Dry Boxing

[PigFish]

1 hour ago, alpyigit said:

I have recently became a student of Piggy's Low RH school of thought and set up a humi running at 56 RH. No active temp control though, leaving that variable to my home A/C..

I do also drybox 24 hours where possible, but not in a regular basis due to my indecisive and impulsive nature when it comes to choosing what I will smoke..

Observations:

- better draw, almost no plugs
- lighter color, almost white ash production
- burn is much more uniform

All good. But I feel that I am losing some taste in the first 1/3rd.. The cigar becomes more complex for the remainder 2/3.. Possibly due to (re)accumulation of taste agents - whatever they are- of which some have been lost during the dehydration process..

I am planning to up the RH a bit to 58-60 range and test again..
 

Depending on the accuracy of your equipment and temperature, be careful around this area! Cigars should have an audible crackle when rolled between fingers, but at 56rH and say 70F, that is really dry. A fully acclimatized stick, dropped on the floor is a goner. Be vigilant!

-Piggy

[PigFish]

13 hours ago, Anth87 said:

Hi all

Question - when you live in an area with high RH and high temps what is the easiest method to drop storage conditions down to 60rh?

I have not reread the entire thread to look to see if you posted your ambients, but that has to be considered.

Human comfort outweighs 'cigar' comfort so many will have AC in the house. AC does dehydrate the house and it is easier to cool, dry air than wet air. Dry air also allows the human body to more readily evaporate its perspiration, pulling energy from the body. AC is a solution!

The best means of dehydration then is refrigeration, or cooling. The cooling cycle, whereas a cooling mechanism passes air (and water vapor) over a cold plate (or radiator type appliance) will strip water from the space near and below the dew point. Frankly, the is the best way (IMHO).

Furthermore I believe in 'sealed' humidors, not porous ones. Watching one of my videos on air exchanges will give you an idea about why.

Most any one, or humidor maker can make a system that runs one direction, meaning adding water to a dry environment. It gets dicy when you start to use an active cooling process and want to control temperature stability and high rH. Furthermore, I see it as of primary importance to control rH (high to low as well as low to high). This importance and need comes from my environment, driving my humidor. It is not 'free' or easy, but if you rely on a stable cigar for your pleasure in smoking, as I do, it becomes a necessity unless you can afford to drop a grand a month in electricity.

The other night (for example) I left my windows and doors open to cool the house in the evening. Frankly, I prefer the outside air to the AC anyway. My wife cooks, and I have been doing some painting inside so the house gets 'odorous' if it is not scrubbed with fresh air. In the AM I checked a hygrometer (old controller) on top of one of my part passive humidors and it was 80rH inside. Later in the day, when the temp goes up the relative humidity will decline and if we use the AC it will desiccate further but not so for the cigars in the shop humidors. They will of course run dehydration cycles all night and thought out the day, and that solves that problem!

As always I say fix 'real' problems if you have them. Not everyone need run a humidor that cools or dehydrates. Your taste, and of course the condition of your cigars will dictate the need. If you cannot taste the bitterness of water in the cigar, or have not linked water content with your smoking, in other words if you are content, there is no need to look for problems. We all have our own tastes for cigars and opinions about 'smoking conditions.' No one need follow mine... I was tired of wasting cigars and my smoking time and being held hostage to the weather. I no long am. Any cigar that I store a year, will be as good as it was made... and that is the best that I can hope to expect!

Best of luck on your projects! -Piggy

[PapaDisco]

What Fugu said . . . 

However, it's not just about a dry or wet cigar.  I believe (one of those 'faith' things  ) that the temperature and humidity at which we store a cigar directly affects its aging chemistry, not just the pace at which it ages but literally the slow changes in flavor compounds within the cigar.  

Sadly, no one can scientifically corroborate my belief and so I am left to rant, wild eyed and shaggy bearded, in the desert wilderness.  Someday the heathen will be enlightened!   There absolutely is a right temperature and humidity for long term aging . . . we just don't know what it is yet . . .  partly that is because the conditions keep changing (tobacco strains, blends) but mostly it is because we don't control the conditions as precisely as we do other endeavors (wine for instance) and because we don't understand the chemistry as well (there's no UC Davis (famous for wine) department of "Cigarology").

Just my $0.02 but it's really worth so much more . . . 

[Preacher man]

Very interesting and helpful thread.  Invested in a wineador over a year ago to get my temps down to 65 with RH at 65.  Huge difference in the smoke quality of my sticks.  Just started experimenting with dry boxing; so far the biggest difference I have noticed is the burn quality; more uniform.

[BEVOSREVENGE]

I agree with Piggy, cigars on the wet side mute flavor so and add bitterness.  Much prefer a cigar on the drier side.  Tried it after Rob wrote a post years ago about accidentally leaving some cigars in a travel humi in his jeep(????).

[PapaDisco]

3 hours ago, BEVOSREVENGE said:

I agree with Piggy, cigars on the wet side mute flavor so and add bitterness.  Much prefer a cigar on the drier side.  Tried it after Rob wrote a post years ago about accidentally leaving some cigars in a travel humi in his jeep(????).

"Accidentally?"  I'm not sure if mindlessly doing it over and over and over again qualifies as an "accident."  

[cashews39]

Started keeping my humidor at ~60% RH per this thread and about 1000 others - what a huge difference! I'll never go back...

[LGC]

1) there is simply no quick fix for a "wet" stick
2) if you have to dry box cigars, your storage moisture content is too high
3) smoking in a high humidity environment will ruin any cigar experience at some point, no matter how dry the stick started

[trike]

Pull from a 62%-63% environment, torch within minutes.

Dry boxed back in the day, when I lived in  a 68/68 world.  I found the taste improved after a couple days of dry boxing, so I switched to a 62%/ 64 degree permanent storage environment.

You read, you learn, you evolve.

[wd123]

So much experience and knowledge being shared, I love it! I am newer to the scene, but here is my 2 cents on the topic.

Cigars that I am storing for long term, I have in tupperdors at 69% rh. (I don't change that ever).

Ones that I intend to smoke are in a wooden humidor and are sitting at 66% using 3 small 69% boveda packs. In the summer the packs come out entirely and there is no humidification needed at all. It sits between 60-66%.

After reading all this from you guys, I am thinking about buying some lower RH bovedas again for the wood one. Maybe 62's but I am open to suggestions.

Great thread to read though. 

[Turbo56]

On 8/11/2016 at 5:02 PM, TheGipper said:

Don't dry box.  Lower your humidor's humidity.

To do otherwise is like storing milk in the freezer and then putting it in the microwave for 30 seconds whenever you want a glass of milk.

May be the funniest thing I've read in a long while! ?

[Cognoscente]

I realize that I'm a little late on this thread, but wanted to share my thoughts.  If you only smoke one brand of the same size cigars, then maybe a "universal" humidity will work for you.  From my personal trial and error, different brands and different sizes respond "best" (for me) at different humidity levels.  I've pulled smokes sitting right next to each other on different days, with different results.  I'm of the opinion that 69-70rh is a bit high for pulling "most" smokes directly from the humi to smoke, but "most" doesn't mean "all".  I like storing between 63-65rh, because I don't want to risk losing flavor from those cigars that burn well at 69.  I also think that for long term storage it's probably better to keep them all a bit "moist" in the 68-69rh range, but I haven't kept any for longer than a year (since I just took up the hobby last fall!), so I'm far from an expert on that, or anything else related to cigars - but still wanted to share my thoughts...

[Nico]

I almost never dry box mostly because I'm not a regular smoker I don't really plan what to smoke beforehand. I'm one of those who goes from one every day a week or two and then down to a complete cigar-celibacy for 2-3 months.
But I dry box sometimes if I'm able to plan a little. I put the cigar in a lunchbox and let it rest for 4-6 days. I usually dry box a stick if the last one tasted a little muted or just "off" and it usually helps. What I discovered the last year or so is that the cigars that have a thicker wrapper usually benefits from this. Not exclusively but usually. The ELs and some of these NCs with a Connecticut broadleaf wrappers are a good example when I think dry box will benefit. Not just flavors but but usually construction as well.



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[irratebass]

This is interesting, I keep my cabinet from 60-63, and my cooler at 65. The smokes in the cooler smoke better than the cabinet lately. I've noticed the sticks from the cabinet are really dry and I'm having issues (plugged or won't stay lit), so I was thinking up upping the cabinet to 65, but after seeing everyone in the 60 &lower ratio I'm confused on what to do.....thoughts?

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[Smokin Joe]

On 08/12/2016 at 6:31 AM, cashews39 said:

I'm sure it's been discussed before (although I can't find a good thread), but I'm interested in your dry boxing method: how long do you dry box for, what type of box do you use, do you vary your approach based on cigar/weather/etc? 

What works best is likely a matter of preference, starting conditions/humidor humidity, and external environment, but I'd definitely like to see how different members approach this. 

 

Thanks!

I put some CohibaIII down for a few months at 70% thinking the rest was all they needed. The first one I smoked was moist and dull which I was not expecting becuase I love these cigars. I dry boxed the next one for 48 hrs and it was right back in business. I thing this probably reflects the fact 70% rh was too high.  I've lowered my rH and dryboxed all my recent cigars with good results.

[Smokin Joe]

On 08/12/2016 at 6:31 AM, cashews39 said:

I'm sure it's been discussed before (although I can't find a good thread), but I'm interested in your dry boxing method: how long do you dry box for, what type of box do you use, do you vary your approach based on cigar/weather/etc? 

What works best is likely a matter of preference, starting conditions/humidor humidity, and external environment, but I'd definitely like to see how different members approach this. 

 

Thanks!

I put some CohibaIII down for a few months at 70% thinking the rest was all they needed. The first one I smoked was moist and dull which I was not expecting becuase I love these cigars. I dry boxed the next one for 48 hrs and it was right back in business. I thing this probably reflects the fact 70% rh was too high.  I've lowered my rH and dryboxed all my recent cigars with good results.

[Mycroft]

On 14/08/2016 at 4:47 AM, Anth87 said:

Hi all

Question - when you live in an area with high RH and high temps what is the easiest method to drop storage conditions down to 60rh?

Easy to drop rh. Store in sealed tupperware with boveda packs. Temp control may be impossible without artificial regulation like a.c./wineador etc. You can dry out a cigar in a fridge. I am no expert but El Pres has mentioned drying fresh rolled cigars in Cuba in a fridge overnight. Some advocate a short spell in the freezer. If you go the tupperdor route keeping em in a cooler should even out temperature changes. Maybe only opening the cooler when temp is lower at night or the ac is on would help.