Drying vs not drying

[aquadoc]

Bluegrass, I agree. It has already helped me these past few days. Someone should write a summary and make a sticky post out of the info for the beginners group.

 

[toobfreak]

Bluegrass, just the act of a charring light alone, the heat from the flame, if it is still too wet and you just let the pipe sit another 30 minutes, will often go a long way of speeding up the drying time further.

 

[bluegrasspipe]

More good advice toobfreak, I will give that a shot as well. Also I'm glad after your charred head light, it has re-appeared.. :lol:

 

[toobfreak]

Also I'm glad after your charred head light, it has re-appeared.

Yes, it is great to finally see again. It has been a real bitch trying to type out posts with no head. 8O

 

[oldgeezersmoker]

"Steam is hotter than smoke.". Bob Rex, Drucquers.
I do find that some of the Esoterica product tastes somewhat better if not dried quite as much as I normally prefer. That is still a lot dryer than when first opened. Otherwise, just this side of crunchy for me.

 

[theloniousmonkfish]

For personal taste I've found drying the hell out of most blends concentrates the flavors and the tobacco burns smoother without relights. Usually have at least two dishes of tobacco out to switch between, only getting drier as the day goes on and seem to smoke best by morning if there's any leftover.

 

[sablebrush52]

Some of you must live in more humid climates than me. If I left tobacco out to dry overnight it would be dust by morning.

 

[frozenchurchwarden]

Flakes as well require proper drying and if you fold and stuff them with the fold at top and with a twist to crack the flake and press it into place with good contact between layers, you may find it smokes better. Others have good results with the cube cut.

Toobfreak, I've had this discussion before and I have no explanation for why things work out this way for me, but I can take a tin of Samuel Gawith St. James Flake and run it through a blender and leave sitting open for weeks, crunchy dry (prairie winter air), it makes no difference.

Same thing with cube cutting Ropes.

At this point my best guess is that I need to look for true "shag cut" blends, or I guess I could take things a step further and get an actual coffee grinder since the blender seems inadequate for altering the actual cut of the flake (you just end up with square cuts of leaf that are still the width of the cut of the flake).

I'm still suspicious if there isn't something about certain leaves themselves that inhibit burning.
Of course something that's sopping wet will burn worse than something dry, but some blends just burn poorly no matter what you do.

I'm not against drying except in special cases, on your goopy aromatics it probably just makes no difference and you're losing flavor by drying, there are a few Sutliff blends that I have to purposefully suffocate to avoid overheating the bowl, they don't need any drying whatsoever, but if it makes you feel better then I'm sure it's really not a major problem for people either way.
The main point that I wish could have been made more clear years ago is that sometimes there is nothing you can do to make certain blends burn better.
If I could go back in time, I would have a whole lot more Carter Hall, and I probably would have enjoyed pipes twice as much over the first year or so by categorizing blends by their burning characteristics.
Again, this is a special case, my tongue is super thin skinned, there is just something about my body that does not mesh with tobacco in the first place. If I were any less stubborn I would just sell everything and forget it all, but I enjoy both the pipes and the people, it's a big part of my cultural history and this is something worth investing in even if it is a big pain to figure everything out.

 

[tinsel]

Some of you must live in more humid climates than me. If I left tobacco out to dry overnight it would be dust by morning.

Here in west Ky, you can leave tobacco out for days on end with what seems like very little drying, especially in the summer when the humidity stays above 80% for weeks at a time...

 

[jpmcwjr]

At that RH, you can leave it out for centuries and it won't dry! Good point. RH as well as quantity affect greatly how a tobacco dries. I've left a jar of Margate open for five days, and just now the RH of the top of the tobacco has just reached 74% (89% starting) This is with a home environment of about 60% RH. If it were just a bowlful, it'd be an hour or less.

 

[toobfreak]

At that RH, you don't even need jars. Just leave the stuff lay out on your table.

 

[mayfair70]

Most stuff from tins, like Dunhill, I can dry ten minutes and it is fine. I got some bulk recently from TinderBox that won't dry easily. I got a sore throat from all the steam. I prefer a tad dry to crunchy bone dry depending on the mix and cut.

 

[jpmcwjr]

At that RH, you don't even need jars. Just leave the stuff lay out on your table.

At 80% RH, you'll have over-hydrated tobacco that might have been ready for a good smoke! Mold will appear over time.

 

[bluegrasspipe]

In Colorado, we average 27% RH in the summer months, and even lower a lot of times, it gets crispy real quick. I usually have to jar things immediately.. Humidors are a constant struggle.

On the plus side if I open something that is a drowned rat, I don't have to wait too long.

Sable, where are you located?

 

[jpmcwjr]

He's in the LA basin; I am on the Monterey Peninsula where it's around 60% inside the house 68º. (And home interiors can vary widely from ambient RH). Outside right now it's 75% RH, but at 50º.

 

[fitzy]

That's one of the MANY things I love about Russ' Hearth & Home blends is that they are at perfect smoking humidity right out of the tin.
McClelland's I like very dry. PS luxury twist flake I don't like as dry as I do the McC's virginia's. Very blend/blender dependent.

 

[bluegrasspipe]

JPM, good point, definitely something to consider. I should have a hygrometer in the house..

 

[shutterbugg]

The attempt to create universal rules to pipesmoking is an advent of the attempt to spin it as "a hobby". Different blenders ship their products at different moisture levels. The better ones strive for some consistency, the others it can be all over the place. Foil-coated cardboard containers are more permeable than gasketed tins. And some blends are moist due to plain water, while others are moist due to syrupy toppings, and still others are moist due to added PG. While it would be easier to simply parrot something repeated so often on forums it becomes fact, the truth is you really have to go blend by blend and research for yourself what each one needs to smoke the best for you.

 

[jpmcwjr]

So very true. Thanks for that post.

 

[mawnansmiff]

"Raspberry & Cream, Sutliff Creme Brulee, Rum Raisin, and Strawberry Delight"
Good god man, that sounds more like something dolloped up at the local MacDonald outlet :roll:
Regards,
Jay.