Red Ribbon Experiment

At the CORPS pipe show we open a jar of Red Queen plug flake that has been sealed for 6-8 months. Boom ketchup! What happened here? My theory for a couple of months has been tobacco vinegar is what makes this famous smell. This jar of Red Queen plug is leading more in that direction.

What I think happened is the wet whole leaf perique kick started a secondary fermentation of the red Virginia. I'm no chemist so I may be talking out of my ass. But let's try an experiment.

First I had cased red Virginia with tonka casing and let rest for 24 hours. Next I shred about 50 grams using a pipe width manual shredder. Last I take a single leaf of wet perique and open it up. I then weaved the the perique leaf back and forth as I fill the jar with red ribbon. I have sealed the jar and placed under a blanket in the truck this week to heat it up this week.

Now we wait . . .

Update: 10/25/24

So I found a jar of Red Virginia plug that I flaked from 2022. Opened it up and the vinegar smell was there. Not as strong as the Red Queen plug but this one didn't have perique, just straight red Virginia. So my guess what is going on is flake creates more surface area and sealed over period of time the aerobic fermentation switches over to anaerobic fermentation.   I think I will open one jar of the ribbon experiment once a month and leave the other jar sealed and see how it changes the outcome.