The Myth of Winterizing
I cant believe I have to explain this, but a lot of folks have been popping up promoting this winterizing process, and its something that just doesnt make sense if youre using pure butane, but it starts to become clear if youre using impure butane. Let me make this very clear: Taking BHO and dissolving it in ETO95% or ISO99% and freezing the solution, then filtering said solution with filter paper before evaping again does not remove butane or make the extract purer or remove any waxes. The waxes and plant oils that are dissolved by butane dissolve even better in cold iso. Moreover, you've just added a liquid solvent into your oil, and it will now need to be purged and cured even longer than originally with just the butane to remove the stubborn alcohol solvent from your oil.
But I tried the winterizing process and got a ton of waxy residue after filtering the hash oil tincture, surely this means its removing heavy plant waxes? you may be asking. I would like to present the following info if that is the case: I've performed the winterization on extracts I have made with pure iso-butane, and gotten zero particulate filtered out (no waxes etc). I have also winterized friends oils that were made with the same herb but with impure n-butane mixes that didnt pass the clean plate test (Vector, you scumbags I'm looking at you), and gotten a large quantity of wax left in the paper. The reason? Shitty brands like Vector 5x have heavy industrial oils and lubricants for your lighter in with the butane (10g per 12oz gas), which isnt pure isobutane but a mix of hexane, n-butane, and similar, which may dissolve heavier waxes than pure isobutane does. So depending upon your butane source, you could be using a less selective gas solvent mix that (if it isnt Colibri) likely has some heavy industrial oils in it that would definitely be filtered by winterizing.
Please note that Winterizing is not necessary when using pure butane, and it doesnt pull out all the impurities from an extract that was made with impure butane.