More appropriate analogy would be that between the maturation of perique tobacco and the lambic beers of Belgium, such as Guewze, Krick, Framboise, and Faro. One distinguishing feature of lambic is that the wort is left in an open cooling vessel for one night under a roof slatted to the open air so that wild micro-flora can infect the wort, causing spontaneous fermentation. Micro-flora will get at the juices of perique to alter its characteristics. Between the time when tobacco leaves are picked and when smoked the difference is as the difference in taste between unfermented wort and the finished beer. We are moving away from our favourite subject of pipes and cigars, but we can crave Steve's indulgence and press onward, regardless.
Lager yeasts are bottom fermenting, operating best, slowly, at low temperature.
Ale yeasts, on the other hand, are top fermenting and prefer temperatures in the range seventy to seventy-five degrees Fahrenheit. I've just drooled into the keyboard. We'll take another paragraph for a tea-related anecdote. Steve's sojourning in Erlangen and may be too busy to notice. Once upon a time I used to sit in a bunker at a place called Laarbruch, somewhere in Germany.