flue curing questions,,,

[Chicken]

im thinking of making me a small shed made out of tin,,,,,to flue cure some baccy in,,,

my plan is to start a fire,,and keep it going for hours,,,,,

ive never flue cured baccy before, but im growing 3 strains that '' require'' flue curing,,,

should i start the fire under the baccy,,? using oak wood,,,,

or build a fire-box connected to the side of the homemade shed,?

 

[deluxestogie]

Chicken,
To get flue-cured, you'll need to build a separate fire box, then run the sealed flue pipe through the shed. The idea is to heat the tobacco without exposing it to the smoke.

If you build an open fire within the shed, then you will be making fire-cured, since the leaf will take on the smoke flavor.

Flue-curing requires a heat that gets up to at least ~160ºF (some routines take it up as high as 195ºF), so you'll probably want to insulate the shed.

Bob

 

[RidgeRunner]

Here's the most updated flue curing process guide

flue_cured.pd

The other thing worth noting...any tobacco type (Burley, Flue cure, Dark air, etc.) can be cured in any manner. Burley can be Fire cured, Flue cured can be air cured, but the industry has determined which varieties lend themselves best suited per curing process. Flue Cured varieties are high is sugar, while Burley varieties are typically low in sugar.

Oriental /Turkish varieties are most often Sun Cured, but some of the best Oriental tobacco produced is (was) Fire cured.

Both Virginia Bright Leaf and Latakia were both accidental results of curing a tobacco in an unconventional way. Both were likely born by necessity due to unfavorable conditions for curing the traditional way.

Flue Cured is documented as being an accident. Fire Cured and Latakia tobacco were likely the result of an extended period of unusually wet/damp weather and in an attempt to save the tobacco from mold, a fire was used to dry the air in the barn....the rest is history.

 

[FmGrowit]

Here's another very good description of the Flue Cure process, but abbreviated.

Quick Flue Cure instructions

 

[Chicken]

thanks for the replies,,,,

building this thing will be trikky,,,,

my neighbour who's family grew baccy back in the day,,, was telling me about the pipe, that surrounded the ''barn'' they dried baccy in,,,

seems like the same thing would occur by insulating the shed, and putting 2 space heaters and 2 crock pots in there, or keeping the ground wet,???

 

[Boboro]

Would'nt tosting do the same thing?

 

[FmGrowit]

Would'nt tosting do the same thing?

Flue curing is has a specific path that is followed. It's more science than art, but it needs the human element of opinion mixed in to work.

If you simply took green tobacco and put it in the oven at 200° for 10 minutes, you'd end up with green dried tobacco that you wouldn't be able to smoke.

Flue curing accelerates the normal curing time form 6-8 weeks (or longer) to about 7 days.

 

[Daniel]

Google Rocket Mass Heater. It could be exactly what you need. I have one in my back yard I built as a test. it takes a bit of fidgetting to get them right but they do work. You woudl want one that is almost all exposed duct work so you are radiating the heat to the air. but they are very efficient and do not burn a lot of wood.

 

[FmGrowit]

In order to make adjustments when needed, I think something a little more responsive would be needed. I simple propane heater is all the growers use. It fires up and makes heat within a minute and takes a minute or two to adjust the heat inside the barn.

Note: The barns are nothing more than modified cargo shipping trailers.

 

[Chicken]

i may give this whirl,,

in my work,, im allways around unearthed products that could be used in this things construction<<<<<<hhhmmm>?????

 

[BarG]

Chicken, I wish you luck, I love virginia bright leaf flue cured mixed with my cigs.I doubt this year will allow for me to attempt a small scale flue cure operation considering the human factor[TIME], mainly time to moniter all the necessary factors involved.

 

[BigBonner]

Now day they are changing to heat exchangers . I used a cooking stove and plywood off a section in my shed . IT TOOK ALOT OF LP GAS !!!..

Here is a interesting picture of how it was done in the old days .

 

[BarG]

How did it work for you, disregarding cost, as was experimental.

 

[Chicken]

nice photo BIGBONNER,,,

i really should take some pics of these abonded baccy barns that are in my area,,,,,and make a photo guide of ''things long gone''

ive actually been in a old barn,,,that i guess was setup like that picture,,,

the firebox was there,, and the beginning of the metal ''pipe'' the pipe was gone, but i was wondering what the metal coupling was that was attached to the back of the firebox,

now i know,

 

[BarG]

It seems pipes are running from fire box on slight downward slope. must have a good flue to allow smoke to escape on opposite end? and still generate enough heat through barn pipes without th smoke.

 

[Daniel]

That duct work looks a whole lot like the rocket mass heater with a couple of differences. The burn chamber has a flue that is right above the stove like a traditional wood stove. This means most of the heat is going right up that pipe. I am also not real sure why the duct work goes beyond the opening. It does not seem there would be any heat to duct past that hole. In the Rocket Heater the flue as at the end of the duct work and all the air, gases, smoke etc have given up that heat before it exhausts out. The exhaust typically is about 90 degrees while the heat riser commonly measures about 700 degrees or more.
As for temperature control that can be accomplished in any one of several ways. temperature sensitive loovers would be the first to come to mind. Like those used in greenhouses. A fan with a thermostat would be another.
Here is a diagram of the basics of a Rocket Mass Heater. You can build these things out of dirt and some dust work. The Barrel, stove pipe and dust work are the expensive parts unless you can scrounge them.

Sorry that image comes out so small.
This is a photo of the one we built to test in our back yard. We still have a couple of changes to try on it. sometimes we still get smoke back so we bought a book and have figured out a couple of reasons why.
View attachment 327

 

[Daniel]

Deleted double post

 

[BarG]

I'm wondering if BBs photo was not missing additional pipe sections or stops,plugs on end of pipes.. If they were closed off during initial cycle of raising heat in increments over a prescribed period and temperature setting it would make sense. It could have been during a phase where there was no smoke just coals and heat. Its all speculation of course just looking at a cool pic.

 

[Chicken]

Deleted double post

thats a redneck home-made contraption if ive ever seen one,,,

i like it,,,,

is that a beer keg,,,???

 

[Daniel]

naw sorry Chicken. it's just a lil ol 30 gallon barrel. We woudl never use a keg they's for keepin hog feed in.

Actually it is very much home made but is actually some state of the art home made. this heater was developed by a guy helping people in third world contries develop better methods of living. It has only been around since the late 80's early 90's and is still in the process of development. The overall plan is that it can be adapted to any location depending on what that location has on hand in abundance. Due to that it has many different versions.

Here are just a couple of numbers that are proven. it burns about one third the wood of a traditional wood burning stove. It is more efficient than a typical pellet stove. The main body can be made from dirt sand and straw. the dirt required has been obtainable from any location in the world so far. We use the dirt from our back yard which has a fairly high clay content. In this case that little mount of dirt is as hard as concrete. has set out all winter in the snow and rain and is doing just fine. we still get to much shrinkage from our mix so we still have some tinkering to do.

As for Flue cured tobacco. This discussion in combination with the amount of tobacco I am going to play with this year has caught my attention now. I need to look up the details of flue curing. I have the general understanding that you heat the space the tobacco is hangingn in and then increase the heat each day and or at specific times until it has actually gotten very hot for the last day or so.

I am thinking that if I hang tobacco under a tarp on my back porch it is going to get pretty warm weather I like it or not. How to keep it that way 24/7 as well as increase that heat to the necessary level for the last few days would be my problem.

How does flue curing effect the aging of the tobacco later?

I might play with some flue curing with some of my crop but I don't think I will want to risk all of it.