Tobacco aging specifics

[Tobaccofieldsforever]

Does tobacco need access to “fresh air” in order to age? Would tobacco that was compressed and sealed into an airtight container, age in said container (assuming all other parameters like temperature, humidity, etc… are ideal). Any information would be much appreciated.

 

[Oldfella]

Does tobacco need access to “fresh air” in order to age? Would tobacco that was compressed and sealed into an airtight container, age in said container (assuming all other parameters like temperature, humidity, etc… are ideal). Any information would be much appreciated.

In my opinion, no it doesn't need fresh air. I shred my tobacco and stuff into empty coffee tins. Each tin holds around 250-300 gram, I don't
Overstuff them just firm. The taste test tells me that the tobacco is aging. One year I left it in brick form wrapped up in several layers of brown paper. I checked weekly and after 3-4 weeks it started to show signs of mold. Maybe it was too moist or maybe it was constant attention (unwrapping )that caused it, I'm not sure. Anyway I delt to it straight away and it was a pleasant smoke.
Oldfella

 

[deluxestogie]

Tobacco needs oxygen to age. The aging process itself is an oxidation process. Just about any packaging or container that you and I can provide will still have sufficient oxygen present for aging to occur. I suspect that those primary oxidative processes are fairly complete after only 3-6 years. Sooner if the leaf has been adequately kilned.

There is also the mystery of tobacco gradually losing volatile compounds. I think, for the most part, it is just an equilibrium process—the volatiles are lost from the tobacco, until the concentration in the ambient space is equal to that remaining in the tobacco. So, "airing" or "resting" the aged tobacco for an hour or a week after finally opening it, dissipates those vapors. What are these "volatiles"? I don't really know. But my 10 year old cigar short scrap has lost its ability to create a room note of "cigar".

Because mold spores are ubiquitous in our environment, moldy tobacco is always the result of user error—storing the tobacco with excess moisture. Your natural tobacco cannot be stored long-term in the squishy (propylene glycol and glycerin softened) condition of commercial tobacco. Store it in low case.

Bob

EDIT: Another user error causing stored tobacco to mold is placing the container in a thermal gradient. This can happen by storing tobacco in a location with an unstable temperature (e.g. the attic), or storing it in a location where one surface of the container is exposed to a different temperature than another. Even if the tobacco begins in low case, the warmer surface will "pump" moisture out of the nearby tobacco, and into cooler tobacco. This can cause tobacco in the warmer portion of the container to fall completely out of case (shatters with the slightest handling), while raising the case of tobacco in the cooler portion of the container to medium or high case, which leads to mold.

 

[Tobaccofieldsforever]

Tobacco needs oxygen to age. The aging process itself is an oxidation process. Just about any packaging or container that you and I can provide will still have sufficient oxygen present for aging to occur. I suspect that those primary oxidative processes are fairly complete after only 3-6 years. Sooner if the leaf has been adequately kilned.

There is also the mystery of tobacco gradually losing volatile compounds. I think, for the most part, it is just an equilibrium process—the volatiles are lost from the tobacco, until the concentration in the ambient space is equal to that remaining in the tobacco. So, "airing" or "resting" the aged tobacco for an hour or a week after finally opening it, dissipates those vapors. What are these "volatiles"? I don't really know. But my 10 year old cigar short scrap has lost its ability to create a room note of "cigar".

Because mold spores are ubiquitous in our environment, moldy tobacco is always the result of user error—storing the tobacco with excess moisture. Your natural tobacco cannot be stored long-term in the squishy (propylene glycol and glycerin softened) condition of commercial tobacco. Store it in low case.

Bob

EDIT: Another user error causing stored tobacco to mold is placing the container in a thermal gradient. This can happen by storing tobacco in a location with an unstable temperature (e.g. the attic), or storing it in a location where one surface of the container is exposed to a different temperature than another. Even if the tobacco begins in low case, the warmer surface will "pump" moisture out of the nearby tobacco, and into cooler tobacco. This can cause tobacco in the warmer portion of the container to fall completely out of case (shatters with the slightest handling), while raising the case of tobacco in the cooler portion of the container to medium or high case, which leads to mold.

thanks for the response! I assumed that there would be enough air (oxygen) in any given container for aging to occur for at least some amount of time once sealed off from the surrounding environment. My concern was if tobacco was left sealed in an airtight container for a long time ( over a year), the usable oxygen level would be depleted enough to halt aging. The amount of usable air in the container would be reduced if the tobacco were forced in tightly as well (something I have tried on some of my jars in an attempt to replicate what happens with large amounts of stacked tobacco.) I realize a simple solution to quiet my concern would be to occasionally open stored jars but I have some jars I have sealed with a vacuum food sealer (seals the jar similar to how pressure cooker does without the heat). Anyway, I appreciate the response and hopefully the reactions necessary for aging do not require a larger amount of oxygen present in my containers at the initial time of sealing.

 

[deluxestogie]

I appreciate your concerns. My tobacco experience suggests to me that oxygen depletion is not an issue in those scenarios.

In a previous incarnation, I served as a student lab assistant for my professor of physical chemistry. We explored photolytic reactions of certain hydrocarbons. The silicon glass vacuum plumbing that I constructed for those experiments was attached to a high-efficiency vacuum pump. It required quite a lot of serious pumping to remove all the oxygen. Food-saver systems can't get there. The vacuum systems and compression systems that we can devise at home can be effective in removing enough oxygen to give desirable, facultative anaerobic organisms a competitive advantage (such as Pichia anomala in Perique processing) over less desirable microbes (e.g. E. coli), but also utilizes an occlusive water seal to render that advantage.

Bob

 

[Tobaccofieldsforever]

I appreciate your concerns. My tobacco experience suggests to me that oxygen depletion is not an issue in those scenarios.

In a previous incarnation, I served as a student lab assistant for my professor of physical chemistry. We explored photolytic reactions of certain hydrocarbons. The silicon glass vacuum plumbing that I constructed for those experiments was attached to a high-efficiency vacuum pump. It required quite a lot of serious pumping to remove all the oxygen. Food-saver systems can't get there. The vacuum systems and compression systems that we can devise at home can be effective in removing enough oxygen to give desirable, facultative anaerobic organisms a competitive advantage (such as Pichia anomala in Perique processing) over less desirable microbes (e.g. E. coli), but also utilizes an occlusive water seal to render that advantage.

Bob

Sounds like a cool lab experiment. I did not study much physical chemistry or chemical physics while attaining my undergrad physics degree. I had a biophysics course which I enjoyed thoroughly though. Ha, yes I didn’t think the food saver system was capable of creating anything close to a perfect vacuum but I still tested its’ power using a jar of water to see if it could lower the “atmospheric pressure” in the system enough to let water boil at a low temperature…no such luck. My intuition told me that there is likely enough oxygen in the closed system to take care of any aging needs but since I am not an expert on the chemical reactions necessary to achieve desired aging or what those reactions are dependent on, I deferred to the experts! Like I suspected, fair trade and its members did not let me down!!