Questions You Thought Were Too Dumb to Ask (Pipes Edition)

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Originally Posted by AlanS

On occasion I slip a small Boveda in jars of tobacco. Probably not necessary most of the time,but they feel like a little insurance.Any thoughts on this? Thanks

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What RH are you using?

Pipe tobacco isn't like cigars, they don't like that 60 and above RH at all. They need a drier environment to thrive and age. Making them overly moist just risks mold and loss of flavor. IMO I would never put any kind of humidifying device or agent in any of my pipe tobaccos. If I need to rehydrate some tobacco that I foolishly neglected, then I use the large tupperware and wet paper towel method...

I have had jars with no humidifying agent in them sealed for 7+ years, and when I pop the lid off them everything is 100% happy and perfect. Pretty much found them in the same state that I jarred them away in.

I agree that no additional humidification is needed, but I think the notion that pipe tobacco should be stored at lower humidity than cigar tobacco is incorrect. I'm not trying to pick on Brandon here, but I see this posted a lot. I think the reason people believe this is likely because a lot of time when people talk about pipe tobacco storage, they are talking about the moisture content of the tobacco, and when people talk about cigar storage, they are referring to the relative humidity of the air around the tobacco. I think that if we took the moisture content of a cigar and the moisture content of pipe tobacco, they would be within a couple percentage points of each other, and the pipe tobacco would probably be the slightly higher of the two. Greg Pease says 13 - 18% moisture content is ideal, depending on the blend. I think I remember Steve Saka saying with cigars, you are shooting for something like 12-14%. The Greg Pease statement I am sure of, I can't remember exactly what numbers Steve used, but it was somewhere in that ballpark.

I am in AZ and the whole humidification thing is a PIA. I had a pound or so of the Indonesian Tambolaka get all moldy on me and I cant remember if I had a humi pack in the large cigar jar. The rest of my opened tins and bags are in a large cooler with a humi jar in it. So far I have not had anything else get moldy in 3 yrs. If I was not in the SW I probably would not worry about keeping the humidity up. But AZ can dry stuff out fast.......thoughts??

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Originally Posted by rx2man

I am in AZ and the whole humidification thing is a PIA. I had a pound or so of the Indonesian Tambolaka get all moldy on me and I cant remember if I had a humi pack in the large cigar jar. The rest of my opened tins and bags are in a large cooler with a humi jar in it. So far I have not had anything else get moldy in 3 yrs. If I was not in the SW I probably would not worry about keeping the humidity up. But AZ can dry stuff out fast.......thoughts??

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Rather than trying to maintain humidity by adjusting the ambient relative humidity as you do with cigars, with pipe tobacco the preferred solution is to put the tobacco in canning jars, such as mason or ball or Kerr jars. The tobacco will loose very little humidity and form it's own seal as the aerobic bacteria consumes the oxygen in the jar. This allows anaerobic bacteria to continue the aging process amd keeps the tobacco fresh and smokable.
edit: An 8 oz canning jar is suitable for two to three ounces of tobacco, depending on the cut.

How do you sanitize/clean a used pipe before using?

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Originally Posted by bluenoser

How do you sanitize/clean a used pipe before using?

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Usually salt/alcohol treatment to sanitize and draw out any old ghosts. And use an alcohol soaked bristle pipe cleaner in the shank and stem. Other than that I don't do anything else to the "inside" of the pipe. It's all buffing and cleaning the outside to make it pretty from there on out.

P.S.
ream out any EXCESSIVE cake IF necessary...a little is okay. At least to my standards.

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Originally Posted by bluenoser

How do you sanitize/clean a used pipe before using?

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Originally Posted by LandonColby

Usually salt/alcohol treatment to sanitize and draw out any old ghosts. And use an alcohol soaked bristle pipe cleaner in the shank and stem. Other than that I don't do anything else to the "inside" of the pipe. It's all buffing and cleaning the outside to make it pretty from there on out.

P.S.
ream out any EXCESSIVE cake IF necessary...a little is okay. At least to my standards.

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I only use the SA treatment on exceptionally ghosted and nasty estate pipes. Sanitizing the bowl isn't really important at all, drawing out the ghosts is what you are after there.

If there are no ghosts I would skip the salt and alcohol treatment and go straight into using bristle pipe cleaners/shank brushes full of 91 Iso alcohol to clean the stem as LandonColby suggested. Then run regular pipe cleaners through the stem until they come out clear and white. I also let the stem sit for about 2-4 hours after that to dry all the alcohol out.

If there are a lot of ghosts, don't skimp on cleaning out the mortise and shank well. Extremely well. In my experience, I have discovered that most of those nasty tastes actually live in the mortise and shank, not the bowl.

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Originally Posted by rx2man

I am in AZ and the whole humidification thing is a PIA. I had a pound or so of the Indonesian Tambolaka get all moldy on me and I cant remember if I had a humi pack in the large cigar jar. The rest of my opened tins and bags are in a large cooler with a humi jar in it. So far I have not had anything else get moldy in 3 yrs. If I was not in the SW I probably would not worry about keeping the humidity up. But AZ can dry stuff out fast.......thoughts??

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Tambolaka is an uncased tobacco that should be kept relatively dry. It has no preservatives added and if kept humid like a cigar will generally spoil. Like Nachman said, just keep it in a tight jar. That way it will maintain the tobacco at the humidity it arrived at, which is most suitable. Tambo can even be allowed to dry out more, and need only be softened up when you intend to smoke it. The way Tambolaka is cured is to be pressed into sticks and bound in rope, then left in the rafters of a grass hut on an island in Indonesia for 5 years. Besides the naturally occurring enzymes in the tobacco, some yeasts probably play a role in creating the unique flavor of the tobacco. But where there's yeast, there's bound to be mold spores too, so any unbalance in the delicate curing process can lead to an outbreak of the fuzzy stuff. Another reason to store Tambolaka in a jar is to isolate it, as the mold/yeast might potentially spread to your other tobaccos.

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Originally Posted by cpmcdill

Tambolaka is an uncased tobacco that should be kept relatively dry. It has no preservatives added and if kept humid like a cigar will generally spoil. Like Nachman said, just keep it in a tight jar. That way it will maintain the tobacco at the humidity it arrived at, which is most suitable. Tambo can even be allowed to dry out more, and need only be softened up when you intend to smoke it. The way Tambolaka is cured is to be pressed into sticks and bound in rope, then left in the rafters of a grass hut on an island in Indonesia for 5 years. Besides the naturally occurring enzymes in the tobacco, some yeasts probably play a role in creating the unique flavor of the tobacco. But where there's yeast, there's bound to be mold spores too, so any unbalance in the delicate curing process can lead to an outbreak of the fuzzy stuff. Another reason to store Tambolaka in a jar is to isolate it, as the mold/yeast might potentially spread to your other tobaccos.

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I had appx a pound of the stuff and was not happy to see the white fuzzy stuff everywhere. The whole thing went into the trash it was too far gone when I noticed it. It was probably too moist when I got it and went downhill from there. From the smell I probably would not have liked it but I still wan not happy to toss it. I am thinking I need to get some more jars. When I get large amount of bulk tobacco I jar it. Its the little 2 oz bags that I have in a cooler along with opened tins. I did notice all the "opened" tins have now sealed shut and I could not just twist them open. Also no mold problems with anything else just the Indonesian stuff.

Even 1 or 2oz quantities should be jarred. I recommend 1/2 pint wide-mouth jars for those. Anything not in a sealed tin ought to go in jars unless you intend to smoke it within the month. Plastic bags are not airtight. Over time they will breathe out moisture, and the plastic itself may affect the flavor.