I have some bad news.
Picking the right micron sized bag depends on many factors and several of them are down to personal preference.
The input material (flower, hash, kief, etc.) is the most important factor. After that, you need to weigh the importance of quality versus yield.
Do you want higher quality extract, at the cost of a smaller yield?
Or do you prefer a higher yield, at the expense of lower quality?
You’ll have to find the right balance for yourself.
What we can help with is to give you a good starting point.
For each type of input material, there is a range of bag sizes that is ideal. I’ll tell you what size to start with and then you can adjust from there based on your personal preferences, while staying within the range.
I’ll begin with a quick summary of my recommendations. More details on each one follow below, as well as the answers to some of the most common questions regarding rosin bags.
Micron size refers to the size of the openings between the threads of the rosin bag. One micron (abbreviated u) is 1/1000 of a millimeter (1 inch = 25.4 millimeters). So, it’s small. Really small. For comparison, the thickness of a human hair is about 75 microns on average (but varies from 17u to 181u, depending on the person).
The recommended micron size for flower rosin is 115u to 120u. The ideal range is 90u to 120u.
Trichrome heads are the most cannabinoid-rich part of the cannabis plant and they are around 120 microns in diameter. It makes sense, then, to use a micron size that will filter them out, so that their cannabinoids can be liquefied and extracted and the plant material left behind.
90 micron bags are also great for flower. You’ll get better filtration and increased quality, but it comes with a reduction in yield. Most find 115u to be the sweet spot where yield and quality reach the best balance. We agree with that.
If you want the absolute highest quality and don’t care about sacrificing yield, go with a 72 micron bag.
We’ve seen several sites recommend bags with micron counts of 160, 200 or even higher. They say you can then re-press the extract through a 25u or 36u to remove any impurities and get super high quality rosin.
But why use a bag at all, in that case?
If you’re going to re-press it through a smaller bag, why not save some money and do the first press without any bag at all?
And if you’re just pressing for personal use and you don’t mind plant material in your rosin, I ask the same question: why use any bag? Just save your money and press without them.
That neat little trick I just mentioned can be used anytime you want to increase the quality, by the way. You can always run any extract you get through another bag with a smaller size, to ensure top quality.
You could even double up on the bags and do this double-filtering in a single press.
The recommended micron size for flower rosin is 36u or 45u. The ideal range lies between 25u and 90u.
Kief is a much finer material, which means that the extract can flow out much more freely. For this reason, it is possible to us much smaller bag sizes and not sacrifice much yield.
Generally, we would recommend trying a 36u bag first. If you are unhappy with the yield, increase the size to see if yields improve and the loss of quality is still acceptable. Each strain will have a different ideal bag size.
The recommended micron size for flower rosin is 25u or 36u. The ideal range lies between 25u and 90u.
Since the various types of hash are all pressed somewhat already, you can use even finer bags. Like with kief, we generally recommend starting with 36u and going up or down in size, depending on the result. If you are unsatisfied with the yield, go up in size. If you find the quality too low, go down in size.
You rosin bags will be flat inside their packaging. To use one, you want to first turn it inside out, so that the seam is on the inside. This prevents any oil from getting stick in the seam.
Fill the bag with material, making sure it is filled evenly and all the way into the corners. Try not to leave any empty spaces where the extracted oils could get caught up and not make it out of the bag. Break down larger material to make sure it fills the bag more evenly.
Be careful not to overfill the bag. You should be able to flatten the bag with the material in it. If you can not, it is too full. An over-packed bag runs the risk of bursting.
When using fine material like hash or kief, keep the material flat. The overall thickness of the material in the bag should not exceed ¼ of an inch.
Fold over the edge of the bag to ensure no material falls out during the press and you’re ready to place the bag onto the plates. If there is any excess filter bag material, cut it off with a pair of scissors, so that no rosin can get caught up in the excess material during pressing.
If you are pressing flower, you can do it without using a bag, but you will get some plant material in your final product. It will also taste a bit more like traditional smoking than more pure extract does.
If you’re just pressing for personal use, this is fine. You can save money on bags and some people actually prefer material in their dabs.
But if you are pressing for commercial purposes, you’ll want to use a bag, even for flower. Most people want their dabs to be clear.
You can clean your bags and reuse them, but the opening between the mesh (micron size) will be larger on subsequent uses and some of those openings will be plugged with material, which increases the risk of a blowout. It is recommended to use a new bag for every press.
If you do want to reuse your bag, the best way to clean it is to soak it in alcohol, scrape out the old material, soak it in alcohol again and then clean it with very hot water and soap. Be especially gentle with the seam.
Some people recommend simmering the bags in coconut oil, rather than soaking them in alcohol. To my mind, alcohol works just fine and is a lot cheaper than coconut oil.
Most blowouts are a result of overfilling the bags. Make sure you can press flower flat inside the bag. If you can’t, it is too full. Hash and kief should never be thicker than ¼ an inch inside the bag.
Using a pre-press mold to flatten the material inside the bag before pressing helps a lot to prevent blowouts.
When pressing kief and hash, it is a good idea to press slowly. Applying full pressure immediately will almost certainly result in a blowout.
Instead, start with a low pressure and let the plates heat up the material for 5 seconds or so. Then increase the pressure a bit and wait another 5 to 10 seconds. In this way, slowly increase the pressure over the course of a minute or so, until you’ve reached the full pressure desired.
For much more on extracting rosin, check out our complete guide that takes you through each step of the process.
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