Late entry, DaleB's 2023 grow

[DaleB]

Right now I've still got the tobacco just piled in the garage while I finish up the kiln. It's wilting nicely, and there's quite a bit more yellow than there was the other day. I think I'll have the kiln finished this afternoon, just need to pick up a used crock-pot for it. We've got a couple, but SWMBO isn't convinced that one used for this will still be serviceable for food after -- no big deal, if I buy a dedicated unit I won't need to worry about tobacco curing being in conflict with holiday meal prep!

Lessons learned: If I were doing this again, I'd spend the extra money for the more rigid extruded foam board. This stuff is fine, but the sheets have a definite curve to them that makes it a real pain in the ass to work with. I've ended up having to cut strips of some old pine trim I had laying around to hold the sheets straight for gluing. Really it's been a pain and it's taken me four times as long to glue everything up.

The next question is how I'm going to put the leaves (and some stalks) in the kiln. Hanging leaves individually doesn't seem like a good approach, as I don't think there would be enough room. I may try separating the current big bundles (50 leaves to a bundle) into smaller ones and hanging them over dowels. I'll glue a couple strips of pine to the sides to support 2-3 layers of hanging rods. I have the temperature controller ready to go and have a couple of small fans for air circulation, so once all the glue dries it should be ready for its load of leaves. I'll be sure to get some pictures before it's loaded up.

 

[deluxestogie]

Take it up to temperature for a day or three, with no leaf inside. This will allow the materials to outgas.

Bob

 

[DaleB]

Got it fully assembled last night and picked up a used crock-pot at Goodwill for $7.99. I was surprised at how quickly the crock-pot brought the internal temp up from 65 to 95, where I left it overnight. This morning I turned it up to 100 and will increase that over the next few hours. No trace of any sort of odor from the foam board or glue. Not particularly surprising; the foam is faced with metallized Mylar and the Gorilla Glue cures rock hard with little to no odor. Still, I'll let it cook until tomorrow before loading it with tobacco. I have half a dozen dowels cut for hanging leaves, and it struck me that I just found a use for some of the smaller diameter stalks I have. I cut one of those that's about 3/8" diameter to size to try it out. I also need to get my little fans down into the bottom of the box to keep air circulating.

 

[DaleB]

Well, I have the kiln loaded up. I have a crock-pot and a couple of 80mm PC fans constantly running on low speed in the bottom of the box, and it's maintaining the temperature nicely. I'm adding to my "lessons learned" and planned alterations to the box.

First off, it's a little taller than it probably should be. I'd originally planned a vertical box with a door, but it occurred to me that it would be a lot simpler to build a horizontal box with a lid rather than a door. That worked well, but at about 4' tall I can't reach the bottom, so any time I need to move or pick up something from the bottom it's a challenge. I could have made it a foot shorter, or I may make a couple of special tools to move or retrieve things. For now I'm making do.

The sides are prone to flex outward if you're not careful, resulting in dumping a dowel or two full of tobacco leaves onto the bottom of the chest. I'll likely glue some stiffeners to the outside of the box, or add some additional rails on the inside. That would give me more options for hanging rods full of leaves. Also, if I were building new, I'd either notch the internal rails or put some small nails in to keep the rods from sliding around.

And obviously I need to get the temperature controller off the floor, and I've got a remote reading hygrometer arriving today to monitor the humidity in the box.

 

[DaleB]

Hygrometer arrived. $5.99 from Amazon (or really free, because of the points I have) and delivered the day after I placed the order. I hung the remote probe in the middle of the box and let it stabilize; it showed the humidity at 50% so I poured some filtered water into the crockpot. To give things a head start I also gave the inside of the box a light mist from my spray bottle. It's now reading between 67 and 70% RH, so I'll watch it over the next day or two and see what I need to do to keep that under control.

I've only got VA leaves in the kiln. The Samsun is stuffed in a box, and piled in a bag, and some is still attached to stalks I have in the garage. It's yellowing up nicely, and I'm turning and fluffing the piles daily to keep it from molding. Among my "lessons learned" from this year is, "I need to get a better way to store and organize this stuff".

 

[DaleB]

We were away for a couple days for a family wedding. Before we left I dumped some more water in the crock pot and bumped the temp up a couple degrees. We just got back and I found it at 50%, so added more water and closed off the half inch gap at one end of the lid to try to get it a little more humid on there. The leaves are looking good; most of what went in green has yellowed and some of the formerly yellow leaves are a beautiful brown. I’m sure this will be far from perfect but it’s looking very encouraging.

The box of Samsun leaves is doing well also. They’re inside the house and I’m trying to just keep them rotated and fluffed enough that they don’t mold. Once they’re all color cured I think I may bag them or something just so I can toss them in the kiln for curing, while still keeping them separate from the VA leaves.

It will be interesting to see if the kiln can get hot enough to finish the job… I haven’t had it above 100 or so yet. Probably should have tested that early on. Oh well. Worst case I can glue another layer of foam board around the outside.

 

[DaleB]

I’ve started raising the temps for the flue cure process. Once that is done, I will want to kiln ferment this stuff for a couple months. I’ve got the Samsun to cure also, and I don’t really want to mix the leaves up. Would it be a good strategy to load the leaves into a couple of cotton mesh bags and just hang or lay them in the kiln for the duration? I see some pretty good size bags available on Amazon.

 

[DaleB]

Over the weekend I replaced the temperature-only controller with a Wifi connected temperature and humidity controller, and placed a humidifier in the box. The good: the controller seems to be really good at holding the humidity where I set it. The bad: With the crock pot on for about the past 12 hours or so and the temperature set to 140, the box has mor or less stabilized at 127 degrees. I don't know if it's too leaky or not enough insulation. The top of the box tends to develop small (like 1/8" or so) gaps which I seal up with tape, but whether I user mylar HVAC tape or duct tape it only lasts a couple hours before the adhesive lets go. I'll need to figure out a better approach, obviously. Right now it looks like my garage was attacked by Red Green.

On the bright side -- no pun intended -- the Virginia leaf looks and smells amazing, and a little bit that I tore off, unceremoniously crumbled and smoked in a calabash last night was not bad at all. Not fantastic, but not bad.

 

[deluxestogie]

I don't know if it's too leaky or not enough insulation.

Yes. Likely both.

Starting with dry surfaces, the "Tyvek" tape that I used in my kiln has continued to adhere for years. It is sold for taping sheets of house-construction Tyvek together, though the tape itself is not made of Tyvek. [It just says "Tyvek" all over it.] I purchased it at a home improvement store. I've even used it to waterproof my mailbox, after local teen neighbors bashed it with a baseball bat.

Bob

 

[DaleB]

Yes. Likely both.

Starting with dry surfaces, the "Tyvek" tape that I used in my kiln has continued to adhere for years. It is sold for taping sheets of house-construction Tyvek together, though the tape itself is not made of Tyvek. [It just says "Tyvek" all over it.] I purchased it at a home improvement store. I've even used it to waterproof my mailbox, after local teen neighbors bashed it with a baseball bat.

Bob

Thanks, I'll look for some of that. The outside of the box doesn't seem to be warmer than the ambient air, so I suspect it's mostly leaks. I'll address that first. It also occurred to me that I should tape up the "not obviously leaky" seams, like the corners and all. I know the top is problematic, but if I get all of the ingress points sealed up then the top shouldn't matter quite as much. If that doesn't have enough of a positive effect, then I'll look at adding more insulation.

 

[deluxestogie]

My kiln is built with Formular XPS walls that are rated R-10. I think it could use twice as much. But the greatest heat loss will always be leaks, which allow the latent heat of the humid air to escape (increasing your electric bill in the process).

Bob

 

[DaleB]

My kiln is built with Formular XPS walls that are rated R-10. I think it could use twice as much. But the greatest heat loss will always be leaks, which allow the latent heat of the humid air to escape (increasing your electric bill in the process).

I'll likely wrap this in another layer of foam board. I think it probably needs more, and I suspect the crock pot may be a little weak -- but that could be cured with additional insulation. This morning I taped up all of the outside seams, just in case there are gaps in the glue joints. Time will tell if that makes a material difference, but it needs more insulation regardless.

I sampled a bit of my air-cured Samsun this morning. Very light and mild, with a subtle note of - I don't know, incense or floral in the background. The stuff was bone dry and crumbly, so I'm sure it will be better after some kiln time and better case. I've always been a fan of Turkish blends; when I was a young lad I liked Balkan Sobranie cigarettes and smoked Camels of various types up until I quit back in the 90s. I'm looking forward to seeing how it adds to the VA once it's all aged a bit.

I rearranged the leaves in the kiln last night. I'd had them hanging in bundles during the wilting and color curing, but just stacked all of them on a bed of dowel rods spaced a few inches apart, a foot or so off the bottom of the kiln for flue curing (assuming I can actually accomplish that). It was interesting that I could pick out certain leaves with a definite red color to them -- that would be the leaves from the one or two "Tennessee Red Leaf" I planted (whatever that is). Some were a darker chestnut brown, likely the Ontario Bold, and the rest were a very nice yellow-tan-brown. Tough to tell them all apart when they were green, but after they dry it gets easier.

 

[DaleB]

Update: Taping the seams did have a positive effect. It was holding steady at about 127 before, now after a few hours it's up to 137. I don't think the power to the crock pot has been off at all, though. With 100% duty cycle there's no way it will go high enough to finish. I'll see about wrapping the box with something else. I could use an extra layer of foam, but kraft faced R13 fiberglass would be a whole lot cheaper... and since this is in the garage, I don't need to worry about weather exposure.

 

[DaleB]

I shut off the heat in the box last night and started preparing for the fermentation stage. I received my order of four 24" x 24" mesh zipper bags from Amazon (billed as "mesh laundry bags for delicates") so I can keep the Samsun separate from the VA and make it easier to handle the leaves. Most of it is pretty crispy, so I ended up misting the stuff in the kiln with water stand letting it stand a while to soak in. That made the top layer of bundles at least pliable enough to pick up without crumbling to load them into the bag, then I spritzed the next layer.

One thing I noticed was that while getting all of my Turkish leaf into the bag, the aroma is amazing. It brings me back to the smell of a freshly opened pack of Turkish cigarettes. I really can't wait to get some of this ready to use and blend it in with the VA to see how it tastes. The VA leaves smell great too, but that Samsum... mmmmmmmmmm.

In an hour or two I'll sneak away from my work laptop long enough to finish loading the bags and get the humidifier refilled, then seal up the box again and get it set for the temp and humidity it will be holding until the end of the year. If one absolutely must still be working for a living, at least it helps to work from home so little things like this are possible.

 

[DaleB]

Week 2 of fermentation. My $8 or $9 used crock-pot gave up and quit heating, so I replaced it with a $22 500W Amazon ceramic heater. Dead simple, just an on/off switch with no thermostat so it works well. I think I'm still going to need to open up the box to refill the humidifier water every few days, which I'd love to fix but haven't been able to yet. 125 degree 70% air will de-stick just about anything, I'm finding. Still, it's a small price to pay for a garage that smells like aging Virginia!

 

[DaleB]

Lots of water and a little frustration under the bridge since my last post. Apparently my kiln is leaky as hell still, as I end up having to refill the vaporizer every couple of days. The little heater tends to trip its thermal breaker once or twice a day, and that means I have to shut off power for half an hour or so to reset it. As a result there have been periods of time where the temperature is low (50-80 degrees F) and the humidity quite high, over 75%. I was concerned about mold, but so far haven't found any. Let's hope that holds.

Today when I opened up the box to refill the vaporizer and rearranged things a bit. First, I put one of my constantly blowing air circulation fans directly behind the heater to keep air blowing through it all the time. I hope that fixes the thermal issue. I could bypass the thermal breaker, but not sure I really want to do that in a flammable box inside my garage...

I had stood the box on end a couple weeks ago, because I simply couldn't reach anything near the bottom of it - it's too tall, nearly 4'. I have the leaves segregated into 24" square laundry bags, hanging from wire hooks poked through the top surface. Two bags of flue cured VA, one of Samsun, one or air cured VA. I swapped the bags front to back, just to try to even out the moisture. All were at least medium case, but the ones closest to the front of the box (and the vaporizer) were the most moist.

I took the opportunity to pull one leaf of each type. After removing the midrib I folded and rolled them tightly, then sliced them as thinly as I could. That went into a bowl where I added a splash of rum and a tiny drizzle of molasses. Mixed it all up thoroughly and now it's in a Ziploc bag under some weight. I just want to cook up a small amount to try out and see what I've got here... I know I should probably leave it for a few months, but I'm impatient by nature and will probably sample a bit every few days. It's about 20 grams right now, but I suspect it will be more like 15 or so once dried a bit... like one of my weekends, there's a lot of booze there. I really have no idea what will be the best way to turn this from leaves into pipe tobacco, so there will probably be a lot of experimenting over the winter. I prefer English and Balkan blends, but also enjoy pure VA flake and of course there's always room for dessert in the form of something like 1-Q.

Left to right: Samsun, air cured VA, flue cured VA.

 

[DaleB]

Over the past couple days I brought a small pile of leaves from crispy, crumbling dry (they had been in the garage since the last time the kiln ran out of water for the humdifier) into fairly high case. I just used a mix of rum with a little splash of homemade maple syrup and some filtered water in a misting spray bottle, then closed them up in a plastic container for a day and a night. Yesterday I removed the midribs and stacked the leaves, misting a couple more times as I went as they were already getting pretty dry. I wrapped them in waxed paper overnight. The ratio of leaves is very roughly half flue cured VA (a mix of bright and red leaf), maybe 30-35% or so air cured VA, and the rest Samsun. I didn't weigh any of it, so the ratio is approximate.

This morning I unwrapped the pile and took some more time to flatten each leaf as much as possible and stack them as neatly as I could. When I encountered partial or very small leaves, I'd lay them crosswise just to try to hold the stack together better and mix things up a bit. What I ended up with was a pile about a foot long, maybe 5" wide, and a couple inches thick with no more compressing than push pushing it down and letting it spring back naturally.

With all the leaves in the stack I used a butcher knife to cut it in half and stack the halves, then repeat until I had a more or less square pile. This I re-wrapped in the waxed paper, keeping it as tight as I could just to try to keep the sides from spreading out too much. I don't have a form or press, so at the moment it's sitting between a couple of boards while I figure out the next step. I want to get the stack under pressure as soon as possible, so I'll probably get some wood cut tonight and get it clamped. Fortunately I'm working on yet another project over at a buddy's well equipped shop, so I'll be able to at least get it between a couple pieces of wood with a few bar clamps to apply pressure. Might even end up with a wooden form to get it more squared up.

 

[deluxestogie]

I'm not sure how much paraffin will transfer from waxed paper to the tobacco.

Bob

 

[DaleB]

I'm not sure how much paraffin will transfer from waxed paper to the tobacco.

Bob

I wondered about that too. Not much, but possibly more than I'd like. I wasn't planning on pressing while still in the waxed paper -- will probably switch to parchment paper for pressing, that seems to be pretty inert. I've seen guys use aluminum foil, which just doesn't seem like a good idea to me at all.

 

[DaleB]

Yesterday morning (Friday) I realized that I have a nice big bench vise in the garage, and some particle board from a desktop I’m removing from our basement to make a better sewing room for my wife. I sawed off a couple of roughly 6” square chunks of board and compressed the stack of leaves on the vise after wrapping in parchment paper, then the waxed paper.

Late yesterday afternoon I cut the stack (now compressed to about 3/4” or so) in half and stacked the two resulting slabs. This evening, roughly 24 hour later, I did the same again and have it re-clamped. It’s now a solid block of tobacco, but there is one spot where it will cleanly separate. I guess there was a leaf or two that should have been a little higher case. As an experiment (within the larger experiment) I dabbed on a bit of additional moisture in the form of a few drops of Scotch, just to see if that helps or not. Probably not enough to affect the flavor much, but I’m hoping the alcohol and water moisten the leaf and help to weld the block together and maybe encourage the migration of flavors from the leaf to even things out a bit.

Now my block is about 2” thick, give or take, and looks very nice. I don’t know how long it needs to be pressed for best effect. I wish the vise were in a place where I could warm it up considerably. The garage is insulated, but temps are probably in the 60s - not ideal, I know.

My plan is to leave it under pressure for as long as I need to, then slice it into flake and put it in a canning jar to age.