10:15am-11:00am – Down to the Last Drop: Extraction Yields and the Factors that Influence Them
Whether you’re conducting LPG, or ethanol, or CO2 extractions, your mass, and chemical yields depend on a number of factors, including starting material, grind size and consistency, solvency, and extraction parameters, such as pressure, temperature, or time. For many new to these physical and chemical concepts, optimization might come through some serious, and laborious, trial-and-error. Understanding and mastering the dance between experimental conditions and actual product yields enables product designers to extract the most from their plants. Increased yields mean more medicinal products for retail, and more products should translate to more prosperity. This panel provides insight into these relationships to help you first optimize, then monetize.
11:15am-12:00pm – Analytical Lab 101
When one wants to make decisions regarding researching and developing cannabis as medicine, the importance of mountains of analytical data can’t be understated. The safety of cannabis and hemp products as a contaminant- and toxin-free requires accurate testing by third-party laboratories. And with increasing importance, the terpene and genetic profiles validate the chemical representation of a specific cultivar. It is paramount that manufacturers and consumers can trust the information on a product label, or perhaps, more importantly, the data that the grower or manufacturer is privy to, but not the consumer. This panel provides insight into analytical testing, what all the numbers mean and how to use them, and how to best cultivate the relationship between you and your lab.
12:30pm-1:15pm – Analytical Lab 201: Enter the World of the Analytical Chemist
For many advanced product manufacturers, analytics and the cascade of data that follows are behind the wheel, driving them deeper into uncharted territory. For some, this might mean a deeper dive into their plants and products beyond what is required by industry regulations. Others might use these tools in their R&D to truly design the products they’ve envisioned without breaking the bank on outside testing. There are laboratories that use sophisticated chemometrics to classify products, research ensemble effects, or medicinal formulations. This panel regards options for those looking to bring more data to the table such as that new GC-FID for terpene quantitation in your hemp products, or a cryomill to prep much more homogeneous biomass samples or the evaluation of product consistency through principal component analysis. Everything you do can be useful data, and our panelists will help you understand how.
1:30pm-2:15pm – Organoleptic Blueprinting: The Creation of Infused Foods and Beverages
Cannabis makes many, many things much more exciting from a sensory perspective. A hike through misty woods, a pizza, a concert, a visit to an art gallery or the Wild Animal Sanctuary in Keenesburg, Colorado – whatever the chosen experience, cannabis enhances one’s senses. So, it makes sense to rely on the palate and the nose, even the eyes, when designing cannabis-infused foods and beverages. Therefore, one needs a defined design before ever mixing any two ingredients to ensure palatability to the consumer, while maximizing the product’s therapeutic potential. This panel regards strategies for creating cannabis foods and beverages that please the senses.
2:30pm-3:15pm – The Visionaries: What Makes an Award-Winning Concentrate/Oil?
There are a lot of cannabis- and hemp-derived products on the market. The law of averages would say that some will be great, others wretched, and many in between. A Gaussian distribution (a bell-shaped curve)… With so many products perhaps idling in the majority, wouldn’t it be nice to separate from the pack a little, and really differentiate your brand from the masses? Makes sense, but the question is how? Should you start with the extraction equipment? Or generate a mountain of data from internal or additional 3rd party testing? Or, should you go back to square one, and focus on your plants? The answer is really all of the above, and our panelists will share insights regarding how they navigated the course to producing exceptional, trustworthy, award-winning products.