My Tobacco steep method

[Mev]

This is my DIY method of tobacco steeping and hopefully will help anyone wanting to try out steeping for themselves, I personally think steeping your own is the best way to go for flavour and saving some cash to spend on shiny things. This is my little way of doing the job with a couple of little quirks along the way.

Firstly I believe this to be the best tobacco supplier www.wholeleaftobaccoonly.com

The choice of leaf is personal taste but I will say a mix made with just Virginia will be the worst for gunking up your coils, I prefer doing a mixture of different tobaccos and have tried several my favourite so far being a mix of Virginia, Burley and Nigaraguan Seco cigar filler to give it that extra tobacconess (is that a word?). The Burley is a must for me and I would include it in any mix as it gives a nice smooth vape, the Virginia gives it that ciggy taste and as said before the cigar filler gives it a stronger tobacco taste.

When I first tried steeping I worked with small 100ml amounts in glass bottles, but the last batch I made was with the large glass Kenco coffee jars and I ended up with over 1Litre of steep which will probably out live me lol.
I add a lot of tobacco to the mix which ends up making a concentrate you can add to your mixes, less tobacco could be used to vape straight mix to strength with your own nicotine. I've never actually measured the amount of tobacco I use but just until it looks enough which is when added to PG what i'd call a runny sludge texture.

I chop the different leaf coarsely and put into the jar I then dampen the leaf with a little Brandy, not a lot just enough to slightly dampen the leaf. My idea being the alcohol starts to break down the leaf and it also gives a very subtle hint of flavour to the final mix, I would think Vodka would do the same job here but haven't tried it. I leave this for 24 hours in a cupboard to get the process going, I then fill the jar with PG and give it a thorough mix. I then leave the mix for several weeks, my last bath was left steeping 4 weeks. Every couple of days I give it a good shake up.

Now comes the messy time consuming job of filtering the steep, the better job you do here will mean the less gunking on your coils/wicks. At first I just used coffee filters through a funnel which worked well but last time I decided to try make a vacuum type filter system and although it was a lot of faffing around it did work out pretty well. Ideally and decent lab type vacuum system would be great but it's expensive to set up correctly.

First filter was just an ordinary kitchen sieve to get the bulk of the tobacco out, then a second time through the sieve but with a sheet of #400 SS mesh (used for ss wicks). It was then time to bodge up a filter system.

For my set up I used another large Kenco jar and fashioned a lid with a funnel and tubing to fix to a pump.




I made a plastic disc to fit in the top which a drilled loads of small hole with a 1mm drill (missing from picture) then on top of that I used lab filters which I bought on Ebay here www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Chemistry-Set-Spares-Lab-Filter-Paper-110mm-x-20-NEW-2-Laboratory-brands-avail-/300665578372?pt=UK_BOI_Medical_Lab_Equipment_Lab_Supplies_ET&var=&hash=item8bb4f36f94
These are very fine filters and even with a pump set up it's a long tedious job but worth the effort I think.. I did my large batch over a couple of evenings sat with the jar and pump beside me while watching tv lol

After the filtration process I added a 200ml bottle of VG to the mix hoping to give it a little sweetness and take any bitterness out. (this is totally optional) I then left the mix to steep for a further 1 week shaking occasionally before trying it.

This mix I made for my taste is almost exactly like El Toro Guevara but a little less sweetness, so if you've ever tried that you'll know what to expect. I think it's the burley that makes it like this premade and it really is hard to tell them apart which was excellent for me as it's one of my favourite tobacco liquids. I am sure with some experimenting you could reproduce any of your favourites once you know the taste of each tobaccos.

 Hope this info helps anyone wanting to try out steeping for themselves, obviously start out with small amounts until you're happy with the mixture you're making. This mixture I now have can be used as concentrate at about 15/20% or added to your own liquids to give it that extra authentic tobacco taste.

[chrisjw]

That's a great help Mev..........Burley is one of my favourites too........Tomorrow, I will get together all the necessary stuff to get started...where do you get your leaf's from?...I've seen Burley on the "Whole Tobacco Leaf Only" site.

[Mev]

Yes that's where I get mine from chris.

[barrynorton]

How much leaf to how much PG?

[dnglos]

Nice one Mev. I've tried doing this a few times with some blended pipe tobaccos but the results have been a bit inconsistent. Do you think it makes a difference using the whole leaf? And I was thinking of straining the liquid in a french press next time - do you think it'd work ok?

[Mev]

Nov 5, 2013 18:37:25 GMT barrynorton said:

How much leaf to how much PG?

I've never really measured how much, I just go by the look and make a slop..

[Mev]

Nov 5, 2013 18:47:46 GMT dnglos said:

Nice one Mev. I've tried doing this a few times with some blended pipe tobaccos but the results have been a bit inconsistent. Do you think it makes a difference using the whole leaf? And I was thinking of straining the liquid in a french press next time - do you think it'd work ok?

It would certainly work yes with the standard coffee filters.

[greendollar]

Cheers Mev ,

After a pretty successful Virginia crop (wish I'd planted a few different varieties but there's always next year) I've been tinkering with steeping some tobacco .
I started off warming up the 100ml of pg and 20 grammes chopped up leaves in a bain-marie set up then letting it steep for weeks but found filtering the end product a nightmare and it would clog up coils .
I've been using a new method where I just let the tobacco steep naturally in pg and I gently roll the mix so not break up the leaves to much , the end result is a much clearer mix that needs minimal filtering but still holds good flavour .

the one on the left is a 2 week steep the one one the right 1 week .
I add about roughly 3ml to a 10ml mix but on it's own can be quite bitter but I've added a bit of FA Burley which is quite sweet & I'm pretty happy with the result .

[Mev]

greendollar sent e a sample of his home grown Virginia and I must say it was as good as the shop bought.

I also used to heat the mix at the start of the process but soon stopped doing so, I think it makes the tobacco release more sugars mate. I do warm it when it comes to filtering though as it passes through the filter paper better.

[greendollar]

I'm finding that there's no need for heating , mashing or agitating the mix , best to let it steep on it's own and a lot less filtering is needed ...the longer it's left the more flavour I get , I also get at least 2 mixes from the same leaves .
Out of 100ml mix I get about 60ml back then just top up with more pg & leave it to steep again.

Anyone wanting Virginia leaves shoot me a pm , I have quite a lot spare .

[chrisjw]

I'm trying to get my head around the ratios.......would it be correct'ish, if I assumed approx 20grammes of leaf, to 100ml of pg?......I want to work out how much leaf to buy to start with......I'm thinking of mixing up 100ml

[greendollar]

That's what I use per 100ml pg 20-25 grammes & can get two mixes out of that getting approx. 120ml of useable tobacco mix

[rich64]

greendollar im thinking of growing some seeds, am i right in thinking now is the time to get the seeds into pots with a view to planting in the early spring?

Also how long did you dry the leaves for(Im reading elsewhere around a year?)

Thanks

[greendollar]

Nov 8, 2013 14:25:07 GMT rich64 said:

greendollar im thinking of growing some seeds, am i right in thinking now is the time to get the seeds into pots with a view to planting in the early spring?

Also how long did you dry the leaves for(Im reading elsewhere around a year?)

Thanks

I sowed mine in a greenhouse aprilish and put them out when the danger of frost was well over , they need quite a warm environment to germinate , the leaves took 4 to 6 weeks to dry but then you have to cure them (pressed then slowed cooked for a further 2 weeks) .
I've also read that tobacco growers ' bale' up tobacco leaves to cure for anything up to a year as this improves the end product .

[rich64]

Nov 8, 2013 14:46:04 GMT greendollar said:

Nov 8, 2013 14:25:07 GMT rich64 said:

greendollar im thinking of growing some seeds, am i right in thinking now is the time to get the seeds into pots with a view to planting in the early spring?

Also how long did you dry the leaves for(Im reading elsewhere around a year?)

Thanks

I sowed mine in a greenhouse aprilish and put them out when the danger of frost was well over , they need quite a warm environment to germinate , the leaves took 4 to 6 weeks to dry but then you have to cure them (pressed then slowed cooked for a further 2 weeks) .
I've also read that tobacco growers ' bale' up tobacco leaves to cure for anything up to a year as this improves the end product .

Thanks for the info greendollar . Im going to buy some virginia and burley and see how it goes next year