Advice on long term aging?

[Big D KC]

I posted this on another forum, but thought I would put it up here as well to see if I can get some more opinions. Hope no one minds:
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Alright, I am gettin ready to do some MAJOR stocking up of bulk tobacco's for short & long term aging. I'm looking at almost 10 pounds for this order!! (thank you uncle sam!)I have a couple of questions for those of you guys that have been around the block in the pipe world in this regard.

First off is this; my initial thinking is I would be better off breaking it all down to store this stuff ALL in the smaller 1/2 pint wide mouth Kerr jars. My reasoning is I could just grab one to open as I go along to smoke, allowing the rest to continue aging without me disrupting its environment everytime I want to move some to a smoking container. At first this seems a no brainer but I also see a couple downsides to this:

First being by my simple math I'm guessing I would need atleast 6 dozen of the 1/2 pint jars! Probably more like 7 dozen. Thats alot of damn jars! I am thinking aprox 2 oz tobacco per jar of what comes in a non-flake or pressed tobacco, and probably a bit more for what comes in flake. Some of the order will only be 2 or 4 oz "samples" so I will cram those fuller since they will be in the "to smoke" cabinet. What comes with that is mostly the storage space, but secondly cost for them all! I have decent storage at the moment, but I am wondering from those with experience if the hassle of maintaining this many jars over the long term time frame is or would be worth the extra effort? Or should I just condense it all into full pint jars and be done with it?

I would like to see some of it make it to 5, 8, maybe even 10 years and beyond if possible! But I also plan to smoke each different blend as I go along as well.

My second question is jar suppliers. Where do you guys that store your baccy in canning jars get them? I've so far bought 2 dozen at a local grocery store as thats the only place I could find them locally, but they were about $15 a case, and I know for a fact they don't have another 7 cases of them! I haven't found any good online sources with much of a discount yet. Any ideas besides hunting locally and paying the price?

And lastly, for those of you who have went down this path of long term storage, what advice or tips & hints would you offer someone gettin ready to take this approach??

Thanks for your time if you read through all this, and thanks in advance for any help or advice you can offer!!

[Big D KC]

A follow up post I made this morning:
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I re-read through the aging and cellering FAQ online again and think I have come to the conclusion of doing it how I initially planned. I'm going to go for the lots of smaller jars route. I think for me this is the best idea as far as my smoking pace and how I feel about opening and closing the jars overtime and how that will affect the aging process. I was pretty much leaning this way already, but was really more curious about those who may have done it this way and wish they would have gone another route or vice versa.. Maybe it was a hassle dealing with all the jars or after a while the space became an issue. Maybe they stored theres in larger jars and wish they would have went with smaller ones etc etc.

I have pretty much decided on the way I will go about the actual "canning" process of the jars so that is covered.

I looked pretty hard again last night and still didn't come up with a wholsale type solution on the jars via the web. Cheapest I found non-branded "wholesale" jars after lids & shipping still came out to aprox $100 for 72 of them. This is either right at or more then buying them locally. [IMG]http://www.***********.com/vb/images/smilies/frown.gif[/IMG] Kind of hard to believe that somewhere on the internet there isn't a better solution. In me searches last night, I actually found countless other people in various activities looking for the same thing. Cheap wholesale canning jars. Could be a lucrative market! [IMG]http://www.***********.com/vb/images/smilies/biggrin.gif[/IMG]

Any other thoughts/ideas/opinions/experiences are still greatly appreciated!

[Big D KC]

Some advice offered by WWHermit:

I think that due to the weight, shipping would be too costly to do for jars. Better to get them at the local store, or stores. That's where I get them. Usually pick up a couple cases every couple weeks when I do a large order.

I also break up large orders into smaller jars. For bulk Virginias and cakes, I can fit about 3 ounces comfortably. Remember, you want some air in there for the aging process. That's why canning is preferable to vacuum sealing in a bag. No air, not much difference in aging.

I'd still boil water in the jars for the sterilization factor. You'd hate to have a small amount of bacteria on the lid or in the jar, put your treasured baccy in, and 5 years later open up a jar of mold. It's happened.

I use this, as some others have suggested. Foodsaver. And, I use this attachment for mason jars.

Aside from doing a great job of sealing mason jars (I've never had one that didn't seal perfectly) it has saved me hundreds, if not a thousand dollars in food storage. Well worth the money.

WWhermit

[Big D KC]

And my follow up to him. This is where its left off. Anyone who may have anything to add please jump in!!!

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Good info Hermit!!

Couple questions for you: when you say smaller jars and you usually get about 3oz's per jar, are you talking about the 1/2 pint or full pint jars?

In one paragraph you say: "That's why canning is preferable to vacuum sealing in a bag. No air, not much difference in aging" Then in another you recommend a vacuum sealing product? Am I missing something here?? Or is vacuum sealing it in a jar better then in a bag because the jar will leave some air in it?

**edited in that I have found the answer to my question of him on whether you needed to buy special lids for the mason jars. You do not. The regular jar lids that come with them are what you use for one of these systems.**

[Darth Smoker]

A case of Pints was on sale at Wino here in Reno, NV at $5 a case, I would call around to the discount grocery stores. Mason jars are "in season" in the fall.

1/2 pints are too small. Pints are a good size fill with 4 oz tobacco, it doesn't need that much air.

Consider quarts, buy the most popular bulks: SG FVF, SG BBF, MC5100, MC5100 with 5% MC Perique, all the HH tobac, I am loving AJ's.
Stockbeye has some good cheap weed. You get the picture.

A lot of talk is not to cook the weed anymore than it already has been. My next canning will involve 100F in the convection oven then dip in wax.

I think putting down tobac is a prudent investment. Man I hope so I got 50 lbs

Roy

[JacksonCognac]

Sounds like fun storing that much tobacco... I like the idea of a 10 year supply. You could do a few half pint and pint jars for each blend depending on how much you smoke a specific blend... might save a little money that way.