New Piper. Bitter, Ashy taste

[HawkeyeLinus]

Mutton or Allen?

Allen!

 

[didimauw]

I tend to not worry about speed of smoking. I'm strictly only worried about drying my tobacco enough. Try making your pipe tobacco drier than your cigarette tobacco, even to crispy. It's changed my smoking forever.

 

[molst]

I prefer most tobaccos just slightly dried from a fresh tin.

Learn to smoke slowly without loosing the thickness of the smoke. When the smoke gets thinner you get more of that ashy taste. This requires a lot of practice at first, but will eventually become very easy.

To perfect the smoke, rid some ash a couple of times through the bowl.

Good luck!

 

[sleepy57]

Sometimes if the pipe is new and the bowl has been coated it can (depending on the quality of the pipe) give off a foul taste due to the bowl coating used Some coatings are undetectable some taste like something died inside the bowl. usually the better quality names in pipe making have this figured out and use coatings that you can't detect that easily.

 

[bullet08]

The OP said it was fine before the bitter and ashy. Let's think for a sec. If it was coating it might have tasted like crap from the start. If it was wet tobacco, it should probably been bitter and ashy before also. So with the OP not doing anything different from previous smokes, I can only think of pipe that wasn't cleaned properly. Like take it apart and clean the mortise.

 

[mortonbriar]

And, if you smoke a bowl for every piece of good advice you have received here I think you will find the increase in enjoyment that comes with familiarity and learning of a new thing.

 

[AJL67]

?Yeah, that fellow causes a lot of confusion and overthinking for new smokers. Give Allen a look.

So do we do that with our hands when we use this method?

I just love that he effed it up when he was demonstrating because he had to think about it ?. Going to find more of his videos. I also dig that pipe lighter.

 

[Anchovies]

So, i dont know if this is something that comes up a lot.

i just started smoking a pipe monday this week. I watched a couple of muttnchop piper`s videos on youtube, trying to get a very basic grasp on the techniques to pack, light and smoke my pipe.

the monday smokes, was pleasant, nice, and tasted like the tobacco scent in the bag. Both yesterday and today, it went from nice, pleasant, "round" taste, to more bitter and kinda ashy.

The pipe i bought, is from the nearest pipe shop (not a standard kiosk that just sells them), a nice place, with a more focus on pipes, too. A starter pack, with pipe(i think the brand is Vibel), a bag of tobacco, pipe cleaners and a tamper for 400dkk(55,97 USD).. for reference, the cheaper single pipes from White Star starts at around 375dkk(52,47USD). The tobacco is a Mac baren 7 seas regular blend.

Im also just using a bog standard lighter, one i would use to light my ciggarettes with. I am still smoking the last of my ciggarette tobacco as well, if that would have any effect.

Im using the 3 step method to pack my pipe, still learning the packing. Im doing the charring light, then the proper lighting after, and im tamping the ash down a bit, every so often when smoking, to keep it just on top of the ember and the un smoked tobacco.
After ech smoke, i do empty the bowl of ash, leftover tobacco with the tamper tool pick, run a pipecleaner round the bowl and run one through the stem and shank, to get moisture out.
Im getting a small, decent carbon cake around in the bowl, but i can see, that the bootm part is looking bare, and a bit like it is exposed wood/briar

My question is, is this just a process, to get the pipe to be tasting good when smoking, or have i maybe done something wrong.. Is it the pipe, or the tobacco that just behaves this way? Am i cleaning my pipe wrong?

Hello mate, I only did a quick scan of the replies and didn't see anyone mention it, although it's probably the cause of your problems in my opinion:

Pipes need to rest.

The briar absorbs moisture and tar and what was a nice smoke can become sour and rank tasting. The general rule is to let a pipe rest for as many days as bowls you smoked out of it that day. Although in practise I usually find two or three days is long enough no matter how many bowls I smoked out if it.

Most pipe smokers have a collection of pipes for this reason.

Personally, I always use a 9mm charcoal filter too although not all pipes are designed to fit them (in fact, most are not and folk think they take away from the flavour, although I've never noticed that personally).

And yeah ... don't inhale a pipe.

 

[xmacro]

Lotta good advice so far. One thing I haven't seen mentioned that helped me is, sip on the pipe like you're sipping a fine bourbon. Keeping the fire just barely lit, on the razors edge. If it goes out, just relight.
I don't always do this, but keeping it in mind will slow you down and help break bad habits of sucking in too much

 

[Sgetz]

Pipe tobacco and cigarette tobacco are very different. Cigarette tobacco will not provide the taste others describe. Move to all pipe tobacco asap!

 

[foxwithapipe]

lots more good advice.. thank you all.

have let my pipe rest for 2 days now, since i did use it each day the whole last week, and tried giving it a bit more thorough cleaning, tho i only used pipe cleaners and a lil bit of q tips to get most of the gunk stuff out.. hope this will give me a better experience again :D

 

[OldCaptainTheo]

Lots of good advice by the masters here. Follow them and you're in a good path. As a former ryo cigarette smoker myself, you're doing a good thing here. Just keep in mind that pipe smoking is a process, with a steep learning curve. If you keep at it, it will reward you in the most amazing ways, believe me.

 

[Latakia Dave]

So, i dont know if this is something that comes up a lot.

i just started smoking a pipe monday this week. I watched a couple of muttnchop piper`s videos on youtube, trying to get a very basic grasp on the techniques to pack, light and smoke my pipe.

the monday smokes, was pleasant, nice, and tasted like the tobacco scent in the bag. Both yesterday and today, it went from nice, pleasant, "round" taste, to more bitter and kinda ashy.

The pipe i bought, is from the nearest pipe shop (not a standard kiosk that just sells them), a nice place, with a more focus on pipes, too. A starter pack, with pipe(i think the brand is Vibel), a bag of tobacco, pipe cleaners and a tamper for 400dkk(55,97 USD).. for reference, the cheaper single pipes from White Star starts at around 375dkk(52,47USD). The tobacco is a Mac baren 7 seas regular blend.

Im also just using a bog standard lighter, one i would use to light my ciggarettes with. I am still smoking the last of my ciggarette tobacco as well, if that would have any effect.

Im using the 3 step method to pack my pipe, still learning the packing. Im doing the charring light, then the proper lighting after, and im tamping the ash down a bit, every so often when smoking, to keep it just on top of the ember and the un smoked tobacco.
After ech smoke, i do empty the bowl of ash, leftover tobacco with the tamper tool pick, run a pipecleaner round the bowl and run one through the stem and shank, to get moisture out.
Im getting a small, decent carbon cake around in the bowl, but i can see, that the bootm part is looking bare, and a bit like it is exposed wood/briar

My question is, is this just a process, to get the pipe to be tasting good when smoking, or have i maybe done something wrong.. Is it the pipe, or the tobacco that just behaves this way? Am i cleaning my pipe wrong?

Welcome from Virginia.

 

[chopper]

@foxwithapipe over 12 years ago I switched from a 30-40 a day cigarette addiction to a pipe.
Never thought I'd get that monkey off my back; a pipe made quitting cigs way less stressful.

For me smoking is a comfort thing, a ritual that helps keep me on an even keel as it were.
Inhaling every so many puffs is part of that ritual. [Why I choose mild blends with mild nicotine]
I do not smoke a pipe like most pipe smokers.

You will also find what works for you. Just stick with it, avoid overthinking it and it will come naturally.
The best thing is that smoking a pipe just gets better and better with experience.

Take packing a bowl for example; like most others it took time for me to pack each bowl just right and learning the differences between packing each type of cut.
Every so often I'd have to repack a bowl.
Then one day it just fell into place where I could pack a bowl without much thought.
Now I sorta ram tobacco in and tamp with my finger. Each and every bowl smokes just fine.

One tip I'd suggest for a beginner; start with small to medium sized bowls.
If your pipe has a large bowl, don't pack further than 3/4's.
If you intend to smoke more than a couple of bowls daily, get yourself a few more pipes so they can rest as you rotate between them.

 

[foxwithapipe]

time for a little update

So i have been following a lot of the great advice here, my enjoyment have certainly skyrocketed, due to proper cleaning, less frequent puffing, keeping the pipe cooler and resting between days.

i still only have the one pipe, but im about to go get a second one, to ensure proper resting, is obtained for my pipes.
I have also been peeking in lots of other posts around here, gathering more tips, I think i will clean out my new pipe, before smoking it first time, to ensure its totally clean.

Thank you all, for helping me get started with piping