How Tight to Stuff a Mason?

[anotherbob]

Why do you want to stuff him at all, tight or otherwise?

In any event, at 970 pounds I don't think much more will fit:


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I knew there was something wrong with you. You just sit there looking for ways to make people lose their lunches.

 

[sablebrush52]

With flakes, it's tight enough that you can sill pull one out intact when you want to. I like the taller 12 oz jars for GH&Co flakes.
For ribbon cut it's a 1:2 ratio. 2oz of ribbon in a 4oz jar, 4oz ribbon in an 8 oz jar, etc, etc. Leave about 1/4 inch air space at the top.

There's no single correct way to do it.

 

[woodsroad]

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I've tried everything, filling loosely, stuffing by hand, packing tight with a caulk gun. Honestly, I don't see a lot of differences. Packing tightly will accelerate the start of anaerobic growth, provided there is sufficient moisture in the tobacco. Dry tobacco will not age as well as tobacco with some moisture in it. Like Jesse, I sometimes pack long flakes like 507c into the tall Ball asparagus jars, but I generally prefer the 4oz. jars. I'd just rather not have a bigger jar of aged tobacco open for an extended period of time.

 

[geoffs]

I don't know what the right answer is. One caution I would give is that if you pack your jar to the brim, be very careful about tobacco bits compromising the rubber seal around the lid.

 

[NookersTheCat]

The bags appear to be polyester, but they aren't multi-layer foil laminated. I wouldn't trust them beyond a year if the storage humidity drops below 65%.


Where did you find this information? The bags are filled with product, then sealed. No metering of air or O2, no special packaging for any given blend.


That all makes sense. I double-bag the pound bags into 7mil foil laminate Mylar bags. Usually, I move everything into 4 or 8 oz Ball jars, but my recent Sutliff Spree has overwhelmed me. Besides, I'll be selling all these bags back to y'all in ten years, so they'll me worth more unmolested!

Well Mylar actually is just a special type of polyester that doesn't actually always have the foil layer... it usually does but that's actually a separate process it's put through whereas the Mylar itself is just trademark of biaxially oriented polyester. I'd assume the bags are either an unmetallized Mylar or a very high grade/multiply polypropylene. Pretty much nothing will beat a Mason I was just saying they're leaps and bounds above a ziploc. Either way though, they do let out some small amount of scent so I'll grant there is some obvious vapor transmission.. hence our double bag method probably being the best way to go.

And idk, unfortunately I left the gas chromatograph at the office but I just meant going off eyeballing it lolol
At least of the batches I've received, the full aromatics are straight vacuum sealed, the Virginias have generous airspace and the aromatic-English/hybrid blends seem to be somewhere in-between. Could it be coincidence? Sure, but it could also be that they just know from decades of experience what we've been discussing here and therefore give different sealing instructions based upon the blend... just my observation/supposition though.

And lmaoo, I hear ya brother. I keep telling myself (and the girlfriend) that I just dropped so damn much money and am surrounded by so many boxes full of bags and tins because I'm gonna beat the S&P500 with it one day but God truly knows it's either gonna go up in smoke in my own pipe, traded, or only be sold after I'm gone and unable to enjoy the proceeds. My problem is that I enjoy staring at hoards of tins/jars/bullion/bullets far more than I do numbers on a bank account screen. It gives me the warm fuzzies, what can I tell ya?

 

[NookersTheCat]

With flakes, it's tight enough that you can sill pull one out intact when you want to. I like the taller 12 oz jars for GH&Co flakes.

Great minds... I have a 4 year old asparagus jar of 250 grams of some frosty St. James I'm about to crack into soon... It will be my first time trying it actually haha. Received it as a gift/accident from SP and just let myself forget about it til now. God, I hope I hate it cause it'll suck having to wait another 4 years for some more!

 

[NookersTheCat]

I don't know what the right answer is. One caution I would give is that if you pack your jar to the brim, be very careful about tobacco bits compromising the rubber seal around the lid.

Great point. I always make certain to wipe the rims as with actual canning (even if it's only with my thumb for the baccy jars) and rinse/dry the lids/gaskets before sealment.

 

[Swiss Army Knife]

However much it takes to get it into the jar. I'm not made of mason jars and the local grocery store is probably going to put me on a list if I buy any more.

That said if I'm it putting to away to age I'm throwing it into a heat sealed mylar bag. Way easier to store. Jars are pretty much just for blends I'm likely to tap into in the near future.

 

[badbriar]

I prefer tight fit, if there is enough tobacco to do so.

 

[coming to_falling too]

I usually stuff as much as I can in a jar, with no extra tools or presses or whatever. I may start looking into a caulk gun though.

 

[HawkeyeLinus]

 

[Zamora]

My rule of thumb is whatever the jar size is, pack 1/4 of that amount of tobacco into it. For instance, an 8 ounce jar will hold 2 ounces of tobacco, a 16 ounce jar holds 4 ounces, and a 32 ounce jar will take 8 ounces. You can pack them tighter if you want, but in my experience Virginias in particular seem to age and smooth out the best with a little breathing room.

With aromatics though you don't really want them to age, so packing tighter is certainly reasonable, but if you go tighter than 2 ounces of tobacco per 8 ounces of jar space with the wetter aromatics you run the risk of opening the jar a year or two down the line to find that you have a sticky congealed plug on your hands where all the moisture and sugar has turned your tightly packed ribbon cut aromatic blend into a solid mass not dissimilar to a fruit cake.

Another factor to consider is the relative humidity of the air where you live. If it's a hot and sticky summer with 90% humidity then whatever air you seal up inside the jar with your tobacco is going to be very humid and may lead to mold growth. On the flip side, if it's an extremely dry winter with 20% or so humidity then the dry air sealed up in the jar can make your tobacco dry out and lose flavor over time. Around 50% to 60% humidity is fairly ideal for jarring tobacco at 2 ounces of tobacco to 8 ounces of jar space, but if the humidity where you live is very high or very low when you're jarring your tobacco then you might want to pack it tighter to push as much air out of the jar as you can before sealing it up; just to lessen the possibility of mold forming if the humidity is high or your tobacco drying out if the humidity is low.

I've always used 8 oz jars for 2 oz of tobacco, I never had a rule for it but I've noticed that's how much fits comfortably

 

[greysmoke]

As a cheapskate, I pack it in pretty tight. An espresso plunger is helpful.

 

[multitool]

Most of my cellar is in mylar due to space restrictions. But if I did use mason jars, I would probably pack it loose enough to allow some air to permeate all the tobacco in the jar as well as leave some air at the top.

However, if you pack it differently and it maintains it's taste and smoke-ability, do what works for you.