
Beyond that I know some people leave the caps off to “air” out their mixes. I call that personal preference. Personally, I don’t air anything out…even the harshest of fruits like orange without a problem when you get to 4 weeks weeks.
Can a simple fruit be vaped at 2-4 days. Sure…,but the question for me is when you love it…how does it sit on the shelf at the full rotation.
For basic rules. Sure… basic fruits can be vaped at 2-4 days, basic creams can be between 2-4 weeks, and custards 4-6 weeks give or take and additional two weeks (same for a good tobacco mix).
There is a ton of information to be found by typing “Steeping” into the search box above (or just clicking this link). In the end steep times vary for all recipes and the answer comes from testing over time …unfortunately the subjective nature of exactly when a Juice is “good” in One’s own mind invalidates it’s own conclusion when asked across a wider population.
It can generally be said that many juices truly hit the magic spot and level off, or become somewhat more stable (if stored properly). Something that may not be discussed enough is the angle that any commercial juice would need to have consistent shelf-life. If accepted as true that means the Commercial flavorings we mostly use are not meant to be good immediately but instead chemically engineered for longer term flavor consistency, and that’s a major reason steeping is required (slowing the process)
When we folk of ELR talk about steep time, it’s more like “How long do I have to wait to suck this all up?” In a way we look only at the short term leading edge of Steeping, and not the “I just bottled 10,000 30ml bottles. How long before I can ship out to Distributors and what should be the expiration date I should put on the label?”
Ok so you have a ton of filtering to do (erm reading) as this is the most popular topic on here I believe. Now you have two angles to investigate (and for the following folks to debate) When is “too long”? I’ve found about 6-8 Months is a real downtrend. Also flavor durability has become a question with some flavors that may steep more quickly, but fade more quickly as well. Best of luck with your video!
But I will post my comment here, as I know you are involved in chemical engineering, so you are more likely to see what I am saying here in this post thread.
The chemistry of these type of reactions is beyond simplification to the point of a post in a forum or a YouTube video. I guess it could somehow be sort-of characterized in some way that is meaningful, but I doubt it. This has been explored by real science in flavor chemistry research that is driven and funded by big money industries such as perfume and coffee to name a few. Here is a good scientific reference on coffee. Much of the material in it has a direct relation to the chemistry in vape liquids.
Anyway, good luck exploring the subject ! I can tell you that this stuff is not trivial. Exploring very complex reactions like this soon gets to a point that even the best are stopped by mother nature when she gets-in-your-face with: “you ain’t gonna get these answers buddy, no matter how hard you try!”
I was involved, professionally, with flame and explosive chemistry, and even though we had the money and research facilities of labs like US Naval Weapon Research, we couldn’t even tell you what happens in a candle flame !
So best of luck! I will be interested to follow along and see what you turn up.
EDIT PS: Too funny, it’s not like my old friends at the Weapon Lab don’t care about vaping !! Click this !!
As everybody else said already, how far do you want to go?
It’s so complicated that unfortunately there are no rules, it’s something you gain by experience knowing what companies you’re dealing with.
Most of us rarely use a single manufacturer to do a mix therefore steeping time may vary.
Just as a thought and example, straight fruits (not creamy) as a rule of thumb might go to 2 to 5 days if e.g. you use FA or CAP or INW, but if you start using Decadent or Club Der Dampfer or fancy companies, you will need longer steeping times, up to ten days, as you see, we still are talking about fruits…(Not organic).
As a personal experience, I air the mix only if at first smell and I think that a couple of hours might help, but otherwise, no go, I’ll just leave there and forget about it. (BTW already used the stirrer, so I don’t shake it, I’d forget anyway.)
Careful planning on VG percentage and its mix percentage gives me an idea of the time needed, but be able to summarize it, it’s a daunting task on an excel sheet never mind in a vid.
You might think about talking about steeping as:
VG/PG percentage Vs Flavour percentage Vs time rather then concentrate on manufacturers (only gained by experience) that would take the listener to nowhere…
Methods? Plenty of vids out there.
The only thing that suprised me is that longer steeping is not always the better, but it just fades off, but I believe these are things that you already know.
Most Coffee - Vape it within a month or bitterness is your fortune.
Most Berries - Overnight as long as there’s no custard in the mix.
So that being said (understanding what I really said) everyone of the flavors that is sold has it’s own way of blending into VG and PG and THEN when those flavors meet each other in a bottle they also have their own conversation about how they will get along.
The answer is: My experience with my own efforts has indicated steep time depends on what you put in the bottle and there is no way of knowing until you mix them together how long that is.
It’s like $300 dolla make ya halla