Is It Better To Age Tobacco In The Factory Tin or A Mason Jar?

[sablebrush52]

I wouldn't say that one blender is better than the others.

It's a quaint notion from a time long, long ago, in a galaxy far far away, when Dunhill and later Murray's made its blends, Rattray's and McConnell made Rattray's blends, etc. McClelland followed the British practice of pre aging before release. They all wanted to present the blends at their peak, aged under controlled conditions, for their customers. Cellaring wasn't a thing back then.

 

[AirOne]

I just go through and check my seals on tins from time to time by trying to pull the lids off by hand, using all of my strength. A well sealed tin will NOT open, even if you have Popeye forearms of steal.

you don’t know beans316

 

[Mike N]

you don’t know beans316

Yep. I live near Beans. He’s 6’6” and works outside every day. But when he pulled the unloosened top off of one of those HU 100g tins on his channel, I became a true believer.

 

[Mike N]

One of my two Peterson Standard Mixture tins had that terrible EU warning, so both had to go into the jar to provide me a clean label for the front and top. I used a heat gun and utility knife to remove the labels.

 

[Worknman]

You can do as you like with your tobaccos, but according to Greg, there are two stages of fermentation. And, off the top of my head, I can't remember what they are called.

Aerobic and anaerobic

 

[cosmicfolklore]

you don’t know beans316

No, no I don't... well, except for the freakishly super-humanoids, us mere mortals cannot rip a top off of a tin that still has its seal. Any that I can pop open with my regular human strength, I just smoke right away or throw away.

 

[Oddball]

Another option is letting the blend breath or micro aging. It falls into the rotation/short term aging category for certain.

What I mean by this is taking a tin, old or new, open and stuff into a jar. Then leave it for 3 days to ???? days. After 3 days the tobacco can open up some. After 3 weeks, it can change some more. same for 3 months. etc.


I am not saying to jar and then smoke from jar over the timeframe. I am saying jar and leave alone for whatever micro age time you want.

This is a fun way to revisit blends that did not hit right out of the tin. An example I have used is G.L. Pease Regents Flake. I love oriental so I scooped a few of these up. The leaf right out of the tin, after a year in the factory tin, was a little too sour. After I think 3 months in the jar, I tried it again. It was so go I smoked nothing but that until it was gone.

that was unexpected and fun. It works on other blends as well.

 

[Brad H]

I'm no chemist, but I do have a degree in Chemistry.
Any thoughts or knowledge about sour mashing a tobacco? What I mean in referencing to Alcohol mash (taking some of the old mash and putting it into a the new batch). Would it do any good to take some of the old blend and toss it into a fresher tin of the same blend? Would it allow for aging better or quicker?

 

[Arkansas Paul]

I keep them in the tins.
I've never had one lose its seal in the 10 years I've been buying it. Will it eventually happen? I'm sure eventually as my cellar grows it will but the chances are small and it's not like you're going to go look at your cellar one day and discover that half your tins have lost their seal.
It's a minor risk.

 

[Oddball]

To clarify, I also keep in tins. Boxes and Bags go right in Jars.

Tins are great to trade or sell later as well.

 

[Mike N]

I'm no chemist, but I do have a degree in Chemistry.
Any thoughts or knowledge about sour mashing a tobacco? What I mean in referencing to Alcohol mash (taking some of the old mash and putting it into a the new batch). Would it do any good to take some of the old blend and toss it into a fresher tin of the same blend? Would it allow for aging better or quicker?

I sometimes mix a new tin in with some older, dryer same blend to add moisture. A older buddy of mine adds a piece of white Wonder Bread to the jar for a bit of time for that same purpose.

 

[Zamora]

Better or not, aging is my main option, because I am mostly only smoking from my cellar from here on out. And, aging will be the only option for those who intelligently decide to stash back their favorites as the Vikings pillage the tobacco market.

That's my long term plan. By the time I smoke up all my open jars everything else will have some nice age on it and anything else I get from here on out will get put on the back burner. I had a few things I was already stocking up for aging, but my cellar greatly increased in size when I bought up stuff from Mac Baren and Sutliff that's going away so now I have far more blends than I want in current rotation. I used to not really be interesting in aging anything I haven't had new but I think my plan will be a good way to limit my rotation size and I really like the delayed gratification of buying something you have no intent of opening for a few years. I was partly inspired by the C&D Cellar Series.

I jar up bulk and keep circular tins open, however with square tins I jar those up immediately. I've never bought anything in a rectangular tin but if I ever do I'll jar that up to. Circular tins having a better seal because of uniform pressure makes perfect sense to me.

 

[Zamora]

To clarify, I also keep in tins. Boxes and Bags go right in Jars.

Tins are great to trade or sell later as well.

That's my thinking as well, I like having an option of selling / trading down the road. I know some people are willing to get something jarred but many would never trust that and I don't blame them

 

[mpxstyle]

I was about to start a topic about this, Because I always notice my jars, tins and everything smell like tobacco, specially some English blends. The thing is, if I open a tin, will do the hiss sound from the vacuum seal, some mason jars lids are really stuck even after removing the ring, so everything seems well sealed but I can still smell the blend.
My cellaring is more a preservation habit, nothing is for ever, but I'm from Chile, and the only thing you can buy here is captain black, but lucky me, I manage to get some stuff from USA and Europe, and I want them to last as long as I can.
Almost all was commented, but I wonder what happen with the cardboard tins, those like Pringles tubes, like the Seattle pipe club tobaccos, preserving those are more important now with stg. can I store these sealed tins with confidence?
cheers

 

[Brad H]

Sealed and not opened yes, in good conditions.
The C&D tins once opened, NO!

What’s the humidity and climate in Chile normally?

 

[carp rides again]

I leave mine in the tin for some years. Which seems to age it well. But after opening I move that tin to jars, and once moved after a few weeks the tobacco really shines. I mean I generally smoke a bowl or 2 after opening a tin, but after a few weeks in a jar, man it sings. It's amazing how different it can be

 

[mpxstyle]

Sealed and not opened yes, in good conditions.
The C&D tins once opened, NO!

What’s the humidity and climate in Chile normally?

here in Santiago, we have dry summers, around 40% relativity humidity, and wet winters, around 80%. I have the tobacco in a underground storage room, so the humidity and temperature are quite stable year around.

 

[Brad H]

yeah, you should be fine.
i opened a 2020 can of C&D yesterday and it wasn't kept in any great condition, it was all dinged up. I am 92.75% sure it was a can I left in my car for over a year and forgot about it.
If that can preserves pringles, just think of how it will take care of that tobacco.

 

[waterbelly]

A couple of topics in the responses are interesting and worth addressing.

First is the amount of air to tobacco in tins or jars. When one takes a moment to look at how commercial tins are packed and sealed it's clear that from the commercial standpoint it doesn't matter. Hearth & Home tins used to be tightly packed and vacuum sealed, whereas McClelland tins had loose packing and plenty of air in the tin. C&D, GL Pease canister tins aren't hard packed with no air. HU and Peretti paint can tins, loose pack and no vacuum. Either commercial blenders don't give a crap how their blends cellar, are flagrantly incompetent, or it doesn't matter.

So what do you think? Are commercial blenders incompetent, don't give a crap, or does it probably not matter. Also, the quality blenders do their own aging BEFORE blends are released, so you really don't need to be further aging them as far as the blenders are concerned.

Second is the matter of square and rectangular tin seals. These are sealed with a gasket that's never 100% sealed. There's always a tiny amount of leakage, which is why you can smell the contents if you put a tin in a sealed Rubbermaid container for a couple of weeks, lift the lid, and take a sniff. This is why your closets, basement, display case, or underwear drawer, stink of tobacco. These square and rectangular tins use a gasket seal, and as anyone with even a smattering of engineering knowledge knows, the distributed pressure is concentrated in the corners and less so in the centers of the sides, so uneven pressure along the perimeter of the seal. That's not the case with circular screw down lids. Granted, ANY seal can fail, but in my personal experience, seals on rectangular and square tins fail sooner and in higher percentages. So it comes down to how long do you contemplate your tins will have to hold up? A decade or less? You'll probably mostly be OK. Some of your tins will die in glorious service to you, but most will be OK, just as long as you keep storage temperature variations marginal. Longer than that? Consult a soothsayer.

+1

It reeeeeeeally doesn't matter. And, as someone said earlier, you can do everything the same, split a lb up into 3 jars, and have them come out completely different.

 

[sablebrush52]

+1

It reeeeeeeally doesn't matter. And, as someone said earlier, you can do everything the same, split a lb up into 3 jars, and have them come out completely different.

That someone was me.