Keeping Tobacco Moist on the Cheap

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Aleksis

Aleksis

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smoke a few times a week, which means the tobacco I buy has time to dry out before I finish it. I want to be able to keep it moist and also add moisture to tobacco that has dried out. What are some inexpensive (or free) options for doing so?
 
Mason jars, they work for cellaring your toby and will help to hold moisture. I have all sizes of masons and use my small ones to smoke out of while keeping pounds stored mostly away in bigger jars. Some tobaccos actually are better smoking with a little less moisture. I have never had to rehydrate any tobacco but I know there are numerous methods for doing so.
 
Pipe tobacco, kept properly, should never really go seriously dry. In addition, it's all in what you define as "dry" for smoking purposes. If you're new, you might assume tobacco needs to be heavy and practically sopping wet compared to how a cigar or a cigarette feels. This isn't so, though some manufacturers tin their tobacco in a pretty moist state (far moister than should be for a good smoke, if you ask me).

Now, as for keeping properly, for bulk 'bacca, you can use old spaghetti jars if you're really cheap, or you can go to a hardware store and get rubber-seal Mason jars. You can keep tobacco in the tins and cans in which they come (which, incidentally, fit nicely in a sandwich ziploc bag as a secondary barrier to the tin). No, the antique/vintage glass humidors don't usually work too well. Cigar humidors work great for cigars, and not so great for pipe tobacco. Adding apples or bread slices will substantially increase your risk that mold might ruin the whole batch...so, obviously, avoid that old saw.

How about re-hydrating already dry tobacco (for example, tobacco that is autumn-leaves-on-the-lawn dry, or crumbles like corn flakes)? This thread is a good read for some ideas:

https://www.brothersofbriar.com/t17377-mad-about-tobacco-drying-out-9oz-of-squadron-leader

8)
 
Those small humidrols that you toss into a pouch or jar work very well. I've tossed two of them into a 1/2 gal jar and re-hydrated some tabac that got too dry to suit me.

A free option that does the same thing is to soak a small chunk of terra cotta clay, dry off the excess water and toss it into your tabac container.

I took an empty Skoal container, drilled 1/8" holes in the lid, filled the bottom part with the absorbant florists foam, put the thing back together and soaked it in distilled water, dried the outside and tossed it into a gal. jar to re-hydrate larger quantities of tabac. You can substitute cotton for the foam but the foam is best.

You can put your tabac into a bowl, cover it with a warm, damp cloth, wait a few hours and test the tabac. If still too dry just re-cover, making sure the towel is always damp, and let it sit for a while longer. It will take on moisture slowly and it's good to wait a few hours between tests. Gently stir, agitate, shake whatever...the tabac a little now and then.

Don't forget a gentle spritz with distilled water, mix the tabac well and cover, let it sit for a couple of hours and then test. Go very light on the water at first and add required moisture very little at a time, waiting between spritzes. All you need is a good spray bottle that really atomizes the water. Avoid any bottles that squirt unless you can adjust the nozzle for a very fine spray.

Some use chunks of fruit but I've seen a pouch of tabac that had a slice of apple in it for too long.
Based on what I saw in that mans pouch I don't advise using fruit or veggies in your tabac.

I've also seen tabac that had been sitting around with too much moisture in it. The mold even covered the inside of that humidor.

Don't overdo and you'll be fine with whatever method you use.

 
williamcharles":yqr70on2 said:
Those small humidrols that you toss into a pouch or jar work very well. I've tossed two of them into a 1/2 gal jar and re-hydrated some tabac that got too dry to suit me.

A free option that does the same thing is to soak a small chunk of terra cotta clay, dry off the excess water and toss it into your tabac container.
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Ah, I forgot about those humidrol disks. Those are handy for just a tad of moisture.

I like the terracotta idea, too. Nice. 8)

There's quite a few simple methods out there that work.
 
Kyle Weiss":0i9xcdol said:
.....Cigar humidors work great for cigars, and not so great for pipe tobacco.
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I am a long time cigar smoker and maintain a cigar humidor at 65 - 70% RH wich is ideal for long time storage of cigars. What would be considered the ideal humidity for pipe tobacco storage?
 
Irish Mike":irxouebz said:
I am a long time cigar smoker and maintain a cigar humidor at 65 - 70% RH wich is ideal for long time storage of cigars. What would be considered the ideal humidity for pipe tobacco storage?
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That's a tough one. Pipe tobacco can be as low as 5% and as high as 20%...now that's the tobacco, not the relative humidity of the environment it is in. It's hard to determine without sophisticated equipment what the proper smoking humidity is for the tobacco itself, so I personally just go on feel, instinct and even smell. Dry tobacco almost smells like nothing, where wetter tobacco smells almost compost-like (unless it's Latakia or an aro). Wet tobacco is heavy (watch out when you buy your bulk stuff...obviously, drier tobacco is a better value. :lol: ) and dry tobacco is light. There's the crisp-factor I spoke of earlier, and I've just gotten a feel for when it is the right humidity for me to smoke--it tends to be springy, it won't stay in a ball if pressed lightly, yet it won't crumble under pressure.

Now, to sort of answer the question: storing the pipe tobacco? It's less sensitive than cigars, and doesn't need that narrow 60% - 70% RH zone. So long as your lids on the stuff you're aging are tight (mason jars, normally, but tins have been known to "pop" open over time, square metal tins especially) and the tobacco you're currently dipping in to smoke is at least sealed up via tin or jar. I doubt you'll have a problem outside of that--in other words, don't sweat it too much, keep it simple, and pick up your tins and jars that are sealed for long-term storage and inspect for mold, or shake them a little and see if they're too dry. I live in probably the driest state in the nation, and I don't have problems with tobacco drying out.

Some guru might be able to tell you more specifics. I'm not a guru. 8)
 
GLP's tin humidity target is in the neighborhood of 11-13 %.

Which strikes some as on the damp side, but the moisture is essential for proper ageing. Dry tobacco doesn't marry, mellow or ripen.

GLP's is also, in the opinion of some (including Yr. Obt. Svt. here) the ideal moisture level for smoking it. Dry it out, and it's easier to light & manage, but the flavor is thinner & lacks the round fullness it would have had.

FWIW

:face:
 
Yak nailed it.

I do like to dry out my GLP stuff a touch more (probably down to the 9 - 11 percent range) to kind of split the difference between combustion manageability and flavor. Wind and wet smoking notwithstanding. :lol:

Of all the tobacco blenders I've popped a tin, GLP/C&D is the closest to ideal pipe-stuffing moisture there is.

Good point on moisture regarding aging.

8)
 
Yak and Kyle, Thanks for the information. It sounds like here on the humid northeast coast long term storing in the cellar would be just fine.
 
Only factor in that, unless it's in an airtight tin/jar/bag designed specifically for long-term storage (multiple plies of different materials, like GLP used for a while), the volatile oils in the tobacco are evaporating over time.

Humidity is one factor in the equation but not the only one.

With cigars, this doesn't seem to matter. With pipe tobacco though, it does.

:face:
 
Yak brings up a good point, at the risk of over complicating storage needs...fine, I'll join in. :lol:

"Airtight" doesn't mean that smaller particles (than air/atmosphere) can't escape, it just means it can keep in air. Not knowing exactly which volatile flavor chemicals are in pipe tobacco (and an extensive list that would be), if you're doing some serious storing/agin (more than a year) I'm pretty sure mason jars are the best bet for most. Glass is the most available, reusable and reliable "99.9% tight" material, coupled with good, fresh rubber-sealed lids, you need not worry yourself with what other methods might not work. I'm sure there's guys that use fancy mylar-layered bags, expensive specialized containters, etc., maybe even their own metal-sealed canning rig with a 10-year guaranteed seal. You have a hardware store with Kerr jars and $15? You have what you need. 8)
 
Yak":549nzdnq said:
GLP's is also, in the opinion of some (including Yr. Obt. Svt. here) the ideal moisture level for smoking it. Dry it out, and it's easier to light & manage, but the flavor is thinner & lacks the round fullness it would have had.
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Nail on the head, here. I smoke a pretty good bit of GLP (by FAR the most prominent brand in my rotation and cellar). It takes a bit of work to keep some of it lit at times (I swear the Blackpoint tin I just opened was sealed somewhere around 90% humidity...it's like tobacco soup!), but it's worth it. I tried giving it a bit of drying time and the flavor just kind of goes tame.

The closest to a happy medium for me is to avoid air drying, pack the pipe and let it sit for 15 minutes or so. Any longer and it's counter-productive.
 
Thanks for the advice everyone!

In the future I'm going to buy those discs. What I ended up doing was storing the very dried out Captain Black Cherry and Spring Breeze and putting them in mason jars in the kitchen, in indirect sunlight. The humidity of the kitchen created moisture which rehydrated the bacci so it didn't burn so hot. I don't know if this is a scientifically accurate way of doing it, but I would get lost if I tried to maintain all those details.
 
Just keep it dark, keep it cool, and keep it simple, and you should be fine. There's a ton of tricks suggested so far that I doubt you'll get stuck. 8) Good luck with it all.
 
Most pipers fret about tobacco getting too dry, but remember that moist doesn't equal wet. If you're convinced that your toabbo is too dry, I'd give it a couple spritzes with distilled water. I make a little tobacco pile and spritz above it, letting the distilled water come down on it like a fog. If you do it in a collander you can toss it to even it out a bit. Then just put it in a Mason jar and store it in a cool, dark corner of your basement. I keep the Mason jars in the cardboard box they came in. Although I store mine in quart jars, I think if I were starting over I'd use pint jars or even smaller. You can get a good seal on a Mason jar in this way -- On a hot, sunny day, put tobacco in a Mason jar, using a small tomato paste can to get a tight pack. Put on the lid, but very loosely. Put the loosely lidded jar in your car parked in the sun. Come back in an hour, tighten the lid and put the jar in your cool basement. Wait about 15 minutes and you might hear the c l i c k!! of the vacuum seal. Don't be opening the jar to check. Just leave it alone until you're ready for it.
 
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