Mad about tobacco drying out- 9oz of Squadron Leader

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MartinH

MartinH

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I just went through all of my tinned Squardon Leader, roughly 9oz worth of it, and it all went dry on me!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Man, I am so unhappy about this. It still smokes okay, but has almost no apparent moisture. So, I re-tinned it, and this time used actual glass jars with metal lids. The heavy duty glass/rubber lid jars I had didn't work. So, I've added water, probably a little much at times, and sealed the jars. The SL is only about two years old, so I'd like for most of it to age some more.

That said, I opened the first jar because I really wanted to smoke some. So, how long until the moisture content returns and it's back to it's old self? I have about 3oz that are still in the glass/rubber lid jar, but that will also soon be moved to a proper jar. What do you guys think? Will it come back with time?
 
Moisture won't return in time.

You'll have to do a "bacca sweat" in order to revive it. Small bowl, put enough bacca to evenly layer inside. Get a much larger bowl. Fill larger bowl with boiling water. Put smaller bowl in larger bowl of water. Smaller bowl should just barely touch the bottom so it doesn't float. Cover with a plastic bag, or better yet, cling wrap, and make a taut, tight seal (with no dips so condensation doesn't drip into the tobacco. Leave overnight. Check in the morning, it should be the right moisture level.

I've revived more than my share of cracker-dry bacca this way, and it works well. The taste might not be exactly the same, but a 90% recovery is better than ruined. :)

8)
 
Alternatively, you could pick up a cheap moisture button and drop it into your jar until the tobacco gets to the right moisture level...you might want to avoid direct contact between the button and tobacco (I usually thoroughly clean a large bottle cap - like from a bottle of Gatorade or something like that - and set the button inside the cap).

This will cost a little more money than the tobacco sweat (not pricey, though), and you don't get to feel all Mr. Wizard-y, but I've had good success with it.
 
You would be surprised how much moisture is required to get two ounces of bacca revived again let alone nine ounces. I don't think the buttons do more than maintain bare-minimum moisture loss from small portions at a time. At least I've had no luck with them in a "revival" capacity in Nevada. :lol:

8)
 
Hmmm...I've always done ok with 'em. Maybe my "dry" tobacco wasn't as "dry" as I thought? Worst I've had to do was add a second/third button into the mix.

I suppose you could get a hold of a large airtight container, and a smaller container (like tupperware), and a small block of floral foam. Soak the foam, place it in the smaller container (uncovered), place the small container and tobacco into the larger container and seal (keeping the tobacco out of contact with the foam). Re-soak foam if it dries out before the moisture soaks back into the tobacco. Pretty much like throwing together a homemade high-humidity humidor.

That'll be more trouble and take longer than Kyle's method; the upside is I don't think you'd lose any of the original taste/qualities whereas the tobacco sweat might make that a risk.
 
It ain't my method, though, kind of adapted most of it from suggestions from the guys here. Hell, one guy had a bunch of dry bacca spread out someplace in the bathroom while he took a long, hot shower. :lol: So long as it's indirect moisture and given time to soak in, there's probably a lot of things you can do.
 
Kyle Weiss":8xu7g00x said:
Hell, one guy had a bunch of dry bacca spread out someplace in the bathroom while he took a long, hot shower. :lol:
Click to expand...
Tobacco + Steam + Pert Plus

I think this guy might have stumbled upon the Lakeland formula!
 
I just get my hands wet toss the tobacco and let it sit , but then again tobacco doesn't really dry out down here.
 
Two ideas for you --

Method #1 -- Usually, when trying to "moisturize" dry tobacco, I simply take a spray bottle (I've used empty, washed, aired Windex bottles) and put in some distilled H20. Then I put the tobacco in a heap (good time to pick out sticks and splinters) on a sheet of tin foil. Do a couple/few sprays on the tobacco heap, toss, repeat until you're satisfied with moisture content, then put in mason jars and store for a week of so. The spray should be like a very dense fog, sprayed over your tobacco heap in a way that allows it to fall softly on the tobacco. Don't use a jet spray directed at the tobacco. I use this method both to humidify dry tobacco and as a pre- storage treatment for aging tobacco.

Method #2 -- Couple weeks ago, I noticed that a well aged half pound of BBF was dry as a bone. I was going to perform method #1 abive, but couldn't find a suitable spray bottle. Then I happened to hear that the overnight weather report was cool with overnight showers. Soooo -- I took the brick of BBF and put it in a glass bowl. The bowl was of a size that the sides held the dry brick of BBF up out of the bottom. My deck is partially covered by the eaves of my house. Under the eaves is a handy bench that, in a light shower w/out wind, stays mostly dry, but not bone dry. So I put the open bowl o' BBF on said bench where it remained from 11 p.m. until 9 a.m. In the morning, the BBF had been nicely misted by the showers, there were only a couple table spoons of water in the bowl, but not touching the tobacco. In the a.m., I cut the flake brick in half and put it in a mason jar. The tobacco is now just moist enough that a flake can peel off w/out uncontrolled crumbling.
 
great ideas guys! Thanks. I have some Dunhill VA Flake that Im going to try these on
 
idbowman":mkt9pfw3 said:
Kyle Weiss":mkt9pfw3 said:
Hell, one guy had a bunch of dry bacca spread out someplace in the bathroom while he took a long, hot shower. :lol:
Click to expand...
Tobacco + Steam + Pert Plus

I think this guy might have stumbled upon the Lakeland formula!
Click to expand...
Genius! :cheers:
 
Thanks for all the tips guys. I couldn't find a spray bottle either, so I did that only thing that my frustrated mind could handle so I poured about 2-3 table spoons of water over it, closed the screw top to the jar and shook it thoroughly. I checked one jar this morning and the moisture content was pretty nice. I should also mention that I used distilled water. I'll let the other jars sit for a couple of weeks and then see how it goes.

As a follow-up to my question, once the tobacco is in mason jar with proper screw top lids, do I need to check the moisture content of the baccy on a regular basis? I'd hate to go through all of this again.

:lol:
 
Had just this experience a while ago. Here's my post-

Decided to open a ~10 yr old tin of GLP Mephisto tonight. The 'baccy was absolutely dry - as in snap-crackle-pop dry! Yet the pull tab lid seemed like it was in fine shape. Apparently it didn't have an air tight seal after all!

Filled a pipe and did the forced moisture thing by breathing into the bowl about a dozen times until the top layer seemed about right. After lighting it burned and tasted pretty good actually!

Put the remainder of the tin into a bowl and sprayed distilled water on it with a sprtizer while mixing thoroughly and checking for feel. Settled on it feeling just about moist enough to get it to clump slightly while squeezing.

Didn't want to over humidify it, so have left it in the bowl with a piece of saran wrap over it secured with a rubber band. Will leave it there overnight and check it again tomorrow and go from there.

Can't really say that the tin was in an area exposed to a heat source or direct sunlight. I've other tins that were stored in this area that were OK, but there again not one quite this old. Tomorrow I'll check a couple other older tins from that area before I go into panic mode!

affraid

YIKES!!!



Cheers,

RR





And my follow up post-


Progress report:

After a bit less than 24 hrs in the covered bowl, the 'baccy had uniformly re-hydrated. Doing the pinch test it just about clumped, which in retrospect might be a bit more moist than I intended. But it's clearly what I have now, and of course I can dry out whatever I need for smoking a few hrs prior if this proves to be problematic.

I jarred it up in a pint mason, and will let this rest for a couple days before checking it out again.

Have several other older GLP tins that are now suspect - Barbary Coast, Abingdon, Ravens Wing, and Cairo. Shaking them doesn't reveal anything that would lead me to believe they are also compromised, at least from the way they sound. Guess I'll be opening them up soon, and will be prepared to re-hydrate them accordingly.

I guess I'm left wondering about the seal of this style tin. It's used on a great number of brands, GLP notwithstanding, and to date I've never had a problem like this. But again, I've not opened a tin this old either.

Anyone else have a problem like this with old tins of that design?


Cheers,

RR


I need to go back to the Mephisto to see how it's fared. And have not opened the others mentioned yet.....


Cheers,

RR

(original thread below)



https://www.brothersofbriar.com/t14625-well-this-is-a-first
 
>>once the tobacco is in mason jar with proper screw top lids, do I need to check the moisture content of the baccy on a regular basis?<<

I don't think it's necessary -- once you have the hang of the moisturizing step. I find it easy to eyeball the tobacco in the Mason jar, watching if it clumps or sticks to the sides of the jar, suggesting too much spritzing. You have the option of removing the lid should the tobacco be too moist, or, as many smokers do, just put a pipeful of tobacco on a saucer and let it dry.

P.S. I've found spritzer bottle everywhere from dollar stores to grocery stores. They tend to disappear from your man cave in proportion to the number of females in your household, so it's a good idea to keep several on hand. I had one that was a perfect size and pressed it into action while waxing the car. Dropped it and broke it, because my steenkin knees were sore, so I tried carrying too much stuff. Life's lesson: Making two trips successfully is better than juggling too big a load on one trip.
 
My only qualm with spritzer bottles or sprinkling water directly on the tobacco is uneven moisture. Tobacco is sponge-like anyway, so exposing it to a moist environment an allowing it to drink up what it feels is the right moisture worked better than direct introduction of water. Also, you run a much higher risk of the tobacco at the contact spots with the direct-water approach soaking up too much, and not allowing the moisture to pass along to other leaves--which could invite mold. Not to mention, steam baths don't require distilled water.

Since a story was used about carrying too much in one trip causing an accident, I kind of look at the steam bath approach like the two-trip method of hydrating tobacco.

IMHO, YMMV, BFD, YMCA, BBQ...
 
Good point, Kyle. In my experience, while those unfortunate things could happen, they haven't (to me, anyway) probably because I try to err on the side of not enough spritzing rather than too much. I think I've only used two foggy spritzes per half pound (approx the amt I put in a Mason jar).

Anyone who is more comfy with the advantages of the steamed approach (granted, a pound of tobacco is expensive) should stick with it (rather than send me the bill for moldy pipeweed).

I should have added that putting the dry tobacco in a collander for spritzing can help in getting an even distribution to the distilled water, because you can literally toss it. (Don't let The Missus catch you, though.) On occasion I've added a few drops of rum to the spritzing solution. Results were inconclusive.

I would only draw the line at an old-fashioned remedy for dry tobacco -- Adding a slice of apple or, worse, pertater. J u s t D o n ' t!
 
I keep a dropper bottle of distilled water on my desk. Keep the tobacco in mason jars. If one container begins getting a little dry I drop a few drops of water on the tobacco and shake it up. In a couple of days the moisture has spread evenly through the tobacco.
Stan
 
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