DGT: Delayed Gratification Technique

I noticed the recent poll at My Pipes Community is about DGTing. As is common with online polls, the multiple-choice answers are not complete enough. Especially egregious and misleading is the final choice: "Never. I know how to keep my pipe lit."

Knowing how to keep your pipe lit is entirely irrelevant when it comes to the DGT. The entire purpose of DGTing is not to give up on a pipe that is difficult to keep lit, but to intentionally delay re-lighting to create a new flavor experience.

If you are unfamiliar with the term Delayed Gratification Technique, or DGT, it is simply this: light your pipe and smoke part of it, but leave at least half a bowl unsmoked (in my opinion). Then put it down, allow it to go out, and re-light it again some time later.

I always like to quote Kinky Friedman on the topic. Although he was writing about cigars, the principle stills applies.

I was on my second cup of coffee and slightly past the midway point of the cigar I'd lit after I talked to Bill Dick. I didn't usually like to smoke a cigar past the midway point. I liked to store them for a while in the wastebasket and fire up the remaining portion at a later date. In the manner of a fine wine, you had to let a half-smoked cigar age a bit. Had to let it breathe. A lot of people didn't understand this, but I didn't understand a lot of people.

I smoke as many as ten cigars a day and I expect to live forever. Of course I don't inhale. I just blow the smoke at small children, green plants, vegetarians, and anybody who happens to be jogging by at the same time that I'm exhaling.

You have to work at it if you want to be a good smoker. Especially today with all the nonsmoking world constantly harassing you. It's enough to make you drink. I poured a shot of Jameson Irish Whiskey into a third cup of coffee and I sat down at my desk.

I thought of what Charles Lamb, the renowned British essayist, had said when someone asked him how he could smoke so many cigars and pipes. He said: "I toil after it, sir, as some men toil after virtue." Not bad, Chuck.

(excerpt from A Case of Lone Star)

There are two good reasons to DGT a pipe, and neither of them have anything to do with having trouble keeping the leaf burning: one; you are interrupted by unavoidable business during the smoke and have no option but to put it down and re-start it again later, and two; you do it because you enjoy it.

I can honestly say that I fall into both categories.

So one may ask: how long should one allow the pipe to sit cool and fallow before re-lighting it? The answer is entirely subjective and at the whim of the individual pipe smoker. If I am going to DGT a pipe, I personally prefer to let it sit and stew in its own juices for several hours, often overnight.

I have no doubt that the DGT is not for everyone. It has a way of dramatically increasing the robustness of even the most robust of blends. I would especially warn all smokers that if you are not a terribly huge fan of Perique, you absolutely do not want to DGT any blend with an appreciable amount of Perique. I, on the other hand, often add extra Perique to various blends and have DGT'd them all in my quest for the Pan Galactic Gargle Blaster of pipe tobaccos.

Give it a try if you haven't. You may be pleasantly surprised at the fresh (and I use that term figuratively) dimensions of flavor that are introduced. Or, you may be thoroughly disgusted. But do not make the mistake of thinking that it has anything to do with difficulty in keeping a pipe lit. It is simply another technique available to the pipe smoker to allow further exploration of the flavors and smells inherent in any given blend of tobacco.

The Parfait

No one ever said that when you load your pipe, you can use only one blend of tobacco at a time. Well, maybe someone did say it, but if so, he was wrong.

The parfait is made by layering different blends into your pipe. How many layers and how widely divergent are the blends is up to you. There are practical reasons for doing this.

You may have a blend that is difficult to light. You could load your pipe with this blend, and then top it off with a layer of some similar-tasting blend that is more easily lit. This top layer can serve as "kindling" to help get the lower blend burning.

You might have a blend that you enjoy on occasion, but the flavor or the nicotine kick is too much for a full bowl. You can put a milder blend on the bottom and the more potent blend on top, so you can still smoke a full pipe in one sitting.

Maybe you have a blend that tastes fantastic until you get near the bottom of the bowl, and then for some reason just turns sour. Put a layer of something else in the bottom to help shield against the souring effect.

Perhaps you have a pipe that needs to build up some heel cake. Put a blend in the bottom that you know from experience you are able to smoke all the way down, with something else on top for variety.

Or maybe you just want to try the experience of loading two or three different blends into a bowl just to see how the flavors interact with each other as well as your palate as you work your way down.

The possibilities are endless, and you may find that you prefer certain blends when they are layered with other blends. Or, you may not. Like everything else in pipe smoking, success means you enjoy it, and that's all that matters.

Tamping and lighting

Another post for new pipe smokers.

So once you've gotten your pipe packed more or less properly, what about lighting it?

According to the absolute gospel of pipe smoking, you should first perform the false light, or charring light. This is done only to char the tobacco evenly all across the top. You allow this to extinguish, lightly tamp the charred leaf even, and then perform the first real light, after which you smoke the pipe all the way down without any further lights.

This is a great theory, but necessary only if you are taking part in a pipe smoking contest.

Yes, there are pipe smoking contests, and the winner is the one who comes in last. The object in such a contest is to be the last one with his pipe still burning. Only two lights are allowed, and the second light must be performed within one minute of the first light. I think that's how it works, anyway. All contestants are issued identical pipes and tobacco with which to load it, so everyone starts out the same.

But back to the real world. Often, after performing the first light, the unburned but heated tobacco near the top will expand quite a lot, and "sprangle" (a word I read on alt.smokers.pipes once, and liked, so I'll use it again) upward and outward. This all needs to be tamped back in so you have an even surface. But don't worry about performing a perfect false light. I do a lot of pipe smoking while driving home from work, and I want to get it pretty near perfect to minimize re-lights while I'm driving. Sometimes I'll do two or three false lights followed by appropriate tamping before I get it just the way I want it.

The important thing is to get the tobacco even all the way across the top, and to evenly and thoroughly light the entire surface.

If you feel the fire beginning to go out during the smoke, do not try to fan it back to life by bellowing air in and out of the bowl. This will cause a hot spot in the tobacco, and cause it to burn unevenly. Just lightly tamp the ash flat and re-light, making sure to light it evenly across the entire surface of the tobacco just like the first time.

How many times to re-light? As many times as you need to finish the bowl, or until you get tired of it and decide to quit. I remember someone on a.s.p once flatly declared that "if you're re-lighting more than five times during a smoke, you will burn out your pipe." I laughed out loud at this, and my reply to him was, "if that's true, then I would have burned out about 150 pipes by now." That was several years ago. I'm sure I'm up to 500 or 600 pipes by now.

On a related topic, if you feel that your pipe is getting to hot, just stop. Let the fire extinguish and allow the pipe to cool. Once it cools, you can always re-light it. A rule of thumb for checking the heat of the pipe is to place the bowl against your cheek. If it's so hot that you can't keep it there for more than a few seconds, it's too hot. Of course, if you find your fingers getting too hot, then that's a good indication that you're smoking too hot, also. This is something I have to always watch myself for, because I tend to be an aggressive puffer. I love to have thick wreaths of smoke floating about me, and sometimes I generate too much heat.

I would also like to add that you shouldn't have to "suck" your pipe. If you feel like you are "sucking" the air, then you probably packed it too tightly, or there may be a leaf or some ash (or excess cake) blocking the air passage. You can loosen the pack with the pick from your pipe tool, or a nail or anything similar to that, if necessary. The movement of the air through the pipe is better described as a "draw" than a "suck." You should be able to draw all the air your pipe needs by slowly drawing your tongue back.

I have a few other things to say about packing and smoking, but I'll save them for another post.

To stuff or not to stuff...

Aye, that is the question.

Slartie recently wrote up an excellent post about popular packing methods. I recommend it, especially if you are new to pipe smoking.

I smoke mostly bulk, non-flake type tobaccos (but I'm soon going to remedy that--I have smoked flake, it's just been a while). I started out many years ago trying to adhere religiously to the three-layer method as described to me by an occasional pipe smoking penpal of mine at the time. Back in the days before I had Internet access, and we actually used snail mail. Even then, I typed all my letters, since my handwriting has always been pretty near atrocious and I get a sort of pleasure out of typing. But I digress.

The best I can describe my current packing method is that it's a combination of scooping and layering. I often scoop the first layer. One thing I always do is that for each layer I tap the bowl with a finger to help settle the tobacco before I push down on it. For the following layers, I trickle the leaves in as slowly as possible. This can be difficult depending on the cut of the leaf. But as for hitting exactly three layers every time, ha! I usually end up layering it four or five times before I'm finished. I suppose my layers just aren't thick enough. But I don't try for any exact number of layers. I just keep going until the bowl is full.

I think the best name for the way I do it is trickling and tapping. I am always able to smoke my pipes right down to the bottom. I'm not going to say that my way is the right way, but it works for me, and that's what counts. When you find a method that works for you, use it. Don't worry about it if someone else says it's not the right way to pack a pipe.

How does the Kaywoodie drinkless system work

I got a search hit on my other blog for the phrase, "how does kaywoodie drinkless system work." I think a better question would be, "Does a Kaywoodie drinkless system work?"

click to enlarge

I'll re-visit the Kaywoodie lovat that I posted about several days ago. Okay, although it isn't visible in this photo, there is a small hole in the metal stinger just above the threads, which the air is drawn through. The ball on the end of the stinger fits into the air passage through the shank. When air is drawn, it travels around and through the holes on the ball. A lot of moisture collects on the ball from the air moving through and around it. Some moisture also collects on the arm of the stinger.

So does it work? I guess it depends on your definition of "work." The stinger certainly does trap some moisture. Anyone who has ever cleaned a Kaywoodie can tell you that. But does it somehow magically (or technologically) deliver a superior cool, dry smoke? My opinion is no. The cool, dry smoke that everyone is looking for still relies on several variable factors meshing together just right, and a metal gadget up the shank is not going automatically render them all irrelevant.

And what are these factors? Since many of the things I write here are geared toward new pipe smokers and non-pipe smokers, I'll offer my opinion on them, in no particular order.

The pipe: the quality of the briar, the shape of the pipe, the size of the pipe, the thickness of the bowl walls, the design of the air passage. All of these factors matter.

The tobacco: is it fresh and moist (maybe too moist), or older and a little dry? Is there a particular leaf in it that for some reason makes you salivate more or makes your mouth drier? Is it heavily treated with propylene glycol?

And here's one for you to wrap your head around: some pipes don't like some tobaccos. In some cases, no matter how hard you try to get your favorite pipe to smoke your favorite blend, there's always just something not right with the smoke. Sometimes you have to experiment with a pipe to find it's preferred blend. (Feel free to tell me I'm nuts on this, but it's an opinion I've formed from my own experiences).

The weather: Yes, the weather. Are you smoking outdoors? Is it windy? Is it humid or not? Is it cold or hot? Are you smoking indoors with conditioned central air?

And finally: you. Have you just eaten, or are you feeling a little hungry? Have you had enough water to drink? What are you drinking with your pipe? Are you puffing a little faster than usual due to a stressful day?

Like I said, several factors, some of them beyond your control. But the perfect smoke is only the goal to toil after, and the toil itself is still quite pleasant, indeed.