Aging/Resting Cigars

[BigDave4321]

While I'm sure this has been answered before I can't seem to find anything on it.

How long should you "age/rest" your cigars after rolling to make sure it doesn't have burn problems. I've heard answer ranging from hours to 6 months. Also has anyone aged their own rolls for more than a year? And has it made a significant difference?

 

[GreenDragon]

The short answer is: depends on how wet you cased each leaf, and the ambient humidity of your area. I've lit many a fresh roll after an hour or two of sitting, but I made sure my filler was just flexible enough not to crumble, and kept the binder / wrapper as dry as possible why still maintaining flexibility. Also, the humidity here is around 35% in the summer at 100F, so after sitting it outside for an hour it's ready to go.

Now if you are trying to make pretty cigars, you are probably casing a little higher, so a few days rest will do wonders. Many guys have a "dry box" which is a humidor or the like without humidifying packets. New cigars rest in the dry box a couple of days then are moved into the humidor to equilibrate.

Other than that, opinions vary greatly from 2 days to 2 months to .... It's a personal thing. You just have to see what works best for you.

 

[ChinaVoodoo]

The longest I've aged is a couple months.

The amount of time I wait depends on my rolling technique. I sometimes roll with filler slightly dry, with in-case binder and high case wrapper. These can be ready to smoke in half an hour. But that was the intention.

If I'm doing a batch and using a mold, my sticks are really dry after being in the mold for 12hrs+, and I'm using a high case wrapper. These take two days in the humidor before the moisture level is balanced out.

If I lived in a place where the indoor humidity was higher, my bound stogies wouldn't be so dry and it would take even longer to balance out.

If someone is saying it takes months, it must be under the premise of aging and for more ephemeral flavour reasons, and not necessarily have anything to do with moisture. If it takes more than a week to come down to proper relative humidity, you're gonna have mold.

 

[Mathaious12]

It depends on how cased you roll the filler binder and wrapper, and how you "dry box" them.

I roll with low case on the filler medium case on the binder and high case on the wrapper, and I have been able to successfully smoke one withing 24 hours without any burn issues. I left it out on the table over night to dry, and it was good to go in the morning.

 

[deluxestogie]

I would guess that I smoke 90% of my hand-rolled cigars as soon as I put away the tools. They burn well. Many home-rollers on this forum roll with leaf that has a higher moisture content than I would routinely use. These moister cigars, of course, seed extra effort to return the tobacco to a smokable state.

While my home-grown leaf is now typically about 2 to 3 years old, by the time I use it (and it's often wonderful at that point), many of the cigar leaf selections from WLT are already many years old. I cannot imagine that a few more weeks or months of aging, after being rolled into a cigar, will make a significant difference.

So, I would summarize that:
1. As others have stated, moist leaf need more time to dry.
2. Noticeable aging and "melding" of cigars that are not being actively pressed is not a part of my belief system.

Bob

ERRATA: ¶ 1; sentence 4: change "seed" to "need".
Numbered list, item 1.: change "need" to "needs".

I do "need" to be more attentive to the "needs" of my readers. And I must thank @waikikigun for pointing out my failure at adequately copy-editing my post.

 

[waikikigun]

I would guess that I smoke 90% of my hand-rolled cigars as soon as I put away the tools. They burn well. Many home-rollers on this forum roll with leaf that has a higher moisture content than I would routinely use. These moister cigars, of course, seed extra effort to return the tobacco to a smokable state.

While my home-grown leaf is now typically about 2 to 3 years old, by the time I use it (and it's often wonderful at that point), many of the cigar leaf selections from WLT are already many years old. I cannot imagine that a few more weeks or months of aging, after being rolled into a cigar, will make a significant difference.

So, I would summarize that:
1. As others have stated, moist leaf need more time to dry.
2. Noticeable aging and "melding" of cigars that are not being actively pressed is not a part of my belief system.

Bob

Speaking of belief systems, the religiosity of your proofreading is insufficiently intense in this case.

 

[tullius]

has it made a significant difference?

1 week makes a difference. 3 weeks makes a bigger difference. 3 months makes a significant difference. have a stick in my humidor (#28) that's going on 5 months. reviewed its sister shortly after i rolled it.

prob going to burn at 6 months. will post review.

 

[Jim D]

Like so many other questions about rolling cigars, the answer is "it depends", which doesn't help much.
I often roll a couple at a time, one of which goes to work with me to be smoked on the way in. For instance, when I'm on night shift, I'll get up a 3pm, hang with the family for a bit, and bunch a couple cigars. By 4:30. I'm in the shower, by 4:50 I'm taking the bunches out of the mold and putting wrappers on. 5pm I'm on the road and burning one. Burns just fine.

As for impacts on flavor, it seems they are good right off the table out to 5 days. Then they're kind of off a bit. I'm not sure exactly where they become good again but 3 weeks seems to cover it. I've also had one where I really liked it after a year and upon looking at my notes, I didn't like it when it was fresh. Did my tastes change? Did the aging change the cigar? I don't know...and the ones I like fresh never make it to a year old.

 

[CobGuy]

I've got a funny system that developed over trial and error.
My cigars seem to be good "fresh" for about 3 days.
After that, there is a period of change that goes on for a few months at least.
So, I either smoke them within a few days or else they go the full 3 months or more.

~Darin

Edit: Looks like @Jim D has had similar experience!

 

[Nathan Esq]

"So, I either smoke them within a few days or else they go the full 3 months or more."

When you say 3 months or more, how long do you dry them before you put them in the humidor?

 

[WillQuantrill]

While I have smoked some of my home rolls within 1 week or day of rolling I have found that aging in a proper humidor does wonders to the taste profile. This year I wait atleast 3 months then try the same cigar once a month following to document the development. This example has been only with leaf from WLT, moving forward this is the first year I have some homegrown leaf to test and age. I'm excited about it.