Pipe Tobacco, Cigars and Humidors

[64alex]

First of all I only smoke pipes and I know very little about cigars. I know however that cigars are meant to be stored/aged in humidors, while on the other side we pipers keep the baccy in airtight tins or jars. I assume the difference in storing between cigars and pipe tobacco is that pipe tobacco is generally shipped on the moist side and we don't have to worry to humidify it as long as we keep it in an airtight container to prevent excessive drying.
My observation however is that us pipers are obsessive about the fact of keeping the airtight condition during aging as we say that once we open the tin/jar the aging process is somehow stopped. On the other side it does not look the cigars smokers are worried about keeping airtight condition as it looks like they don't seem having problems opening the humidor every while to take a cigar out of it.
So my question is: if for cigars it is important just to keep the humidity level constant but it is does not look important to keep the airtight condition, why the same would not be true also for pipe tobacco? In other words why the airtight conditions are important for the pipe tobacco but does not look important for the cigars? Maybe I am missing something given I am not an expert at all on cigars but I would like to hear comments.

 

[crashthegrey]

Because we know very little about the fermentation process of aging pipe tobacco, and the best results for many are in aging sealed tins. I am also not a cigar guy, but the aging of a cigar is minor compared to what we are trying to do with pipe tobacco.

 

[techie]

I have more experience with cigars than pipe tobacco, but I do know they will both dry out if left out. A dried out cigar, especially its delicate wrapper, will crack under simple finger pressure, so it needs the humidity to stay fresh. When the pipe tobacco is in its tin or a mason jar, I suppose it "seals in" the moistness, being in a self-contained environment, similar to a humidor.

 

[shanez]

A dried out cigar, especially its delicate wrapper, will crack under simple finger pressure, so it needs the humidity to stay fresh.

^^^^This.
Cigars have to maintain a certain level of moisture. Adding moisture to storage conditions ideally means adding air circulation as well. If the air can be kept humid and moving then mold is less of concern.
Moist, still air = mold concerns.

Moist, moving air = less concern.
I recently stepped up to temperature control for my cigars as well. My humidor basically handles temp and air movement for me and I make sure to keep glycol in the tray for the moisture part.
With pipe tobacco, it's just jarred and kept in a dark and temp controlled place. Moisture and air movement aren't a concern.
YMMV

 

[aldecaker]

It's harder to find cigars vacuum sealed in tins.

 

[crashthegrey]

That's it, I'm launching a new line of cigars, vacuum sealed in tins. I'll call them sardines. Huge marketing potential.

 

[aldecaker]

Be great for people who want to cellar their cigars!

 

[crashthegrey]

As much as I am kidding, I think there would be a market for this. Probably with a different name.

 

[aldecaker]

The year is 3040. Wandering the post-apocalyptic wasteland, scavenging long-abandoned bomb shelters, there it is. The holy grail. A still-intact, vacuum-packed tin of 50 Cohiba Macassar cigars...

 

[derfatdutchman]

Years back I smoke a lot more cigars, than I do now. Cigars are fussy things, keep them in their comfort zone and they are happy. Subject them to changes and they fight back, mold, beetles, split wrappers, etc.

 

[crashthegrey]

That sounds like it belongs in a great novel, aldecaker.

 

[jpmcwjr]

A small point: When a mason jar of aging tobacco is opened and resealed, aging doesn't stop. But it sure changes!

 

[mau1]

@jpmc Can you educate us further on what happens when you open and reseal a jar of tobacco? Knowing myself, I will be tempted to open jars I have stored, just to get a good wiff. If there is a good reason not to fiddle around with the stash, it may help me to keep my hands off the jars!

 

[jpmcwjr]

All I know is the character of the aging changes, due to the interrupting of the anaerobic aging, switching for a bit to aerobic aging. It's different. Can one tell? Better/worse/the same?
Only if you did a parallel test with a blend, jarred just the same, one opened at, say, year two, the other not opened until they are both smoked at year five. This would have to be repeated many times and with many blends to come up with something approaching a real answer. (And of course smoker A would say the opened sample was better, and smoker B would say the opposite.)

 

[mau1]

Got it. I won't ask anymore as I see there's a 5 yr old thread about this topic. Thanks for pointing me in the right direction.

 

[64alex]

[A small point: When a mason jar of aging tobacco is opened and resealed, aging doesn't stop. But it sure changes!]
This was the real reason of my post, is it important or not to not open the jars/tins during aging? Looking at what is done with cigars I start to think that, as long as jars are opened for small amount of time and not let them dry, probably it is not going to change too much the aging even if we open the jars and we might be overzealous in keeping jars sealed for years. But again no real experiment has been done and so everyone should do what is thought to be the best.

 

[economistandfisherman]

Here's a great article on airing a humidor...the author is obviously against it, and so am I...I never purposely air my humidor aside from occasionally opening and closing it as the original post mentions. In fact, I have a humidor and a tuperdore (tightly sealed tuperware with Bovida packs in it) that I use for storing the 'next few weeks' of cigars inside so I don't have to open my humidore too much. So, frankly, in my opinion there really isn't much difference between the aging of the cigar and pipe tobacco, aside from desired humidity levels; it's just more expensive and time consuming to store cigars, and given their cost, they must stay inside the humidor which means that if you want one, you have to open it...more of a necessary evil than anything.
https://www.cigarjournal.com/should-one-air-a-humidor-on-a-regular-basis/