WillQuantrill
Well-Known Member
Today we start an experiment that could revolutionize our ideas on the tobacco aging process or ruin about $35 of would be perfectly tasty store bought cigars. The idea for this came about as most excellent ideas do, smoking with a good friend I was explaining my fermentation/home grow process. He is pretty keen when it comes to the cigar industry but has alot of questions about the homeroll stuff. Anyway, I was explaining how the kiln works and he asked "can you artificially age cigars in it?" to which I did not have a good answer. I forgot about the whole conversation and he recently asked if I had tried it and it reminded me. So today I put a plan into action. I picked 5 cigars from my stash that were still sealed from the factory, 4 of each release and of those 2 will go into the kiln for a month to 6 weeks (haven't exacted a time-frame yet) and 2 will stay in the cellophane in a humidor. I trust my friend's pallette is a little more refined then my own so when the kilning is done I'm gonna ship him half the samples and I will do my best to review and document the other half for profile/construction/burn/ and flavor changes.
This is the setup in the kiln, and I made sure to make a band board so I don't lose track which is which. Also gave them 1 rail of clearance like hotdogs on a grill for air circulation. While I'm not sure how the wrappers/glue will hold up in this atmosphere I am intrigued for the results. The kiln is automated to run at 75-80% RH and 123-128* and I do plan on letting them rest for atleast 2 weeks when they are done. Feel free to input any questions or experiences with this idea. The skeptic in my head tells me if this was a viable technique to artificially age rolled cigars the factories would already be doing it. But then again, what good was building the damn kiln if you can't use it for experiments? Guaranteed I will post the results.
This is the setup in the kiln, and I made sure to make a band board so I don't lose track which is which. Also gave them 1 rail of clearance like hotdogs on a grill for air circulation. While I'm not sure how the wrappers/glue will hold up in this atmosphere I am intrigued for the results. The kiln is automated to run at 75-80% RH and 123-128* and I do plan on letting them rest for atleast 2 weeks when they are done. Feel free to input any questions or experiences with this idea. The skeptic in my head tells me if this was a viable technique to artificially age rolled cigars the factories would already be doing it. But then again, what good was building the damn kiln if you can't use it for experiments? Guaranteed I will post the results.
