What is Kief and How Do You Use It?

KiefWhat is Kief?

Kief refers to the resin glands or trichomes found on a marijuana plant. You know those glistening, resin-filled, light bulb-looking things that stoners prize so much. Along with getting people stoned trichomes on a marijuana plants also deliver that intense psychoactive experience everyone loves so much. No wonder Kief means pleasure or intoxication in Arabic. Those glands and their resin also produce pot’s strong, distinctive odor and flavor.

Keif delivers a greater kick than pure cannabis flowers alone because it contains a greater amount of psychoactive cannabinoids than just flowers alone. That’s why they call kief a cannabis concentrate. We’ll cover how to transform keif into hash in this post, but if you’re interested in more exotic forms of cannabis concentrates you dig this articles on the differences between concentrates like shatter, bho, and budder.

Best strains for kief collecting

If you’re looking to collect a lot of kief you’ll want to find strains that have been used heavily in the making of hash. We’re talking really trhichome-heavy strains like White Widow, Hash Plant of course and even strains like Chemdawg will do the trick because they’re coated in crystals making them great kief weed material.

Collecting kief

There are many ways to collect kief. Some are simple. Some not so much. The easiest way to collect kief is by using a three, four or five-piece herb grinder. Those additional chambers allows kief to fall through screens to the lower chambers where it can be consolidated and collected. The greater amount of chambers the great amount of kief you’ll retain. The more pure kief will be towards the bottom of the grinder as the plant matter gets caught up in the screens above.

kief boxUsing a Kief Box

To collect larger amounts of kief many stoners make a keif box. Basically a kief box is a makeshift sifters constructed of layered screens. Kief tends to measure between 75 and 125 microns. That means it can be difficult to separate all of the resin from the plant. To make sure you’re collecting the purest kief without unwanted green plant matter, it is recommended that you stack three to four layers of fine mesh screen (each finer than the last) one on top of another.

Using a kief box and a coin, you can expedite the kief collection process. Be sure to wash your hands and the coins first. Handle both the bud and coin as little as possible to minimize the amount of dirt and oils that get into the kief. Place a couple of quarters on the tray along with your dry herb and shake the box for 30 to 60 seconds. After you’re done shaking open the box to see how much kief has been collected. Repeat the process until you have collected enough kief.

Storing Kief

After collecting your precious kief make sure to keep it in a cool, dark and dry space. For maximum quality you’ll want to continually stir & mix the kief every few days using a comb to keep the kief from bunching up or sticking together. You might want to smoke a little bit while you’re at it. We don’t blame you.

kief to hashTransforming kief to hash

Traditionally, kief has been pressed into cakes of hashish for convenience in storage, Making kief is one of the steps in making hashish; after the kief is collected it is usually heated and after many steps becomes hashish.

There are probably about as many ways to make hashish as there are strains of marijuana. When you get down to basics, however, there are only a couple ways to go about it; wet or dry. Dry sifting or sieving through screen by hand (as explained above) or in some sort of  tumbler a fairly simple and effective process for making hash. After some tumbling the kief is compressed, maybe a little heat is added, and you’ve got hashish.

You might have some keef lying around in your multi-chamber herb grinder. Place that shit between some plastic wrap, drop it in your shoe and at the end of the day, you’ll have some hash. The less plant material in your keif, the better. Less leaf means more THC. And a product that’s more potent, transparent and pliable. When a high level of pure THC is present, hash will be almost transparent and unlike M&M’s will melt in your hands.

Keif vs pollen

Is pollen the same as Kief? Yes. And no. If you’re using the term pollen to refer to the resin glands on marijuana buds and plants then of course, yes. The term comes from the dutch because weed keef has a golden hue. The color and texture is very similar to that of marijuana pollen cast off by male marijuana plants. You know, the stuff that’s used to make little baby marijuana plants—basically plant sperm. Now that type of pollen you wouldn’t want to smoke. You wouldn’t even want to breathe marijuana pollen. If you’ve ever look at it under a miscroscope of have seen picture of marijuana pollen you’d know why—it’s jagged as fuck.

Vaping kief

Kief can be vaporized or smoked just like regular cannabis flowers. You can dab really pure forms of kief or it can be dropped in a vape pen. We’ve dabbed a ton of bubble hash of the years. Just drop that stuff right onto a really hot nail and you’re good. There are some companies selling THC e-liquid in Kief flavor.

Cooking with kief

Maybe you’re interested in making some cannabis-infused treats. You’ve got a ton of left over shake that you’d like to eat, but you don’t quite know how to go about it? To determine the easiest way to get weed into food we asked cannabis culinary expert Elise McDonough how it’s done. McDonough writes a weekly column; “Psychedelicatessen” for High Times Magazine. She’s also authored two books—The Official High Times Cannabis Cookbook in 2012 and last year’s Marijuana for Everybody. She tells us that while serving as a judge at the High Times Cannabis Cup over the past five years she’s tasted everything from infused pizza sauce to potato chips to ice creams, gummies, fortune cookies. “Just about anything can be medicated,” she says.

How to make kief butter

“The easiest way to add cannabis to your diet is to simmer it with your chosen fat, most commonly butter, and then strain it away and use that butter or oil as directed in recipes,” McDonough tells us. In case you’re interested in making your own cannabutter we’re got a really great recipe for ya. Check out our post CannaButter The Best & Easiest Recipe Ever. Making a cannabis-infused oil is similar to making cannabutter. You follow the same process but omit the use of water.

Have you ever collected keef weed or smoked plain kief weed? How’d you do it, in a bowl, a joint, blunt, etc. and what did you think? Let us know about your experience in the comments section below.



One Response to “What is Kief and How Do You Use It?”

  1. Steve

    Kief is a great way to make a THCA -CBDA tincture. THCA and CBDA are the precursors to THC and CBD, and are commonly known as acidic cannbinodis. They are in a CARBOXYLIC form, which means they haven’t been decorboxylated, and when ingested, have no psychotropic effects. THCA & CBDA can be used as a treatment for inflammation brought on by autoimmune disorders; like Psoriasis, rheumatoid arthritis, irritable bowel syndrome, etc. Here’s a good article on how to process an THCA-CBDA tincture…..
    http://www.catscientific.com/dissolving-acidic-cannabinoids-for-a-thca-tincture/

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