Hey everyone, I tried my best to read around and get the answer but I'm still not sure so here I am. Just ordered all my stuff to make e juice. I'm Under the impression that obviously you would want to make a small batch to make sure you have flavor % to what you want them to, rather than make 100ml and end up having it taste like shit and have wasted flavor and stuff.
My question is though, if I made a 10ml test batch of say like a blueberry and cream, and put let's just say like 10% blueberry and 4% cream, mixed it up, without nicotine, vaped it, and decided it needed more blueberry, would I have to make a whole new 10ml sample? Or would I just add a little bit of blueberry to the existing sample? I'm just confused on how I would keep track of how much of the vg and flavor to add to the final 100ml batch. Like if I got the flavor % right on my first test obviously I would just scale that formula to 100ml, but if I'm vaping some to check how it tastes, then adding some flavors here and there to get it right, how would I scale that to 100mL?
Also, once I get the flavor right on a small test batch, how would I factor in mixing the nicotine? Will that effect the taste or dilute the taste at all from what you've made without nicotine? I've watched a lot of videos and read diy directions but they all just explain the steps for if you already have an exact recipe or a definite flavor %
Honestly sorry if that was really poorly worded, I'm just finishing up a 12 hour shift here at 7am and my brain isn't working sharp right now
I'd recommend making a few variations of your recipe, replace the required amount of nicotine with just the base its in.. so if the recipe requires 1ml of PG based Nic just add 1ml of PG instead, to make your testers. Just to keep consistency.
If you start adding extra flavour randomly into testers it can become tricky keeping track of percentages for which you'll need to scale up into larger batches.
Nailing down a recipe can take time, often months when you factor in noting changes with steeping etc.
So keep mixing methods consistent, and try variations of your recipe. You will nail it soon enough!
Thanks, so if I'm using pg nicotine I would have to just use whatever volume of nicotine I would use in the final product as just normal pg in the test sample? I can't just use vg to fulfill the volume I'm going for? Like for example if I'm making a 10ml sample, and using 10% flavor, with a desired nicotine I should do 1ml flavor, 1.25ml pg (I have 48mg nic), and then the rest vg? I can't just do 1ml flavor and 9ml vg, because the final product would be different than that since it will have pg nic and a little less vg than if I just used vg and flavor?
Yeah if you use different ratio of VG/PG in a tester to what you will be using when scaling up to a bigger batch there might be a noticeable difference in flavour as PG carries flavour better than VG.
Try and keep things consistent for best results in terms of working on a recipe.
The important part of a recipe is the flavor percentages. Download one of the juice calculators from the sidebar, or create an account on ELR. Then you can customize each recipe to your desired nic level and PG/VG ratio. The program will do the math for you.
If I'm making a new flavor, I'll usually start with a "good guess", vape it a bit, and make additions and adjustments. So let's say I start with 5% of X and 5% of Y, then add PG & VG to get to 10ml. I vape a ml or so, decide I want to add 1% of A and 1% of B. Add these and top it off to get back to 10ml. Now the mix is great, and I want to make more. My notes show 5% X, 5% Y, 1% A and 1% B, but in reality I'd vaped 10% of the first batch, meaning my final bottle only had 4.5% of X and Y.
If I wanted to make the exact same bottle as my finished product, I would have to adjust my initial amounts down to account for the amount vaped. In practice, however, the difference between 4.5% and 5% is usually negligible for the majority of recipes. Also, my 1 ml vaped in reality would probably be only 1 or two tries in the dripper, much less than a full ml.
So, batch two I usually start with the same #s as my notes. Then if adjustments are needed I have "clean" numbers to work with. Rather than trying to fiddle with 4.8925% I just start with 5% and go from there.
Also - if my initial batch had WAY too much Y, the best thing to do is dump it and start over with 1% Y and work it back up. Don't be reluctant to dump the losers.
I guess the main question is what is the most efficient way to get a flavor just how you like it and then also be able to scale it to a larger recipe
Trial and error at first, which will eventually lead to a better understanding of what flavors and percentages to start with down the road.
Personally if I feel a 2 flavor mix is woefully unflavored with one flavor I'll put a couple drops in to see if it gets better and make a note to up the percentage. Sometimes it's not that the flavor is too weak but that it's the wrong kind of strawberry, or simply a bad pairing to begin with.
It's fine to add to a recipe, just make sure you're keeping notes of everything so you can add it all up once you have a mix you're satisfied with, whether you intend to scale it up or make another same sized batch. As long as you don't vape too much while testing a batch you can safely add 5% to 5% and call it 10%.
You'll only need to start from scratch if you want to remove a flavor or a significant amount of one. This is one of the reasons you want to start low, say 1% per flavor, so you can easily add more. Subtracting is a lot harder ;)
Nicotine does alter the taste a bit but not significantly. It won't change your recipe. As for fear of diluting, that will depend on your nic strength. If you have 100mg/ml nic base and want 3mg/ml in your batch, that's negligible. If you have 18mg/ml base and want 6mg/ml juice, you need to factor this in before mixing or you'll weaken the taste.
As for efficiency, I guess that just comes with experience. Knowing what works and what doesn't. Having a feel for how strong some flavors are compared to others. Honestly though, keep it simple if you're just starting out.
my advice would be to just make a new tester every time you tweak a recipe. I add nicotine to every tester. It affects the flavor so I want to know what it takes like with it in not without during testing phase. I was doing some complicated math a one point to allow me to add flavor to a test batch incrementally while testing a set volume of juice in between tests, but it's much easier to just get a ton of 5 mL or 10 mL plastic bottles and go to town.
Yeah, I'm all in on the "nic in the testers" idea too. Creating new flavours is so bloody addictive that it seems I'm vaping "testers" 95% of the time! I'd be going a little nuts if there wasn't any nic in them!
For 100% accuracy on adjustments, starting a fresh tester batch is mandatory, but I have tweaked old testers more than once to give me an idea what direction to go with the next batch. My thinking typically goes something like -
"I made a 15ml batch and filled a 4.5ml tank, so I've got 10.5ml left - if I want to bring X up another ~1% I've got to add .105ml of X to what I've got left"
Of course by doing that, you're bringing the % of everything else down at the same time (especially if you're bumping something by 5 or 10%), so as has been said or implied, you can't nail down a final recipe from that, but it can help you figure out which way to nudge it (or not to) and by roughly how much on the next batch.