Cellaring In Sealed Bins

[balindamood]

Not sure if this is a beginner's question or not, but I am wondering about cellaring in nearly sealed plastic bins.
The history is that I have about 20 lbs of Jared (mason jars) of tobacco of different sorts that was happily living in the unused drawers of a file cabinet in the spare bedroom. After a long-term campaign from my wife complaining it smelled, I moved the jars into two large plastic storage bins in the basement about 4 months ago. I had to dig so nothing out of one of the over the weekend. When I popped the lid, WOW! It smelled like fermenting tobacco.
The question is kinda two part. 1). Should i leave the lid on the bin popped such that there is some air transfer; and 2). If I leave it closed, is it ok to leave different types of tobacco on the same tin, that are marinating in the off-base of different types?

 

[spartacus]

If you are smelling tobacco. One or more of your tins/jars are not sealed. If they are sealed properly you won't smell any tobacco. I have bins full of jars and tins and they all smell like a plastic box.

 

[balindamood]

Now I need to find which one(s) are not sealed

 

[jojoc]

So how do you figure out which tins are not sealed? I received an order of several tins the other day and added them to my stash in a file cabinet drawer. I opened the drawer earlier today and it smells wonderfully of tobacco. I don't really want to have to jar all of my tins. Any suggestions on how to find the tin or tins that are not holding their seal?

Thanks!

 

[frankrem]

Well you could use a couple different strategies I imagine - Go based of the smell of each tin - If any smell stronger than the others quarantine them off to the side and seal your container again. Check in a day or so and see if you smell the strong tobacco smell. If not then you have successfully identified your unsealed tin.
Plan B - If you have smaller containers you could seal the individual tins in those. Give it a day or so and then open and smell each one looking for the strong smelling outlier -
This is just me thinking off of the cuff here. I am sure some of these old wizards have better methods.

 

[sablebrush52]

The most likely culprits are the square and rectangular shaped tins. Most of them are slowly leaking from the beginning. Start with them. Put them into sealable tupperware containers (if you have them) and leave them for a few days to a week. Then open the lid and take a sniff. If you smell tobacco, you have a leaker. Repeat if necessary to find a specific leaker. Rectangular and square metal tins are crap less than optimal for long term storage. You're better off jarring, or sealing the tins in vacuum sealed Mylar.
Mason jar lids should be tight. There's no good purpose to try to age them with "air exchange". All you will do is dry out your tobacco, and probably make it go stale.

 

[pepesdad1]

What Sable said!!!^^^

 

[logs]

I have a related problem when buying bulk tobacco. I'm buying Balkan or straight virginia and when it arrives the entire shipping box smells of vanilla and other aromatic stuff I didn't order. I just received a shipment from Wilke today and he whole thing reeks of aromatics. While not a "bad" smell, it sure doesn't smell like what I ordered and it's pungent enough that it's ghosted the tobacco in the zip lock bags. I can taste it.
I've encountered this problem in the past and have learned never to include any aromatics in a bulk order of straight tobacco. But in this case, I didn't order any aromatics and I'm still getting ghosted.

 

[frankrem]

Quality control and cross contamination issues at the plant or distributor. Nothing you can really do about that but file a complaint and see about their customer service policies. If you ordered from a 3rd party vendor perhaps look for the brands you like from a different distributor.

 

[jojoc]

Sable, do you automatically jar all of your square or rectangle tins?
I think it is the SG FVF or SG BBF tins that I am smelling. One of the tins has a sizable ding on the edge that I think me be the issue.
If I am going to have to jar all my square/rectangle tins, I wish I had just ordered the larger box instead. lesson learned, I guess. I store most of my tobacco at my office and just bring stuff home as needed, so I have no air tight containers here.

 

[sablebrush52]

Sable, do you automatically jar all of your square or rectangle tins?

I seal them in heat sealed food grade Mylar bags. The majority of my tins are round, which hold up better, or canisters, which also hold up better. All of the Esoterica Bags have been sealed in mylar as well, as some of these have been proven to develop pinhole openings.

 

[mau1]

Sable, do you have any recommendations on which brand to get when buying a vacuum sealer? Also, what size mylar bags do you use?
Thanks

 

[deckpiper]

I thought cerraring of tobacco was only a problem in Japan. :D

 

[craiginthecorn]

You don’t really need a vacuum sealer for mylar, and if you tried to get one, it would be expensive. A simple and inexpensive impulse sealer does the trick. The tiny bit of air left in the bag is of no real concern.
I will add that the chamber sealers required for vacuum sealing mylar bags have the danger of actually breaking the factory seal by causing the contents of the tin to have positive pressure relative to the vacuum chamber it is contained within. Some chamber sealers may be capable of low enough vacuum to avoid this phenomenon, but there’s little added benefit over simple heat sealing.

 

[pianopuffer]

I was always under the impression that if you left sealed tins in a bin, they would eventually give off SOME sort of odor, even the slightest.
I have my VA and lat blends separate, but always get a whiff when I open the bins up.

Do I need to go through and triple check all of my seals.....good grief, that will take some time.

 

[balindamood]

So, if found the main culprits, two quart jars of and-so-to-bed. I re-jarred them in new mason jars with new lids, making sure that the rims and seals were clean of flakes (the old problem). I put them in plastic bags to make sure it worked and....
it didn't.
The bags when opened, smelled like and-so-to-bed; strongly.
Ideas?? I have a couple of Margate jars I also suspect, but after being in bags for a week, they barely smell like Margate...they just do not smell like new plastic bags.

 

[mau1]

Thanks Craig. I may just stick to the mason jars after all. I did like the idea of leaving the tobacco in their original tin though.