Intro Post, Former Extraction Tech

[kelsowitworth]

Hello,

I'm a new brewer with a bit of a chemistry background. I used to work as a cannabis extraction tech so if anyone has any questions about Supercritical CO2 Fluid Extraction, sonication, distillation, flash chromatography or dosage control I can probably be helpful there.

Excited to get brewing! Aside from helping my dad with a blonde ale back when I was younger, I'm starting my first project with an apple cider.

 

[jcav]

Welcome to the community! Lots of great people here to help if you need it.


John

 

[DuncB]

Hello,

I'm a new brewer with a bit of a chemistry background. I used to work as a cannabis extraction tech so if anyone has any questions about Supercritical CO2 Fluid Extraction, sonication, distillation, flash chromatography or dosage control I can probably be helpful there.

Excited to get brewing! Aside from helping my dad with a blonde ale back when I was younger, I'm starting my first project with an apple cider.

I think you should team up with someone or grow your own hops and then use your experience to extract the hop oils. You'll find them very useful for certain aspects of your home brew journey. I wouldn't mind a 101 on how to do this as a friend has a still and I'm growing some hops. Distilling alcohol is legal here in NZ.

 

[kelsowitworth]

I think you should team up with someone or grow your own hops and then use your experience to extract the hop oils. You'll find them very useful for certain aspects of your home brew journey. I wouldn't mind a 101 on how to do this as a friend has a still and I'm growing some hops. Distilling alcohol is legal here in NZ.

That would be cool! Unfortunately an SFE is about $40000 USD for a good entry one, and multi harvest vessel ones are six figures. I had one at work but I don't ever see myself buying one. However ethanol extraction is very viable for a Homebrewer. I recommend looking into the edenlabs coldfinger for it's sort of set and forget approach that is great for a Homebrewer. Also the ethanol is reclaimable. A soxhlet extractor is also great but it's a bit less set and forget. (While I say set and forget I don't mean leave the room, if you have high purity ethanol on a boiler please at least check on it every 5-10 minutes.) You can also experiment with etoh purity to get more water solubles/less oils out of the hops.

 

[DuncB]

I see so wet hops mixed with ethanol, the alcohol is the solvent and then heat that, and the alcohol will evaporate with the volatile oils in it which you condense. Then pour alcohol off and reuse?