So I am still brand new to DIY and I recently found a recipe I wanted to try with ethyl maltol in it. I got an order of crystal EM and when I was mixing I didn't dissolve or dilute it in PG or VG. Did I ruin my batch? In the future how should I use this ingredient?
Edit: I mix by weight.
I made a pg solution of my EM crystals. 10% EM 90% PG. Really easy with a scale.
How does that translate? Like I threw .3 of crystals in the mix would the 10% solution be .3 as well?
9 grams PG - 1 gram EM = 10% solution
The industry standard for EM in all DIY recipes is 10% EM and 90% PG. whenever you see a recipe call for it, that's what is expected.
I knew I'd mess the crystals up myself when I first started out. So I just went with the liquid. TFA EM, and ecigexpress, and basically all others DIY juice sites that sell it in liquid form use 10% EM in the PG mix.
There's some rare exceptions though. Think I saw a 20% one time, and also a VG based one as well one time.
I've seen a 20% Koolada that was alcohol based so it may just have been alcohol based
Didn't know koolana was EM. Thought it was menthol\cooling sensation kinda thing.
Assuming you put in the proper amount, it will be fine. You just need to get it to dissolve. Heat it up in something heat resistant (preferably borosilicate glass, e.g. Pyrex) and agitate it. What I usually do is microwave it in the graduated cylinder I mixed it in (borosilicate) and then stir it up. Hopefully somebody can chime in and say if this is a good or bad idea, but I do it all the time and have had no ill effects, it helps to get high VG mixes out of the cylinder easily, as well. Microwave for a few seconds at a time, because it heats up rather quickly.