Happy Monday once again!
Today we will be talking about diluting your flavors. I know this topic isn't as fun or exciting as others we've already discussed, but it's certainly still worth talking about. While this is a technique most often used by advanced mixers due to the flavorings they use, like medicine flower for example, even beginners usually have a flavor or two that could benefit from dilution.
Diluting a flavor gives you more control of how much you are adding to your juice and more control of the overall flavor balance in your recipe, allowing you to hit that perfect sweet spot with a certain flavor. When you are mixing small batches or testers involving an especially potent flavor, the difference between 1-2 too many, or too few, drops can be the difference between a well balanced excellent recipe and something not so good.
Any flavor you see being used below 0.25% or recorded as "drops per 'X' ml" is an excellent example of a flavor that you may want to dilute. For example, cinnamon spices, FA Joy, a slew of Inawera flavorings, and everything Medicine Flower makes.
The process is not too incredibly difficult. All you need are the following to get started:
- Dilution substrate (VG and/or PG)
- Flavoring
- 10 ml bottle
- Scale
Creating the Dilution:
Most people will either do 1:10 or 1:5 ratio dilutions. A 1:10 dilutions means that you will create "juice" that is 90% VG/PG and 10% flavoring. A 1:5 dilution is 80% VG/PG and 20% flavoring. I only do 10% dilutions. You want to make sure you are diluting your flavor with the base that it is comprised of. Almost every single flavor out there is PG based, so if you have to ask, that's what it is. Doing so may slightly change your over PG/VG ratio of your juice, but it will make the dilution math much easier so you don't have to do any converting later. Load up your favorite ejuice calculator, plug in the corresponding percentage for the ratio you want to make, mix, and you're ready to go.
Using your Dilution
Now you are ready to make your actual juice.
From here, this is what I find to be the best way to do it for me.
Load up the recipe you want to make in your juice calculator. Determine what percentage of the diluted flavor you want to use at the undiluted potency and plug it into the calculator. For example, I like to use INW Waffle to give a nice warm, fresh off the iron taste to a pastry. However, at 0.25%, or even 0.125%, it's extremely over powering. I want to use it at 0.05%. 0.05% is what I will plug into the calculator.
Next, as we are mixing the recipe, you will determine what the weight (or volume if you are using the peasant method) of the diluted flavoring should be. This is exactly why I only do 1:10 dilutions. If your recipe calls for 0.01g of undiluted flavoring, the math is extremely easy. Multiply by ten. You will actually add 0.1g of the diluted flavoring.
The reason we are recording the undiluted flavor percentage and going through the (minor) trouble of doing the math is because this is just accurate record keeping. You are recording the percentage of the flavor you are actually using and then it makes it easier for others to follow your recipe if they choose to make your recipe without diluting (or if they don't read your flavor notes).
Unfortunately, I have not yet found a good recipe calculator that easily and accurately records dilutions while giving the diluted weight required.
Conclusion
Ultimately, dilutions give you more control of your recipes allowing you to perfectly balance them while using exceptionally potent flavors. It's an easy process to create them and just as easy to use them.
If you're new or want to catch up on my older Modest Monday posts, you can check out /r/ModestMonday.
Don't forget to catch /u/matthewkocanda [+3] and I on the BeginnerBlending show tonight at 9pm EST on the DIYorDie podcast network tonight.
Not just a question for Vurve, but anybody: What are some other commonly diluted flavors? Which flavors are you diluting?
/u/TheCatHimself and I are probably going to dilute our Holiday Spice because it is strooooong. We bought it to use in a peach spiced custard and right now it's in the category of "x drops per y ml" so diluting that will make it easier to work with.
I have diluted LA Pumpkin for the same reason - death by nutmeg - and am thinking about diluting Holiday Spice as well. I keep reducing Holiday Spice in a cookie butter recipe I've been working on and the next version will either have 0.02% or 0.19% of a dilution.
More so than anything, it depends on the brand. Medicine Flower requires it, as well as a decent handful of Inawera flavors.
Also, spiced flavors like cinnamon, nutmeg, etc almost always require dilutions as well.
I've diluted INW Lemon Mix for being tasty but waaaaay too strong. What are some other Inawera flavors that require it?
Last Monday was all about testing I've been having trouble with exactly what I'm trying to note any suggestions on what things we should be writing down in our notes and what things we are looking for while testing
I enjoyed this post. I wish there was a way to compile some flavors in a thread where people shared at what point they found a flavor to mute itself at a certain %. Maybe an idea for a future Modest Monday post. Also, thank you for all the information you help to provide to this community. I barely come up with time to mix, let alone come up with a lengthy informational weekly post such as your own.
I've been working on a beard 32 clone and for the life of me I can't get the cinnamon right. It's always too light on the cinnamon no matter the %. (I've even tried up to 1% FLV Rich Cinnamon, 3% Cinnamon Ceylon, and 4% Cinnamon Danish Swirl) The FW Cinnamon Roll/Cinnamon Churro recipe plastered all over the internet isn't close, and although I have managed to get closer, I'm still missing the heavy sweet cinnamon. I may post this in the new mixer thread and pray or an answer, as my post in the clone request thread didn't yield beneficial results.
I was just put the ? Out there cover it when you can
>Last Monday was all about testing I've been having trouble with exactly what I'm trying to note any suggestions on what things we should be writing down in our notes and what things we are looking for while testing
Did you mean this question?
I answered it with the link to my previous Modest Monday where I went over actual flavor reviewing. https://www.reddit.com/r/DIY_eJuice/comments/4fdevi/modest_monday_reviewing_flavors/
Thanks again for what you're doing love the podcast love the modest Monday posts although I have been missing for a while testing flavors is something I just haven't made time for i thought I'd send you this post and see what you think of it
Name/ grape FLV rda/ tugboat% Used/5% coil/ single SS 7 rap spaced w/ 30
Steep time- 2 weeks
wick/full
Mouth Feel - surprisingly Airy and smooth sits on the tongue well slightly sharp and sour moderately dense I would give it a 7 out of 10
Flavor Properties- sweet sour and sharp at the same time more of a candy grapes than an authentic grape flavor
Relatable Flavors - definitely a grape Kool-Aid or grape soda flavoring also reminds me of a melted grape Otter Pop
Off Flavors - no real off flavors a slight aftertaste pretty dead-on for a grape Kool-Aid
Position in the recipe - easily a top or support note putting it in the background may require a lot of work
Pairings - any kind of soda or popsicle could benefit from some Citrus May brighten it up a little Touch of orange Or lemon-lime they make a pretty good Grape limeade flavor
Thx I am new to redit is there a Fred I should be posting these recipe notes under I posted two in your Cloud Collective and I'm not sure that's the right spot
Do we need to steep diluted flavors???!!! Why has no one else asked this million dollar question? I know I'm late to the party, just catching up on all the Modest Mondays. Started DIY bout 2 weeks ago.
In my experience, not really. After a good shake, the juice in homogenized enough to dispense.
Thanks for response. Gotta say, that makes no sense though considering single flavor testing is supposed to be steeped. Seems like the same rules should apply. For fruits I can see steep not being necessary but what about for tobacco dilutions or other flavors that are known to require long steep times?
Btw, is InTheMix happening tonight? I'm sitting in chat like a nerd then it dawned on me that maybe no one is showing up due to July 4th.
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This is not the correct way to make a solution. Let's assume PG flavors are 1g/ml. If you want to make 10ml of a 10% solution you start by measuring out 1ml of concentrate and then add PG up to 10ml. You don't add 10ml PG, you want the final amount to be 10ml.
Since PG is pretty damn close to 1g/ml you can start by weighing out 1g concentrate and adding 9g PG. Or start with 9g PG and add 1g concentrate. If you were to simply add 1g concentrate to 10g PG you'd end up with a concentration of 1/11, or .9%.
Make sense?
Either I really suck at reading, or I don't see anyone here suggesting mixing 10ml + 1ml (or 10g + 1g) to make a 10% solution. Like you said, it wouldn't work.
edit: ...or it was edited out?
Crap, now I'm breaking out the pencil and paper.
Have a feeling I'm about to feel like an idiot
All you have to keep in mind is what you want the final amount to be. If you want to make 10ml of a solution you don't start with 10ml PG and add concentrate to it because this will increase the total volume.
Hell, this is what we have juice calculators for! If you want to make 30ml eliquid you don't start with 30ml and add concentrates to it.
Trust me, making solutions comes up occasionally in other subreddits I'm in and this is the correct method.