Drying Question: How Dry is too Dry?

[PipeIT]

Drying and packing are preferences, experiment.

Also try gravity filling, take a tiny pinch at a time and drop it in, each time tapping the bowl to help settle.

Then when you reach the top, just rest the heal of your thumb over the chamber, not the tip, and allow it to sit down in the chamber which isn’t much, to help work the tabac in. With the heal of your thumb still in the chamber, spin the pipe a turn, the turning helps to pack the tabac a little.

This is how I fill all my pipes, it’s like Frank’s method, whereas he uses a tin of tabac resting over the top of the pipe to work the tabac.

 

[mortonbriar]

Everything that I used to have trouble with smoking has been solved by smoking more of it until I figured it out, this includes too dry, too moist, too aromatic, too strong, every type of cut, a full range of pipe shapes and sizes...

The only thing left that I cannot get around with practise/familiarity is I seem to have an extreme body chemistry intolerance for perique, and too a far lesser extent, dark fired tobacco.

 

[Aomalley27]

I know it is up to me, what I am asking is if anyone notices an increase in the number of relights if the tobacco is too dry. I seem to have experienced that but it could also be packing.

If it’s dry, yet requires MORE relights, then you’ve a airpocket not igniting the Tobacco underneath the ember. Just tamp more often, (a LIGHT tamp, enough to push ember onto the tobacco, NOT crush the ember)

 

[bullet08]

I left out PS Bullseye for over 12 hours yesterday. Wrapped in plastic wrap last night and loaded this morning. Completely forgot about it today and probably will try to smoke it tomorrow. Will let you know if it was smokable.

One thing you might want to work on is, how to light the tobacco. Initial light might take touch longer, but relight should be super quick. You don't want the flame to be hanging around any longer than needed even if you are not touching the tobacco. Going over the top of the tobacco two, three times should get it going. If necessary, do true light soon after. Once tobacco chars, just going over with flame will reignited the tobacco.

 

[bbqpiper]

That's the question. I have been experimenting with moisture level in order to reduce tongue bite while maintaining flavor and I am beginning to think too dry is leading me to require more relights especially early in a bowl. I know @cosmicfolklore loves it near crispy but I seem to have more problems with needing relights if too dry. IE - once I stop sipping it goes out almost immediately. It could certainly be my lack of mastery of packing but it seems once I get deeper into the bowl the number of relights goes down - maybe due to combustion moisture dampening the lower half? It could also be the lower half is packed differently but I have noticed this with various techniques I have used. I wonder all this since we are really trying to get a smolder going and damp things seem to smolder better - like a peat bog or leaf pile fire. I am sure different blends and cuts behave differently and even pipes affect this but I am interested in thoughts here and I will continue to experiment.

If it crumbles, it's too dry for me. I suffer from smoking blends when they are too moist so I jar everything I open now and let it sit for a bit before I load a bowl. Makes for a more pleasant smoke to me.

 

[shanez]

For me this is a really simple question. I like most blends at a wide variety of dryness levels.

If it's really crunchy and you get bits small enough to make it all the way through the stem when packing then it is most definitely too dry.

That being said I think there are definitely blends that seem more flavorful when more moist.

 

[JOHN72]

 

[Sgetz]

I'm certain there is absolutely no PG in any Gawith products.
sure, it's moist, but there's not a scrap of of propylene glycol in there.

I agree. But if anyone has evidence otherwise I would like to see it!

 

[frozenchurchwarden]

It's interesting how opinions on moisture content can vary so dramatically depending on the application.
Cigars are generally considered ruined if they drop below 50% humidity, one must wonder if the Cigar guys are just buying a marketing pitch refusing to smoke a low humidity Cigar, or if the Pipe guys are ruining their tobacco drying it out.

 

[PaulTheScandinavian]

It's interesting how opinions on moisture content can vary so dramatically depending on the application.
Cigars are generally considered ruined if they drop below 50% humidity, one must wonder if the Cigar guys are just buying a marketing pitch refusing to smoke a low humidity Cigar, or if the Pipe guys are ruining their tobacco drying it out.

Apart from Italian Toscanis, at times I still use to keep them in humidor and almost always this practice resulted I had cigars with substantially tighter draw

 

[TheIronMonkey]

When cigars dry out, you lose some of the oils—rehydrating won't bring the lost flavour back. I imagine pipe tobacco is no different in the long run.

 

[cosmicfolklore]

It's interesting how opinions on moisture content can vary so dramatically depending on the application.
Cigars are generally considered ruined if they drop below 50% humidity, one must wonder if the Cigar guys are just buying a marketing pitch refusing to smoke a low humidity Cigar, or if the Pipe guys are ruining their tobacco drying it out.

When cigars dry out, you lose some of the oils—rehydrating won't bring the lost flavour back. I imagine pipe tobacco is no different in the long run.

For me, I like my cigars on the drier side as well, but the problem with cigars is that the leaf cracks and splits as you smoke it when dry, making the smoke leak out of the sides like an steam ship on its last leg. But, the taste is just fine. It just becomes engineeringly un-smokable.

 

[TheIronMonkey]

I was talking more long term drying out. I have some sticks from the '90s that weren't stored well for a period and have lost something, not from typical long term mellowing and melding.

 

[bullet08]

Once again proved to myself that over dried tobacco is harsh. It's like smoking grass, and not the happy kind.

 

[jpmcwjr]

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Radical step: Get some hygrometers—then you can tell exactly how moist each tobacco blend is, and can custom dry (or hydrate) to your precise taste.