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Re: Aging puerh: what is your setup?

Posted: Mon Aug 03, 2020 5:40 pm
by mrmopu
A/C takes moisture out of the air. Check your heat pump and you will see water coming from the drain line. That is humidity removed from your air.

Re: Aging puerh: what is your setup?

Posted: Mon Aug 03, 2020 6:10 pm
by OhThatNinja
Noonie wrote:
Mon Aug 03, 2020 10:50 am
Haha sorry to derail the discussion!

So I moved my pumidor from the cold and dry basement to a closet upstairs...two days after and although the temp went up about 4C the humidity humidity went down a couple % points. Thoughts?
That makes total sense.

Re: Aging puerh: what is your setup?

Posted: Mon Aug 03, 2020 6:44 pm
by faj
mrmopu wrote:
Mon Aug 03, 2020 5:40 pm
A/C takes moisture out of the air. Check your heat pump and you will see water coming from the drain line. That is humidity removed from your air.
Dehumidifiers are basically air conditioning units that exhaust their excess heat in the same room so there is no net cooling effect, but water vapor condenses and accumulates in a tank, so air in the room sees its humidity level drop.

Re: Aging puerh: what is your setup?

Posted: Mon Aug 03, 2020 7:08 pm
by Noonie
Should I put the pumidor back in the basement? I moved it up hoping to bump up the RH a few points from 63 avg. but as it’s dropped I’m thinking I should just leave it in the basement

Re: Aging puerh: what is your setup?

Posted: Mon Aug 03, 2020 8:22 pm
by OhThatNinja
Noonie wrote:
Mon Aug 03, 2020 7:08 pm
Should I put the pumidor back in the basement? I moved it up hoping to bump up the RH a few points from 63 avg. but as it’s dropped I’m thinking I should just leave it in the basement
If you are using humidity control devices (Boveda packs etc.), you should be fine upstairs as well.

Re: Aging puerh: what is your setup?

Posted: Mon Aug 03, 2020 9:25 pm
by John_B
That's really it, what Faj mentioned, that relative humidity changes a lot in relation to the air being able to hold a lot more moisture when it's warmer.

Next one would wonder if bacteria and fungus growth, responsible for pu'er fermentation, wouldn't somehow relate to a more absolute humidity proportion, or if that would instead tie to both humidity level and temperature. Information about what is most risky and most promising comes out bit by bit; it's not the kind of thing where you read a research paper and it fills in half the details.

I wrote about how relative humidity works before, related to that subject being familiar from data center cooling and humidity control concerns, from my day job. It doesn't help that much with actual storage control, but it's interesting to me:

http://teaintheancientworld.blogspot.co ... ative.html

Re: Aging puerh: what is your setup?

Posted: Mon Aug 03, 2020 9:38 pm
by Justin
Noonie wrote:
Mon Aug 03, 2020 7:08 pm
Should I put the pumidor back in the basement? I moved it up hoping to bump up the RH a few points from 63 avg. but as it’s dropped I’m thinking I should just leave it in the basement
What's the temperature in your basement? upstairs? From what I've read, I would go with a little hotter (upstairs) than a little colder (basement).

Re: Aging puerh: what is your setup?

Posted: Tue Aug 04, 2020 10:57 am
by Noonie
Sorry if I forgot to mention earlier, I am using Boveda packs in the pumidor (small wine fridge). I'm going to keep it upstairs for now as it had only been a few days. I'll monitor and move it if something seems off.

Re: Aging puerh: what is your setup?

Posted: Tue Aug 04, 2020 12:07 pm
by Balthazar
The latest TeaDB video may be of interest


Re: Aging puerh: what is your setup?

Posted: Tue Aug 04, 2020 6:17 pm
by Noonie
I’ve watched many of the TeaDB videos; in this one James was pretty decisive about aging in the west. It was very informative.

Listening to James talk about 10+ years aging I realize that I’m not aging tea (for improvement). I have around 15 cakes, about half of these Sheng and I’m not intending to age them. I’m planning to drink all of these before buying more...though I may add a cake here and there after 2-3 years of working through what I own already. So I shouldn’t say I’m aging these, simply storing them for short term consumption.

Re: Aging puerh: what is your setup?

Posted: Wed Sep 16, 2020 8:47 pm
by maitre_tea
My puerh is stored in one of those grow tents that's 4' x 1.25' x 1.25' or approximately 52 gallons. I keep a container of water in there, and the RH hovers around 70 and the temperature stays pretty solid at 73 degrees Fahrenheit. I'm thinking of ways to increasing the heat, using a heating pad for reptile tanks and getting ceramic tiles to trip in the heat a little bit. What other options do I have to increase the temperature slightly?

Re: Aging puerh: what is your setup?

Posted: Thu Sep 17, 2020 1:58 pm
by Noonie
Thought I would give a brief update as I had moved the pumidor a couple months ago. I should note first that I added one boveda pack. RH now around 65-66, up from lower 60's, and when I open the door to take tea out, put it back in within a 1/2 hour it's not dropping as quick as when I did this when in the basement...so I'm overall happier with this set up.

Re: Aging puerh: what is your setup?

Posted: Thu Sep 17, 2020 7:16 pm
by mrmopu
Noonie wrote:
Thu Sep 17, 2020 1:58 pm
Thought I would give a brief update as I had moved the pumidor a couple months ago. I should note first that I added one boveda pack. RH now around 65-66, up from lower 60's, and when I open the door to take tea out, put it back in within a 1/2 hour it's not dropping as quick as when I did this when in the basement...so I'm overall happier with this set up.
Once the tea stabilizes it the humidity should hold steady. But until it absorbs the moisture it can be thirsty for that humidity.

Re: Aging puerh: what is your setup?

Posted: Tue Oct 13, 2020 7:18 am
by OCTO
Taking the opportunity of the high RH%, while it's pouring horses and donkeys out there. Time to feed my stash with some humid and fresh air.... :) :) :)

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Re: Aging puerh: what is your setup?

Posted: Tue Oct 13, 2020 12:23 pm
by StoneLadle
@OCTO turn off the Aircon for a few days muahahahahaha