As someone going through college, VG/nic and flavors are always low priority on the buy list, but that's the reason why I got into DIY! I have filled up a whole 750ml bottle already, trying out new recipes. Makes me sad all the wasted VG, PG and nic :(
[Not a brand new bottle of crown :D] (http://puu.sh/a3zeB/7c43e72fa3.jpg)
EDIT: So at first, I was being stupid, Oh look, made myself some good blueberry menthol. Let me pour a 250ml batch of it! bad bad mistake, I have since wisened up and started making 5ml batches, then as i got more experienced and started learning about flavor mixes and how well they intertwine, I started up to 10mL. I learned the hard way to not make a bunch of something until you've at least got a second opinion on it.
If it's just plain bad, I dump it. If it isn't quite right, I tweek it or let it steep until I feel like trying it again.
I've made about 6 liters of liquid since I started and I can only remember one 10ml batch that was so bad it had to be dumped.
What are you doing to ruin so much liquid?
being stupid lol, I've learned that MFS blueberry is awful and that TFA Menthol is VERY strong. Keep it to 1-2 drops max, not 10-15 drops haha.
I'll usually only make a small batch of something that I'm experimenting with (like 10ml at the most). If it's shit, I'll keep it around for a few days and try it again. If it's still shit at that point, I'll let it sit for another week. If it's still shit, I'll have some friends try it. The first cheap bastard friend that says it's tolerable can have it. :)
If nobody wants it and it's really bad, I'll try to tweak it a bit and keep it around for when vaper tongue kicks in and I can't taste anything anyway.
Post-mix, not good? Keep it for 3 days. 3rd day no good? Keep for a week. Week no good? Sit for one more week. No good after that? See if a friend or family want it, disclosing what it has in it and I didn't find it good. If it's unfit to vape (too high nicotine percentage, too high VG) for some reason, I'll let them know, like the VG might not work as smoothly as a 50/50, and offer to put a drop or two of distilled water in it to let them try it. If none of these options work, toilet.
However it's never been enough to fill up a Crown bottle. Can you describe a few mixes that ended up in that bottle, and why they didn't end up in your vaporizer?
Let's see, when I first started, I bought MFS blueberry, Peach, and Apple along with TFA Menthol. My very first vape ever was blueberry menthol and I wanted to re-create it. I made a 10mL bottle back in Feb. and decided it was good, then made 250mL of it for myself. I used the pouring method (tsk tsk facepalm) and my target nic was 6mg. Of course, pouring and mixing is not that accurate and made my 250ml too strong. I tried again that same night and this time did 250mL more of blueberry/peach menthol and hated the flavor. I realized that MFS blueberry just wasnt that good. Here was the recipe IIRC, 15%blueberry, 5%peach. Now, I have not touched those two flavorings after experiencing TFA and LA flavors. The rest of the crown bottle was just bad mixes after becoming more experienced.
Couple things I learned,15% lemonade and whatever other percent is just too flavorful, lemonade really overpowers all. Another is that always start flavors small, then gradually increase if its not where you want it to be. Not all fruit flavors will mix as you think it will. Many flavors will seriously overpower the other.
My current juice is really darn good though, I cant recall the percentage, but if you have these flavors, I'd really give it a try.
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28 drops LA pomegranite
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2 drops TFA Lemonade
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2 drops TFA Menthol
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30 drops LA Strawberry Kiwi
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2 drops LA Tart and sour
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1 drop TFA Menthol
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1 drop TFA sour
Here's how I mix and test flavors, and I rarely throw away anything anymore.
Very first step is before I buy anything, I check out dot1ml.com and see if anyone has used it in any sort of mix. This eliminates a lot of flavors right away. A secondary alternative, one that I don't recommend doing, is visit your local B&M, and see if you can sample their version of that flavor. I don't recommend doing that because it's likely they mixed it differently and you won't get the exact same flavor (unless they admit it is) and some might consider it rude to just sample flavors and walk out, unless you make a purchase of something.
Anyway, dot1ml. So for a made up example, someone has used TFA Bacon at 8% (in my example, I don't know if they actually have) and now I know when I get it, to use it at 8%. I want to try it, but I don't want to waste any. In fact, I'm stingy with the cotton I use in my RDA, so I'll make at most 1ml.
For the sake of clarity, a 50/50 8% bacon (0 mg) is going to be: 0.4 ml PG 0.5 ml VG 0.1 ml flavor (I know this would be at 10% but reading 0.08 instead of 0.1 in a syringe is an exercise in futility)
I'll know right off the bat if the bacon is tasty or not, or if it's too strong or not.
This is all considering that I don't vape the same flavor I've been vaping for months now. I stuck to one brand as a smoker for years, so I don't step too far away from what I like, except to bust up my taste buds, when a particular flavor hasn't got any flavor.
Also, I tend to use premixed flavors from vendors to save time and save a little change. And MBV Cinnamon Roll is just too damn tasty..
Yeah dumping 250mL is a lot of juice, I used to do the same thing when I started only it was around 20 to 30ml, now if I try something new I will make only 10ml tops. For some reason when I started I kept on thinking everything was just going to turn out well and I was going to like it, not so, or even if they did turn out well, often it was something I probably wouldn't vape much or at all.
If you use a syringe instead of something harder to read like a disposable pipette, you can even do something small like 3 or 5ml, I can handle throwing away 5ml today, hate throwing anything more than that anymore.
And I really don't like having bottles around that will go unused, so small batches really cut down on the waste, and my supply of flavors and base go much further without having to reorder all the time.
Nice 7.62x39's in the background in the pic! A man of my own tastes!
Edit: Also, more on topic, I give away unwanted juices to friends. Unless they're so bad that nobody wants them, then down the drain they go. How many recipes did you try going through that much VG/nic?
Haha I've always felt so bad about giving bad juice to friends, dont want them dying on me :P
Well, if they were bad as in dangerous they'd definitely get dumped, but although some juices I've made were so bad you might think you were dying, they just taste really really bad, and won't kill you. Lol.
How big batches do you make when you're testing out new flavors? I've just recently started out with DIY juices and I'm trying to be as economical as possible, so I usually just make 5ml test batches as first. Another thing I've done is use a standard mixing ratio and make single flavor bottles that I can use to try flavor combinations. Makes the mixing much quicker and easier to make smaller batches.
It's just sitting there in little bottles. I'm hoping some of them age into a miracle flavor or something, but....
For me if it's simply "okay" then I keep it and steep it... And I'll use that when I'm in the "I really should run through these many bottles I have before making another batch" phase. (usually it's no more than 5ml in each bottle but that's still a fair amount to go through given I'm about a 2ml/day person on average.)
If it's "errh, not that good... but not turrible." I'll put it on the "try it again after a longer steeping time" shelf.
If it's just bad... Well, I just get rid of it. We're talking the "Wow, it's like eating a florist's shop" (my first attempt at a floral/fruit mix) or a "Hello plastic fantastic!" (my first attempt at a citrus blend.) The stuff that really don't taste good at all.
And the best part is, with small batches if I fuck up it's not like I'm tossing that much out.
The only ones I do bigger batches of (30ml at most) are the ones that I know the mix well. I may tweak it a little bit (such as maybe adding a bit more cinnamon to my sweet-cinnamint) but not much.
Small batches, grasshopper... Small batches. Until you find the PERFECT recipe for you, that is (and it's a solid recipe that both lasts/steeps-well and is tested to work in large amounts.)
I've only made one flavour that I didn't want to vape all of (I make 25-30ml batches for testing) so that's sitting on my desk, aging. It's been a few weeks and I've been too lazy to try it again. I figure I'll let it sit for a month or two, then try it. Unless a friend loves it for some raisin, then they can just have the bottle!