How to reduce steep time

[zouzounaki]

As I'm still new to mixing I'd value your opinions. Most people seem to say you should leave liquids in a cool dark place to steep.

Having read the article Richard Winter linked to earlier, it seems to be saying the way to speed things up is to use various methods to warm up the liquid which makes sense to me. Chemicals react and move around much more when they're warmed up so leaving them in a cool place doesn't seem right to me.

I'd be interested to understand why most people recommend steeping in cooler conditions.

There are a lot of conflicting views about it, i reckon people do it the way they do, and it works, so they recommend that. I just stick mine in a cupboard or on a shelf, i don’t pay any attention to the temperature.

 

[MarylinC37]

The cool dark place is the easiest and most convenient way of steeping. A shake every now and again, let old air out now and again then forget it till your ready to vape.
There are many other methods that can be used to aid or speed up steeping but these do require some interaction lol
I'm guessing most people just leave for a couple of weeks in the cupboard out of direct sun light till they are ready to vape.

I'm not worried about speeding things up because I'd just mix up a batch at least a month before I'm ready to use it.

My living room, for example, is generally much warmer than other parts of my house so it just seems more sensible to keep the liquid there to help the flavours blend and mix better, rather than somewhere colder.

 

[ELTIEN]

As I'm still new to mixing I'd value your opinions. Most people seem to say you should leave liquids in a cool dark place to steep.

Having read the article Richard Winter linked to earlier, it seems to be saying the way to speed things up is to use various methods to warm up the liquid which makes sense to me. Chemicals react and move around much more when they're warmed up so leaving them in a cool place doesn't seem right to me.

I'd be interested to understand why most people recommend steeping in cooler conditions.

Hi Marylin. I usually warm my mix on a radiator for a while, just to meld it all really. Then I put it into a dark cupboard at room temp and let it stand there until I have used the previous one in the rotation; its usually ready to go then. If I had to put a time on it, its usually in the cupboard about 2 or 3 days.. The mix is usually fine. Not really sure why people recommend cooling it. Hope this helps.

 

[ELTIEN]

There are a lot of conflicting views about it, i reckon people do it the way they do, and it works, so they recommend that. I just stick mine in a cupboard or on a shelf, i don’t pay any attention to the temperature.

I'm with you there zouzounaki. I do much the same and have never had a problem.

 

[MarylinC37]

Hi Marylin. I usually warm my mix on a radiator for a while, just to meld it all really. Then I put it into a dark cupboard at room temp and let it stand there until I have used the previous one in the rotation; its usually ready to go then. If I had to put a time on it, its usually in the cupboard about 2 or 3 days.. The mix is usually fine. Not really sure why people recommend cooling it. Hope this helps.

Thanks for that ELTIEN. It was just the cooling bit that seemed odd to me but everyones advice has put my mind at rest.

What I'm doing now is standing the bottles up in a drawer in a warm room with the drip tips on but the lid off so it can both steep and also let it breathe a bit so I'll see how that works.

 

[ELTIEN]

Thanks for that ELTIEN. It was just the cooling bit that seemed odd to me but everyones advice has put my mind at rest.

What I'm doing now is standing the bottles up in a drawer in a warm room with the drip tips on but the lid off so it can both steep and also let it breathe a bit so I'll see how that works.

I think your method will be just fine Marylin. These things can be over complicated sometimes.

 

[memzey]

Posted this in the wrong thread ! Copied here for completeness:
Ok then apes, I have some results to report. As a reminder, here’s what I did:
On the 3rd of Feb I mixed up enough flavours and 72mg nic for 50ml each of v5 and custard donut (two bottles, two sets of concs and nic, no vg/pg). I left them to do their thing until Monday the 10th but did change the air in the bottles at least once a day. On the 10th I mixed in the vg and pg and gave them both a vigorous shake to mix the potion up and tried them the next day. Both were delicious but I thought they’d benefit from a few more days to settle down. I can’t exactly pin down why I thought that they needed that, apart from the feeling that the actual custard notes themselves were a bit muted. I tried them again on Friday and have finished the 50mls of donut since then. A properly delicious liquid. I’m no longer thinking about buying a short fill because my mixes are cack. Result.

But I felt like this wasn’t quite clear enough though on whether this technique was really working or not and to what extent it is different to “normal”, all-in steeping.

Slight interlude if you don’t mind; there are two methods/techniques/actions being discussed here - the mix steeping without the pg/vg base and the removal and replacement of air in the bottles. These descriptions are a bit wordy so I’m naming the techniques “pre-steeping” and “venting” respectively. Nobody else has to use these terms but if you read some none sense from me with those words in then that’s what I mean.

Anyway in order to get a better understanding of what does and does not work I’ve mixed up another two bottles of each (100mls each this time as I know I like the mixes). One of each steeping, one of each pre-steeping. Both being vented on a daily basis at least. I mixed them on the 12th. Here’s what they look like now:

I plan to try both on Saturday so a week and a half after first mix. I’ll post back as I get my results if others are interested.

 

[Mr Ripple]

Lets clear up the heating thing first and it might become clear why this can be a very important part of mixing.

The boiling point of vg depending on its putity is 290°c whereas water is 100°c
So lets take that down to the other end of the scale and note the point water becomes cold enough to solidify is 0°c and the point vg becomes cold enough to become (in chemical terms) a solid is 17.8°c.

A bit of theory.....

What happens if you try and mix fruit juice with water when the water is in its solid state? Youll have very limited sucess in that some of the two components will gel together but it's never going to happen properly until the water component has reached its melting point.

Well almost the same will happen with vg if you try and mix flavours, pg, and nicotine with vg when the vg is still in its (chemical classification) solid state it will still blend together to a certain extent with vigorous shaking but the same as the water example above it's never going to fully blend properly until the vg has reached its melting point 17.8°c.

The only real reason this is important it so that mixing the components together properly can be achieved at the very beginning.

Now the heating part is clear the rest is a bit like making a cup of tea.

Put the all the ingredients in a builders mug in one go and leave for approximately 55.3 seconds.
Then while stiring three times to the left and two to the right and stood on one leg while singing glory glory hallelujah should nail a perfect brew every time.

 

[Banjostring]

I always sit mine in a water bath after adding all the ingredients to warm it up a bit. This reduces the viscosity of the vg and allows for far easier initial mixing. Then it either gets a damned good shake or a quick wazz with the Norpro before being left in a cupboard for a while. I feel that without this initial warming, it would be way more difficult to achieve an even mix/blend of the ingredients.

 

[Richard Winter]

[QUOTE="StrawberryRipple, post: 2166878, member: 48075"

What happens if you try and mix fruit juice with water when the water is in its solid state? Youll have very limited sucess in that some of the two components will gel together but it's never going to happen properly until the water component has reached its melting point.
.[/QUOTE]
I think you would end up with an ice lolly