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AmaxB- Flue Curing Tobacco at Home: Wins & Fails

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AmaxB

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Got around to trying the A-56-N from last year. Been mixing it 50/50 with VA Brite am loving this one it has a soft full flavor, no bite or throat kick. But does have a nic punch..
 

AmaxB

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I should add the A-56-N was from grin it grew to an average of 9 feet tall with leaves spaced out on the stalk. Leaves were about 18" by 32 to 36" long and would turn yellow white. This tobacco's thin leaves cured easily, the easiest of the varieties I grew. It was also a slow starter not doing much in it's first weeks than took off catching and passing most of other varieties I grew.
 

AmaxB

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Yeh been pretty busy around here all summer from a new garage door to spreading 17 ton of dirt by shovel and rake (a lot for me at near 60). Even made and mounted Snow Birds for the roof plus the refit of my boat (near 5 weeks on the boat).
My fishing trip will finally be here in a few more days so I'll be MIA again!
 

Rickey60

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Are you planing on growing a crop of tobacco next spring? I missed you having a grow blog this year.
 

AmaxB

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Are you planing on growing a crop of tobacco next spring? I missed you having a grow blog this year.

No not next year Rickey60 maybe the next year after. When I need more to mix with VA Bright. But again when thinking about it I might grow next year because for me it needs to rest bagged for close to a year before going into the kiln. Lord knows I don't want to run out of my private mix.
 

AmaxB

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That boat is a dream boat for Us older guys. A good name for it would be,Cigarette boat. Ha Ha.

The boat preformed as I had hoped... I just got back from the fishing trip. I run her hard from daylight to dark for a week and nothing broke. The live well worked great but when skipping over waves water would splash out around the lid. So next year I'll have a latch and gasket. I put some video up on the old boat motor thread.
 

Gmac

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I would not yellow in the boxes again I think it hurt the flue cure process and is why that tobacco cured brown.
If all the tobacco that went into the chamber had been pre-yellowed to a point it might be OK.
Even though it cured brown it smokes OK but lacks some flavor...
I did the same thing with some pile yellowed that I didn't have room for in the kiln. turned brown within 24 hrs.

Gmac
 

Gmac

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For the little guys like us:
Yellowing: keep it in a natural temp range for ideal coloring (95-100 deg) 105 from first batch observation borders on wilting which tends to fix color in the leaf. The accelerated process of flue curing is achieved not by more temperature but by maintaining the proper conditions 24 hrs per day.

Wilting: 105-125 and high humidity. We want the leaf to go limp and leathery and as much excess moisture removed as possible without actually drying anything

Leaf drying: 125-135. Basically until the leaf dries to low/medium case

Stem drying: 135-150. My first batch dried completely including stems in less than 36 hrs, stems brittle and leaf falling apart crumbly when touched.

My theory in not going all the way to 165 is the leaf when brought to order will still have natural aging enzymes available and will continue to get better with age instead of being stuck in the condition it was dried in; this is my deviation vs commercial temps where the goal is fast and consistent vs us needing to dry fast to conserve space yet want the fine wine “gets better with age”.

If I want to ramp up the sugar content or carmelize or fix the aging process I can bring leaf to high case, put in the chamber and ramp to 165 deg or more to kill/darken it. If I want it sweeter I can hold the 145-150 temp range longer.

This is how I will approach my second run in the flue cure chamber. Thanks to everyone documenting their experiences in kilning, flue curing, toasting, etc and your impressions of the results. This post is a combonation of reading all of that and my own observations of leaf curing of my own.

Just my take and look forward to completing my second more educated run of the flue cure chamber.

Sorry for getting long winded.

I don't ever stem dry my flue cured. I just pull it out after leaf drying, throw it loosely in a big box in the corner of a spare room with temp from central heat & air and forget it until needed. I has better flavor on down the road to me.[Grandpa allways said, "The older the violin the sweeter the music!"]
Gmac
 

Gmac

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Win: first run that was handed had some green/grey leaves i just figured did not yellow properly.....after 5 days rest, they have nearly taken on the finished gold color of the nice hands. Maybe i don't need to obsess so much about perfect yellowing.

Fail: i can say conclusively over-yellowing is bad. A few leaves in batch 2 were nearly yellow when put in. AS i went into wilt those leaves had turned into light brown paper Mache'. Appears over-yellowed leaf gives up moisture AND substance. s
I agree. I put some fully yellowed leaves in last year and they turned brown. I think they had retained to much moisture to go into next step that quickly.

Gmac
 

Teknik

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I agree, not what to want but they still make a good smoke.

I found this schedule on the net, anyone ever tried it? I have converted the fahrenheit to celsius.

Wilting
This is carried out when growers have difficulty in curing their tobacco due to the mixed reapings and excess moisture in the leaf. Initially, tobacco is hung in the barn for 36 hours with all the vents and doors wide open. This is not a fixed time as a lot depends on the condition of the tobacco when it is reaped. During the first eight hours or so of this period it is essential to try and get all surface moisture of the leaf to enable a natural wilt to start.

After this initial hanging the doors of the barn are shut and the temperature is taken up to 30°C with all the vents open. This second phase, which takes 12 - 18 hours, should produce a fully wilted leaf which has started to colour and which hangs flaccid, allowing air to circulate from top to bottom.

Once this wilted tobacco begins to turn yellow, all the vents are shut and the temperature is then taken up to 35°C to get full colouring. This period lasts from 2 - 4 hours and the grower must watch this tobacco carefully during this phase as the full colouring comes quickly.

Finally the drying process begins. The vents are re-opened and temperatures freshened up fairly rapidly at the rate of 3°C every 4 hours until 73°C have been reached. With this method the rate of drying is much quicker as this type of wilt and colouring allows the leaf to open up. It becomes more porous, giving a more open-grained leaf, from which the moisture is easily removed. By curing this way, Barn Rot and leaf discolouration are eliminated.
 

ChinaVoodoo

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That appears to be a slightly more simple version of the chart I go by.

Flue Cure Chart.jpg

Welcome to the forum Teknik. Please feel free to introduce yourself by starting a thread in the "introduce yourself" section of the forum.
 
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