How Bad is mold on a large batch?

[iamjonjones]

Hi there,

I've recently received a 2kg bag of burley (from eurotabak), when opening the bag it smelled absolutely rancid. upon folding open some of the leaves i found a whole bunch of different colored mold (Green, Yellow, Black and grey/white). I've had mold on previous orders before and all i had to do was separate the moldy leaves from the rest and all was fine. However those times there wasn't this overwhelming putrid smell. Now, even after separating the leaves, folding them open, letting them air out and dry. The smell remains on the leaves that show no real sign of mold and it is a very penetrating smell like bales of rained over stale hay.

My questions are:
-Is any one color of mold worse or more concerning than another?
-Is the whole bag of burley done or is it still usable/salvageable?

I hope you guys have some insight in this, thanks in advance.

 

[deluxestogie]

Moldy stems in burley is not uncommon. I would suggest removing the stems (central veins) from all of it, then allowing it to air and rest open for a few weeks. Rehydrate again, to see if it has changed.

Read about mold in the first section of this:

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Shop premium, unprocessed whole leaf tobacco – carefully sourced, expertly cured, and shipped fast.

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Bob

 

[iamjonjones]

Moldy stems in burley is not uncommon. I would suggest removing the stems (central veins) from all of it, then allowing it to air and rest open for a few weeks. Rehydrate again, to see if it has changed.

Read about mold in the first section of this:

Whole Leaf Tobacco | Premium 100% Unprocessed

Shop premium, unprocessed whole leaf tobacco – carefully sourced, expertly cured, and shipped fast.

wholeleaftobacco.com

Bob

Thanks for your response, i've read the section and from what i understand. All of the different colors of mold i've mentioned are most likely Aspergillus and just having it on the stem shouldn't be an issue nor should smoking it besides that it will be gross most likely. and that there is a chance that the smell might dissipate over time. i have aired the leaves out long enough for them to be out of case right now and stripping the stems would pulverize the leaves. Would it be best to leave them as is, with stem and dry or to rehydrate and strip them?

 

[deluxestogie]

Would it be best to leave them as is, with stem and dry or to rehydrate and strip them?

Bring into low case, strip, then re-dry.

Bob

 

[iamjonjones]

an update to this, i received a replacement batch from eurotabak and they even covered shipping (credits to them), the original batch i received i pulled all the leaves apart and left them out to dry in a big open plastic container as is, the replacement batch didn't smell as strong as the first one, but unfortunately still had the same damp barn smell to it (i actually went to a cow farm not too long ago and it smelled exactly the same), this time i took the time to strip the entire 2kg of its stems in one go (that was quite a task) and left these out in the open in several open cardboard boxes so each of the boxes had plenty of room to air and no clumps of leaves. the first batch i threw out after a few weeks, because the smell seemed to get worse and started traveling into other rooms. the second batch seemed more promising, it appeared to lose a bit of its smell in the first week or two and i made sure to toss the leaves every couple of days but after a month and a half it had the same result as the first and started traveling into other rooms, so that too has been thrown out.
sad to throw out 4kg of tobacco, but i could barely stay in the same room with it let alone smoke it.