freezing Cigars during summer months to avoid heat, any Advice

[cigar2347]

Since I don’t have a place in my home where I can maintain a constant temperature of around 70, and because when I am not home the temperature rises to mid-80s(possible beetles infestation), I was thinking of freezing my cigars to preserve them until temperatures cool down.

Any advice on how I should do this?

For example do I have to lower the humidity before freezing so as the water freezes it does not damage the cigar?

Do I gradually raise temperature?

When I bring it out, do I gradually increase temperature?

What are the basic protocols?

 

[cigar2347]

ok yup my cigars few of them are infested thay have pin hole.
so now freezing is a must

http://www.thefinerlife.com/smokers_conner/cigar_beetle.htm

"If you see signs of damage, take immediate action. Put all the cigars from an infected humidor in a zipped plastic bag and place them in your freezer for three days. If the cigars are still in their box, put the whole box into the freezer. Treat all of your cigars, because if you have one damaged cigar, you have to assume they're all at risk. Freezing infested cigars kills any beetles or eggs inside, preventing your beetle problem from spreading. Some experts even suggest freezing your cigars twice, to be doubly sure. "Freezing twice will ensure the beetles and their eggs have been killed," says Ridge-O'Connor. "It's the only foolproof way to get rid of them if you find them in your home."
After three days in the deep freeze, move the cigars into your refrigerator to avoid shocking the smokes from the temperature change, which could split their wrappers. In the meantime, wipe your empty humidor clean with a damp cloth. Don't use any type of cleaner or disinfectant--it will ruin the wood and leave an odor that will taint your cigars. After one day in the refrigerator, the cigars can be returned to the humidor. Include some strips of cedar to absorb the excess moisture being released."

 

[4cbln3]

I wouldn't panic, cigars get shipped all over during the summer with no beetles being hatched. A lot of manufacturers have already previously frozen their cigars by the time they reach your B&M's shelf.
Your beetle outbreak is from having a higher RH at the same time as the temp being above 70 degrees. Just smoke them all or remove them from your current humidor so they won't affect future purchases.

Here where I live temps can reach 90+, humidity is around 75% during the day. Some guys cannot afford to keep their cigars in climate controlled settings, however, I do.

I leave one little desktop humi in my garage desk just for smoking at a whim when I'm too lazy to dig through my big humi. I leave a tube of HF beads (65%) in there all the time and let the temps do what it does during the day. I have not experienced beetles. The only smokes I ALWAYS keep separate, even in my climate controlled humi, are cigars bought and rolled from cigars shops that roll their own. Since they're so fresh, they cannot have possibly frozen the unrolled tobacco leaves prior.

 

[ilikefishes]

I freeze every cigar I get unless I am smoking it immediately. I had a beetle infestation 1 time and that is all I needed.

I think this is one of those subjects that people are either on one side or the other. The biggest issues contributing to an infestation are high 70%+ and high temp 75+. So if you can't keep the humidity down when the temps are that high or vice versa, you need to think about freezing them or having an A/C unit put into the room you keep them in.

 

[kona1000]

Yeah I use an ac unit in the summer, does the job and keeps me beers and wines at a good temperature.

I wish I knew all the distributors that froze their cigars before they went out but it seems you could just through the new boxes in the freezer for a day, kill the beetles and be done with it.

 

[kona1000]

Yeah I use an ac unit in the summer, does the job and keeps me beers and wines at a good temperature.

I wish I knew all the distributors that froze their cigars before they went out but it seems you could just through the new boxes in the freezer for a day, kill the beetles and be done with it.

 

[cigar2347]

thanks to everyone's response


so froze the cigars, and bought a digital hygrometer and took out the humidification packets from humidor.
for 2days before i put the cigars back in the humidor the reading without humidifiers was around 72, 70 and 69.
after a day of placing the cigars in the humidor it a has now dropped to 65%. .

so I am now pretty sure it is the temperature that caused the beatles. Especially because i noticed how most of the time even at night the temp reading is 78 and 81.

 

[Devil Doc]

Unless you have access to a commercial freezer which will attain a temp of -40 degrees below zero Fahrenheit, you're wasting your time. You'll kill beetles, but their eggs will stil be viable.

Doc

 

[cigar2347]

Unless you have access to a commercial freezer which will attain a temp of -40 degrees below zero Fahrenheit, you're wasting your time. You'll kill beetles, but their eggs will stil be viable.

Doc

Dang

good thing i left the cigar with holes out of the humidor.

 

[Johnny-O!]

Also if you are going to wipe down your humi do it with distilled water and not tap water. John