Tabacco bodega

[Jan Bynens]

Man, I hope you have very good security. Would suck to get all that stuff stolen after all your expense and hard work.

It is very quiet here, I live in a sleepy coastal town.
The bodega in on my property and have 2 Dogo's Argentino running around.

 

[ramthepharoah]

Love the amazing work you’re doing with the leaves!! Dogos are also one of my favorite breeds!! Keep it up!!

 

[Jan Bynens]

Today I finished the hardware of my fermentation chamber. I installed a humidity controller and a small ultrasonic humidifier and did some test runs. Seems to work fine !
I'll keep the temperature just above 50 C (or 120 F) and humidity around 80- 85.
Misted 2 lbs of viso and 2 lbs ligero wrapper one by one to get and even humidity on the leaves. I'll keep them overnight in a sealed box and will check them in the morning. Maybe give them another spay.
Tomorrow I'll put the leaves inside.

 

[Jan Bynens]

This is the hardware inside. The ventilator is coupled on the heat controller.
The humidifier has his own control. By placing the humidifier after the fan the mist is sucked in the fan and nicely diffused.

 

[Jan Bynens]

Unfortunately I had to stop my project.
The humidifier has a proximity sensitive switch and I can no by pass it to control it with my humidity controller.
Unless I find an electronic repair shop which can help me out, there is no other way hen buying a humidifier with a mechanical switch.
This will take me 3 weeks to get it here !

 

[blisscigarco]

Unfortunately I had to stop my project.
The humidifier has a proximity sensitive switch and I can no by pass it to control it with my humidity controller.
Unless I find an electronic repair shop which can help me out, there is no other way hen buying a humidifier with a mechanical switch.
This will take me 3 weeks to get it here !

Sorry about that.

 

[Jim D]

Hi @Jan Bynens , hows your project going these days? I haven't seen any updates in a while, hope it's awesome!

 

[Jan Bynens]

Hi Jim,

Project was on hold for a few months because I was finishing my distillery bodega and building a new bodega for chocolate production.
I bought a small conche machine to do some trials to make chocolate and it turned out much better then I expected.
I went up in the mountains to harvest the cacao and fermented it myself. The farmers were not fermenting it at all or only for one day.
Next holiday I'll, continue with my fermentation box. I bought another ultrasonic mist maker and will build the unit myself.
.

 

[mitetak]

Hi Jim,

Project was on hold for a few months because I was finishing my distillery bodega and building a new bodega for chocolate production.
I bought a small conche machine to do some trials to make chocolate and it turned out much better then I expected.
I went up in the mountains to harvest the cacao and fermented it myself. The farmers were not fermenting it at all or only for one day.
Next holiday I'll, continue with my fermentation box. I bought another ultrasonic mist maker and will build the unit myself.
.View attachment 137444 View attachment 137445

You are really a man of many talents Awesome stuff!

 

[Jim D]

Hi Jim,

Project was on hold for a few months because I was finishing my distillery bodega and building a new bodega for chocolate production.
I bought a small conche machine to do some trials to make chocolate and it turned out much better then I expected.
I went up in the mountains to harvest the cacao and fermented it myself. The farmers were not fermenting it at all or only for one day.
Next holiday I'll, continue with my fermentation box. I bought another ultrasonic mist maker and will build the unit myself.
.View attachment 137444 View attachment 137445

Wow, that's awesome!

 

[Jan Bynens]

I have finally time for my tabaco project !
The last two day been playing with my new fermentation box setup and it is looking very promising.
I hope tomorrow to fill it with wrapper leaf.
This will also be a test run with 8 pounds ( half ligero - half viso)
Here some rolls from today # 38 till # 60

 

[blisscigarco]

I have finally time for my tabaco project !
The last two day been playing with my new fermentation box setup and it is looking very promising.
I hope tomorrow to fill it with wrapper leaf.
This will also be a test run with 8 pounds ( half ligero - half viso)
Here some rolls from today # 38 till # 60

View attachment 138540

That's great! Nice rolls/photo, too.

 

[mitetak]

beautiful!

 

[Jan Bynens]

Finally I think I sorted out a proper way to ferment my tobacco.
I was overthinking it and made it to complex.
The problem is that air at 52C / 125F can hold so much water (at 85% humidity) and the condense it started leaking at the door.
The wooden box was deforming ....
So now I came on the idea to spray my leaves and place them in a 5 gallon airtight zip lock bag and just heating by box.
When I opened the bag I had the smell of raisins. I''ll ferment till that smell is gone.

 

[blisscigarco]

Finally I think I sorted out a proper way to ferment my tobacco.
I was overthinking it and made it to complex.
The problem is that air at 52C / 125F can hold so much water (at 85% humidity) and the condense it started leaking at the door.
The wooden box was deforming ....
So now I came on the idea to spray my leaves and place them in a 5 gallon airtight zip lock bag and just heating by box.
When I opened the bag I had the smell of raisins. I''ll ferment till that smell is gone.

I look forward to hearing how it turns out. I'm glad you're not stopping at the deceptively lovely raisin smell.

 

[ras_oscar]

Finally I think I sorted out a proper way to ferment my tobacco.
I was overthinking it and made it to complex.
The problem is that air at 52C / 125F can hold so much water (at 85% humidity) and the condense it started leaking at the door.
The wooden box was deforming ....
So now I came on the idea to spray my leaves and place them in a 5 gallon airtight zip lock bag and just heating by box.
When I opened the bag I had the smell of raisins. I''ll ferment till that smell is gone.

I have never fermented tobacco. I question only to understand.
My understanding is when the producers ferment their tobacco they sack the hands into a pile and let the stack increase in temp naturally. When the tobacco off gasses all the ammonia its ready for the next step. Wouldn't a plastic bag interfere with the off gassing?

 

[Jim D]

I wonder how this all turned out...