Opening Cellared Jars
- Thread starter OwlTellYa
- Start date
Really isn't a definitive answer imo. Cigars age just fine and humidors breath. Most will say leave it closed. This is why several small jars can be helpful
Once you open the jar, you interrupt the aging process. If the age is quite long, that may be okay but in general, don't open until you're ready to smoke it. A good reason to store in smaller mason jars.
You can do whatever you want but opening does interrupt the aging process.
Opening the jar will interrupt the aging process, but nobody really knows exactly what ramifications that has. Might not really be an issue. Might actually improve results, who knows. However, if you are opening that jar fairly often, you will have pretty much stopped the aging process, however it manifests, since the opened jar will need some days to reach a new state of equilibrium after being opened.
I tend to jar in small amounts so that I can open the equivalent of a tin, and use that while the rest continues to slumber until I want more of it.
I tend to jar in small amounts so that I can open the equivalent of a tin, and use that while the rest continues to slumber until I want more of it.
Hypothetical:
So if I take a blend, say a pound, then put 14oz in one jar and 2oz in another jar.
The 14oz jar sits I same conditions as 2oz for say 5yrs. The 14oz jar is however, opened once a week over the course of those five years and a short bowl smoked out of it.
When there’s an ounce or so left in the big jar, how much difference will there really be between that and the unopened small jar?
Just trying to learn here, I don’t have any jars specifically set aside to age. My cellar isn’t too deep, just maybe a few tins or up to 8oz jarred as backup to blends I currently enjoy.
So if I take a blend, say a pound, then put 14oz in one jar and 2oz in another jar.
The 14oz jar sits I same conditions as 2oz for say 5yrs. The 14oz jar is however, opened once a week over the course of those five years and a short bowl smoked out of it.
When there’s an ounce or so left in the big jar, how much difference will there really be between that and the unopened small jar?
Just trying to learn here, I don’t have any jars specifically set aside to age. My cellar isn’t too deep, just maybe a few tins or up to 8oz jarred as backup to blends I currently enjoy.
I’ve been grabbing the odd bowl of older stuff and it seems fine, but I’d assume the less oxygen the better, but then again a few breaths might be ok too,
I mostly cellar in mylar but when I do it jars I use the 1 litre wide mouth, holds 2 pounds of flake nicely. These jars I don't touch for 5 years minimum, here is some I recently did. I think once cracked open and add air you're changing the process of ageing from anaerobic to aerobic and I'm sure you get a different result.
Absolutely unknowable. I've had multiple jars of the same blend, jarred at the same time, left together on the same shelf for 7 years, and had them "age" differently.
In a vacuum sealed tobacco tin during the fermentation process the tin will be undergoing anaerobic fermentation. The tobacco aging in this vacuum sealed tin is not exposed to oxygen and so anaerobic yeasts and anaerobic beneficial bacteria grow in an oxygen starved environment. This creates unique flavors. If you open the jar or tin the unique environment is disturbed and the flavors created will be different. Not better or worse but different as aerobic yeasts and aerobic beneficial bacteria start to thrive more in the newly introduced oxygenated environment. It's not better or worse just different from a culturing and curing perspective.
I store my tobacco in vacuum sealed mason jars using a jar vacuum sealer. I do this to encourage anaerobic fermentation just like what occurs in the sealed tins to produce the flavors I enjoy. After a few months up to about 6 months I don't notice any significant changes but I do notice changes in flavor if don't re-vacuum seal as aerobic fermentation would take over and alter flavor further.
Unlike a tin, when I open the jar to enjoy some tobacco, I can re-vacuum seal the jar to mantain the anaerobic activity. Same as we can hold our breath underwater, whatever anaerobic fermentation is occuring will continue after removal of all the air once again.
So it's up to you what type of aging or fermentation you want to encourage or discourage.
I store my tobacco in vacuum sealed mason jars using a jar vacuum sealer. I do this to encourage anaerobic fermentation just like what occurs in the sealed tins to produce the flavors I enjoy. After a few months up to about 6 months I don't notice any significant changes but I do notice changes in flavor if don't re-vacuum seal as aerobic fermentation would take over and alter flavor further.
Unlike a tin, when I open the jar to enjoy some tobacco, I can re-vacuum seal the jar to mantain the anaerobic activity. Same as we can hold our breath underwater, whatever anaerobic fermentation is occuring will continue after removal of all the air once again.
So it's up to you what type of aging or fermentation you want to encourage or discourage.
And therein lies the fun and mystique I guess.
Looking objectively, every time we jar a tobacco, we cease its original aging process, then start again once har is sealed.
The only “pure” aging is unopened original container, no?
This begs my next question: when a blender uses “aged” leaf for blends, are the bales sealed up I storage?
I doubt it, and that kind of puts a little twist on the whole concept.
@Sobrbiker ... Aging tobacco in warehouse is different. Tobacco comes in pallet sized cardboard boxes or bales. The tobacco is very tightly pressed into the bale form on a pallet. The tobacco inside the bale innermost region has very little if any oxygen reaching it. Tobacco is sometimes cooled to kill bugs. Tobacco is also rotated throughout the warehouse to evenly age it, given the variability of temperatures near the walls vs the innermost parts of the warehouse. The outer area of tobacco bales are more so exposed to the environment but only so deep. Like a steak cooked rare, only the outer surface is exposed. The warehouse is humidified to between 55 and 65 percent for optimum storage and temps kept 72 to 77 or sometimes just ambient. There are very large humidifiers like what Condair sells and is used in warehouses to maintain humidity.
So in summary the humidication, temperature and nature and position of the bales and boxes themselves produces airtightness, optimal aging and temperature humidity controls.
These can be replicated in small scale by the home blender using similar methods.
So in summary the humidication, temperature and nature and position of the bales and boxes themselves produces airtightness, optimal aging and temperature humidity controls.
These can be replicated in small scale by the home blender using similar methods.
Very interesting information. When I open a tin, I transfer to mason jars, but then as I smoke the tobacco, I open the tins to take some. I tin can last me quite a long time since I only smoke maybe four or five bowls at most per week. Despite the starting and stopping process, I have noticed a difference with the Virginias - they have improved despite all the kickstarting and stopping.
A lot of smokers have commented that flavors become more promounced a few days after a tin is opened, and many open a tin to let it breathe for a few days before starting to smoke it. I'm assuming that exposure to fresh oxygen has something to do with it.
Blenders used to age their blends in the tin for a couple of years before offering them for sale. And they also have stocks which are stored under controlled conditions. Pure? Who knows for sure. I'm satisfied if I enjoy the flavor of what I'm smoking.
My understanding is don't open the jar. It will stop the aging. But my experience is tobacco continues to change opening once a week or so. But I'm not sure if that's aging or something else. I had DNR opened and kept in jar for 6 months or so. Every time I smoked it, the dark fruit note was stronger. This might have been one off. Balkan Supreme seems to be losing what little complexity it had and seems to be becoming bland. Squadron Leader is also losing Latakia punch and becoming very mellow. So in 6 months in a jar, each blend did change. Not sure what this process is.
I use different size jars for blends set aside for cellaring. I pick up a pound at a time. 2oz will get split up over like 5 small jars and the rest into pint jars. Over time at intervals I'll smoke the small jars. Once the pixie dust hits I'll take note and start opening the bigger jars. It's incredibly unscientific and probably ranks right up there with any gambler's "system", but it works for me.
Do what you want but opening the jar interrupts the aging process. Small jars can remedy this urge.
