I'm still new new to DIY ejuice, but I do have some chem experience. I'm wondering how people manage all the different variations they try when working to improve a recipe. What kinds of records do you keep, and whats your strategy?
Even though I vape 10ml-15ml per day, I've mostly made 10ml bottles. I usually take one recipe thats promising, and come up with 2-3 variations on it. Then, I'll mix a pair of 10ml bottles of each, including the original/"current best" recipe to compare. One bottle of each pair is stashed to age at least 2 weeks, the other might be tasted fresh or aged a little while depending on my impatience. When something seems like an improvement, I'll usually make another round of variations similar to it (e.g. if I've added a new flavor, try changing the amount or scaling back a different flavor) and the original recipe to compare again. Then one of those might become the "current best" recipe I base everything on.
Picking variations on a recipe is of course the key, but thats what most of r/diy_ejuice is about (thanks guys!) I've started also raising and lowering the total percentage of flavoring, keeping the same ratios but making the juice stronger or weaker. I've been surprised by how different flavors in the recipe can seem more or less pronounced when you change from 18% to 15% total flavoring.
To track all of this, I've got:
- Bottle numbers - every 10ml or 30ml bottle I make has a unique id. Most are labeled something like "#1234 Berry thing + sour?"
- Standard lab notebook - Everything in chronological order, including making big batches of nicotine base or DIY flavor extraction. This has an entry for every bottle with its id, mix date, ingredients, and miscellaneous notes.
- Tasting log - where I scrawl various bottle numbers and what I think of them while vaping and rediting. This is also dated, so I can figure out how long the bottle had been aged at that point.
This might be overkill... At this point, I'm not sure exactly what I'm looking for, so I figure I'll try as many tweaks to a recipe as I can. Someday I'll get tired of this and make giant batches, but for now why vape the same thing two days in a row? I've come up with two contenders for my ADV, so I'll see what else I can find, and hopefully have some recipes to share here.
Check out the Monthly Flavor Challenge Thread on the sidebar - the processes described in that thread are very similar to yours and there are some good insights there.
My process is pretty much posted there. A lot of the times in a juices infancy, I don't take detailed notes (I probably should) I just make a quick vape of it then re-mix making adjustments. Once it gets closer to the goal I was shooting for, I start taking detailed notes on the flavor.
The way I do it -- I pretty much stick to one recipe for weeks/months at a time. I make a 120ml or so bottle in advance and let it steep for a day or two before I start vaping it. At the end of vaping it, I note what I think it needs more/less of, and then change recipe accordingly, while obviously recording it.
Probably not the MOST efficient way but I'm happy with it.
I keep tasting notes in with my recipe calculator with each iteration of the mix I'm doing. If I don't mind potentially ruining a 5ml sample I may add a drop or two of something I think will help, and also note that along with the approximate % the drop represents in the remaining liquid.
I kinda took the bombies approach, he stated once that If he cant vape a flavor for a month he considers it a failure.
I went with week.
I label the bottles #1, #2, #2.1 depending on small variations and keep each recipe in a notebook. With small flavor indications
(PBB clouds clone(coval vapes) i've been working on has "smooth peanutbutter, with background banana and caramel) written next to it.
OT this may be one of the very few correct uses of "methodology" ever.
Lol, does "methodology" get abused a lot online? Literally blown away, so ironic!