JohnnyFog Posted January 3, 2015 Share Posted January 3, 2015 Greetings to the forum... I'm ready to start making my own e-liquids for vaping. After a little cost analysis, it really makes sense to me to do this. My favorite e-liquid costs me $22 per 30ml. Based on the costs of the supplies I just ordered, I can make my own for under $3 per 30ml. The real question is whether or not I can make something I really love. To get myself in the game, I ordered the following: 500ml Unflavored Nicotine E-Liquid Base (50pg/50vg - 36mg) - $23.99 500ml USP Grade Propylene Glycol - $10.95 500ml USP Grade Vegetable Glycerine - $10.95 Some Leur Lock dispensing needles, a few 15ml bottles with dropper caps, and six different flavorings. I made myself a spreadsheet with some calculations in place to come up with correct volumes of the nicotine base mixed with PG, VG, and the flavorings to get to my desired 15mg final concentration. I have spent a good bit of time reading and watching videos on YouTube about making this stuff and it doesn't seem too difficult. The only area where I feel 'uneducated' at this point is the process that a lot of people call 'steeping' which really isn't 'steeping.' It appears that this process is simply aging and oxidizing the liquid prior to using it. Different folks have different methods of doing this and there appears to be no agreed upon amount of time that this process takes, or even if it's really required. The documentation I have found where people are doing it contains no info to back up the 'why' in this process other than the simple 'it needs/should be done.' I can understand this if it's a simple issue of giving the flavor additives time to properly incorporate themselves into the PG/VG solution. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeffb Posted January 3, 2015 Share Posted January 3, 2015 Steeping is a fallacy that was originally started by juice makers to respond to complaints. They would tell the masses that the juice will taste better after sitting for 3-4 weeks. People want to believe it taste better so in their minds it does. Dont believe the steeping proponents. They are weak minded. spydre and joejoevapekins 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
joejoevapekins Posted January 3, 2015 Share Posted January 3, 2015 Steeping, we don't need no steeping lol Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spydre Posted January 3, 2015 Share Posted January 3, 2015 (edited) Steeping is a fallacy that was originally started by juice makers to respond to complaints. They would tell the masses that the juice will taste better after sitting for 3-4 weeks. People want to believe it taste better so in their minds it does. Dont believe the steeping proponents. They are weak minded. I tend to agree with this, but I've seen where steeping has actually benefited juices GREATLY. EC Blends juices are pretty much hack until they've steeped for several weeks - at least in my experience. They've all been pretty flavorless when I've gotten them until steeped. I've HEARD from a few people reviewing Boba's that steeping made all the difference in the world for them, but my bottle didn't need steeped at all (but I can't remember if I bought it in a store or if I mail ordered it - two stores here locally carry it) and it STILL tastes the same 6 - 9 months later. The two local stores that I've bought at that make their own juice don't require steeping, and the sites I order from don't specify that steeping is required. Granted, the 618 I had in my case for about nine months before I gave it to my SO got nice and strong, but yeah, I would imagine any juice sitting in a cool dark place for six months would. It's not like I had the cap off and was shaking it every day. It was literally in my vape case (essentially, a tackle box, but it looks nicer) under my desk all that time. TO THE OP: The vendors like to say that steeping allows the "many" flavors in the mixes to fully "marry" and set and mature and whatever. I'm not convinced that they can't make a juice that doesn't need to sit for more than a month after I buy it before it's vapable. With Cactus Juice, from Juice Mafia, I don't know if the juice is made to order like some online shops do it or if they make big batches and it's sitting around, but with my other flavor - Smurfs Blood - the one that I get from a local B&M, I generally get it within a week of it being mixed because they can't hold onto the lower nicotine bottles as long because they don't make as many of them, and haven't had any trouble opening the bottle up as soon as I get home and vaping it right then. Same with the vape shop we started at - and that my SO still gets his juice from. You go in, tell them which flavor you want, and they mix it up in the back right then (that's where we got the 618 that had been in my "vape box" for so long that I gave to him) - but darn, you don't want to let their Inferno steep. My SO left Inferno in a Pro Tank for months....after he stopped using the tank. I had to replace every o-ring on that tank, scrub every part of the tank a few times, a couple of vodka soaks, and a soak in boiling water for good measure. But at least now I have extra o-rings for the Pro Tanks now, since you can't buy them as just one o ring for each spot, you have buy like a pack of five. Edited January 3, 2015 by spydre Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Compenstine Posted January 3, 2015 Share Posted January 3, 2015 Steeping is a fallacy that was originally started by juice makers to respond to complaints. They would tell the masses that the juice will taste better after sitting for 3-4 weeks. People want to believe it taste better so in their minds it does. Dont believe the steeping proponents. They are weak minded. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spydre Posted January 3, 2015 Share Posted January 3, 2015 Jeffb, I think you made Comp's head assplode. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Compenstine Posted January 3, 2015 Share Posted January 3, 2015 LMAO spydre 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Earthling789 Posted January 3, 2015 Share Posted January 3, 2015 My juices are always "aging"... look... they're all 30-seconds older already Vic and spydre 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
joejoevapekins Posted January 3, 2015 Share Posted January 3, 2015 Yes its aging not steeping lol Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Itsmedeanna64 Posted January 3, 2015 Share Posted January 3, 2015 You guys are just hilarious! Deanna Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BDM53ENT Posted January 3, 2015 Share Posted January 3, 2015 My recommendation would to make very small batches (5ml) until you start hitting on what you like. Otherwise you will find yourself throwing away what your saving. If you mix something palatable try to vape through it and keep notes what you might change. As far as aging Ive learned if I didn't like it the day after I mixed it, I still didnt like it month later. I mix and vape, Im not running a wine cellar spydre 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spydre Posted January 3, 2015 Share Posted January 3, 2015 My recommendation would to make very small batches (5ml) until you start hitting on what you like. Otherwise you will find yourself throwing away what your saving. If you mix something palatable try to vape through it and keep notes what you might change. As far as aging Ive learned if I didn't like it the day after I mixed it, I still didnt like it month later. I mix and vape, Im not running a wine cellar I second everything he said. Write down every formula, and on what didn't work, note WHY you think it didn't work, and - if you know - what could be done to improve it. It could be that the manufacturer you used for one particular flavor makes a taste you don't like, while another manufacturer's version of the same flavor is more, let's say palatable. I ran into this when I was trying to find a cheaper alternative (and bigger bottles)to the VT Poppin' Pineapple. The pineapple base flavor, I THINK is a different manufacturer from almost all that I've come across. I say almost, because I've only tried a few, but pineapple is one of the base flavors in Cactus Juice, and it doesn't taste foul like the flavoring some other places do, in my mind. So, don't be afraid to try different flavor manufacturers, either, before you give up on a flavor. But definitely keep track of both the victories and the misses. Then you can vape the victories while fixing the misses. My SO has some unflavored, because he's trying to cut expenses, and he heard that it tastes a bit like, well, smoking analogs - Marlboros, but I don't think that just unflavored lasted him too long. He went back to the 618 (which, I have to admit, is INCREDIBLY cheap in large quantities, well, it's cheaper than ANY B&M in the area, and more in line with online prices, I think). Although, the 618 I gave him, he used the unflavored to cut it down to his preferred nic level. Wow, I've wandered WAY far afield. You'll have to get used to that from me. I really have no desire to get into DIY juice, even though now I'm spending more on juice than I did on the ultra cheap analogs we were smoking the last few years, because my tasting is messed up due to certain circumstances - so it may taste great to someone else, but it might be "off" for me. Heck, for DAYS after this last coil change, my juice in one of my tanks tasted burned - same thing when I changed the coil on the other tank/flavor. Then one day it mysteriously cleared up. The problem wasn't a burnt coil or juice, it was me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FXRich Posted April 14, 2015 Share Posted April 14, 2015 Better than writing stuff down is to get ejuicemeup its a free download and its a great program for mixing ejuice. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sam Cook Posted April 16, 2015 Share Posted April 16, 2015 Been vaping for a year, own many mods and finally built one. Making my own juice is the next logical step for me. I once bought a hazelnut juice and it was awful the day I got it. Then about 6 weeks later it was great. I was told their juice is not steeped and would get better over time. But this was one flavor. Not like many that would have to marry over time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FXRich Posted April 17, 2015 Share Posted April 17, 2015 Some ejuice is like wine or brandy, improves with age, instead of steeping I call it fermenting. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Compenstine Posted April 17, 2015 Share Posted April 17, 2015 I call it aging, but fermenting is good too. I absolutely agree that steeping is not proper. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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