Mini WSM hits the UK!

Let me start by explaining that I live in the UK. This is a problem for one reason above all else. It is impossible to buy a stockpot that is the right size for a mini WSM build. You can buy a stainless steel one for £200 but once you add all the other bits, for that money you may as well buy the WSM! And of course you can buy one from the US and have it shipped over, but that costs about £200! You can jump in a taxi around London looking in all of the cook shop that don't have websites, but guess what? That cost about £200!

Fear not though UK barbecuers. I have found a way and I am here to share what I have learnt. I started off by buying a stockpot on eBay from Italy. It was advertised as being 35 cm diameter. It was not 35 cm diameter! But the very good customer service people send a courier out to collect it and gave me my money back.

Then I found this one (http://www.fridgefreezerdirect.co.uk/vogue-aluminium-stockpot) which was listed as being 37cm. Seeing is 35cm was too small I thought maybe 37cm would be just right. I opened it with anxious anticipation and as I sat it onto the base of my Smokey Joe my heart sunk but only a tiny bit. It was a tiny bit too big but because of the curved bottom it kind of worked. The top was more of a frustration. The lead was the exact same diameter as the top of the pot. The lid sat on the pot rim but not over it. It was at this point that I had a revelation: metal fabricators!

I found a charming company 15 minutes away from where I live (http://www.goodlandengineering.co.uk). And take it as a sign of satisfaction that I opted for recommending them over claiming to have done all the fabrication myself! (Who am I kidding? I can't even use a soldering iron!) I won't bore you with details of what they did to make it work, instead you can just look at the pictures.

I wanted holes in the bottom instead of a cutout and boy did that take some time! The bottom of this pan is damn thick! But three hours later we had the holes cut and I was ready to get spraying. The reliable British weather on the other hand was not ready for spraying. So I waited and waited and waited. Until today! A short break in the rain had me running outside to paint the chamber so that I can get laughed mount those dam good looking temperature gauges.

The instructions on the spray can said I should fire up the barbecue to cure the paint. I didn't wanna waste any coal so in between coats I ran to the shops and bought some mincemeat and extras to make my burgers. Half an hour later the coals were ready and the temperature looked good so the burgers went on.

I won't feel it turned out perfect but for a first attempt in high wind, cold temperature, no experience and rainclouds heading in, they were definite some of the nicest burgers I've ever tasted! So, my mini is assembled and christened in time for our week away in the New Forest. Guess what I'll be doing all week?!

In case you were wondering, the fabrication came in at about £70, the hole cutting tools £35, the extra grill £15, extra bits and bobs £35. Oh and the pot was about £45. At least it didn't come in at £200. Oh ****!


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Welcome aboard. How well did it work?

It worked well for a first shot and a small amount of fuel. I need to get my head round the vents though. I was just hitting 225 with everything wide open but I know I'll want to be able to go higher that that. I thought that closing the vent on the lid would keep the heat in but I guess that also keeps the smoke in and makes it too strong a flavour (which the burgers were a bit, aggressive shall we say). I also put the aggressive flavour down to using some pretty old wood. I've had my apple and cherry chunks turn up now so next smoke will be with them. Anyway, after I tool the chamber off to flash the burgers at the end of the cook, I out the chamber back on to see what happened and the temperature went up to 270. So I need to play a bit but what amazed me was that 5 hours later it was still going strong. The rain was coming so I took the chamber off and shook off all the ash and the amount of heat coming off the coals was staggering. Took another 45m of me 'string' the coals to try and get them down to ash so I could empty it out before the rain. So it worked well but I need to learn more about how to control the temp and what actions result in what. Any advice welcomed. Can you see the images btw? They don't show for me.

not seeing the images John - are you using Photobucket or similar??

No, I'm linking to Flickr and the photo privacy settings are set to public...

BOOM!!! Sorted. Yay.

John great build. I would recommend keeping the top vent open. I am not an expert but I think closing the top vent completely keeps temps low. Air is sucked into the bottom of the kettle it is used as fuel to the fire and then it's drawn out the top vent. If you close the top vent the air has nowhere to escape, the bottom vents suck in less air and slowly kills the fire. As your fire starts to choke because of lack of oxygen it puts off some nasty smoke that does not taste good. I ALWAYS keep my top vent 100% open on my 18 WSM and MINI. Some people will change the top vents position but pretty much everyone is going to advise to never completely close it. Great build and I look forward to seeing pictures of future cooks!

Thanks Tommy. I had a vague recollection of something I learned in Physics telling me to keep it open. But then this older, less intelligent voice kicked in saying, "you lose 40% of your body heat through your head"! (which is apparently a load of nonsense and it's a bbq lid anyway, not a head!) I think I got some of that nasty taste in there but the burgers still tasted awesome! Can't wait to get it right. A week's holiday will give me time to play. Hope the UK weather does too. I'm thinking about a UK specific mod to attach an umbrella to one of the handles...

John Fenech said:

Thanks Tommy. I had a vague recollection of something I learned in Physics telling me to keep it open. But then this older, less intelligent voice kicked in saying, "you lose 40% of your body heat through your head"! (which is apparently a load of nonsense and it's a bbq lid anyway, not a head!) I think I got some of that nasty taste in there but the burgers still tasted awesome! Can't wait to get it right. A week's holiday will give me time to play. Hope the UK weather does too. I'm thinking about a UK specific mod to attach an umbrella to one of the handles...

Click to expand...

What I've learned with the mini reguarding temps is, It really depends how you start your lump out. If I want to be around 250, I will fill the mini up with lump and pour just a 1/4 chiminey on. Barley lit, with a defuser and slowly let it come up. Some times it stalls around the 200 mark. Just take the lid off for a few min. If I want to be around 350-400. I will fill the mini up 1/2 and pour a 1/2-3/4 chiminey ranging on it. I always start with vents fully open. Once Im 20degrees away from my desired temp. I will back it down to half at the bottom and wait 15-20min. If it still climbs witch it rarely does. I will move the top vent a 1/4 close. My mini is super sensitive. A little adjustment goes a long ways. Welcome to the board and hope this helps

Thanks Todd. Will give all that a go. With my internal diameter being 37cm I went for a 32cm terracotta diffuser. Leaves about 2.5cm either side. If that sounds a bit too big let me know. Can step it down a size. I'll soon find out anyway.

That's a great idea for a mini! One thing that you may find out is that the SJ gold base wont get as hot as the Silver. I know several that have added a bottom vent (like the Silver) to the gold to achieve the higher temps. With that said you should be able to get to 300°f with just the side vents you have. The type of lump and briquettes will make a temp difference too. Also how your briquettes and lump are packed. I highly recommend making a charcoal basket if you haven't. This will help you get a more efficient burn. My preferred method of lighting is what I call the side light method. Step one is to fill the charcoal basket completely full, Add 3-4 2"-3" chunks of smoke wood on top of the unlit fuel. Take a torch, turn it on and set it in one of the side vents. burn for 5-8 minutes depending on desired temp. For high temp smokes I do this on both sides. Using this method you can be up to temp quickly and you will have thin blue smoke and no white smoke. Here's a few photos of the method. Pot is removed for clarity leave pot on when using this starting method.







A non-welded charcoal basket can be simply made with wire ties, the charcoal grate and some expanded metal.



Or you can weld it too



The total height on this is 3 1/4" which fits under the standard tamale pot. Not an issue with mine as I cut all the bottoms out of my pots so I can overload the charcoal for long smokes

Thanks for some great tips there CaseT. Will give all of that a go. I'm firing it up tomorrow but it's for friends coming for lunch time so can't do the 8-10 hour cook I'd like to try. I'm going to do a whole chicken instead. Not sure if I'll get the temperature required and may have to play around with taking out the heat diffuser. Glad I drilled holes now rather than cutting the bottom out. The aluminium at the bottom is really thick so this might just work. Will let y'all know!

Great job on the Smokey Joe!

You actually got a much taller unit than those of us who use the tamale steamer solution. If you haven't already done so; you can add extra grills for cooks, especially those that don't necessarily require a lot of smoke.

I really admire your determination and imagination. Nothing like motivation to stir up the old grey matter.

Bravo!