Packing jars too tightly?

[David D. Davidson]

I recently picked up some new, more compact mason jars for packing tobacco in, and they’re a little bit more compact than I expected.

To fit a 2oz tin inside a jar requires compressing the leaf with a bit of force, and leaves essentially no headroom at the top. Is there any consequence to failing to leave adequate air inside a jar? I suppose I’m a little concerned about possibility of mold growth, although I’m not sure that tracks logically, given how tightly packed some blends are in their tins.

I tried searching the forums for an answer on this and found a bit of back and forth from 2015, but nothing too definitive. Am I safe to proceed or dooming my stash to an untimely and ignoble spoilage?

 

[blackpowderpiper]

I pack the daylights out of mine. So far, so good. If anything, it will turn a ribbon cut into a crumble cake after a few years.

 

[AJL67]

I believe and as 40 people will say after me, that you want some room and air in the jar for 'circulation' and more importantly for the little tiny dudes to do their thing with the tobacco, you know organisms and chemistry all the fun things that mellow and change the leaf we love.

Stolen from a post by Jessie from 5 years ago:

With ribbon cut I pack in a 1:2 ratio. 2oz tobacco in a 4 oz jar, 4 oz tobacco in an 8 oz jar, etc. With flakes I pack as tightly as I can while still allowing the opportunity to full a flake without macerating it.

 

[Peter Turbo]

I put 4oz into 8oz Ball Mason Jars and 8oz into 16oz Ball Mason Jars, both are packed very tight.

Some of them have been like that 3 years on now, no issues.

 

[seaweed]

I pack them tight

 

[bullet08]

I hate it when my tobacco decides to crumble on me without the necessary tortures. I like little room in my jars.

 

[cosmicfolklore]

If you mean those quarter pint jam jars, cramming 2ozs in with some pressure is normal. They aren’t very deep. You are NOt cramming all of the air out, just trying to get the lid on without having tobacco hang out the sides. It will relax and spread out inside once you get the lid on. There will be enough O2 to get the aging process going. No worries.

I put 3.5 to 4 oz in half pints all the time.

You guys packing a half pound at a time into large jars… when you do pop an aged jar of that, you are committing to a lot of tobacco. Once popped, the aging process changes gears, so… have fun.
I prefer to commit to smaller amounts at a time when I pop a jar.

 

[Chasing Embers]

I get a pound of ribbon in a pint jar. Packing tight doesn't negatively affect the tobacco.

 

[David D. Davidson]

If you mean those quarter pint jam jars, cramming 2ozs in with some pressure is normal. They aren’t very deep. You are NOt cramming all of the air out, just trying to get the lid on without having tobacco hang out the sides. It will relax and spread out inside once you get the lid on. There will be enough O2 to get the aging process going. No worries.

I put 3.5 to 4 oz in half pints all the time.

You guys packing a half pound at a time into large jars… when you do pop an aged jar of that, you are committing to a lot of tobacco. Once popped, the aging process changes gears, so… have fun.
I prefer to commit to smaller amounts at a time when I pop a jar.

Those are the exact proportions of weight and jar size! Glad to hear I didn’t misstep - I was about 15 jars deep before self doubt came bubbling up.

 

[woodsroad]

If you mean those quarter pint jam jars, cramming 2ozs in with some pressure is normal. They aren’t very deep. You are NOt cramming all of the air out, just trying to get the lid on without having tobacco hang out the sides. It will relax and spread out inside once you get the lid on. There will be enough O2 to get the aging process going. No worries.

I put 3.5 to 4 oz in half pints all the time.

You guys packing a half pound at a time into large jars… when you do pop an aged jar of that, you are committing to a lot of tobacco. Once popped, the aging process changes gears, so… have fun.
I prefer to commit to smaller amounts at a time when I pop a jar.

BINGO!
Pack ‘em tight. The tobacco is already saturated with ambient air. Let the anerobes work.

 

[hoosierpipeguy]

The biggest issue I've found with packing tightly is getting the tobacco out when you open the jar. Other than that, I don't think it makes much difference. If you're going to be cellaring 10 to 20 lbs, pack it a bit loose. If you're cellaring 100 lbs or more, space becomes an issue. Pack it in as tight as possible.

 

[onestrangeone]

All I use anymore are the half pints, 2oz to a jar. Some of em are packed pretty tight, no ill effects so far and some are going on 8 years now.

 

[blackpowderpiper]

The biggest issue I've found with packing tightly is getting the tobacco out when you open the jar. Other than that, I don't think it makes much difference. If you're going to be cellaring 10 to 20 lbs, pack it a bit loose. If you're cellaring 100 lbs or more, space becomes an issue. Pack it in as tight as possible.

Bingo. I’m in it for the long haul. Much tobacco needs to be stored and space is at a premium. I pack em tight.

 

[minerLuke]

I pack tight, as much as I can reasonably get into the jar. The only problem I've noticed is with some flakes I packed tightly into the narrower mouth style jars. When you crack a jar, pulling out the first bit is a bit of pain and you end up with something closer to broken flake. Now I only buy the wide mouth style jars to alleviate that issue.

 

[RookieGuy80]

I'm not trying to press it in enough to make a cake. But jars cost money and space is a finite resource. I'll pack it in as tightly as I can without tobacco spilling over the top. If it's even with the top of the jar so I can screw on the lid without worrying about loose ribbons hanging over the side in good.

I'm early enough in my pipe tobacco journey though. I'm using smaller jars because I'd much rather have 16 small jars with an ounce to smoke through each than to be worried about a quarter pound to finish off before cracking another jar. That's for a couple reasons. First, I'm not sure exactly when that pound of Virginia will be at peak. I'd rather find out with 1/16th my stash that it needs another year than with 1/4. Second, I like varieties. With very few exceptions, it's much more fun to have a rotating list of blends to smoke through. Sutliff VA Slices is a good smoke, I'll smoke these 2 ounces in this jar. But when that's done, I have another Virginia flake on deck. I'll circle back to VA Slices later.

 

[drrock]

For long-term storage, I usually put 2 oz. of pipe tobacco into half pint wide mouth Mason/Kerr jars.
Over the years, I found 2 things that are really helpful for jarring my tobacco:

A canning funnel:

Ball Jar Canning Funnel - Walmart.com

Buy Ball Jar Canning Funnel at Walmart.com

www.walmart.com

And an Espresso Tamper:

Amazon.com

www.amazon.com

 

[sablebrush52]

I believe and as 40 people will say after me, that you want some room and air in the jar for 'circulation' and more importantly for the little tiny dudes to do their thing with the tobacco, you know organisms and chemistry all the fun things that mellow and change the leaf we love.

Stolen from a post by Jessie from 5 years ago:

With ribbon cut I pack in a 1:2 ratio. 2oz tobacco in a 4 oz jar, 4 oz tobacco in an 8 oz jar, etc. With flakes I pack as tightly as I can while still allowing the opportunity to full a flake without macerating it.

Still how I pack, which does allow for a bit of space on top. Incidence of mold so far is 0%.
When you look at how tobacco is tinned commercially it’s quite clear that density really doesn’t matter. Some blends are compressed in a manner similar to what I do, and others, like flakes, are just loose in the tin.

 

[AJL67]

Still how I pack, which does allow for a bit of space on top. Incidence of mold so far is 0%.
When you look at how tobacco is tinned commercially it’s quite clear that density really doesn’t matter. Some blends are compressed in a manner similar to what I do, and others, like flakes, are just loose in the tin.

I found your pearls of wisdom long ago and just went with it. I'm convinced there is nothing about pipes that isn't "YMMV" and that everything else is just finding what works for you. There is no right or wrong as far as smoking, only when caring for pipes there are a couple things people say that can damage pipes or certain stems and that's about it.

 

[proteus]

My method is to pack down the tobacco real tight with a muddler, then use a vaccum sealer for mason jars to suck out the air. Been working for me for a long time now.

 

[kcghost]

There are numerous claims that you should put only a 1/4 as much tobacco in in the jar as the jar will hold. I've put in two ounces of tobacco in a two-ounce jar. It didn't age a lick but that was the only thing. Tobacco was fine. Brian Levine says to put the tobacco in a jar with sufficient space to let enough air in to let the air mingle with the tobacco.