Fermenting air cured flue-cure varieties in a kiln - mistakes

[DonH]

I've made some mistakes with kilning my air cured flue-cure varieties (and also by kilning my flue cured flue-cure varieties). If I take air cured Virginia type leaves and put them in the kiln for the full four weeks, the sugars seems to carmelize and burn a bit, to where parts of the leaves turn dark brown, almost black. If it just turns brown, it still tastes good, but if it goes too far it can taste burnt. Experimenting, I found the ideal time in the kiln for Virginia type varieties is one week.

I also messed up some that I flue cured by putting them in the kiln too long.

Temps didn't exceed 125 F.

The 2012 Virginia Bright Leaf that I air cured and aged for a year, then kilned for one week tastes really good. The color did darken but just to a golden brown.

 

[Mad Oshea]

WOW Don-You have posted a lot of things going on there. First the Air cure. Don't Kiln Just age
Next the VG- lower the heat and -watch the fire cure as well. Look at the curring on site at what You are doing-- Don't go into it blind. There are alot of folks here that will help You. And enjoy the company that helps ..

 

[Matty]

I think I'm gonna agree with Mad Oshea. With virginias, just age. I been smoking some aged flue cure I bought from WLT almost 2 years ago (maybe longer). This leaf started off mostly light orange to yellow and now it is a medium brown, reddish, dark orange colored leaf, kinda like a nice piece of polished wood. Very fragrant pouch and smoke, smooth too. I also have a bunch of air cured Virginias I grew last year. Haven't kilned any yet, still looking for a "kiln".

 

[DonH]

WOW Don-You have posted a lot of things going on there. First the Air cure. Don't Kiln Just age
Next the VG- lower the heat and -watch the fire cure as well. Look at the curring on site at what You are doing-- Don't go into it blind. There are alot of folks here that will help You. And enjoy the company that helps ..

I actually like the air cured Virginia better after kilning for a week. Even after aging it over a year it still had a bit of grassy taste. I use both in blends to good effect.

Not sure what you mean by fire cure here. Did you mean flue cure? I did some trial and error flue cures with small batches using Bob's cozy can method. For three out of the four runs I wasn't able to watch it enough since I was traveling for my job. I just had my wife give me readings of humidity levels over the phone the. I would tell her to raise the temps. As for help, we were all learning how to home flue cure last year. Definitely a tricky process especially without sophisticated equipment. I did get some good leaf out of it though. Also last year some of the guys experimented with fermenting flue cured leaf after flue curing it and they liked the results.

 

[Knucklehead]

I played around with sun curing some flue cure varieties last year. The colors are beautiful but I haven't even sampled any yet, I just put them back to age. Not a true flue cure yellow but yellows, oranges, reds and browns all in one leaf. I'm looking forward to the taste test with anticipation.

 

[DonH]

I played around with sun curing some flue cure varieties last year. The colors are beautiful but I haven't even sampled any yet, I just put them back to age. Not a true flue cure yellow but yellows, oranges, reds and browns all in one leaf. I'm looking forward to the taste test with anticipation.

Taste it! It's already been 8 months, what are you waiting for? I bet it tastes fine. You have some amazing self control and patience, there.

Anyway, I'm really curious. I'm thinking of sun curing some this year.

 

[Knucklehead]

Taste it! It's already been 8 months, what are you waiting for? I bet it tastes fine. You have some amazing self control and patience, there.

Anyway, I'm really curious. I'm thinking of sun curing some this year.

It's been about 5 months, I got a really late start on the last patch.

 

[COLIN]

I'm looking at growing a lot of flue-cure varieties this coming season. Can I air-cure it and then flue-cure it or air-cure and kiln it.

 

[DGBAMA]

I'm looking at growing a lot of flue-cure varieties this coming season. Can I air-cure it and then flue-cure it or air-cure and kiln it.

It can be air cured, then kilned. Flue curing starts with green leaf.

Maybe kilning air cured leaf, at a little higher temperature (135-140) would bring out some of the sugars that normally come from the flue curing process? Only one way to find out.

 

[BarG]

I'm experimenting with 90=120 degrees right now. the yellowing on virginias is what I want to fix. I haven't done it yet. I think my experiment will be better than my normal air dried.

 

[BarG]

My understanding is once its air dried it can not be flue cured.[it will be brown like baccy]
I cannot reach the high temps in my experiment. The yellow is fixing in some leaves though.

 

[deluxestogie]

The yellowing happens while the leaf is still alive (and ambient humidity is maintained). After that, the higher the humidity during the browning stage for air-cured leaf, the darker the final leaf.

The first stage of flue-curing (yellowing) attempts to reach the yellow color as quickly as possible, while maintaining the ambient humidity, in order to fix the sugars. The next stage of flue-curing (leaf drying) is aimed at lowering the humidity rapidly, so as not to impact the yellow color.

Sun-curing, under just the right conditions, can approach the same result.

A flue-curing process that was begun on leaf that had already been air-cured would seem like a waste of electricity.

Bob

 

[Knucklehead]

I'm looking at growing a lot of flue-cure varieties this coming season. Can I air-cure it and then flue-cure it or air-cure and kiln it.

I sun cured my flue cure varieties last year and plan to do it this year also. Nice results. Sweetness seems to fall between air cured and flue cured.