The big puff

[pijper]

Hi!

I've been smoking pipe now for a month or so, and I like it. I like how it's always there, you can have a smoke whenever you feel like without. It's not too expensive and you can smoke just for 15 minutes if you like.
My main concern for the moment is the smoking experience.
From my short experience I could experience say 4 levels of smoke/taste intensity. The first 2 levels give some of the flavor without too much tobacco flavor? That's how I would describe it. The 2 last give more of the strength, more smoke, more tobacco flavor I guess? Also it gives that tingling feeling in your mouth and nose. It depends on how hard the pipe is burning and how long you draw I guess.
I'm not so much into the first 2 levels, the small puffs. I enjoy more the big hits where I keep enjoying for a long time while the smoke slowly escapes my mouth and nose

Problem is that to obtain this level of intensity the pipe gets hot very fast for me, and when I give it a rest for too long between the draws the pipe goes out (while still being very hot).
What am I doing wrong? How can I have more of those big tinglings flavor draws without having the pipe becoming too hot? Is that even possible? Or is that just not happening so much in pipe smoking?

 

[jvnshr]

Pipe smoking is not similar to hookah or e-cigarette (Vapor) smoking. I never expect big smoke clouds from my pipe, if I see them I understand that my pipe will get really hot in a second. The more you draw, the bigger will be the combustion. When you have a bigger combustion, you will reach a higher temperature and you will lose flavor gradually.

Or is that just not happening so much in pipe smoking?

There are some tobacco blends that get hot very late, however they lack flavor. C'est La Vie is the only pipe tobacco I have seen so far that doesn't get that hot. Captain Black Regular would also be in this category, but it will get really hot if you try so hard.

 

[pijper]

Pipe smoking is not similar to hookah or e-cigarette (Vapor) smoking. I never expect big smoke clouds from my pipe, if I see them I understand that my pipe will get really hot in a second. The more you draw, the bigger will be the combustion. When you have a bigger combustion, you will reach a higher temperature and you will lose flavor gradually.
Or is that just not happening so much in pipe smoking?

There are some tobacco blends that get hot very late, however they lack flavor. C'est La Vie is the only pipe tobacco I have seen so far that doesn't get that hot. Captain Black Regular would also be in this category, but it will get really hot if you try so har

It's not so much the big cloud what I'm after. I'm after the high tobacco/aroma flavor intensity. Which I only seem to get when or just before the pipe gets too hot. Unless perhaps I think it's too hot. I read that you should be able to hold your pipe in your hand for a few seconds.

Not that I dislike the small puffs but I don't enjoy the as much.

 

[pijper]

Welcome new pipe smoker!! Make sure the tobacco you smoke is on the dry side rather then moist. You can microwave a bowl or two in a clean dish for 25 to 30 seconds and give that a try. Most tobacco's arrive much too moist which can also cause tongue bite. I tell new pipe smokers too also order a small amount of Lane Burley & Black. You can puff this blend like a freight train with no bite what so ever. Many Virginias you need to sip your pipe slow or you will feel like a snake just bit your tongue...lol. I'm smoking a pipe for almost 47 years and I watch the moisture levels in all of my blends. The moisture level in tobacco should not be higher the 13% and English blends even dryer. Make sure you don't smoke an English blend in the same pipes you smoke your aromatics in. You should have a pipe for English blends, one for your aromatics and one for non-aromatics like a good straight Virginia. As a new pipe smoker you can purchase a few Missouri Meerschaums, that would also be known as corn cobs. Then look on eBay and see what briars you like. You can always ask questions within this forum. Good luck and enjoy your new hobby!!
KEEP ON PUFFING!!!

Thanks I'm also struggling with the humidity. I have Lane BCA and I'm not sure about how humid it should be. It's really hard to get some smoke out of it even after I leave it on a paper towel for 2 hours.

I'll try the microwave trick. Isn't that dangerous though, without any food or water?
How can you tell it's at 13% humidity?

 

[jvnshr]

It's not so much the big cloud what I'm after. I'm after the high tobacco/aroma flavor intensity.

Pack looser than you always do. Try sipping very slowly every 3 seconds or so.

 

[pijper]

Pack looser than you always do. Try sipping very slowly every 3 seconds or so.

OK I'll try that. I think I may pack it too firm, especially the Lane BCA because of how it's cut. Different tobacco/cuts may require different looseness? Or different humidity levels may require different looseness?

 

[derfatdutchman]

I read that you should be able to hold your pipe in your hand for a few seconds.

Your pipe should never get so hot you cannot hold it in your hand during the entire smoke. Another option is to try a different packing method. Check out the forums You Tube channel there are several videos on packing from the three step to the Frank method.

 

[pagan]

Smoking cadence and packing, it all comes in time

 

[shutterbugg]

I know of some blends that can be puffed harder without becoming a tongue-searing blast furnace, but I don't know of a single blend that doesn't lose flavor the harder it's smoked. In fact there are many blends that the only way to taste anything other than bland and cigarettish is to sip them very lightly. So I really don't understand what the OP is mistaking for taste when he puffs hard enough to stoke up heat.

 

[yaddy306]

I know of some blends that can be puffed harder without becoming a tongue-searing blast furnace, but I don't know of a single blend that doesn't lose flavor the harder it's smoked. In fact there are many blends that the only way to taste anything other than bland and cigarettish is to sip them very lightly. So I really don't understand what the OP is mistaking for taste when he puffs hard enough to stoke up heat.

+1

 

[jpmcwjr]

Thanks I'm also struggling with the humidity. I have Lane BCA and I'm not sure about how humid it should be. It's really hard to get some smoke out of it even after I leave it on a paper towel for 2 hours.

I'll try the microwave trick. Isn't that dangerous though, without any food or water?
How can you tell it's at 13% humidity?

You can't! Not without major equipment, $$$. But you can measure relative humidity with a hygrometer such as 1coyote links to. Blenders and tobacco processors measure moisture content (and come in with numbers in the teens. RH will be over 50% @70º for enjoyable smokes. I keep mine between 60-70% RH. YMMV.)
Microwaving is safe, but do it in small increments!

 

[jvnshr]

How can you tell it's at 13% humidity?

Pipe smoking is about relaxing and enjoying your smoke, not getting technical and calculating everything. You take a pinch of tobacco, squeeze it between your fingers, if they stick together then it is too moist, if they don't stick and don't have elasticity then they are too dry, it should be sponge-like, after squeezing it, the leaves should return to their previous states slowly. That pace will actually indicate how dry or moist the tobacco is.

 

[jvnshr]

You can order a gauge like this with a probe. It's very inexpensive and works fine. Down the road you can get a better one if you like. Take a look.
Yhttps://www.amazon.com/temperature-gauge-Thermometer-Moisture-Hygrometer/dp/B018JLZ5VA
KEEP ON PUFFING!!!

How do you calculate the moisture content of tobacco with a hygrometer Coyote? Can you please explain?
I am sorry but you are totally wrong, sir. Moisture content and relative humidity are different things.

 

[jvnshr]

OK, I am going to try to keep it simple;
Pijper asks:

What am I doing wrong? How can I have more of those big tinglings flavor draws without having the pipe becoming too hot? Is that even possible? Or is that just not happening so much in pipe smoking?

Coyote replies:

The moisture level in tobacco should not be higher the 13%

Pijper asks again:

How can you tell it's at 13% humidity?

Coyote replies:

You can order a gauge like this with a probe. It's very inexpensive and works fine. Down the road you can get a better one if you like. Take a look.
Yhttps://www.amazon.com/temperature-gauge-Thermometer-Moisture-Hygrometer/dp/B018JLZ5VA

The link you provided is the link of a hygrometer, which measures RH level not moisture content of tobacco. In order to measure the moisture content of tobacco you will need something like this:

 

[pijper]

I know of some blends that can be puffed harder without becoming a tongue-searing blast furnace, but I don't know of a single blend that doesn't lose flavor the harder it's smoked. In fact there are many blends that the only way to taste anything other than bland and cigarettish is to sip them very lightly. So I really don't understand what the OP is mistaking for taste when he puffs hard enough to stoke up heat.

What do you mean exactly with hard puff? I didn't mention hard puff.

It's a hard thing to discuss that's why I used levels of intensity. From low to high intensity. The higher intensity tends to open my sinuses and it gives a tingling feeling everywhere, because of the smoke, and there is fuller flavor of everything. When I'm in the low intensity zone I tend to have more aroma flavor than tobacco perhaps, but it's rather low flavor, it feels like a loss of good tobacco to stay in this zone the whole time. And my problem is it's hard for me to get out of the low intensity without explosing the pipe.
Maybe an important thing to mention, I use filters. It seems to cut some of the edges for me.

You take a pinch of tobacco, squeeze it between your fingers, if they stick together then it is too moist, if they don't stick and don't have elasticity then they are too dry, it should be sponge-like, after squeezing it, the leaves should return to their previous states slowly.

That's a nice little trick I will be trying out. Thanks

You can order a gauge like this with a probe. It's very inexpensive and works fine. Down the road you can get a better one if you like. Take a look.
Yhttps://www.amazon.com/temperature-gauge-Thermometer-Moisture-Hygrometer/dp/B018JLZ5VA

You just stick it in your tobacco?

I have one of those that I used to check the humdity in my humidor for few cigars I had. Maybe I can use that one.

 

[tmb152]

Coyote makes a very good description for BCA. To me, this is a blender and not something you smoke by itself. If still not clear, moisture content is the physical percentage of water make-up in a tobacco by weight. Humidity or RH is percentage of water vapor pressure within an atmosphere compared to saturation (Saturation, 100%, is the point where the air can hold no more at that temperature and fog or precipitation forms). Most cigars and tobaccos seems to like something in the high 60's.
I have a few pipes whose bowls get warm to the touch, but generally, pijper, you want to strive for an equilibrium while smoking to where you have the pack, light and draw at just the density and flame to where with small, slow, steady sips, you get a nice, steady continuous burn with an adequate smoke to keep it going for the next puff, maybe with the occasionally finger manipulation / rearrangement of the top of the tobacco to bring unburnt stuff from along the wall out into the middle to get better air circulation.
When smoking, you should be almost unaware of the pipe and mainly focused on the experience itself of the smoked tobacco, your thoughts or whatever else you are doing at the moment, if that makes any sense. The smoke becomes part of you. Corny as it may sound, you should identify with being one with the SMOKE as the pipe more or less dissolves into the background. If you are overly consumed with the pipe, struggling with it, then something is wrong.
Time and patience are the name of the game here. The great thing about a pipe is that unlike cigars that once lit must be smoked all the way through, I will occasionally sit a pipe down unfinished late at night only to find it the next day and it is still a great smoke! Keep practicing!

 

[jvnshr]

You just stick it in your tobacco?

I have one of those that I used to check the humdity in my humidor for few cigars I had. Maybe I can use that one.

Forget about it, just keep your tobacco in a jar, you are good to go. If you keep them isolated in a jar, RH of your room won't be affecting the moisture content of your tobacco. Just use it for your cigar humidor.

 

[cosmicfolklore]

It's not so much the big cloud what I'm after. I'm after the high tobacco/aroma flavor intensity.

Honestly, I didn't read every post in this thread, but I didn't see anyone mention (in skimming) that the flavor does not come from the actual direct combustion of smoke. In cigars and pipes, the flavor comes from the release of the tobacco's essential oils surrounding the combustion. So, smoke does not equal flavor, or even nicotine. The flavor comes from the area around the cherry in the chamber driving off the oils. In a cigar it is around and behind the cherry. So, smoking slower, and keeping the pipe on the verge of going out, with just a cherry in the center of the bowl is where you get the best experience in flavor and nicotine.
Smoke slow, always on the back end of the pipe going out completely, like Willie Nelson plays guitar, with each note hitting just before it is too late. This gives your mouth and blood vessels enough time to absorb more of the nicotine and allows more flavors to cook off into the draft where you will taste it better.
Guys that I grew up watching smoke pipes never gave off a puff of smoke. They would just let the pipe hang in their mouths and the smoke drizzling was barely visible at all.

Puffs of smoke were what us kids did when we stole our dad's tobacco and played with it behind the barn. So, puffs of smoke to me are a sign of a newbie. Nothing wrong with being a newbie. Everyone was there at one time. YMMV

 

[jvnshr]

If still not clear, moisture content is the physical percentage of water make-up in a tobacco by weight. Humidity or RH is percentage of water vapor pressure within an atmosphere compared to saturation (Saturation, 100%, is the point where the air can hold no more at that temperature and fog or precipitation forms). Most cigars and tobaccos seems to like something in the high 60's.

Can you measure moisture content of pipe tobacco with a hygrometer? That's what Coyote offers. And I am trying to disprove it. God, that's too funny.

 

[jvnshr]

In cigars and pipes, the flavor comes from the release of the tobacco's essential oils surrounding the combustion. So, smoke does not equal flavor, or even nicotine.

Wow, didn't know that one. Thanks Cosmic. I have to read more about this one. Learned something new today.