Is There Any Hope - Please Advise - Water Damage

[kjd2121]

UPDATE:

Some of the sticks were only wrapper affected and they have dried enough to put them loosely into single layer boxes. I will let these sticks sit in the coolerdor with the lid cracked for the night.

The smokes that were soaked are still sitting on towels and appear that they may eventually be fine. I may let them sit out for the night, but the humidity is low here (25%) so that may not be a good idea. Lets see how they look in two hours.

The Lusitanias that got soaked have begun to split. The foot is the most affected on these so I should be able to salvage them. The ten year old SLR Lonsdales look fuc(*D. Oh well, worse things could have happened

Now that the mini fridge has defrosted all over my smokes I will probably put most of the really wet cigars in there to combat mold, since it will be 85+ degrees here tomorrow.

I'll keep you updated. Thanks for the advice.

I feel like such a douche bag.

[dawgboy]

DUDE I am soooooo sorry that happened!

[baglorious]

This is pretty much the worst fear of most of us... entire cigar collection in jeopardy... and a nice looking collection to boot. I'm nauseous, as I'm sure are the rest of us who have seen the pics. Blech.

I think there are a few practical things to consider... not that you haven't probably thunk of most of this, and not that I have any experience, but here are some ideas:

First, separate the different classes of damage. The "really wet" sticks... the pretty wet sticks, and the "wet in a few spots" sticks. One of the first things I'd do is SEPARATE these into different storage areas. If you've got enough smaller coolers lying around, use 'em.

First, for the sticks that have limited spots, it seems like you could probably try to treat those normally and hope for the best. You'll have to deal with some funny swollen spots, and maybe some draw issues... but I wouldn't get too crazy doing "anything" with those... put 'em back in a standard environment, and see if the concentrated spot moisture will equalize and dissipate on its own. Smaller spots will probably deal with themselves (for better or worse) without becoming a huge mold risk, and there's probably not much you can do about the possibility of concentrated swelling... they might not be the best smokers afterward, but they'll probably be pretty normal tasting.

For the "medium" wet sticks... I'd probably take the same approach... put 'em in a standard environment PLUS some over-average humidity, with beads if you've got em. My opinion would be that storing them possibly at 75%-ish (probably from their own moisture) for a few days might be beneficial as the concentrated moisture may, again, spread and over-humidify the entire cigar (and storage environment), but they'd make it UNIFORM, and you could reduce the humidity down slowly thereafter.

For the "really wet" sticks, you may be SOL... and you may be endangering all your semi-wet and partially wet sticks of you don't separate them. Mold will probably be the main concern here, and you may unfortunately want to consider introducing some sort of anti-mold agent. (Just propylene glycol, perhaps?) I'm not suggesting listerine... but if they're all molded to crap, they're not going to be any good anyhow. I think I read somewhere that propylene glycol has anti-molding properties. I am only speculating here... but do some google research on it. What about the possiblity of LIGHTLY misting a propylene glycol + water solution into a coolerdor/tupperdor storage every day or other day as you try to take the overall humidity down over weeks or so? Again, I'm just brainstorming here... PG is obviously used in foam humidifiers, and isn't supposed to impart any taste properties... not that I've ever heard anyone suggest misting PG on anything. I'm thinking if you do a 30% PG solution, put it in a spray bottle and "mist" it into a cooler (just one spray), then leave the top off for a minute or two so the humidity doesn't increase... maybe that will help keep mold off? (Or see if you can come up with anything else that might not impart taste/chemical properties that would work. Isopropyl? I have no idea.) it may be worth a shot, as opposed to losing the sticks altogether... and perhaps if you can bring them down without molding, and age them for another 6 months... any goofy properties might decrease to be inconsequential?

My theory (based only on speculation) is primarily that you want to separate sticks, and keep them separate. Your wettest are likeliest to be moldy... shouldn't be kept with other sticks to reduce mold getting into your entire environment.

Also... I think you want to equalize "entire" sticks in the separate storage compartments, at higher humidity if necessary, then try to bring down the entire stick slowly. I think you're going to have big problems if you're trying to dry sticks too quickly... the part of the stick with no direct water will dry out entirely, while the wet part tries to catch up. My guess is, you'll have half a (still) wet cigar, and half an overly dry cigar, which may exacerbate splitting/cracking... better to make the "whole" cigar overhumidified, and try to bring it all back down at the same time. (AGAIN, I'M BRAINSTORMING... getting the whole stick too wet to fast will obviously split it as well.) I'm not suggesting adding any moisture at all... but if you put your wet sticks in a tupperdor rather than out in the open, perhaps the humidity will equalize... the dry parts of the cigar will take some of the moisture, the wet parts will lose some... then you deal with reducing the overall humidity.

Anyway, those are just my thoughts... I'm just hoping you think of those issues if you haven't already.

GOOD LUCK GOOD LUCK GOOD LUCK!!!

[fulloflead]

Can you arrange for them to have some indirect sunlight while they're sitting next to plenty of beads that are about 40% wet? Not enough light to damage the cigs further (as if) but mold doesn't like sunlight. I'd also say lots of air circulation or open the humidor and fan them a bit every day. Poor air circulation helps mold too.

.

[ghostrider]

I wouldn't put them back in the fridge unless you have to. At this point you want to minimize the humidity around them until they have dried out some more. Putting them in a warm, dark, moist environment may only cause them to develop mold faster.

[jkim05]

maybe you should wrap the wetter ones in some absorbent material like paper towels or napkins, that should help draw out some of the water from the cigars, but still allow them to breathe
idk, just a thought that came to mind

[atlacatl]

Wow, good luck with those sticks, and sorry to hear about it. I hope you are able to get those cigars smokable again. I had a problem like that happen a few years back, and I had to throw some of them away because of mold.

[newcigarz]

Wow, Sorry to hear about that. I guess I'm with everybody else. dry them out slowly and smoke as soon as possible. The other thing is the water that dripped
on them may have imparted some bad tastes onto the smokes, only time will tell. Good Luck!

[six string]

Although this has never happeved to me, my advice would be to just use some common sense in a situation like this.

Logically, as baglorious suggested, you should separate all your cigars according to level of damage.

I would also say that you are going to need 3-4 separate humidors to handle this properly.

I would use the humidors like this...

humidor #1: to be used for minimally damaged cigars 55-60%RH
humidor #2: to be used for moderately damaged cigars 50-55%RH
humidor #3: to be used for severely damaged cigars DRY BOX

1) the slightly affected cigars should be dried (dab the wet areas) with paper towel or something that is very absorbent, let them air dry for about an hour, then place them back into a little bit dryer than normal environment (humidor #1) and keep an eye on them for 3-4 weeks. after that, you could bring the RH up a bit if you like and they should be ok.

2) the moderately affected cigars should be hand-dried using paper towels as well. I would wrap the cigar in a bundle of paper towels and lightly squeeze where the affected areas are. kinda like how you would lightly squeezing a sponge to get the water out. not too hard though so that you tear the wrapper or damage the cigar further. then, I would put them in humidor #2 until they stabilize, maybe 2-3 weeks. after that, if they are in stable condition, you could probably move them into a normal environment.

3) for the severely damaged cigars, I would use the same process as 2), except using even more care as to not damage the wrappers any further. after the cigars have been hand-dried as best as possible, I would put them into a dry box (humidor #3) and check them every day for the first week and a half for signs of mold. Open the humidor to air it out for maybe 2-3 min a day for the first week to get some fresh air in there. I'd also lay some wax paper in the bottom of the humidor so that the wet tobacco does not stain the wood. Keep them in there until they seem ok to move to humidor #2 and then to humidor #1 then to a regular environment.

Not sure if the severely damaged sticks will be even worth saving because with water damage like this, the oils can get "washed out" so to speak from the tobacco. tobacco that is saturated like this will often not retain much of it's original flavor.

You have some good smokes there, so the ones that can be saved are worth it. Good luck and be patient.

[sonick]

A few hours in the AZ low humidity and then the rest of the time in some 25% wet beads (calibrated for space as usual) would be my course of action........

The first part to attempt to start the drying fast enough to shock off some mold from taking hold.... and the lightly wetted beads to re-acclamate the cigars to uniform humidity without spending the entire time in the AZ low humidity.

All of the above done in a 70-75 degree room without dark, yet also without direct sunlight...... just regular ambient incandescent light.

And not a damn clue if any of it would work any better than any other proposed solution, because I'm hypothesizing....... sorry for your loss

[scrapiron]

Really sorry to hear about the damage....

I have no direct experience but I would be very afraid of spraying them with any chemicals like Prop glycol as it might leave some flavor behind..

Good Luck!

[fizguy]

What about using the silica beads that come with flowers and other stuff? They are designed to absorb more humidity, I think.

[KASR]

MY EYES!!!! AAARrrrrghhhhhhh.....

[earnold25]

ugh! looking at those pics is like watching one of those Faces of Death videos. Sorry to hear about your loss. Hopefully you can recover most of them.

[kjd2121]

UPDATE:

I put the slightly damaged smokes in one coooler and the more damaged smokes in another cooler last night. I closed both lids and this morning the humidity was 65% and 63%. I think most of the sticks should be OK. Probably have to deal with burn issues and maybe some taste issues as well.

The worst of the smokes are 10 of my Padilla Miami 8/11 Churchills. These were under water and are completely soaked. I let them sit out on a towel with a towel covering them and we'll see what transpires. I don't give these much hope.

It sucks to be an IDIOT!!!