How I process my whole leaf

[Juxtaposer-]

Any questions or discussion are welcomed. I am making things up as I go and get my ideas from forums like this. This idea came about by looking at kilning temperatures. Not having a kiln I have been trying different ways to elevate temperatures to affect tobaccos. Outside in the summer is being tried although to prevent mold the jars are vacuum sealed and without normal levels of oxygen this is not kilning but rather low temperature stoving. The lowest temperature in the oven is 175F and I have also done this. Twelve hours is all the oven will go until it would need to be reset but according to some calculations I made I would want a whole week at this temperature. Simply not practical. The idea of pre stoving at this low temperature is to affect some kind of change and then ride out the results with some aging to develop this. After this aging a stoving at higher temperatures (200F-4hrs) will be done to “lock in” the changes. Granted what I think is happening is all imaginary but it seems possible this could make some difference. Otherwise there is not much discussion out there on this type of experimentation as most will settle on traditional methods.

 

[deluxestogie]

Innovation requires stepping outside the presumed boundaries of currently accepted methods.

Bob

 

[johnny108]

What about a water bath?
I saw a YouTube channel where a guy used a sous vide cooker in a bucket of water. The tobacco was sealed in bags and submerged.
He left them there for a month or so, and came back to successfully kilned tobacco.
Aquarium water heaters may also get close to a temperature where kilning enzymes are more active. The tobacco container will have to be very well sealed, of course, and the moisture level of the leaf will need to be lower than ideal, to prevent mold.

 

[Juxtaposer-]

What about a water bath?
I saw a YouTube channel where a guy used a sous vide cooker in a bucket of water. The tobacco was sealed in bags and submerged.
He left them there for a month or so, and came back to successfully kilned tobacco.
Aquarium water heaters may also get close to a temperature where kilning enzymes are more active. The tobacco container will have to be very well sealed, of course, and the moisture level of the leaf will need to be lower than ideal, to prevent mold.

Yes for temperature but no for oxygen. Here is the rub! Breaking down air cured tobacco to mellow for smoking requires oxygen. Elevated moisture and temperatures do help but if you include oxygen then mold will grow. The solution is to have the temperature high enough to suppress mold growth with moisture and oxygen present. A well designed kiln is perfect for this. Aging with enough oxygen at lower moisture levels also supports this breakdown. Here with oxygen the balance between moisture and temperature will suppress mold.
Flue cured tobacco is a different story. I certainly can be improved by the oxidative processes but it’s not as necessary and having most of its enzymes destroyed by the heat of its color curing not as effective. This is where an environment with no available oxygen can affect change and with a higher sugar content an anaerobic environment is where flue cured tobacco can improve dramatically. With no available oxygen moisture and heat can be applied with little concern for mold. There are ideal temperatures and moisture levels for supporting microbial activity but time can negate their importance. There are also temperatures that will destroy microbial life which is what exposure to oxygen can do as well. High enough temperature can also destroy cellular structures in tobacco which can be a good thing. There are many kitchen gadgets that can be used in various ways but I don’t like the idea of an appliance being on for months.

 

[FosmicCilth]

I made a kiln for mason jar kilning from one of these:

https://www.amazon.com/Cozy-Bread-Warming-Insulation-Fermentation/dp/B0CZMW5D72/ref=mp_s_a_1_11_sspa

And added a second heating pad to put on top of the jars. I use boveda packets to hold moisture and I have had great results with 6 weeks at 122 degrees. I air out the jars to add oxygen periodically and have had no mold growth. It is very easy to determine the stage of fermentation with this method by smell as the volatiles are concentrated when you open the jar.

For air cured, I ferment them for 6 weeks, airing out as much ammonia as I can every week or two, then I let them get bone dry to drive off all ammonia before rehydrating to store. This seems to work well and takes very little space/is affordable enough to experiment with without a big commitment.

Recently I have been spraying Va and Connecticut Broadleaf with half vanilla bean-infused rum and half water before jar-kilning. So far the Broadleaf is some decadent stuff, perfectly suitable for pipe/blending, it is amazingly smokeable. I am still waiting on the Va to see how it affects that process as I prefer my virginias kilned. The rum-kilning seems to affect the pH in a desirable way for the Broadleaf.

Yes for temperature but no for oxygen. Here is the rub! Breaking down air cured tobacco to mellow for smoking requires oxygen. Elevated moisture and temperatures do help but if you include oxygen then mold will grow. The solution is to have the temperature high enough to suppress mold growth with moisture and oxygen present. A well designed kiln is perfect for this. Aging with enough oxygen at lower moisture levels also supports this breakdown. Here with oxygen the balance between moisture and temperature will suppress mold.
Flue cured tobacco is a different story. I certainly can be improved by the oxidative processes but it’s not as necessary and having most of its enzymes destroyed by the heat of its color curing not as effective. This is where an environment with no available oxygen can affect change and with a higher sugar content an anaerobic environment is where flue cured tobacco can improve dramatically. With no available oxygen moisture and heat can be applied with little concern for mold. There are ideal temperatures and moisture levels for supporting microbial activity but time can negate their importance. There are also temperatures that will destroy microbial life which is what exposure to oxygen can do as well. High enough temperature can also destroy cellular structures in tobacco which can be a good thing. There are many kitchen gadgets that can be used in various ways but I don’t like the idea of an appliance being on for months.

 

[Juxtaposer-]

I am certainly sold on the idea of jar kilning. This is ideal for the limited amounts of tobacco a hobbyist like me would use. Surely this is what I will be doing soon enough.

 

[UmbriaFarmer]

Yes for temperature but no for oxygen. Here is the rub! Breaking down air cured tobacco to mellow for smoking requires oxygen. Elevated moisture and temperatures do help but if you include oxygen then mold will grow. The solution is to have the temperature high enough to suppress mold growth with moisture and oxygen present. A well designed kiln is perfect for this. Aging with enough oxygen at lower moisture levels also supports this breakdown. Here with oxygen the balance between moisture and temperature will suppress mold.
Flue cured tobacco is a different story. I certainly can be improved by the oxidative processes but it’s not as necessary and having most of its enzymes destroyed by the heat of its color curing not as effective. This is where an environment with no available oxygen can affect change and with a higher sugar content an anaerobic environment is where flue cured tobacco can improve dramatically. With no available oxygen moisture and heat can be applied with little concern for mold. There are ideal temperatures and moisture levels for supporting microbial activity but time can negate their importance. There are also temperatures that will destroy microbial life which is what exposure to oxygen can do as well. High enough temperature can also destroy cellular structures in tobacco which can be a good thing. There are many kitchen gadgets that can be used in various ways but I don’t like the idea of an appliance being on for months.

Actually my empirical observation re the need for oxygen differs from your statement. Although I only process cigar leaf now, I used to process a lot of bright and black tobaccos for my pipe blends and did so anaerobically with great results. I would put the leaf into very high case, roll up 10 leaves into a sausage shape and pack the sausages tightly into 4 litre glass jars with airtight lids. I packed the jars brim-full. The jars got submerged in a water tank I constructed - there was an immersion heater element with t'stat and a small circulating pump to keep temps even throughout the tank. I maintained the temp at between 45 and 50C (about 115 to 125F I think) for a month. After this treatment I'd go on and press different blends to make flake and the results were excellent. And at those temps, never a single mold issue either.

 

[Juxtaposer-]

I am finding the air cured tobaccos that I have processed anaerobically are great. It’s just that after they have been exposed (intentionally) to air for a few days they start to develop the bitter ammonia flavors. Of course minimizing exposure to oxygen could prevent this. This ammonia sickness indicates to me that these tobaccos could be improved by oxidative processing. It’s not that these tobaccos are unusable especially in mixtures. A personal goal of mine is to have an all Burley pipe tobacco. This would require a significant amount of mellowing.