Curing Chamber results.....Curing Phase II

**ashauler** · 11-23-2010, 09:38 AM

I started pulling the tobacco from the kiln over the weekend. Here are some shots of the results.

As you can see by the photo's, the LRL/SSBM/ARG tobacco all cured very dark. The texture is also very different from the Florida Sumatra.....the Sumatra is like paper thin, very delicate, while the others are very much like leather though they can still be easily damaged.

I did much reading on this process, all the way from crap on YouTube....to tobacco manufacturers web sites, to University research programs, etc....etc...etc. The temperature, RH, and length of fermentation ranges from the various sources was, frankly, mind numbing. I chose the middle ground of 100 - 110 F and 67-75% RH and did my best to maintain that. Other than a couple of times that the crock pot went dry, I think I did pretty good at keeping the temp/rh combo steady.

Now comes the true test.....rolling some cigars and smoking them. I missed my first goal of Halloween, though I was smoking some pipe tobacco by then. I'm shooting to smoke some of this, in cigar form, over this holiday weekend. I'll complete the stripping and shut-down the kiln tonight so I may start trying to roll as early as tomorrow evening. I'm kinda excited.

Long Red Leaf:

Removing the mid-rib from the LRL:

Small Stalk Black Mammoth:

Pile O' Florida Sumatra:

Argentina:

**Paddy** · 11-23-2010, 09:41 AM

JB Fresh Rolls - Box split anyone?

**TachyCoventry** · 11-23-2010, 10:38 AM

Very cool that's awesome!

**mrtr33** · 11-23-2010, 03:31 PM

Those leaves are HUGE. When you remove the middle vein, do you actually cut the leaf? How does that work?

**ashauler** · 11-23-2010, 04:04 PM

Originally Posted by mrtr33

Those leaves are HUGE. When you remove the middle vein, do you actually cut the leaf? How does that work?

Yep, I just took that big ass pair of scissors and cut as close to each side of the mid-rib as I could. Some use a pizza cutter instead of the scissors.

**cigarsarge** · 11-23-2010, 06:31 PM

Cool...

**denver24** · 11-24-2010, 12:52 PM

Very cool and nice pics!

**cinda** · 11-26-2010, 09:34 AM

Great job! Can't wait to hear how it was for smoking!

**logan37** · 12-01-2010, 12:18 AM

Originally Posted by ashauler

Yep, I just took that big ass pair of scissors and cut as close to each side of the mid-rib as I could. Some use a pizza cutter instead of the scissors.

I know a guy with some pizza cutters...

Those are some fine looking leaves Jamie. Nice work!

**ashauler** · 12-20-2010, 06:32 PM

Yeah, the roller needs some practice.

**kevin7** · 12-20-2010, 06:42 PM

Outfuckingstanding job

**nhcigarfan** · 12-20-2010, 07:31 PM

Good stuff there. Now I want to see a barber pole.

**buzz** · 12-20-2010, 08:21 PM

Those look pretty dang good I think. Nice work bro!

-Buzz

**TachyCoventry** · 12-20-2010, 10:26 PM

Very nice! Can't wait for the review of one!

**mrtr33** · 12-21-2010, 03:53 PM

Very impressive.

Well? Did you smoke one?

**ashauler** · 12-21-2010, 04:42 PM

Originally Posted by mrtr33

Very impressive.

Well? Did you smoke one?

Not yet, they're still too wet.

**ashauler** · 01-13-2011, 11:01 AM

Geesh, these things are taking forever to dry out. I tried to light up a Florida Sumatra over the weekend, but just couldn't keep it lit.

I've had them all in a dry box since, so maybe by this weekend I'll actually get to smoke one all the way through.

I took all the tobacco out and went through it again and found some white mold on the Argentina. I pitched it. No big loss as it probably would have unrolled itself anyway.

I also discovered that I don't have any good wrapper left. I should have paid much more attention to the bugs and adjusted my handling methods specifically for the wrappers. Lesson learned for next year.

I made a brick of 50% Black Mammoth and 50% Long Red leaf a few weeks ago. I made this brick after heavily casing the shredded leaves in a mixture of honey and distilled water. I used the shred and toast method to dry the tobacco so that it would act like a sponge and absord the casing. I then took the shredded and very wet tobacco and smashed the shit out of it in the vice just as I did before. I left it in the vise, tightening it as much as possible every day, for a just short of 3 weeks.

I've taken it out of the vice and will try to dry it out this weekend and give it a shot in the corn cob. Since I don't have any suitable leaves for wrappers, I think I'll experiment around with the majority of the remaining tobacco for pipe smoking. I did put aside some of each priming for long term storage/aging.