My first blend tonight with an SA wrapper, definitely prefer the Brazilian on it, too spicy for the blend I'm guessing. It's amazing what a wrapper can do to a stick.
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Adventures in home rolling
- Thread starter BrewinHooligan
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My first blend tonight with an SA wrapper, definitely prefer the Brazilian on it, too spicy for the blend I'm guessing. It's amazing what a wrapper can do to a stick.
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Is your Brazilian wrapper coming from WLT or LO? I need to place a wrapper order and with how much you have been talking that wrapper up I feel I owe it to myself to grab some.
My first blend tonight with an SA wrapper, definitely prefer the Brazilian on it, too spicy for the blend I'm guessing. It's amazing what a wrapper can do to a stick.
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It's the leaf only stuff, brittle and unforgiving to work with, but damn does it shine and taste delicious. It's like adding cream to coffee, mellows out any harsh or bitterness.
I will say that an inch in, the spice has tamed immensely, finally the return of the cedar and wood i loved so much with the first one i tried. Ash is holding nicely too. Definitely come a long way since these first rolls!
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Gonna be rolling on the live cam for the next couple hours:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCKQPvIbslAFFDYDGi-EivRQ/live
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCKQPvIbslAFFDYDGi-EivRQ/live
Just fired up a lancero my mentor Willy gave me to smoke before I go back next Tuesday. Hot damn is this tasty as all hell. Cream, earth, wood, bittersweet chocolate, and loads of spice. Now to find his blend and try to talk him out of some leaf... Lol. I have a way to go before I can pull off a barber pole as good as good as this though.
Where does he get his leaf from? (sorry if this was already answered)Just fired up a lancero my mentor Willy gave me to smoke before I go back next Tuesday. Hot damn is this tasty as all hell. Cream, earth, wood, bittersweet chocolate, and loads of spice. Now to find his blend and try to talk him out of some leaf... Lol. I have a way to go before I can pull off a barber pole as good as good as this though.
I haven't asked him that just yet. His website says his family has a tobacco farm in the Dominican Republic but he uses an Ecuadorian binder. I know the seco and viso we rolled with Tuesday night was Dominican. I have been brushing up on my Spanish so I can communicate with him a little better. The Habano wrapper he gave me is by far the nicest wrapper I have worked with so far. I will try to get some more information next Tuesday and will also try to get some video of him rolling. I'm hoping there is a way he will be willing to sell me leaf because this thing is ridiculously good.
I was thinking the same !!
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Finally got to try a stick with fermented leaf.All I can say is WOW. This was rolled earlier in the week and has spent about 3 days in the dry box. Already it easily bested anything I have smoked from my previous unfermented blends. It was smooth and very slightly creamy. A very pleasant floral note was obvious as well as some spice which was a combination of light pepper and cinnamon. The finish was slightly dry and left a pleasant aftertaste that I can quite put my finger on.There were subtle changes going on throughout the cigar.Flavours would briefly vanish then re appear. It would only improve after some time in the humi.Anyone who isn.t doing this owes it to themselves to try. The extra time and effort pays off in spades. I still am learning and refining my process but at this point already very very impressed. I am so thankful to gdaddy and wakikigun for bringing this process to my attention. You guys rock!
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Great to hear it's working! There's a box of raw material on its way to "Place with Weird White Ground."
Things are heating up here in Arizona. I plan to try this when the temps creep over 100f, very excited to give this a try
GREAT NEWS!!! This is exciting.
Finally got to try a stick with fermented leaf.All I can say is WOW. This was rolled earlier in the week and has spent about 3 days in the dry box. Already it easily bested anything I have smoked from my previous unfermented blends. It was smooth and very slightly creamy. A very pleasant floral note was obvious as well as some spice which was a combination of light pepper and cinnamon. The finish was slightly dry and left a pleasant aftertaste that I can quite put my finger on.There were subtle changes going on throughout the cigar.Flavours would briefly vanish then re appear. It would only improve after some time in the humi.Anyone who isn.t doing this owes it to themselves to try. The extra time and effort pays off in spades. I still am learning and refining my process but at this point already very very impressed. I am so thankful to gdaddy and wakikigun for bringing this process to my attention. You guys rock!
As you know, it's my main point of focus right now. As you have found, it's where the secrets lie to a better cigar.
It's so important to understand that learning to roll a pretty cigar doesn't necessarily produce a good cigar. It's all about the tobacco and how it's been processed. Making blends using mediocre tobacco can only yield mediocre cigars no matter how many combinations you try. You reach a point where it's not getting any better. However, the cigar will be a good cigar even if it's poorly rolled provided you use good, properly processed tobacco. Does anyone really believe that the top cigar manufacturers just buy tobacco and roll cigars right from the bag like we do? Look at any factory tour videos and just take a look at the processing the leaf goes through before it's ready to roll. We just roll it with no processing.
So my advice to everyone home rolling is once you learn to make a cigar (not that hard) then put all your efforts into fermentation and kilning experimentation. It will expand the hobby to a whole new level and give you knowledge on how to produce an exceptional smoke. Blending will be a whole new world to explore. After all, it's ALL about the flavor and the appearance is secondary.
Congrats Smokey!!! Soon we'll share some recipes. (be nice to have a sub forum for this reason)
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Awesome to hear. I sent you some fermented wrapper/binder samples to give you an idea of what is happening. I will send you some filler as well once i,ve got some more ready.Great to hear it's working! There's a box of raw material on its way to "Place with Weird White Ground."
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I am even more stocked about it now than I was when I started to see the changes in the wrappers color. I am slowly adding more leaf to my kiln for another batch. I found some dominican seco I had forgotten about. I found a surprising number of wrapper grade leaves. I think it will produce a terrific wrapper when done. I am also experimenting with controlled degradation using one sucker as my test. It was like rawhide when I got it. I,m experimenting to see if it can be broken down to the level of normal binder without destroying it in the process. If it works that would mean that thicker leathery wrapper could be fermented down to a much thinner and more attractive texture.
Has anyone else here opened a bag of highly cased leaf that had been sitting a few days to get a huge shot of ammonia to the nose? Happened yesterday with some Ecuadorian Habano wrapper and again today with some Dominican binder. Wondering if the leaf started to ferment as it sat. Either way these sticks are gonna sit for a bit to make sure they don't taste like ammonia when they are smoked
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@BrewinHooligan Used to happen to me pretty often. Somewhere along the line my processes changed up and it hasn't happened for several months.
I ain't no phdstogie but my hunch is that that would blow off during drying and aging if you went ahead and rolled anyway.
I ain't no phdstogie but my hunch is that that would blow off during drying and aging if you went ahead and rolled anyway.
Yes, it does. Just takes longer to age once rolled. Helps to open your aging box and stir them round from time to time.
Or else, you can put your damp leaves in the fridge to prevent ammonia.
Don't smoke it stinky. Gives you headache. Been there.
Luckily I'm rolling faster and getting through my cased leaf in just a day or two now. The leaf is also not getting to as high of a case as before which I think may have caused this to happen. Luckily it was just a couple leaves each time.