How to Make Rosin  

Rosin is one of the more simple cannabis concentrates. Essentially, rosin is the cannabinoid and terpene-rich trichomes separated from the plant matter. This is one reason why people enjoy making rosin at home and even using rosin—it’s a more natural, pure concentrate that does not involve the use of solvents like butane.

How to Make Rosin

Making rosin is as simple as squeezing the cannabis flower to extract the valuable sticky stuff (made up of trichomes) that coats the plant matter. The process is much the same as squeezing a fresh olive or grape to get the oil or juice, except the oil from cannabis is so thick, heat is a necessity. Here’s a closer look at how to make rosin.

Making Rosin at Home

When you find rosin for sale in an Oregon dispensary, the concentrate was likely made using expensive equipment that ensures top-quality outcomes. However, you can make a crude form of rosin on your own at home.

What you’ll need

• Cannabis flower
• A hair straightener with an adjustable temperature
• Parchment paper (no wax coating)
• Tool to collect the rosin (dabber tool works well)
• Glass jar to store the rosin
• Heat-resistant gloves to protect your hands

1. Prepare your bud

Choose a smaller snug that will fit inside of a piece of parchment paper and the straightener’s plates without hanging over the edges. You don’t have to grind the nug. Just use your fingers to flatten the bud as much as you can.

2. Turn on your press

Turn on your straightener. It can be best to start with a low heat setting and adjust as needed. You can press weed quickly with high heat, but you also run the risk of scorching the flower, destroying cannabinoids and terpenes, and getting rosin that is so runny that it’s hard to collect.

3. Place the bud in parchment paper

Using two small sheets of parchment paper, place your bud between them and flatten it with your fingers. It’s good to have a little paper hangover on the hair straightener plates, so be sure to leave a few extra inches on either side.

4. Press the bud in the parchment paper

Place the parchment and weed arrangement between the plates and press. The general recommendation is to press for about 30 seconds, but how much time you need varies depending on the flower itself and the level of heat. When you hear a sizzle, release the pressure.

5. Check for rosin

Carefully open up the parchment paper and pick up the flower. You should see a fair amount of oil on the paper.

6. Repeat press

Reposition the nugget in a clean spot or on a clean piece of parchment paper. Repeat the squeezing process until you are no longer getting oil from the flower.

7. Collect the rosin

Use your dab tool to scrape the rosin off the paper as it is collected. You can store the collected rosin in a glass jar with a lid for safekeeping.

FAQs About How to Make Rosin from Buds

How much rosin can you get?

Quite a few factors will affect your overall yield, such as the strain type, the volume of resinous trichomes on the bud, and even how well you do the pressing process. Theoretically, if you press a gram of flower that is 18 percent cannabinoids and 2 percent terpenes, you would get about 0.2 grams of fresh rosin.

What if the rosin has plant matter in it?

Homemade rosin is bound to have a little plant matter in it. Your rosin can still be used—your rosin dabs just won’t be as pure when you go to burn them.

What is rosin taffy?

Once the rosin cools, it’s a bit stretchy like warm hard candy. You can work with the thick rosin by stretching and pulling it repeatedly with oiled hands or your dab tool and it will turn into a consistency that’s a lot like taffy.

How to make live resin?

Live resin is a far more complex cannabis concentrate to make. Whole plants are placed in cryogenic chambers and frozen. Then, the resin is extracted using a solvent, such as propane or butane. The extract must be further manipulated to remove the residual solvents. For this reason, it’s not recommended or really feasible to make live resin at home.

Related: Full Guide to Solventless Extraction

Can you make rosin with hash or kief?

You can, but you will need a fine mesh bag to hold the material inside of the parchment paper while you press. If you have kief around that is too hard to handle for smoking, using it to make rosin makes the cannabinoids more usable.

Looking for high-quality concentrates with no DIY involved? Be sure to check out our menu at Madrone Cannabis Club—we’re actually pretty well-known for our potent, terpene-rich rosin!