Hi all - so glad I found this community! I quit smoking using vape products and for whatever reason the flavors were a big help to me in getting off real smoke. So when I heard about the potential for an outright ban in the U.S., I decided I had to learn to DIY so the government wouldn't force me back into the loving arms of Big Tobacco.
But after my first few batches, I've had enough experience to have some very nuanced questions, which I thought I'd ask here, because I imagine these things will come up quite a bit... so here goes!
- With a liquid as viscous as freezered nic salt goop, it's not easy to measure out. I've noticed if you use a graduaed cylinder that the vestiges are pretty substantial. Do you ballpark a say 10% vestiges adjustment and use a cylinder, or do you actually bust out a syringe and get it exactly right no matter how hard it is to suck that goop in?
- How real of a thing is steeping? I noticed my juices tasted pretty bad at first, and they do seem to be getting better over time... is that the result of steeping? How long does it usually take to properly steep a new juice?
- Sometimes I've observed that my juices have a weird aftertaste.... is this a lack of steeping?
- How do you get the little rubber dinger out of the top of a Juul pod? Is there any reliable way to buy "empty" juul pods? Or is there a better way than a Juul device to consume the liquid I create?
- How long does a Juul pod last? (How many refills?) Is it possible I'm burning out the coil in the pod toward the end of my first refill? Sometimes it tastes like a burnt coil, or a coil that was dry-hitting,. Ideas?
- Do Juul pods give a lot of harsh hits if you have too high a VG proportion for some reason? I read Juul uses 80-20 PG-VG. Is there a reason I can't use 50/50 in a pod?
- Do you typically have to buy benzoic acid separately from your nic salt goop? Or does it come in the nic salt goop? I bought from a supplier that told me it had "all the acids it needs in there" -- is he right? The bottle indicates it was made from extraction of tobacco leaves, so I imagine he is.
- I have an electric mixer -- how long do you usually hit a 10 ml batch with an electric mixer for?
TIA for all your help!
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You don't pour straight from the freezer. You should have a smaller bottle kept out to work with at all times. Freezer is for long term storage and nicotine doesn't do well with constant temp change and opening of the bottle. Use a squeeze bottle or glass dropper bottle to dispense nic.
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This all depends on flavors used and at what percentage they are used. There is no general time Fram, no matter what someone tells you (throw the fruits, Bakery, creams, tobacco suggestion out the window)
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I don't know what weird aftertaste means
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Juul pods aren't meant to be refilled. Consider something like the caliburn.
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As I said, not meant to be refilled. Also not a diy question.
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Ratio depends on the device. 50/50 is quite common for pods, though many can handle 70vg perfectly fine.
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There is no acid in there. Benzoic is one acid that can convert to the nicotine to nicotine Salts.
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Don't use that mixer to make juice.
And for the love of God, stop saying goop
Thank you so so so so much!! You are awesome!!!
I have a couple questions back... and yes I will stop saying "goop," I suppose it's just that I've gotten used to working with frozen nic salt which is extremely viscous :) apologies.
Regarding #8 - don't use that mixer to make juice - should I use a different mixer, or no mixer at all? I'm not understanding the problem with the mixer. Should i just shaek it up instead?
Regarding #2 - just so I have an order of magnitude idea, could you ballpark to me some times you've seen? Like what's a short versus long time - is 1 week a long time to steep? Or is that a short time?
Thanks very much, I really appreciate your help!
Measure by weight. Much easier, less error due to viscosity, and recipes are designed by people who measure by weight and use the 1ml=1g assumption for flavors. So even if you could measure perfectly the volume of what you add, you wouldn't end up with the exact flavor intednded due to varying SGs.
I tried mixing with a graduated cylinder. Once. Then I immediately bought some syringes.
Then about a month or so later I bought a scale and now just use the syringes to get the density of the flavorings so I can update my software.
Mixing by weight is by far the best method, and it's significantly faster.
You realize recipes are mostly written to assume 1ml=1g? So no need to determine density unless you're planning to correct your percentages from recipes you've developed in order to share them.
>Sometimes I've observed that my juices have a weird aftertaste.... is this a lack of steeping?
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Impossibe to say for sure just based on your description - but yes, it is POSSIBLE. Often there's a bit of a weird flavour to juices until they've steeped. Iv'e noticed some with a chemical taste till it's steeped a bit. Also - sometimes there can be a harsh note. If you're finding that, allowing the bottle to get some air during the steep can help solve that. And by 'air' - i mean like unscrew the cap, blow some new air in, close it right back up and do that once MAYBE twice and only for juices where you notice a harshness after the steep.
During a steep you may also notice some flavours become very strong and then settle down, or vanish completely, only to reappear as the steep continues.
Weird aftertaste can be from using too much of certain flavorings. Steeping time varies. Stuff like creams and vanillas take time to fully develop. Fruits and candies can be good to go from the start. It all depends on which flavors you use. I've noticed that if I make a mix that tastes bad, no amount of steeping really helps. Something that tastes good from the start can potentially taste way better with time.
I'm going to probably be the only one to say it, but I've been mixing for 3 years and have never found steeping to do anything at all.
Now, I don't do any primarily cream or tobacco flavors, but all my fruit, menthol, and bakery recipes tastes exactly the same the day after I mix them as they do a month later. And I used to do the whole keep in a dark place and shake daily for 2 weeks thing.
While steeping might help mellow out some harsher flavors, you'd be better off adjusting the recipe so it's not harsh to begin with (I struggled for a while with a blueberry pomegranate mix that was delicious but was harsh as hell).
I’ve always kind of felt that steeping was unnecessary because the whole point is to just let your juice distribute all the ingredients evenly. I could be wrong but I don’t think any chemical reactions happen during steeping. So what’s the difference between a steep and just mixing the bottle well enough to homogenize the mix right away? I’ve only mixed for a couple months, so I’m probably still ignorant in some DIY aspects, and usually just shake and vape and don’t notice much changing over the days it takes to finish a bottle.