I lit up a bowl last night, and it was tasting pretty good. About 15 min into it, I started getting a really sour taste. Then it began "biting" my tongue. What am I doing wrong? Also, as you smoke the pipe, do you leave the ashes in the bowl and empty only when you're done; or do you attempt to "ash" the pipe as you smoke it?
Most virginias will naturally smoke hot and bitey, as do most aromatics. Humidity can have a huge effect on this though so you might want to check your humidity also. The wetter Virginia's and Aromatics are, the more likely they are to be harsh/bite.
Anything over about 30 to 40 percent is just asking to be bit in my experience. Remember, pipe tobacco is NOT humidity dependent like cigars are. Pipe weed is meant to be smoked a good bit drier.
You may also need to give your pipe a good cleaning if you didn't do it when you retired them last year. The "
The Professor's Pipe-Sweetening Treatment" works best for this in my experience.
You might need to do it a few times to get it completely clean. I clean mine in 24hr cycles, but I live on the Colorado front range and humidity isn't a problem here, even on rainy days, so they dry out pretty fast.
Be sure you check the thickness on the cake before you begin to clean. If you ream it down to about the thickness of a dime, this will help speed things along when cleaning. However, less cake means a hotter smoke and more risk to the pipe from heat damage though so don't remove the cake entirely. Cake is your friend.
A "butner reamer" is the best tool for this in my experience, but there are several other types as well.
A few of things to be aware of;
1. Don't be afraid to soak the hell out of the salt.
The more alcohol you use, the longer things will take to dry, HOWEVER you'll also draw out more of the nasty rancid crap quicker by using more alcohol.
2. Use the highest proof hooch you can get your hands on. I use everclear usually, but I also use Captain Morgan occasionally just for the hell of it. Again, this will help draw more of the nasty crap out in a quicker time.
3. Avoid getting alcohol on the bowl or shank finish, it'll take the wax right off and really jack up the finish on some the less expensive pipes, and on some of the older ones as well. If you accidently slop some on the outside wipe it off stat.
4. Don't use regular old table salt. I recommend using only Kosher salt personally. Table salt has iodine in it- as do some sea salts, read the label or use Kosher only, and will leave a *REALLY* fugly taste in the pipe. (Guess what you gotta do to get rid of it...Salt Treatment with Kosher salt
)
5. After the salt treatments come out clear, disassemble the pipe and clean, clean, clean with pipe cleaners to get all the little bits of salt out of the pipe. I can tell you from experience that it's really sucks drawing bits of salt during a smoke.
The actual treatment part is straightforward. Just clean, dump, and re-clean (with fresh salt every time!) until the salt comes out clear. It can take several cleanings if you've never cleaned the pipe before.
Once they're clean, it's a good idea to work out a regular cleaning schedule just to speed things up later, but I know from experience this can be a PITA if you only have a couple pipes like I do.
I usually salt clean mine once every couple of months, then run a pipe cleaner soaked in Captain Morgan (any good hooch will work fine) through it a few times to sweeten things up.
Be sure to let the pipe dry completely before reassembling and smoking it. Again, that will depend on the ambient humidity in your area.
One last note on the sour taste, try running a dry pipe cleaner down the shank while smoking. This will soak up the saliva and jucies that build up in the bottom of the pipe, usually only a problem with bents, and make for a gentler smoke as well.
Also keep an eye on how fast you're puffing. more than a couple of times per minutecan really heat things up and make for a harsh smoke.
As far as the ash goes, you can ash if you want. It's not really bad per se, it's just not really recommended or even necessary.
By leaving the ash alone it covers the firehead and helps maintain a cooler smoke.
