Grateful Plug - Pictorial

This is a 50/50 blend of burley and bright Virginia. The burley is cased with molasses/tonka bean and the Virginia is cased with plum casing. I made four 160g plugs in the 2’ stainless steel tube. I had some difficulty with fraying with the Chinese made meat slicer. I believe this way caused by some uneven pressing of the plugs. So switched to the antique plug cutter and made thicker flakes ...

May 30, 2026 · AceFour

Ton 618 - Stoved Red Virginia

This all red Virginia de-stemmed and cased with tonka/blackberry and stoved for 10 hours. Red Virginia prior to destemming Tonka casing 200g Molasses 100g Water Handful of cacao nibs 1 whole tonka bean 1 cap full of white vinegar Blackberry casing 100g water by weight 100g suger by weight 1 tablespoon of Brewer’s Best Blackberry 1 cap full of white vinegar Both casings are brought to a boil and kept there 5-10 minutes and then let cool. I put half tonka and half blackberry in a 1 ounce atomizer and cased the 1 lb of red Virginia after it was de-stemmed. ...

August 20, 2025 · AceFour

Ranger - Va/Bur/Dfk

Things are warming up around here an I have a hankering for a new burley plug. I used burley cased from this recipe. The Virignia was cased with plum casing. Recipe 87g Burley (53%) 58g Virginia (35%) 20g Dark Fired Kentucky (12%) Ranger So I did somethings differently. The image above is only 1 day after pressing the plugs. Earlier this week I pulled some Red Queen Plug that was wrapped with foil and put in mylar and had some books and case of mason jars sitting on it for six months. You can see how dark the plugs became. ...

June 5, 2025 · AceFour

Making a new Burley Casing

Getting ready to make a new burley plug and tweaked the burley casing recipe. Ingredients (by weight) 200g Molasses 100g Water Handful of cacao nibs 1 whole tonka bean 1 cap full of white vinegar Bring to a boil while stirring and then let it boil for 5-10 minutes. Take off the heat and let cool before transferring to a container. I use a strainer to filter out the nibs and tonka bean. ...

June 4, 2025 · AceFour

Let's make some Red Queen

Red Queen is a Va/Per and the whole leaf recipe can be found at Red Queen V This is basically a two day process. First step is strip the stems from the Bright Virginia and Red Virginia. The Red Virginia had some nice leaves Red all done Next the Bright Virginia. When I de-stem I pull from the top of the leaf, one half of the leaf. I pulls apart easily from the top. ...

February 28, 2025 · AceFour

Recipe Index

Angel of Izmir (Virginia / Oriental / Latakia) Apertif Clone (Virginia / Oriental / Latakia / Cavendish) Basma Bastard (Virginia / Oriental / Latakia) Burley Plug (Dark Fired Kentucky / Burley / Virginia) God of War (Virginia) Grateful Plug (Virginia / Burley) Memphis Plug (Dark Fired Kentucky / Virginia) Monkel’s Best (Virginia) Orlik DSK clone (Dark Fired Kentucky / Virginia) Ranger (Burley / Virginia / Dark Fired Kentucky) Red Queen (Virginia / Perique) Ton 618 (Stoved Red Virginia)

January 26, 2025 · AceFour

Burley plug

Being irritated that the Mac Baren HH line is going away I decided to try and make a mellow burley flake substitute. Probably won’t even be close but all that matters is it is enjoyable smoke. So HH Burley Flake is burley, Kentucky and Virginia with burley being the main feature. I bought some burley and dark fired Kentucky from LeafOnly. Great quality leaves but I will warn you they do not vac seal the tobacco. I think I will go with the molasses/cacao hull casing for the burley and the tonka casing for the Virginia. The dark fired Kentucky does not need casing. ...

January 20, 2025 · AceFour

Holiday Blend

This one I never sold at the local shop. I did make it and gave out to a few friends. Once again, with Sutliff/MacBaren being knocked out at the end of January I am releasing the recipe. I can be blended up with equal parts of: Sutliff Z79 Creamy Butterscotch Sutliff SP24 Nougat Sutliff B20 Cavendish Sutliff TS9 Maryland

December 16, 2024 · AceFour

Basma Bastard

Happy little accidents! I tried to make 2 more Angel of Izmir plugs and when I pulled them they seemed small. Thinking back I actually forgot to add Izmir to the blend. Head slapfrom Head slap The end result is a pretty smooth smoke without the citrus of Izmir. Blend for 140g plug 24.5% Latakia (43g) 20% Basma (35g) 35.5% Red Virginia (cased with Tonka) (62g)

September 27, 2024 · AceFour

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. ...

September 22, 2024 · AceFour