How to Get Kief From a Grinder

You may already be familiar with kief, the trichome resin sacks, and the beige powder that comes with them. If you’ve ever shredded a batch of sticky cannabis leaves and buds and found powdery material on the bottom, you know what kief looks like!

Kief is a part of the cannabis plant containing the highest amount of CBD or THC and terpenes or limonene that create the captivating aroma associated with the weed.

However, if you’ve never collected kief yourself, you may be wondering exactly how to do it. There are many ways, but perhaps the most popular is to use herb grinders, which we’ll explain here in this article.

Collecting Kief Using the Grinder

One of the most prevalent ways to collect kief is utilizing a herb grinder with a special compartment for collecting kief. A herb grinder, preferably one with three chambers, will produce moderate kief. The special compartment is usually known as the kief catcher, preventing kief from being wasted.

But, if you’re not satisfied with small amounts of kief, it’s best to rub the plant leaves over mesh screens and shake the branches while having something under the plant to collect kief. There’s even a particular machine equipped with a rotating silk drum.

But, instead of going through all this trouble, it’s better to use the three-chamber grinder or even get kief online. You will thus save yourself a lot of time and will surely get a higher quality kief. But if you love the challenge, you can use the grinder.

The machine grinds the marijuana flower in the upper chamber and then directs the ground flower to the middle chamber. In the middle chamber is a stainless steel mesh screen that filters the kief into the lower compartment, the kief catcher.

Maximum Kief Collection From the Grinder

Just like the leftover peanut butter in a jar, it’s hard to get kief out of certain parts of your grinder, especially the teeth and walls. So, what’s the solution to getting the maximum amount of kief out of your grinder?

We’ve listed some simple ways to get the most out of your kief yield and put that potent dust into your joints and bongs. Of course, you’ll need a grinder, preferably one with three compartments, to use these techniques. Let’s explore them one by one.

If you don’t have the time or don’t feel bothered with collecting kief, you can go online and buy kief from a reliable vendor. You can get products like Lemon Sour Diesel Kief 1g Special from various options, each tailored to a specific taste.

Use a Coin

When you use the grinder regularly for a while, there will eventually be enough Kieff to your satisfaction. First, you need to empty all the kief that have already been separated. Then, you can also reach into your wallet, take a coin, and put it in the same compartment where the kief sieve is located, mainly the second or middle chamber. 

As the machine continues to churn, the coin will amplify the whole process and knock off way more kief than you would typically have. It’s better to use a dime because it fits the grinder’s size and doesn’t smell like copper or anything. The coin needs to have enough room to bounce around in the grinder.

Now, it’s time to shake it. Imagine you’re a bartender serving a delicious drink to your customers. Shake the grinder as hard as you can so that the coin inside the grinder flies left, right, up, and down.

How does that help? The shaking will cause the coin to hit the walls and teeth of the grinder with such force that the entire kief will quickly fall off. Shake the grinder in all directions back and forth, not just one. Remember, the coin has to hit all sides of the grinder.  

But, before you do that, it’s better to cool down the grinder and the scraping material because the heat can cause such a mess.

Cool it Off

Sometimes, it’s too tedious and exhausting to scrape and shake off the delicious kief, especially if the room is hot. You need to monitor the temperature carefully because too much heat while scraping and shaking may melt those tiny kief sacs and create a gooey mess.

To avoid that, it’s best to put the grinder in the freezer for a while. If you let the kief freeze there, it won’t cause any problems, but it’s unnecessary. In addition to the grinder, it’s better to put the scraping tools in the freezer because they can quickly transfer heat.

So, it’s time to reassemble the parts and put them in the freezer. There’s another benefit to this other than avoiding the heat. When put in a cold place, the cannabis trichomes become drier and more complex, so it’s much easier to get them off the walls and teeth of the grinder.

If you’re looking for the trichomes to reach this state, you should leave the grinder in the freezer overnight. When you come back the following day, the kief will have turned into a brittle form that comes off the walls effortlessly.

While this method may take longer than shaking or scraping the grinder, it’ll provide a higher quality outcome with far less effort on your end. Instead of going crazy on the device, all you have to do is gently brush the cold kief off the walls. That brings us to the following method.  

Get a Brush

A small brush like a toothbrush or a makeup brush will help dislodge kief from the grinder. Not only that, you will clean the crevices of the grinder as you go. Using a brush is one of the easiest ways to push kief into the last chamber or the kief catcher.

When using scraping tools, it’s often hard to reach in between the teeth and specific slots in the grinder. You can use a small paintbrush to quickly get all of those materials out. 

As mentioned earlier, you need to avoid overheating the grinder, or the trichomes will turn into a gooey mess. In that case, using the brush won’t be as effective and may even spread the mess into other parts of the grinder.

In addition to avoiding the heat, it’s better to clean the grinder as soon as possible because you don’t want the remaining kief to become sticky. If that happens, you will need other tools besides the brush to clean and remove the kief.

Of course, that’s when you leave the grinder at room temperature. When freezing the grinder, you don’t have to worry about the time as much. Put the grinder in the freezer if you’re pressed for time for about thirty minutes, and then use the brush to remove the brittle kief easily.

You can also brush the middle or second chamber to push the kief through the bottom compartment. If the kief cannot pass through, it may be time to get a new filter. Fortunately, most new grinders on the market allow you to easily remove the old screens of various sizes and put in new ones.  

You need to insert a mesh screen of the correct size. What is the right size? It’s the one that prevents a good portion of plant material from entering the kief chamber but also allows the kief to pass through easily. Some fine mesh screens take a long time to catch kief. 

You Can Use Alcohol, But Carefully

If you’ve tried all the previous methods and none of them worked to your satisfaction, high-proof alcohol may do the trick. Using alcohol will completely clean all parts of the grinder while allowing you to collect the kief. You need to put the alcohol mixture in a small bowl and let the alcohol evaporate. Once the kief is dry, you can safely use it.

What To Do With Kief

It would take too long if we listed all the ways you can enjoy kief. To be brief, we will enumerate only some of them.

Add Kief to Coffee or Tea

Believe it or not, many people add kief into their coffee. It decarboxylates when you mix it with boiling water, which means that you don’t need to put it in the oven first. It also goes well with herbal tea! You need at most one milligram for every six ounces of tea. Once added, you can easily enjoy the taste of kief in sips!

Make Hash with Kief

Kief is a popular and essential ingredient for making hash. You get hash by heating kief a little and shaping it into softballs with a bit of pressure. The heat and pressure deform the resin glands and turn the composition of the kief into something new. In addition to the form, the colour also changes to a darker tone.

You can put the kief on parchment paper and fold it to do this process. Then, run a slightly hot iron over the paper to apply the necessary pressure and direct the heat into the kief. If you don’t have a clothes iron, a straightening iron can also change the composition of the kief. It would be best to do this until the kief is compressed, but be careful not to burn the paper.

Use Kief to Make Moonrocks

People love making Moonrocks with kief besides hash, coffee, and tea! The potency and affordability compared to concentrates are why people love making it. To make Moonrocks, you need to heat a marijuana oil and coat the buds with it. Then, sprinkle some kief on top while the temperature is high. You can also put the kief on a plate, roll the buds in it and let it set.

Now, the only thing to do is break that mixture, sprinkle it in a bowl, and enjoy! It’s better not to use a grinder in this process.

Bottom Line

To get the most out of your cannabis flowers, you need to collect this sticky magic dust known as kief. You are missing out if you’ve never tried it in your life! Not only is it safe and fun, but it’s more affordable than concentrates. All you need is a reliable, brand new three-chamber grinder to get the job done.

Whether you’re a coffee guy, a joint or bowl guy, or even a moonrock lover, adding kief to the mix will take the experience to another level.

Fortunately, you can legally buy kief in the U.S and Canada nowadays and enjoy the oozing aroma and the cool buzz that comes with it. However, it’s better to get it from an online vendor that provides top-rated, tested kief. That’s precisely what we do at Budlyft.