Prepping binder and wrapper leaves

[BrewinHooligan]

I hope @Hopduro knows I'm just busting his chops. Broadleaf is not a beginner friendly leaf if you want pretty sticks. Habano is your best bet for easy to use and easy on the eyes, but if you know your leaf, what it requires of you, and put in the effort, you can wrap good looking cigars with any wrapper leaf.

 

[Hopduro]

Don't be lazy . Broadleaf is nice wrapper if you work with it on its terms

I hope @Hopduro knows I'm just busting his chops. Broadleaf is not a beginner friendly leaf if you want pretty sticks. Habano is your best bet for easy to use and easy on the eyes, but if you know your leaf, what it requires of you, and put in the effort, you can wrap good looking cigars with any wrapper leaf.

Busting my rolling chops man! :O
Nah, no more difficult leaf for this guy, this hobby is supposed to be fun and relaxing. As soon as it becomes work.... well you know the rest!

Sent from my SM-G920P using Tapatalk

 

[webmost]

Do you think that repeatedly dampening and then drying leaves would knock the physical strength out of them?

1) If you stored them long term in a shed where you got rainy weeks and then dry weeks and then raining weeks?
2) If you prepped them for use and then dried them for storage and then prepped them for use and then...?

If you did either, would the strength go out of a wrapper or binder?

 

[ras_oscar]

I hope @Hopduro knows I'm just busting his chops. Broadleaf is not a beginner friendly leaf if you want pretty sticks. Habano is your best bet for easy to use and easy on the eyes, but if you know your leaf, what it requires of you, and put in the effort, you can wrap good looking cigars with any wrapper leaf.

so noooow you tell me. I just finished rolling up butt ugly sticks with a pound of CT broadleaf maduro wrapper. Ran out and had to finish up the rack with a CT shade wrapper. The difference was like wrapping with silk VS a paper bag. No wonder the CT shade is so much more expensive. Its well worth it, especially if you get more leaves in a pound.

 

[BrewinHooligan]

Do you think that repeatedly dampening and then drying leaves would knock the physical strength out of them?

1) If you stored them long term in a shed where you got rainy weeks and then dry weeks and then raining weeks?
2) If you prepped them for use and then dried them for storage and then prepped them for use and then...?

If you did either, would the strength go out of a wrapper or binder?

I can speak from experience that if you bring up to full case, dry, then case again they are much more fragile and also way less visually appealing. I think it depends on the amount of moisture swing

 

[Marc L]

Do you think that repeatedly dampening and then drying leaves would knock the physical strength out of them?

1) If you stored them long term in a shed where you got rainy weeks and then dry weeks and then raining weeks?
2) If you prepped them for use and then dried them for storage and then prepped them for use and then...?

If you did either, would the strength go out of a wrapper or binder?

Yes. That is why binder and wrapper gets less fermentation then the filler so, It can be done by the cigar maker and go rite into the cigar after there done.

 

[webmost]

That splains then why this baccy from the black mammoth grower hasn't enough resilience to bind or wrap. I may have to use some of that crude PA BL.

 

[nic]

I can speak from experience that if you bring up to full case, dry, then case again they are much more fragile and also way less visually appealing. I think it depends on the amount of moisture swing

I have also found that to be true with every binder or wrapper I've used.

 

[ras_oscar]

Sorry to resurrect this zombie thread, but I think I've found the solution to my problem. Usually I hydrate binder and filler on Friday, roll and press dolls Saturday, hydrate wrapper Saturday and wrap Sunday. For reasons beyond my control, on a recent rolling weekend I was unable to wrap Sunday and left the hydrated wrapper leaves in the bag an extra day. Much more pliable and easier to work with overall. Here's my thinking:

The stem and veins are the moisture transport mechanisms of the leaves. When I spray the leaves a substantial portion of the water migrates to the transport system and equalizes the moisture content throughout the leqaf. By giving that process an extra day before destemming, my leaf had a more uniform moisture, and was able to migrate further towards the leaf edges.

 

[nic]

Assuming that all wrapper (or binder) will case in the exact same amount of time is a flaw in your process. Different leafs case at different rates. Current weather (temp & rh) also change times. Right now, my current batch of EC shade seco will case in an hour. My current batch of corojo from WLT takes 1.5-2 days.

 

[Dominican56]

@nic,
His hypothesis is correct.
Case as long as it takes to get the entire leaf into a more even state of moisture irrespective of the leaf type.

Rarely do I take the time to bring wrapper to proper case, however, when I give the wrapper more time to evenly absorb water they work better for me.

Mostly I’m a spray-em- and go roller. I never really plan a rolling session. Mostly I’ll roll 3 to 8 when the mood strikes. They all dry a day or two before I put them in the cooler with their cousins. One stays out to be enjoyed he next day, however.
The microwave is my best friend during the more humid weather we’ve had lately.

 

[Dominican56]

When I roll I’ll spray the binder and wrapper so it’s quite wet. Having some very wet wrapper left over the other night, I put it into the plastic box with the binders.

A couple of days later I pulled out of that box a binder and it was the perfect moisture level for using. So was the wrapper.

From now on I’m going to try to bring leaf up to case like that before rolling. The leaf was so much better to use than hosing them down just before use.

I ordered 4 large 75% boveda packs to see if those will work well enough to bring wrapper leaf up to a nice workable level. 69% keeps the leaf pretty nice but I want wrapper and binder to be a bit softer. 69% is too wet for smoking but it’s a nice moisture level for working the filler leaf.

 

[ras_oscar]

Everybody has their process. Mine is not better or worse than anyone else's, it's just the process that works for me. I usually schedule a rolling session and roll 30 sticks. 20 using the target filler blend and 10 using the scrap wrapper from the first 20. I have a wood humidor that will hold 30 home rolls, so that's my dry box. When I finish rolling my batch they go into the humidor. When humidity drops to about 70% I transfer to the main Iglooador and am reset for the next batch. As a bonus, I rarely need to add humidity to the wood humi. When the RH falls a bit, I just roll another batch I don't usually sample a stick until it comes out of the dry box. I have not yet used the microwave trick.