Daub Marley
Member
Like you said the terpenes are volatile and very difficult to retain while still effectively purging your solvent. You will lose more terpenes and flavors by winterizing but its the price we pay to make it easy to handle. I honestly believe that as soon as you hit the trichome with a solvent you lose a majority of your terpenes anyway, but that is another discussion. I would say just focus on getting rid of your solvent as it's much more important than saving terpenes.
Bingo. I don't know why it is exactly that the wax does this, but it does. My best guess is that both THC-A and the waxes are polar and love to mingle but the wax is amorphic (no structure) while the THC-A has a crystalline structure and the wax molecules are impeding the ability for the THC-A molecules to form a lattice with each other, but again it is just an educated guess.In reading your post it seems the waxes, removed through winterizing, play a big role in the 'softness' of the material either directly through their characteristics or less likely their hygroscopic tendencies? Can't see waxes being hygroscopic lol.
Absolutely! Nitrogen and cold storage will greatly improve your ability to store it for a long time with minimal chemical degradation.Another thing with shatter might the best thing be something like nitrogen purging, vacuum packaging and storing in a cold enviro be best for long term viability?