What Is Kief & How To Use It?

What is kief

What is kief? Kief, also known as Keef is one of the best byproducts of marijuana made from the plant’s trichomes and featuring the highest concentration of cannabinoids. 

If you’re wondering if you have seen kief before, chances are you have from grinding your cannabis bud. After grinding your bud, you’ll notice there is usually a small amount of yellow powder at the bottom of your grinder. 

Those are cannabis crystals, which contain a much higher concentration of cannabinoids than regular bud and is known as kief. 

In short, smoking kief will set you up for an outer-worldly and unforgettable high – here’s what it’s all about!

What is Kief?

Kief

Like we mentioned earlier, kief is one of the purest cannabis concentrates on the market today that comes in powder form and can be collected from cannabis flower or marijuana bud. Kief can be found on the tip of resin glands (trichomes) of the cannabis plant.

They stick to the surface of cannabis plants and high-quality kief is identifiable by its color, which should be a light tan or shade of blonde. Lower quality kief will generally be greener and contain additional plant matter, which can make for a negative smoking experience.

The resin glands are trichomes that look like white hair strands and cover your bud. With keef being a very potent concentrate, many users opt to use the crystal sparingly in joints, or by making a hash puck, some edibles, or even simply adding it into a beverage (after it’s been decarboxylated).

How to Collect Kief?

With our previous section answering the primary question of what is kief, the next step would be figuring out how to properly collect it.

Grinder method

For many of us, we enjoy the additional high kief provides, but rather than buying expensive concentrates, we would recommend you look into sifting your kief. This is the easiest way to extract kief on your own. All that is required to sift kief is:

Using a three-chamber grinder is a simple way to extract kief crystals from the bud and capture the strongest parts. Here is how you can do it. 

Simply place your bud inside the grinder and grind your cannabis into small bits. Kief will automatically fall through a screen with small gaps and be stored in the lower compartment of the grinder.

We recommend a three-chamber herb grinder because although two-chamber grinders will technically work as well, kief can often stick to the inside and be hard to extract. Overall, you’ll have an easier time and much better experience investing in a higher quality grinder.

Screen method

Another method of collecting kief from your bud is through a silkscreen, which can be found at any supply store that specializes in screen-printing. For the screen method, you will need the following:

  • silkscreen between roughly 80-270 LPI (to allow kief to pass through)
  • cannabis bud of your choice
  • plastic card to sift your bud (bank card, credit card)
  • bowl or container to catch kief

Since kief is extremely small in size, it can be difficult to separate all of the crystals from the bud from the first screen, so you may opt to purchase additional silkscreen layers (up to 4) to guarantee that you extract the purest kief without any additional plant matter. 

This ensures that you consume as little plant material as possible, which is beneficial for your lungs. The steps for the screen method are as follows:

  1. Place silkscreen on a table/surface. If you have multiple silkscreens, stack them from largest to smallest LPI
  2. Place bowl or container of choice underneath silkscreen(s)
  3. Place cannabis bud on the top silkscreen layer.
  4. With your plastic card, lightly push bud around with minimal downward force to sift the keef. Continue pressing kief through all silkscreen layers and into the container at the bottom

This is a very effective method for collecting potent kief, however, the potency of your remaining bud will be decreased because you are stripping it of its cannabinoids and thus, reducing it’s THC content.

Now, if you decide that neither of these methods is going to work with you, there is always the option of purchasing kief directly from an online dispensary Canada. This would save you the time and trouble of buying silkscreens or grinders and extracting the kief on your own, however, due to its high purity, keef can be a very costly concentrate in the long-run. 

Last but not least, be sure to store your kief in an airtight container and be sure to leave it in a cool, dry place, where it is not exposed to light.

What to Do With Kief??

Now that you know how to make kief, the next step is to consume it. In this case, there are many methods of consuming keef, as well as many recipes where keef is a great addition, including edibles, beverages, butter, and hash.

How to smoke kief?

How to smoke kief

The most common way to use kief is by, you guessed it, smoking it. You have a few options here; you can smoke it by itself out of a pipe or a bong. 

Kief burns rather quickly, so be careful when lighting it as to not waste any. This is the most potent method of ingestion and can either set you up for an intense, thrilling high or can cause a green-out and be an awful experience. Tread lightly when dealing with cannabis concentrates as pure as keef. 

Since many recreational smokers don’t have much experience with kief, we would recommend that you add kief by sprinkling it on top of the marijuana that you usually smoke or vape. That is a sure way to elevate your high without being blasted into another dimension. If you’re feeling adventurous, you can roll a kief joint, which contains both kief and marijuana bud. This gives you the most control over how potent your high is, as you have all the control in adjusting the proportions between kief and bud.

If you’re extra bold, you can try rolling what’s known as a thai stick – a supercharged cannabis joint that features hash oil, full bud cannabis and a thick coating of kief on the outside!

Make hash

Hash

If smoking kief doesn’t appeal to you, a great alternative is to make hash. Hash is created with the use of heat and pressure, which changes the keef from powder-form to a solid. Making it is simple; you will require:

  • An adequate amount of keef
  • Parchment paper to hold keef
  • Flat iron or clothing iron

Group your kief inside the parchment paper and with the clothing iron, press down on the parchment paper while taking extra care in not burning the hash. 

Applying heat and pressure to kief will change its anatomy and bring a more solid and softer structure. Also, note that the more pressure you apply the darker hash becomes. 

A lot of people prefer smoking hash because it is easier to store and access compared to keef, but it’s all preference. 

If none of these methods appeal to you, there is the option of turning your kief into butter and using that butter for baking, also known as edibles. You can also add it into a coffee or tea and ingest it orally, which can get your day started just right.

Concluding Thoughts 

So what is kief? They’re fine, crystalline structures of high potency THC that are naturally collected when you handle or grind high-quality cannabis. The easiest way to collect these potent weed crystals is through simply grinding your cannabis or if you’re so inclined, to use a silkscreen to collect it en masse.

Add it to a joint, sprinkle some on your bowl, or make a puck of hash with it – the possibilities for keef are near endless, especially if you know how to decarboxylate your cannabis.

The next time your friends ask you “what is keef?” you’ll be prepared to answer their questions and more and even make some cannabis goodies along the way!

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