Cigar blowup

I was smoking a Nub the other day, and a little more than 1/2 of the way through it developed a sort of bubble on one side where a small section of the cigar wasn't burning. I corrected the burn, but the swelling soon increased around the entire cigar to a length of about 3/4" from the foot. Imagine dipping a cigar foot first into water and holding it there until it was swollen like a sponge in that area by a good 1/8-3/16" in diameter. Then the cigar slowly ruptured down the length starting at the foot, almost like a fault line ~1/16" deep, and the wrapper split in several places and eventually fell off. I tried everything I could think of, but the cigar finally became unsmokeable.
I had stored the cigar in a tupperdor with 65% beads for about a month before I smoked it. There are some 20 other cigars in the container, so I'm concerned that there might be a problem with my storage.
Does anyone have any ideas about what caused this and what I could have done, if anything, to prevent the final result of having to toss the cigar before its time?

[zmancbr]

First of all I have to say Nice Avatar! Hook 'em horns!!

Okay now down to business. My first question would be how accurate do you think those beads are and are they completely saturated? Do you have a hygrometer in there with the sticks?

That sounds like over humidification to me so I would double check that the beads are not completely wet and that they can absorb moisture. It is possible that you got the sticks from a B&M that keeps them wet and when you put them in your container your beads got full and can't absorb any more moisture. If that is the case then just use a blow dryer on them and dry about 30-50% of the moisture out...

[Skywalker]

Originally Posted by zmancbr

First of all I have to say Nice Avatar! Hook 'em horns!!

Okay now down to business. My first question would be how accurate do you think those beads are and are they completely saturated? Do you have a hygrometer in there with the sticks?

That sounds like over humidification to me so I would double check that the beads are not completely wet and that they can absorb moisture. It is possible that you got the sticks from a B&M that keeps them wet and when you put them in your container your beads got full and can't absorb any more moisture. If that is the case then just use a blow dryer on them and dry about 30-50% of the moisture out...

Great advice!!!

I would add - try to dry box any cigars you plan to smoke in the near future!

[bobarian]

Its a good thing you hit the "sweet spot" before it exploded.

[ucla695]

This has happened once or twice to me before. Did you hear the crunch of the wrapper as it was splitting? To me, that's once of the worse sounds I could ever hear while smoking. Snap, crackle and pop. I'm not sure if poor construction, poor handling, high humidity or combination thereof are to blame, but I would double check the conditions in your humi. If they look good, I second dry boxing for a day or so before smoking.

[NCRadioMan]

Originally Posted by bobarian

Its a good thing you hit the "sweet spot" before it exploded.

Or it was the sweet spot trying to get out!

Originally Posted by zmancbr

First of all I have to say Nice Avatar! Hook 'em horns!!

Okay now down to business. My first question would be how accurate do you think those beads are and are they completely saturated? Do you have a hygrometer in there with the sticks?

That sounds like over humidification to me so I would double check that the beads are not completely wet and that they can absorb moisture. It is possible that you got the sticks from a B&M that keeps them wet and when you put them in your container your beads got full and can't absorb any more moisture. If that is the case then just use a blow dryer on them and dry about 30-50% of the moisture out...

The beads are from Heartfelt. To be honest, I never even thought about them not being accurate. I do have a hygro in with them. It's an adjustable one that I calibrated myself for a day and a half. The beads are actually in a small dish so I can see them easily. There are plenty of white ones, well over a third, and the hygro never reads more than 70%.

I think I'll put some beads in an empty container with a calibrated hygro for a couple of days and see what happens.

Over-humidification was the only thing I could think of, too, but the above led me to question that. Along with the fact that the first part of the cigar was fine.

I usually let sticks I get on line sit for at least two weeks to settle down, but I think I got all of these at about the same time from the same source. So it's definitely possible that they were too wet to begin with.

Thanks for the suggestion, I'll be sure and dry-box the next one to come out of this box. Is a couple of hours sufficient, or should it be overnight?

Glad to see another Horns fan on the board...Hook 'em!

[NCRadioMan]

Were you smoking outside on a dry day? Sometimes the wrapper will dry out much quicker on a dry day and when the filler starts to expand, the wrapper can't take it and it will split.

[Da Klugs]

Originally Posted by bobarian

Its a good thing you hit the "sweet spot" before it exploded.

Originally Posted by NCRadioMan

Or it was the sweet spot trying to get out!

Ok one more:

The obese tend to have shorter lifespans and unnatural deaths?

Well maybe 2:

The hype exploded!

[NCRadioMan]

Originally Posted by Da Klugs

The hype exploded!

By Jove, I think you have it!

[markem]

I find that if you smoke too fast, especially if the humidity in the air is over 50% that the smoke can bubble/burst

Cool, humid evening, inside. Yeah, I hate the Cigar Krispies sound as the wrapper splits, too.
Bob, the sweet spot wasn't that sweet!
So I guess it must have been the hype!!!!

[WyoBob]

I think it would take quite some time for a very large ring gauge cigar to "stabilize" from one humidity to another. If the Nub was placed in your humidor after being stored at 70% (possibly higher) and your humi was at 65%, the wrapper would start dropping in humidity right away. I think the interior of such a large ring gauge cigar would take a very long time to reach 65%. So, "tight" wrapper + high interior humidity = split wrapper.

WyoBob

Originally Posted by WyoBob

I think it would take quite some time for a very large ring gauge cigar to "stabilize" from one humidity to another. If the Nub was placed in your humidor after being stored at 70% (possibly higher) and your humi was at 65%, the wrapper would start dropping in humidity right away. I think the interior of such a large ring gauge cigar would take a very long time to reach 65%. So, "tight" wrapper + high interior humidity = split wrapper.

WyoBob

This makes sense, but now I'm confused and this is where I show my noobness: If this is what caused the problem, wouldn't dry-boxing for a day only compound it by drying out the exterior of the cigars more??

As to solution: I can see where Nubs and other larger rgs would take longer to stabilize, and it seems like the options are to either smoke them right away, store them in a separate humidor at 70%, or give them a long time to stabilize at 65%. What do you all think should be a reasonable period of time to let larger rg cigars bought on line to "settle" to 65%? As I said, I try to let them sit for a month, but I also usually smoke cigars with a ring gauge in the 46-50 range. If a month isn't long enough for a fatty, how would you tell how long is enough other than trial and error? What's your best guess as to how long "a very long time" would be? Or, more simply, for those of you who smoke Nubs, Maxxes and other large rg cigars, how do you store them?

[AriesOpusX]

Solution = don't smoke anymore nubs