Ends of the Bowls Getting Acrid

[The Turk]

Love to be here!

The brother in my icon is smoking a çubuk (pronounced chubuk), which was the traditional way of smoking tobacco together with hookah in the Ottoman Empire. You can say it was the mosquewarden

Attaching Théobald Chartran's « The Chibouk Smoker » (1877).

 

[ThermionicScott]

Hello all,

No matter what I'm smoking, the flavour begins to deteriorate after the halfway mark and the last 1/4 is always unsmokable. This is not affected by the pace or the draw whatsoever because I am getting some really cool and flavourful puffs in the first half. I'm cleaning after every 2 smokes. Any insights on what may be wrong and how to improve?

When I started smoking a pipe, I was pretty incredulous when people described great flavors toward the end of a bowl, or frankly, any flavor by that point. For me, the charring light was as good as it got, and it was downhill until I pulled the plug on the soggy mess at the bottom of the bowl. By smoking too fast and hot, I was overcooking the remaining tobacco so that it didn't have any flavor left to give.

I suspect that no matter how slow and cool you think you're smoking, there is the possibility to do it even slower, until you are getting a consistently flavorful experience to the bottom.

And I have no idea why @cosmicfolklore hasn't stickied his thread yet. He's got the power, after all! On Smoking Slowly and the Benefits...

 

[Lumbridge]

Sounds like moisture and other gunk collecting in the bottom. The dottle at the bottom is unsmoked tobacco that soaks all this other crap up, and yeah, it can taste pretty gross sometimes. If it tastes bad, I toss it.
The other option which I frequently recommend, similar to the idea of using meer chips/keystones, is to put less desirable tobacco at the bottom.

 

[Briarcutter]

Love to be here!

The brother in my icon is smoking a çubuk (pronounced chubuk), which was the traditional way of smoking tobacco together with hookah in the Ottoman Empire. You can say it was the mosquewarden

Attaching Théobald Chartran's « The Chibouk Smoker » (1877).


View attachment 433684

From the expression on his face, looks like he's not smoking just tobacco

 

[Tn Steve]

I just toss it onto the moles/voles tunnels in my yard, it seems to deter them a bit

 

[Brad H]

Almost every time I smoke a pipe, toward the end of the bowl it changes a little bit.
I smoke too quick and hot which may factor into the flavor change.
But normally towards the end of a bowl when I don’t smoke quick and hot, I get less of a change in flavor but I think for me, it’s inevitable.

Just empty out the pipe, grab another and load it up.

 

[mingc]

Hello all,

No matter what I'm smoking, the flavour begins to deteriorate after the halfway mark and the last 1/4 is always unsmokable. This is not affected by the pace or the draw whatsoever because I am getting some really cool and flavourful puffs in the first half. I'm cleaning after every 2 smokes. Any insights on what may be wrong and how to improve?

Currently smoking

Elizabethan Mixture
C&D Star of the East
C&D Bijou
C&D Black Frigate

Rotating 3 MM corncobs and 2 briars.

Any comment would be welcome.

Thanks,

It's not you. It's the nature of the beast. When the bowl is no longer pleasing, dump it. There's no duty to continue, unless you enjoy punishing yourself.

 

[anotherbob]

packing slightly lighter might help. At least for me it has made a huge difference for me and my pipes.

 

[lithicus]

packing slightly lighter might help. At least for me it has made a huge difference for me and my pipes.

I second this. I too struggled with smoking the last 1/4 of the pipe. I also felt like the flavor got worse the further down the pipe I got. If I stopped halfway or just past halfway, and tried to light it up the next day, it tasted horrible through and through.

I started doing a gravity fill only packing method and it changed everything for me. I also significantly lessened my draw with only a slight increase in my cadence, and now my smokes are dry with flavor to the bottom. This is repeatable for me now.

 

[Molvorin]

I thought this was normal - and it's called the dottle.

The lower part of the tobacco gets too humid, and will taste bad because of this. As far as I understand, it could be caused by several reasons, including too damp tobacco, too fast smoking, or even the temperature and humidity of the air around you.

I am a rookie too though, so don't take my word for it. It's worth looking into though.

 

[The Turk]

From the expression on his face, looks like he's not smoking just tobacco

Definitely something floral, and definitely not Virginia