Aging puerh: what is your setup?

[maitre_tea]

After weeks of fussing around and careful monitoring, I think I've hit upon a stable puerh aging setup

I have a grow tent that's 4 ft tall and about 1.5 ft wide on each side, and inside there is a wire shelving unit with four shelves capable of holding 50 cakes or so (I am almost at capacity). To humidify the air I bought a Cigar Oasis Plus humidifier that keeps the RH at around 65% RH. To keep the temperature at 74 degrees Fahrenheit I use a seedling heating map on the lowest shelf underneath a terracotta saucer. The temperature fluctuates a few degrees everyday but the grow tent isn't super insulated so I'm fine with it.

I used to have two seedling mats which kept the temperature at about 86 degrees Fahrenheit bu the RH suffered and would top out at 60% RH. I wish there were a way to increase the temperature by a few degrees while keeping the RH at around the same levels, but it doesn't seem like that will happen. I'm pretty happy and I can't wait to see the results in 5-10 years.

[tealifehk]

What's in the grow tent?

Oh, just my pu erh aging setup...

[John_B]

Maybe putting a few plants in there would bump the humidity.

[StoneLadle]

What's in the grow tent?

Oh, just my pu erh aging setup...

Booyah!

Still resting your teas man, maybe should have put them in a tent muahahahaa

[tealifehk]

What's in the grow tent?

Oh, just my pu erh aging setup...

Booyah!

Still resting your teas man, maybe should have put them in a tent muahahahaa

Should be good to go by now I think

[StoneLadle]

What's in the grow tent?

Oh, just my pu erh aging setup...

Booyah!

Still resting your teas man, maybe should have put them in a tent muahahahaa

Should be good to go by now I think

It's gonna be a good weekend!!

[maitre_tea]

Maybe putting a few plants in there would bump the humidity.

My wife has a lot of houseplants, and is worried about the dry air in our house during the winter, and I told her that she can put the plants in the pumidor since it's warm and humid. She then said, "but there's no light in there..."

[StoneLadle]

@maitre_tea... Classic!

[wave_code]

At the moment for cost effectiveness I'm just using plastic bins for storage - the lid fit isn't super tight and I'm wondering if I need to be worried about too much air exchange and should put something like sealing tape in the lip of the lid or just let it be? They seem to hold pretty steady at 65% RH with the humidity packs in them which is more for rehydrating drier teas - I think I'll go down to 55% as it gets warmer to so I know I don't have to worry about mold even with big weather changes. They tend to get opened about once a week for me to pull something out and I figure a bit of air exchange is good anyway. finding good storage options for liu bao and liu an baskets that don't really fit either round or square storage efficiently along with uncompressed tea is a real hassle when 500grams takes up as much space as probably a tong of pu cakes. of course I do this to myself... I should drink sencha instead

While the really pricey teas will eventually be getting clay jars or at least individual and better sealed boxes and things I reach for regularly will go in double lid aluminum or old ginger jars its too expensive/bulky for everything. I know a lot of people tend to use wine/old fridges or coolers for storage but... anyone tried using aluminum storage/transport boxes like those made by Zarges or similar? Maybe not as temp stable but again... space issues.

[Balthazar]

I've mostly been switching to mylar bags this last year. Very satisfied!

[teabug]

I have started to stored my puerh teas in a medium sized wooden chest with four water filled open containers in it - two of which have a nice large surface area for the water to evaporate. I refill the evaporated water every week with fresh water. The relative humidity inside the chest is currently at about 65-68%. The only concern I have is that the wooden smell will creep into the teas.

[debunix]

I moved all my puerh into some food-grade plastic buckets. I've switched to buckets with gamma-seal lids for my grains, and that left several nice buckets free, and they turn out to be just large enough for all the puerh and Liu Bao. I make zero attempt to regulate humidity and yet there has been some appreciable aging in at least a those cakes I've drunk enough early and more recently.

[John_B]

I moved all my puerh into some food-grade plastic buckets. I've switched to buckets with gamma-seal lids for my grains, and that left several nice buckets free, and they turn out to be just large enough for all the puerh and Liu Bao. I make zero attempt to regulate humidity and yet there has been some appreciable aging in at least a those cakes I've drunk enough early and more recently.

Do you monitor humidity at all? The relatively sophisticated setups people describe related to using meters and some form of monitoring application seems a bit much but throwing an inexpensive humidity gauge in a bucket would be easy enough. I looked up what Walmart sells for those, easier to sort through than for Amazon, and a digital $20 device looks like a reliable option, but the much cheaper $4 one might not include that much range of error that it would matter, for this purpose:

https://www.walmart.com/ip/BestAir-HG05 ... r/46651913

If your home humidity isn't getting below 50% consistently then your tea should continue to support bacteria and fungus that cause fermentation transition. I'm not convinced that it matters that much if the sheng goes bone dry, beyond aging ceasing, but since I live in Bangkok I don't have first person experience with that.

Scott of Yunnan Sourcing raised a good point in discussion once that as long as your environment is suitable for you to live in then the tea should be fine. Bone dry conditions are going to cause you dry skin and the like. I lived in the mountains in Colorado for a long time so all that is familiar range, I just wasn't into tea then.