Concerned brew gone wrong?

[ThinkTrenbolone]

I recently brewed two batches of Testosterone Cypionate and encountered some issues that I hope you can help me with. This is my first time, so I made a lot of mistakes. However, I used a hotplate mixer and general sterilization practices, so I believe it's okay. I even made my own labels to feel more official.

Batch Details​

First Batch (100 mL Total Volume):

• Testosterone Cypionate: 25 grams
• Benzyl Benzoate (BB): 20 mL (20%)
• Benzyl Alcohol (BA): 1.3 mL (1.3%)
• Castor Oil: Remainder to reach 100 mL

Issue: I had to discard 40 mL because I couldn't filter it properly using a syringe filter. It was extremely difficult and messy. It was hell on earth to filter this by hand with my nylon 0.22-micron filters (25mm). Even warming to 80°C for a bit proved very difficult. It took me 5 hours to do this as it just dripped through, no matter how hard I pressed my 60 mL syringe, even when I dropped to a 20 mL syringe.Second Batch (40 mL Total Volume):

• Testosterone Cypionate: 10 grams
• Benzyl Benzoate (BB): 8 mL (20%)
• Benzyl Alcohol (BA): 0.52 mL (1.3%)
• Castor Oil: Remainder to reach 40 mL

Method: Used a caulking gun to assist with filtering, which was much easier. I used a brake bleeder to apply suction force in each vial, and it worked well. I was able to fill up my 4 vials with almost no loss.

Issues​

I'm new and made a lot of mistakes. I used up 5 filters as I didn't understand what I was doing, and lots of syringe needles to get this done. I had one vial with rubber stopper bits inside it, but I stopped using the large syringes for that despite it being faster. My theory is that the heat on the first batch likely darkened things. Any advice?I injected a little yesterday from the first vial I made and got no PIP, no issues. So far, I have 8 vials usable. Today, on my other 4, I used one injection yet again and got a bit of irritation, which went away. However, It still felt a bit stronger, so to speak, in terms of PIP.

 

[ThinkTrenbolone]

@Ghoul
@Spaceman Spiff

 

[Ghoul]

Sorry I don't brew man, just an enthusiastic spectator. My only is comment is I'd definately filter that gear with corings, as there are going to be bits you can't see that can pass through smaller syringes, and your body's not a trash can.

Spaceman is one of the well versed brewers here and will be able to help you out for sure.

 

[Exhortae]

Filter are heat sensitive, if you filter oil at 80c i can guarantee you that you broke your filter

 

[narta]

Filter are heat sensitive, if you filter oil at 80c i can guarantee you that you broke your filter

Depends on the filter. PTFE is good up to 100 c if I am not mistaken

 

[buck]

I use 10 ml syringes for filtering the last 20 + years. .22 filters. The larger the syringe the higher the pressure needed t filter. My oils are warmed but not hot at all. never had an issue with large needles, i use 18 gauge, and rubber stoppers. Think the have low quality or are abusing the stopper to much.

 

[qadsan]

Were your filters hydrophilic or hydrophobic?

Buck makes a very good point about syringe size because larger syringes make it very difficult to push the plunger due to the higher pressure needed, just as Buck said. The 10 mL syringes are a good choice.

In regards to filters, use the hydrophilic filters for aqueous solutions and your hydrophilic filters for non-aqueous solutions.

 

[Spaceman Spiff]

Is this supposed to be 250mg/ml?

Increase BB to 25-26%

 

[ThinkTrenbolone]

Filter are heat sensitive, if you filter oil at 80c i can guarantee you that you broke your filter

Haha I bet I did and that's why the first batch is darker. It got less filtered and 2nd didn't break so it filtered more!

I got this vevor hotplate and it consistently overshoot it's temp and it's so annoying so I prob got it too hot

 

[ThinkTrenbolone]

Is this supposed to be 250mg/ml?

Increase BB to 25-26%

Yes. I did 20% it's holding but maybe that's why it's darker.

 

[ThinkTrenbolone]

Depends on the filter. PTFE is good up to 100 c if I am not mistaken

Yeah I got ptfe on the way. I'll just refilter all my stuff when it arrives

 

[SunWukong]

Haha I bet I did and that's why the first batch is darker. It got less filtered and 2nd didn't break so it filtered more!

I got this vevor hotplate and it consistently overshoot it's temp and it's so annoying so I prob got it too hot

I’ve got the vevor too. I set the heat really low and raise it in small increments otherwise it goes WAY hotter than wanted. Trust the reading not the setting.

 

[ThinkTrenbolone]

Apparently you calibrate it. Have you messed with the settings? For me it just overshoot bad

I’ve got the vevor too. I set the heat really low and raise it in small increments otherwise it goes WAY hotter than wanted. Trust the reading not the setting.

 

[SunWukong]

Apparently you calibrate it. Have you messed with the settings? For me it just overshoot bad

The calibration is just the temp it turns heat function on and off. The problem is that when the vevor reaches the “off” temp, the hotplate is hot as fuck and holds the heat for quite a while so even though it isn’t applying more power to heat, the residual (not sure if that is the right word) heat in the plate keeps heating the gear. You can’t control exactly how hot the plate gets and it takes ages to cool. If it turns heat on, it’s full power heat. I just set the max and min 1C apart and adjust the set temp in increments and only pay attention to the temp reading. So, if it’s set to 40, the heat function switches off at 40 but the temp keeps rising to maybe 50, once it stops rising I’ll set it for 52, it will start to heat, turn off when it reads 52 but the gear will keep heating to maybe 58/59/60/ whateverthefuck. Keep adjusting until it heats around the desired temp. No way in hell you can get it to stay exactly where you want it but you can keep it close.
These aren’t exact figures but in broad strokes, if I need it at say 62C, I’ll work it up in stages and my final setting might be at 58C with minimum being -1 (so heat turns on at 57C and off at 58C) but gear actually heats up to 65/66ish.

 

[ThinkTrenbolone]

The calibration is just the temp it turns heat function on and off. The problem is that when the vevor reaches the “off” temp, the hotplate is hot as fuck and holds the heat for quite a while so even though it isn’t applying more power to heat, the residual (not sure if that is the right word) heat in the plate keeps heating the gear. You can’t control exactly how hot the plate gets and it takes ages to cool. If it turns heat on, it’s full power heat. I just set the max and min 1C apart and adjust the set temp in increments and only pay attention to the temp reading. So, if it’s set to 40, the heat function switches off at 40 but the temp keeps rising to maybe 50, once it stops rising I’ll set it for 52, it will start to heat, turn off when it reads 52 but the gear will keep heating to maybe 58/59/60/ whateverthefuck. Keep adjusting until it heats around the desired temp. No way in hell you can get it to stay exactly where you want it but you can keep it close.
These aren’t exact figures but in broad strokes, if I need it at say 62C, I’ll work it up in stages and my final setting might be at 58C with minimum being -1 (so heat turns on at 57C and off at 58C) but gear actually heats up to 65/66ish.

OHHH that's what that 10 setting is for. It's to set the temp range for when it heat and turns off! I kept it at 10 thinking default is ideal