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A few newb questions!

I am new to the community but not new to forums I have used the search and searched on my how because I know how frustrating it is to see the same questions asked time and time again!

First I have a friend that wants to use and electric humidification device for his humidor. I have shown him some of the various gels and beads but he insists on the electric devices. His humidor is a 150 count shelved unit with glass walls.

Second I have a few cigars that I want to age and plan on building a collection of aged cigars. I have a small humidor and don't have room for different shelves but I want a way of labeling my cigars for how long they have been aged and do some experiments on how they taste as they age and when the aging becomes pointless. Basically I don't want to reach into my humidor and pull out an 3 year old aged cigar when I want something different but because I have 5 - 10 of the same brand in various stages of aging I'd like a way of labeling to differienciate which one is which.

Comments

  • kuzi16kuzi16 Posts: 14,633 ✭✭✭✭
    the cigar oasis is a bit of overkill for a 150ct but whatever he wants to spend his money on...


    i label my cigars with a bit of masking tape outside of the cellophane. just the date. it helps.
  • madurofanmadurofan Posts: 6,219 ✭✭✭
    First, I use a Cigar Oasis in my humidor, its electric and works excellently. Only one piece of advice is DO NOT EVER, EVER, F'ing EVER trust the built in hygro. Buy a digital hygrometer, Xikar makes a nice one.

    Cigar Oasis is the premiere electronic humidification and is the best way to go for large storage but works just fine in smaller storage as well. The advantage to active humidification is that it doesn't matter if your humi has one cigar in it or is stuffed to the gills. With Passive humidification(gels, beads, sponge) you need to stick as close as possible to the 2/3 rule(your humi should stay around 2/3's full).

    Second, a few of us, including myself and Duty track every cigar we own in spreadsheets. The way I personally do it is every cigar I own is assigned a number, which, I either write on the cello with a permanent marker or if there is no cello, onto a piece of masking tape which is stuck to the band. Then in the spread sheet I keep track of EVERYTHING, date acquired, how acquired(bought, trade, bomb, etc), where or who acquired from, Wrapper, binder, filler. THen I have two other tabs on the spreadsheet, one where I move all cigars I trade, pass or bomb and another where I move all cigars I smoke and I put a little summary of the cigar.
  • rednekrednek Posts: 15
    kuzi16:
    the cigar oasis is a bit of overkill for a 150ct but whatever he wants to spend his money on...


    i label my cigars with a bit of masking tape outside of the cellophane. just the date. it helps.
    well there comes another problem from what I have researched I think I am going to remove my cigars from the cellophane so I was considering labeling the label on the cigar somehow maybe with colored dots and have a chart or something however I am a big fan of the k.i.s.s. method (keep it simple stupid)
  • rednekrednek Posts: 15
    madurofan:
    First, I use a Cigar Oasis in my humidor, its electric and works excellently. Only one piece of advice is DO NOT EVER, EVER, F'ing EVER trust the built in hygro. Buy a digital hygrometer, Xikar makes a nice one.

    Cigar Oasis is the premiere electronic humidification and is the best way to go for large storage but works just fine in smaller storage as well. The advantage to active humidification is that it doesn't matter if your humi has one cigar in it or is stuffed to the gills. With Passive humidification(gels, beads, sponge) you need to stick as close as possible to the 2/3 rule(your humi should stay around 2/3's full).

    Second, a few of us, including myself and Duty track every cigar we own in spreadsheets. The way I personally do it is every cigar I own is assigned a number, which, I either write on the cello with a permanent marker or if there is no cello, onto a piece of masking tape which is stuck to the band. Then in the spread sheet I keep track of EVERYTHING, date acquired, how acquired(bought, trade, bomb, etc), where or who acquired from, Wrapper, binder, filler. THen I have two other tabs on the spreadsheet, one where I move all cigars I trade, pass or bomb and another where I move all cigars I smoke and I put a little summary of the cigar.
    I like that idea and will probably do the same since that will give me much more than just how aged the cigar is!
  • madurofanmadurofan Posts: 6,219 ✭✭✭
    rednek:
    well there comes another problem from what I have researched I think I am going to remove my cigars from the cellophane
    Why? This is under constant discussion but I'm curious as to why you want to remove the cello.
  • rednekrednek Posts: 15
    madurofan:
    rednek:
    well there comes another problem from what I have researched I think I am going to remove my cigars from the cellophane
    Why? This is under constant discussion but I'm curious as to why you want to remove the cello.
    well if there is cello on there I am tempted to leave it on however a lot of what I have read talks about the cello just being a there to protect the cigar when being handled more than anything also I have read that the cigars will sometimes blend I guess is the correct term with one another and I am interested in this aspect as well. I am still in the experimental phase of building my tastes and seeing what I like hence the various aging and labeling delima.

    In typing this I notice that pulling them out of the cello and allowing the flavors to mingle might hurt my taste building in that they might all pick up a bit of one another. Also I have a few that are in alum tubes with cedar inside and a few in cardboard individual boxes so I am decided what to do with those as well.
  • bbc020bbc020 Posts: 1,422
    madurofan:
    First, I use a Cigar Oasis in my humidor, its electric and works excellently. Only one piece of advice is DO NOT EVER, EVER, F'ing EVER trust the built in hygro. Buy a digital hygrometer, Xikar makes a nice one.

    Cigar Oasis is the premiere electronic humidification and is the best way to go for large storage but works just fine in smaller storage as well. The advantage to active humidification is that it doesn't matter if your humi has one cigar in it or is stuffed to the gills. With Passive humidification(gels, beads, sponge) you need to stick as close as possible to the 2/3 rule(your humi should stay around 2/3's full).

    Second, a few of us, including myself and Duty track every cigar we own in spreadsheets. The way I personally do it is every cigar I own is assigned a number, which, I either write on the cello with a permanent marker or if there is no cello, onto a piece of masking tape which is stuck to the band. Then in the spread sheet I keep track of EVERYTHING, date acquired, how acquired(bought, trade, bomb, etc), where or who acquired from, Wrapper, binder, filler. THen I have two other tabs on the spreadsheet, one where I move all cigars I trade, pass or bomb and another where I move all cigars I smoke and I put a little summary of the cigar.


    this brings me to the question of whether anyone has put their cigars into a database and managed information in there? Have been dabbling with the idea in my head, but haven't really had the drive to sit down and do it, I deal with a database program in my work everyday and entering every form, phone call, changes, is a whole lot of fun **insert sarcasm**- the idea of doing the same thing for the cigars I own seems not so attractive....my laziness is trumping my OCD.
  • rednekrednek Posts: 15
    bbc020:
    madurofan:
    First, I use a Cigar Oasis in my humidor, its electric and works excellently. Only one piece of advice is DO NOT EVER, EVER, F'ing EVER trust the built in hygro. Buy a digital hygrometer, Xikar makes a nice one.

    Cigar Oasis is the premiere electronic humidification and is the best way to go for large storage but works just fine in smaller storage as well. The advantage to active humidification is that it doesn't matter if your humi has one cigar in it or is stuffed to the gills. With Passive humidification(gels, beads, sponge) you need to stick as close as possible to the 2/3 rule(your humi should stay around 2/3's full).

    Second, a few of us, including myself and Duty track every cigar we own in spreadsheets. The way I personally do it is every cigar I own is assigned a number, which, I either write on the cello with a permanent marker or if there is no cello, onto a piece of masking tape which is stuck to the band. Then in the spread sheet I keep track of EVERYTHING, date acquired, how acquired(bought, trade, bomb, etc), where or who acquired from, Wrapper, binder, filler. THen I have two other tabs on the spreadsheet, one where I move all cigars I trade, pass or bomb and another where I move all cigars I smoke and I put a little summary of the cigar.


    this brings me to the question of whether anyone has put their cigars into a database and managed information in there? Have been dabbling with the idea in my head, but haven't really had the drive to sit down and do it, I deal with a database program in my work everyday and entering every form, phone call, changes, is a whole lot of fun **insert sarcasm**- the idea of doing the same thing for the cigars I own seems not so attractive....my laziness is trumping my OCD.


    Well I plan on at least starting that method whether it catches or I continue to use it well...only time will tell.
  • bbc020bbc020 Posts: 1,422
    so, now I'm sitting in my office, designing the database...inspired by maddy...OCD rules!
  • rednekrednek Posts: 15
    bbc020:
    so, now I'm sitting in my office, designing the database...inspired by maddy...OCD rules!
    Ha....Ha you and me both!
  • madurofanmadurofan Posts: 6,219 ✭✭✭
    rednek:
    madurofan:
    rednek:
    well there comes another problem from what I have researched I think I am going to remove my cigars from the cellophane
    Why? This is under constant discussion but I'm curious as to why you want to remove the cello.
    well if there is cello on there I am tempted to leave it on however a lot of what I have read talks about the cello just being a there to protect the cigar when being handled more than anything also I have read that the cigars will sometimes blend I guess is the correct term with one another and I am interested in this aspect as well. I am still in the experimental phase of building my tastes and seeing what I like hence the various aging and labeling delima.

    In typing this I notice that pulling them out of the cello and allowing the flavors to mingle might hurt my taste building in that they might all pick up a bit of one another. Also I have a few that are in alum tubes with cedar inside and a few in cardboard individual boxes so I am decided what to do with those as well.
    The cello is there only for protection and IMO its best to leave it on so your sticks do not get banged up inside your humi. Also the blending you are referring to is called marrying. The cigars will marry the same with or without the cello as cello is a porous material. But that marrying takes a long time, you are correct in saying that all of your cigars will pick up a little bit of each, more so the milder cigars will pick up things from the stronger more fragrant cigars but this will take years. This is definetly up for debate but most on this forum agree with what I stated above.
  • madurofanmadurofan Posts: 6,219 ✭✭✭
    bbc020:
    so, now I'm sitting in my office, designing the database...inspired by maddy...OCD rules!
    LOL I haven't gone that far yet, though I've thought about importing my spreadsheet into Access and doing it.
  • rednekrednek Posts: 15
    madurofan:
    rednek:
    madurofan:
    rednek:
    well there comes another problem from what I have researched I think I am going to remove my cigars from the cellophane
    Why? This is under constant discussion but I'm curious as to why you want to remove the cello.
    well if there is cello on there I am tempted to leave it on however a lot of what I have read talks about the cello just being a there to protect the cigar when being handled more than anything also I have read that the cigars will sometimes blend I guess is the correct term with one another and I am interested in this aspect as well. I am still in the experimental phase of building my tastes and seeing what I like hence the various aging and labeling delima.

    In typing this I notice that pulling them out of the cello and allowing the flavors to mingle might hurt my taste building in that they might all pick up a bit of one another. Also I have a few that are in alum tubes with cedar inside and a few in cardboard individual boxes so I am decided what to do with those as well.
    The cello is there only for protection and IMO its best to leave it on so your sticks do not get banged up inside your humi. Also the blending you are referring to is called marrying. The cigars will marry the same with or without the cello as cello is a porous material. But that marrying takes a long time, you are correct in saying that all of your cigars will pick up a little bit of each, more so the milder cigars will pick up things from the stronger more fragrant cigars but this will take years. This is definetly up for debate but most on this forum agree with what I stated above.


    Well I feel better it sounds like I am on the right path. Its be quite interesting how much I have learned and how my cigar smoking has changed from my first cigar to now.
  • madurofanmadurofan Posts: 6,219 ✭✭✭
    Just read everything you can get your hands on and enjoy your cigars. You'll keep picking up things as you go.
  • phobicsquirrelphobicsquirrel Posts: 7,347 ✭✭✭
    madurofan:
    bbc020:
    so, now I'm sitting in my office, designing the database...inspired by maddy...OCD rules!
    LOL I haven't gone that far yet, though I've thought about importing my spreadsheet into Access and doing it.
    That's some type A personality there boy! lol, I have went as far as keeping a word document of all the cigars I have, how many, and sizes but that's about as far as I have got. I'm going to have to put a humi date on there as well so I know how long they've been sitting.
  • dutyjedutyje Posts: 2,263
    Just checked the spreadsheet... 13 tabs. Although some of those are really just temporary dumping grounds for information that I've gathered. The main tabs are a list of brands, with vitolas, prices, wrappers, origins, etc. This also gets updated with numbers regarding how many of that cigar I have smoked, and the rating it was given. It will auto-highlight (in blue) cigars that receive a high rating, so that they may be easily found when browsing. My wish list is also on this tab, and it auto-highlights (in green) cigars that I am looking to try.

    I have a tab which contains my inventory, which is the information from the brand tab, plus data on the acquisition date, humi date (for my smoking queue humi), source, and some formulas which compute the aging time since acquisition, and days it has been in the smoking queue humi (so I know if t's ready yet).

    I have a tab which contains ratings for the cigars I've smoked (I won't go into the details), and a tab where I record long journal entries (just written descriptions) of each smoke. By "long" I mean anywhere from a few sentences to a few paragraphs.

    Other tabs have stuff like maintenance records for the humi and hygrometer, auction trackers (that record the best price for which a partcular item of interest has ever been had), cigars that have been passed in games or to friends, recommendations I have received, but have not yet tried (like stuff from the old "Pick Joe's Smoke" thread), and a couple spreadsheets which I use to compile proposed future orders.

    You mean to tell me everybody doesn't do this?
  • madurofanmadurofan Posts: 6,219 ✭✭✭
    Duty takes **** retention to a whole new level. Frued would be baffled but would probably come to the conclusion that Duty's cigar obsession is the repressed desire to suck a ...
  • bbc020bbc020 Posts: 1,422
    and laziness is now gaining in attractiveness....I think I will go back to just keeping track of a cigar's relative age in my humis. I don't want my "repressed desire to suck a..." to turn into Duty's **** retention and what have you. Not that there's anything wrong with that!
  • rednekrednek Posts: 15
    madurofan:
    Duty takes **** retention to a whole new level. Frued would be baffled but would probably come to the conclusion that Duty's cigar obsession is the repressed desire to suck a ...
    maybe I'm in the wrong forum I wasn't looking for the "repressed desire to suck a ..." forum!
  • madurofanmadurofan Posts: 6,219 ✭✭✭
    rednek:
    madurofan:
    Duty takes **** retention to a whole new level. Frued would be baffled but would probably come to the conclusion that Duty's cigar obsession is the repressed desire to suck a ...
    maybe I'm in the wrong forum I wasn't looking for the "repressed desire to suck a ..." forum!
    Just giving duty a hard time. You will notice threads get derailed fairly regularly here but its all in good fun.
  • dutyjedutyje Posts: 2,263
    To each his own. And for some, occassionally a little bit of somebody else's.
  • madurofanmadurofan Posts: 6,219 ✭✭✭
    dutyje:
    To each his own. And for some, occassionally a little bit of somebody else's.
    Speaking of someone else's hows WP doing? You guys still on the marathon?
  • rednekrednek Posts: 15
    madurofan:
    rednek:
    madurofan:
    Duty takes **** retention to a whole new level. Frued would be baffled but would probably come to the conclusion that Duty's cigar obsession is the repressed desire to suck a ...
    maybe I'm in the wrong forum I wasn't looking for the "repressed desire to suck a ..." forum!
    Just giving duty a hard time. You will notice threads get derailed fairly regularly here but its all in good fun.
    Oh I know I figure I might as well just jump in and join in the fun
  • madurofanmadurofan Posts: 6,219 ✭✭✭
    rednek:
    madurofan:
    rednek:
    madurofan:
    Duty takes **** retention to a whole new level. Frued would be baffled but would probably come to the conclusion that Duty's cigar obsession is the repressed desire to suck a ...
    maybe I'm in the wrong forum I wasn't looking for the "repressed desire to suck a ..." forum!
    Just giving duty a hard time. You will notice threads get derailed fairly regularly here but its all in good fun.
    Oh I know I figure I might as well just jump in and join in the fun
    Well it isn't an orgy rednek! Sheesh trying to just jump in and all could be dangerous ... lol
  • dutyjedutyje Posts: 2,263
    madurofan:
    dutyje:
    To each his own. And for some, occassionally a little bit of somebody else's.
    Speaking of someone else's hows WP doing? You guys still on the marathon?
    Didn't last :(

    One contributing factor is all the time she's spending training for an actual marathon... she's running 20 miles every Saturday, plus workouts and additional running during the week... she's been pretty tired, and I've been pretty much the same. The last two Mondays have featured 3 hrs of climbing followed by a late-night hockey game, and that pretty much wipes me out for the week.
  • madurofanmadurofan Posts: 6,219 ✭✭✭
    dutyje:
    madurofan:
    dutyje:
    To each his own. And for some, occassionally a little bit of somebody else's.
    Speaking of someone else's hows WP doing? You guys still on the marathon?
    Didn't last :(

    One contributing factor is all the time she's spending training for an actual marathon... she's running 20 miles every Saturday, plus workouts and additional running during the week... she's been pretty tired, and I've been pretty much the same. The last two Mondays have featured 3 hrs of climbing followed by a late-night hockey game, and that pretty much wipes me out for the week.
    Let me tell you, going away for two weeks and coming home = marathons for me for at least a week or two :)
  • phobicsquirrelphobicsquirrel Posts: 7,347 ✭✭✭
    madurofan:
    Duty takes **** retention to a whole new level. Frued would be baffled but would probably come to the conclusion that Duty's cigar obsession is the repressed desire to suck a ...
    Duty, you seem to have a lot of work on your hands, how about I help you, I can unload some of your stock so you will have less burden of inputing all the data..
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