Hi there Bill Here yes a newb, I know they say no stupid questions however I feel this is showing how ignorant I am about the whole DIY thing. Anyway my question is about steeping, not all the recipes have steeping time, Now through reading most should steep around a weekas a general benchmark. And through more investigation, custard around four weeks, Shake and vape not really understanding. I get the fact and understand the chemical make up of different flavours need time to mix and breakdown to corelate together, the need for heat and stirring, yet the concept is understandable. However the basics are CHINESE too me. Can anyone give me some basics and guidelines. SORRY QUITE THE LENGTHY QUESTION.
thats what happens when you let newbs talk LOL
Sure. I’ll start.
Shake and vape. Supposedly you can vape right after mixing…although many would recommend letting it sit for 24 hours/next day. Often you will find simple fruit recpies without heavy creams.
After that it’s steeping/letting the mix sit for whatever time you feel is best. 3days-2’ish weeks.
Once you jump into custards/tobaccos/heaven creams folks will recommend 3weeks to 2months.
That being said. Fuck the rules. Do what makes you happy. There will be plenty of answers. For me I let everything sit for 4-6 weeks. Today I am vaping stuff I mixed 6/7. Custards 6-10 weeks.
That being said most will say the easiest method is time. 1-2 weeks is a good place to start.
After that you can skip the heat, magnetic stirs, and ect when trying to speed up the steeping.
Oh and I almost forgot. There is a benefit when starting out to atleast test your mixes at, for example, 2 days, 6 days, and 2’ish weeks to see how your mix develops.
THANK YOU
sooooooo much for this info
that info explains why i think that some of the recipes i try are crap
not getting the real flavour from a “proper steep”
i’m sure that will make all the difference in taste
So Once Again A BIG THANX
No thanks needed. The most important recommendation I can give is to read and read.
Use search terms…heat, magnetic, steep and steeping, and you will find a ton of great posts
The only stupid question is the one that isn’t asked!
Welcome to the forums Bill Here. 
Well someone I was talking to brought up something I found interesting today. Since taste is subjective, so should steeping… Of course what tastes the best for you at 2 weeks will taste better for some folks in 3 times that amount is all subjective…
That being said, if you can wait that long, Strawnana Custard by Ken O’where is divine at 6 months 
Welcome and glad you joined.
Hi, Bill! Welcome aboard! You will find that if you ask 50 mixers for an answer, you could get 35.7-41 different answers! Mine is this:
No heat, no mixers, no frothers, just shake it really, really well and let it sit in the cool dark.
More and more mixers are coming to this after many have tried the other techniques. Many still prefer the extra steps. As far as i got was setting the bottle in a mug of hot water until it cooled. Even this was an extra step that quickly felt pointless and annoying compared to the Shake it and Forget it method. Time is all you really need.
What I think is happening if you use a magnetic stirring mixer and let it mix for 30 minutes to an hour is that the highly volitile flavor molecules are floating up outta there and the resulting mix appears more steeped. But really it just lost some top note vibrancy or tang. Just a feeling, no scientific testing done here!
I do, as mentioned above, test new mixes early in the steep. I bring my new batch of 5 or 6 mixes out the next day and run them all through an RTA, make mental notes, then test again 1 - 2 days later, then around a week old, then 2 weeks, etc.
I make sure to mix [at least] once a week and while I’m testing this week’s new batch, last week’s batch is going for week #2 in peace, in the cool dark.
If i hit a winner after 2-3 weeks steep, I’ll mix up a fresh bottle and let it sit untouched for 30 days and test again for the longer steep times.
There is almost never a need for heat, IMO. I’ve heard it said heat is good for thinning out VG. I ask…why would you need it thinner? Uh, less VG more PG (DW if you’re PG sensitive) maybe?
Ok maybe if you store VG in the fridge and you need heat to bring it up to room temp cuz yer impatient (get in line with the SnV crowd).
Or…heat just makes everything easier to blend together - heat allows your mix to steep faster etc, etc. Whichever way it’s going to be used I’ve yet to see a scientific study showing any improvement when using heat on a fresh mix, over the tried and true traditional ways.
Well said, there is no hard and fast rule that applies to everyone so do what works for you. This usually takes experience so good for newbies to get various answers as to what works for others.
I try everything as a shake n vape then put it away. If it impresses me on the SNV I might try it again the next day or 2. If it doesn’t impress as a SNV I will let it sit for a week and revisit, if it still isn’t there I might make a V2 of the recipe and let the first sit longer. It is rare that a recipe goes from blah to excellent with a long steep but it does happen. A terrible SNV should just be flushed though, generally steeping isn’t gonna polish a turd. I have had SNV’s that were excellent but a flavor faded in a few days so I went back and made changes, that is why I feel it is important to try right after mixing.
Or…heat just makes everything easier to blend together
That’s why I heat my VG. I have bad hands, and keeping my VG at room temperature makes squeezing the bottle a bit of a challenge, so I keep it in a warm water bath when I mix. Easy to pour and shake once I’ve capped.
Welcome to the family Bill!
From my point of view, if a recipe is crap from to start, no steep is going to make it better… taste first, see if the recipe can work, shake it and put it away… forget about magnetic stirrers, frothers and things like that…but… there are still a few things to know and evaluate, two stage steep, fruits, creams, NET steep and things like that, search and read, plenty of info round here… Welcome!
i’ll try thanx
tanx sounds logical
by the way what is ''RTA"
thanx will try that
RDA: Rebuildable Dripping Atomizer
Drip on your coils and vape
RTA: Rebuildable Tank Atomizer
Fill the tank and vape
RSDA: Rebuildable Squonk / Dripping Atomizer
Drip or squonk and vape
RDTA: Rebuildable Dripping / Tank Atomizer
Use tank or drip and vape
There’s also something called an RBA…
https://vaping.com/differences-rba-rda-rta
You left out RSA rebuildable squonking atomizer. Then there’s always the BF RDA…never ends…
I’m not into squonking Aren’t RSA / RSDA the same thing?
Lol
Probably