crasch
Active Member
I've been kilning my small crop of well-color cured Olor, Corojo 99, and Texas Cuban for a little over two weeks now.
I am using a tub with a gasket to hold the tobacco in high humidity inside of a very large ice chest that maintains the temperature with the help of incandescent light bulbs and an ink bird controller. Multiple wireless sensors confirm that the tobacco has been held around 125F and about 84% RH, fluctuating by about 2 degrees/percentage points.
I've opened the setup twice so far to restack the leaf in the tub, air things out, and to generally check visually how it's going. The leaf has darkened just a little, and it looks like everything is on track. However, I'm a little perturbed by the lack of smell. Based on my reading from this forum, I was expecting things to be quite funky in the beginning weeks. Smell like ammonia. Stuff like that. But the leaf actually smelled pleasant when I aired it out today. It's not a strong smell at all, but what I do get is maybe best described as fresh baked whole grain bread? A kind of nutty, roasted seed type smell.
While I think everything appears to be going well, I also have no experience. It's my first time. So, can it actually going well if it doesn't ever smell funky? Should I expect the smell and ammonia to appear later? It's been just over two weeks at temperature. Does it sometimes simply not smell at all? I would appreciate any insights you might have.
I am using a tub with a gasket to hold the tobacco in high humidity inside of a very large ice chest that maintains the temperature with the help of incandescent light bulbs and an ink bird controller. Multiple wireless sensors confirm that the tobacco has been held around 125F and about 84% RH, fluctuating by about 2 degrees/percentage points.
I've opened the setup twice so far to restack the leaf in the tub, air things out, and to generally check visually how it's going. The leaf has darkened just a little, and it looks like everything is on track. However, I'm a little perturbed by the lack of smell. Based on my reading from this forum, I was expecting things to be quite funky in the beginning weeks. Smell like ammonia. Stuff like that. But the leaf actually smelled pleasant when I aired it out today. It's not a strong smell at all, but what I do get is maybe best described as fresh baked whole grain bread? A kind of nutty, roasted seed type smell.
While I think everything appears to be going well, I also have no experience. It's my first time. So, can it actually going well if it doesn't ever smell funky? Should I expect the smell and ammonia to appear later? It's been just over two weeks at temperature. Does it sometimes simply not smell at all? I would appreciate any insights you might have.
