Relighting After Cooling - So Good, Possibly Bad?

[David_Lawrence]

I recently asked about leaving tobacco, lit or unlit, in the chamber as I'd heard it alluded to as being bad for a pipe. The conclusion was that this must have been in reference to leaving it there for weeks or months as it's perfectly fine to do overnight or for a few hours.

My question and comment is two fold:

1) I smoke about half a bowl on my lunchbreak at work and then finish it at home, some five hours later. What I'm now consistently finding is that it's really, really good - like significantly better than the first half. I wondered what theories people might have on why that is and, more importantly, if there's a way I could harness that same science without leaving a half smoked pipe five hours. I've been ready to write off certain tobaccos as mediocre until finishing the work pipe at home and being struck by how much the taste has improved.

My guess is it's a sort of marinating/stewing process with the oils, if so then I'm mostly curious if lighting then leaving is something others might practise or at least have experienced.

2) What I'm really not understanding is how relighting a cooled pipe can be considered perfectly fine while repacking and smoking a cooled pipe is just about the number one thing you learn not to do, second perhaps only to removing the stem while hot.

If the tobacco in the chamber has likewise cooled all the same then what's the difference?

Cheers.

 

[Richmond B. Funkenhouser]

I have also experienced this.

1- probably dried out more.

2- I don't know why, but adding to a pipe just hasn't worked for me.

 

[trubka2]

It's called the Delayed Gratification Technique (DGT). Many people swear by it. It's magic, and there are no shortcuts.

 

[workman]

Lots of guys pack and light a pipe in the evening and let it rest overnight. It's a thing.
What you are referring to in point two is perfectly fine to do. I just wouldn't do it all the time, because it's the constant moisture that makes a pipe go sour.

 

[Tommy Boy]

I pack a bowl at night and get it burning good and set it out for the next day regularly. I am horrible at rember to dry my tobaccos long enough especially in the mornings. So i think it just lets the tobacco dry in the pipe. No negative side effects on any of my pipes or tobaccos that i have noticed.

 

[BarrelProof]

I’m not qualified to answer this. However, my speculation is that it has something to do with both drying it out more, as well as perhaps a miniature stoving effect. When I put some tobacco in the oven the other night and took it out a few hours later, the aroma had been intensified beyond belief. I don’t see why heating up the bottom half of a bowl while smoking the top half couldn’t have a similar effect, while also drying it a bit more.

 

[Chasing Embers]

1 - For work I pack one pipe. I smoke it on the way to work, relight for each of three breaks, and finish it on the way home.

2 - I smoke the same pipe 2-3 times per day for a week or more, sometimes a month. After finishing the pipe, I disassemble it immediately after dumping the remaining ash, wipe out the mortise with a Q-tip, run a bristle pipe cleaner through the stem and draft hole, wipe out the chamber with a paper towel, reassemble and give the bowl and stem a quick polish on a buffer.

The biggest rule to learn is that there really aren't any. Do what works for you.

 

[rushx9]

It's called the Delayed Gratification Technique (DGT). Many people swear by it. It's magic, and there are no shortcuts.

+1

 

[mso489]

That's more or less the way I smoke, intermittent, and sometimes packing a pipe and letting the blend dry there until the next day, and so forth. I have too many pipes, so they all rest endlessly, if that helps. I've never noticed any bad effects, and some of these briars are forty years old.

 

[marconi]

After drying for an hour and then sitting in the bowl overnight I smoke the first half of a large bowl of Gawith FVF mid morning.The second half I may not smoke until the following day the taste is as good if not better than the first half in my experience.This is not true of all blends a lot taste ashy and lose their flavour when left.I suppose its about the quality of the tobacco.

 

[judcole]

2) What I'm really not understanding is how relighting a cooled pipe can be considered perfectly fine while repacking and smoking a cooled pipe is just about the number one thing you learn not to do, second perhaps only to removing the stem while hot.

You don't want to repack and relight a briar pipe that has NOT cooled. Although many smokers are firm believers in only smoking a pipe once a day, others - including myself - maintain that it is perfectly OK to smoke more then one bowl in the same pipe, as long as it has cooled between smokes. Running a cleaner through it between smokes, and then giving it plenty of rest before you smoke it again, is advisable.

 

[pipestud]

DGT (Delayed Gratification Technique) has been employed by pipe smokers for years. It was even talked about extensively in the old Pipe Smoker's Ephemeris Magazine. The technique works particularly well with quality Virginia tobacco.

The short answer from a lot of those old timers is that once leaf is burning, that's when the flavor erupts as the various oils, sugars, etc, are released from the leaf. These components begin saturating the unburned leaf and as the fire continues to burn downward, the flavor intensifies. That's probably why a lot of people say the bottom half of the bowl smokes tastier than the top half. Once you smoke about half a bowl and then leave it overnight, the various components of the burned leaf not consumed by the fire, adhere to the unburned leaf and will meld with it. So, when the pipe is relight hours later, all of those extra flavors burst forth. It is indeed a delightful experience!

 

[kcghost]

Seems reasonable to me. I know I have no problem with relighting a pipe the next day.

 

[augiebd]

Might be worth exploring, have always made sure I had the time to finish what I started, have never experienced this pipe delayed gratification.

 

[saltedplug]

pipestud!

 

[El Diablo]

Wait a minute .... Wait a Minute ... w...a..i..t a minute,
you are saying that it is better to smoke a half a pipe ?
That you will get a better .... more gratification and better flavors if you delay the smoking experience.
That you will get more satisfaction is you smoke the bowl in two sittings ?
That is better to have a Jumbo size pipe, so there is always same tobacco left for the "good smoke" ?
You got to be kidding .... but I agree with you !!

 

[Chasing Embers]

That is better to have a Jumbo size pipe, so there is always same tobacco left for the "good smoke" ?

Yes

 

[coming to_falling too]

Yes

View attachment 27810

I never tire of seeing pictures of your pipes or your impressive cellar. You're an inspiration!

 

[rushx9]

@David_Lawrence , please don't take this question the wrong way, but are you getting advice from a clerk at a cigar shop? Some of those guys know what they're talking about, but many do not (even if they claim to have been in the biz forever, they may just have been perpetuating misinformation forever). There's nothing wrong with repacking a pipe after it's cooled. Nothing wrong with relighting hours later other than your tobacco might be a little soggy.

 

[saltedplug]

Relighting a pipe after some time is a very different matter than relighting a cigar. I could tell the degradation of flavor of a cigar after a five minute pause. When I smoked an occasional cigar and wanted to stop I'd just leave it on the front porch and relight the next day. At this point I didn't pay much attention to the flavor, so if degraded, so what? But when I stared smoking a cigar a day and reading about them, I stopped doing that. Cigar are delicious but expensive, so I began paying attention.