Smoking Cellared Tobacco

drac2485

When cellaring tobacco do you try and go for a certain time and then smoke it all or, if in a resealable container, do you periodically open and try them?

drac2485

I periodically open them and try them and if I feel that I want to further age them I reseal them and put them back to the cellar.  I also have a bad habit of not finishing tins so this, IMHO, helps to save them and helps me experience the differences in the tobacco as it ages.

PappyJoe

That's why I use mason jars. You can open and close them to your heart's desire. I have some that's been in jars for about 2 years (I only started cellaring then) I occasionally will open one and smoke a bowl to see how it has aged. This is especially true of a blend one of my sons had made for me that's 50% latakia.

thebadgerpiper

I use mason jars. I try to put some of a blend I usually smoke in smaller jars, so the rest can age properly without interference.

PipeProfessor

I do the same as @thebadgerpiper...a small jar to smoke from and another larger one to let sit. The reason being that each time you open the jar the aging process must start all over again as new oxygen is introduced into the tobacco.

judandhispipe

I don't dip in at all. If I have jars I'm deliberately aging,they are in the cellar, and that's where they stay. As far as I understand it, once you break that seal, the aging process stops. You can restart it, but it won't be the same.

PipeProfessor

Agreed @judandhispipe. The only problem is that sometime temptation gets the best of me!

PappyJoe

@pipeprofessor - that's why you buy at least two of each.

tomatobodhi

I use half pint or one pint mason jars. I always empty the tin into the jar and then warm the jar by letting it stand in boiling water (poured into a tray - *not* boiling over heat). I place the inner mason lid on top and let it cool, sucking the lid down as the air inside contracts, then screw on the top.

Following this method, you can cellar tobacco, open it a month or so in and smoke a bowl, see if it has changed at all, then repeat the process. Some will really develop faster and better with the periodic air exchange. Some are best left alone to age. I like VaBurs and VaBurPers, and they all seem to do better for me with an occasional opening and re-sealing. YMMV

Experimentation is part of the hobby, IMO.

daveinlax

I'll sometimes crack jars for a bowl or two. Most of my stuff is well aged so it really doesn't matter if the seal is broke and resealed. For the tobacco I smoke everyday and that I keep at hand I'm mostly smoking PSBS and EMP that I jarred from vac sealed bags in 2007 when I mixed all the bags together so I don't know how old some of the tobacco was but it's all perfect and delicious!

Subtilis87

I find it difficult to leave the mason jars be. I smoke very infrequently , but for me I find myself opening jars rather frequently to smell the tobacco. For me I get as much enjoyment from smelling the blends in anticipation of enjoying a smoke as actually smoking them. I agree with @PappyJoe , when I buy a new blend I tend to buy. 50g tin to open and enjoy and a 100g tin to age.

judandhispipe

When I started cellaring, I would buy two or more tins - one for now, one to age. Still do that to some extent, although with blends I have been cellaring for years, I am only smoking aged stuff, so I buy simply to replace what I have recently smoked. I haven't smoked fresh Red Ribbon, Hartwell Signature or SG BBF for years.

kraigseder

Most of the tobacco I cellar I buy in bulk and then seal in several half pint jars. I avoid large jam jars so that I can sample a blend 1/2 pint at a time without stopping the aging process on the bulk of tobacco. I usually won't take my first sample until 1 year. I've heard from numerous people that you never want to break a seal on an aging tobacco until you are ready to smoke it. Once you crack the seal and get fresh oxygen in with the aging tobacco the aging process stops. It will start up again after time but you have just lost a lot of time. When cellaring tins I never open them until it's time to smoke them. 

TYLYGarrett

One of the best things I have for the jarring process is a Food Saver.  This way if I don't finish a tin I can re-vacuum seal the jar and cellar for later. 

mapletop

I buy 1/2 Lb cans of the blends I can get that way and the rest is in mason jars. when cellaring I don't touch them for at least 5 years most of the time.

In the case of tins that are vacuum packed, I remove the tobacco and jar it because (normal / aerobic) fermentation stops in a vacuum, and while anaerobic fermentation can and does occur, it a crap shoot on what variety you get and the final outcome.

In addition anaerobic fermentation happens at a much slower pace.

I would also note that containers like the ones Seattle pipe Club uses [cheap bastards]  (spiral wound metalized chip board) is not a good choice for long term cellaring because the metalizing process is imperfect as there are always pours in the material.

If its not in metal or glass / ceramic it leaks.

AnantaAndroscoggin

That's why those jars I come across with a top that pushes-in, screws-on, or has a metal clamp-down latch are reserved for holding those blends I am currently smoking (that aren't in their own tin/pouch). I currently have 8 of these in use, and seem to have accumulated about a dozen more from various yards, garages and other sales.

Otherwise than those, I intend to transfer bulk purchase to as many 8-oz mason jars as I need to.

Agreed about those "sealed" cardboard containers. Sure, the pull-ring type metal tops are a great seal, but the cardboard walls are not to be counted on.

It's like the jail cells in Support Your Local Sheriff. Nice and stout brick walls, but no bars on windows or door-wall.

ghostsofpompeii

Since all of my tobacco blends are aromatics - and from what I've been told aromatics don't age like non-aromatics - I guess you could consider my 'cellar' little more than a storage unit for my tobacco stash, and not really a place to age and cure my blends for a better smoke in the future. And as a result because they're all aromatics I can crack open any jar when the mood hits me without any fear of effecting or altering the aging process.

PappyJoe

It's been almost 4 years since I posted in this discussion. I now have some jars that haven't been cracked open in five years not to mention some tins going as far back as 2014.