Need some advice on long term aging!

Originally Posted by Big D KC

Yea I had read about the heating way of getting a good seal, and honestly the whole process just seems like a huge hassle! (I wont be messing with the wax sealing either!)

Opening it after wax sealing sucks and makes a mess. Bleh.

Nice reading this thread. Some good info here. My mother in law has a foodsaver, so all I would need to buy is the attachment.

It wasn't clear to me when reading above, does using the jar sealer attachment require special lids, or can you seal with the mason jar lids on?

-Tyler

You use the same lid that comes with the mason jar. Put the lid on, use Foodsaver, then secure with the ring. Done.

WWhermit

Originally Posted by WWhermit

You use the same lid that comes with the mason jar. Put the lid on, use Foodsaver, then secure with the ring. Done.

WWhermit

Good to know. The wife said we prob wouldn't use the foodsaver enough to justify one along with the one the mother in law has, but I think I will get the attachment. Does the jar attachment come with the connector hose I am assuming?

Got the jars last night! Went to a few more stores and found a much better deal on them this time. Found them at Price Choppers grocery store under $10 a case of 12 each! Much better!

While I was there I saw the pint sized jars which I hadn't paid attention to before and yea I can see where that is a good size for this purpose! So I split my list half and half between 1/2 pint & pint. 3 cases of each. I can see where the bulkier cuts would be better in the slightly bigger jars. I also have 9 unused quart jars I forgot I had!

I know the 1/2 pint are small, but with my smoking pace which is no more then usually 5 to 7 bowls during the week maybe one extra a day on the weekends, it can take me a while to get through 3-4oz! Hell its taking me a while to get through 2 oz in some cases! Especially when I do have various other tobaccos open to smoke from.

So I figured I would do up half of the bulk for each blend in the 1/2 pint jars and the other half in the pints. This way if I only want to crack open a couple oz's in a year or two to see how the blend is doing, I don't have to sit on twice that much to smoke through. I dunno, just seems to make sense for how I see this working out. Hell if my pace picks up then I'll just crack 2 of the 1/2 pints in 10 years!

Anyway's here is a pic of the jars. I will be getting them cleaned up ready to go over the next couple of day's sealing them with saran wrap after I am done to keep the germs & such out till the tobacco gets here! I got the boiling water bit for the jars under control, what process should be followed for de-contaminating the lids?

While I boil the water in the jars in the microwave, I take the lids and put them in a small saucepan and boil water on the stove. Easy to do, about 1 inch of water. USE TONGS! It's damn hot, them lids. Use a towel for the jars too. Learned that one the hard way.

To answere More...'s question, I can't be 100% sure, but I think it comes with a hose. My wife's bought some canisters, and the mason jar attachment, and with all that crap we ended up with 2 hoses. So I'd like to tell you yes, but 1% holds me back.

WWhermit

Gotcha on the lids! Since I plan to have all the jars prepped and ready before the baccy (and foodsaver) arrives, I think what I will do is get out the gigantic stew pot and boil them all that way. I'll have 81 lids to do so that way might work better! I'll just do them all at once.

I would think I'd be ok to do this ahead of time as well? I could just boil them all then let them dry face down on a CLEAN towel, stack them up and saran wrap them till I'm ready? I'd love to have everything prepped so all I gotta do is start breakin down tobacco and jar it up, run it through the sealer and stack them up!

For morefifemusic, from the research I did on the foodsaver's the other day, it looks like all the current ones come with the attatchment hose. Depending on when she got it and what one she got, she may or may not have the hose. The deal I found on the one I posted actually comes with the hose AND the wide mouth jar sealer attatchment which was what swayed me to that perticular model. I found the coupon which saved me 40% AFTER I had settled on the model! I got lucky!

In regards to purchasing the jar sealers after the fact, according to user reviews on amazon.com, the wide mouth jar sealer comes with an attatchment hose, the regular mouth jar sealer does not for some reason..

Amazon lists them both ways. For $8.99 you can get it without the hose if she has hers here.

Or if you do need the hose this one comes with it for a few bucks more according to the reviews.

[BigFrank]

Just a heads up. I tried to put 4oz of baccy, ribbon cut, in a pint jar tonight. Tight fit. Id stick with 2oz in the pints, and 4 in the quarts.
The pint jars would be great for stashing an open tin in to delay drying. Quart seems to be the way to go for me. Going to have to buy more now...

Big D, I expected to see a post of your cellaring with the Foodsaver by now.

What's the happ's?

WWhermit

I borrowed the in-laws foodsaver and used it on a couple of jars. Man, that works so much easier (I have previously used wax, which sucks!).

Thanks for the idea.

-Tyler

ME TOO Hermit!!

Unfortunately I have simply been waiting on the tobacco to arrive! I ordered from pipesandcigars.com and they just aren't the fastest when it comes to order picking and shipping it seems. I ordered on 1/30, didn't hear anything back other then the initial email I recieved stating they got the order. On 2/4 I called to check status, found out "oh looks like I am a bit behind on emails, we are out of stock on one item and I need to find out what you want us to do, I would have been emailing you today". Good thing I called or it would have been another couple of days I'm sure. It was supposed to have shipped that afternoon on 2/4. Anyway I sent them an email last night again checking status, this morning I get a reply saying they apologize, I should have gotten a tracking number email sent out. It also contained the tracking number, I checked it and it shows delivered! So there should be a nice big box waiting for me when I get home tonight!! Pics should follow in the next couple days!

The lids were boiled yesterday, all the prep work has been done. The foodsaver came in mid-week last week. (My wife simply loves it! She repackaged our entire deep freeze and since ran it out of bag rolls already, Costco look out! lol!)

Big D,

Ain't that the truth about pipesandcigars!?!?!? I've ordered from them at least 5 times in the last year, and it seems that something always happens to prevent them from shipping, and you won't find out until you call. I just make sure it's not an "emergency order" to give them plenty of time. They still have great prices, so I'll continue to use them.

Glad to hear your wife likes the foodsaver. We have saved so much money on food using that thing. Get them pics up. Anxious to see the cellar!

WWhermit

Holy Smokes! And I mean that literally!!

I was up WAY too late last night canning 'baccy! That was a lot of work, more than I thought it would be thats for sure! I'm not completely satisfied with how the distribution of the jars went. I should have stuck with my original plan of using all half pint jars for the most part I think. Since I went half and half on the pint & half pint jars I ended up putting more then I wanted in some of the pint jars since I was running out of half pints and still had a ways to go. I may end up getting some more half pint jars and re-doing some of it.

Anyway I have a TON of pics to go through & edit! I will get them up over the next couple days!

Well here is the update:

I did end up getting more half pints and re-doing all the ones I could. Still had a few pints that I used for the blocks of anniversary kake that worked out well. Much happier with it now! I got some prelimenary pics to post. And I have to admit I feel like I'm a dumbass. I was in a hurry to get the pics done to get started on editing. Onn the pics of the end results I had left the macro mode on by accident so they turned out blurry. I normally don't do crap like that, but oh well. I didn't realize it till they were all put away so too late now!

On to the pics!


The order as it was recieved:






Here was the end result as of last night before I re-packed some of the tobacco into the half pints today:




And here it was after re-packing:




The order list:
H&H Anniversary Kake: 1lb
H&H AJ's VaPer: 1lb
Peter Stokkebye Luxury Bulls Eye Flake: 1.5lb
Peter Stokkebye Luxury Twist Flake: 1.5lb
Peter Stokkebye Luxury Navy Flake: 1.5lb
Peter Stokkebye Balkan Supreme: 1lb
S/G St James Flake: 4oz
C&D Night Train: 4oz
C&D Pirate Kake: 4oz
C&D Bayou Morning: 4oz
C&D Billy Budd: 4oz
H&H Sampler, 2oz ea of:
Sunza *****es
Armada
Ten to Midnight
Larry's Blend
Sunjammer
Rolando's Own

And here is the blurry one. Sucks 'cus it would have been a good pic too!

Very awesome!

I love their Anniversary Kake, and one you don't hear much about, but should, their Sunza *****es! That's very good baccy there.

I'm very proud of you Big D. You've taken a big step towards showing us what a proper tobacco order is.

Out of curiosity, what did all that cost ya?

WWhermit

lol, my wife thinks im nuts!

Nah I don't mind, in addition to all the pipe tobacco I also added in a couple of the $9.99 mini bundle cigars and the total cost was just shy of $290! I think $270ish would be about what all the pipe tobacco alone would have been. Not too bad for 10lbs I didn't think, puts it all right at $1.68 per ounce average.

I wanted to get atleast one big bulk batch under my belt. I wanted to put some down to start aging while I'm enjoying the others I am currently smoking. I think my goal will be to make a big bulk order like this atleast once a year. I will also try to do an order of around one pound minimum every other month now that I have the space to store it, the equipment to do it right, and the know how to complete the process! It's not getting any cheaper, and at some point probably during my lifetime it will probably end up being outlawed!

It was a fun process! I appreciate the help and insight you gave me Hermit!

Originally Posted by Big D KC

It's not getting any cheaper, and at some point probably during my lifetime it will probably end up being outlawed!

Too true Big D. When it does become outlawed, we all know where to get hooked up!

[BigFrank]

did you boil and seal em? or use that vaccuum sealer thingy?

ive canned about 8 oz so far, and I have just screwed the lid down tight on my jars...