I'm here because I've been doing a decent amount of smoking on my 18" kettle lately and really liking what I can do with it. In fact I just ordered a 22" otg to play with hoping the larger area and flip grates would make life a little easier. I'd also really love a wsm right now but thats not in the cards for a while after getting the otg.
edit: Also, I did find someone selling food grade 55 gallon drums with lids about an hour away from me for $35 each and did consider that but I don't have a truck and I'm not sure they'll squeeze into the backseat of a large sedan
Last night though I was in walmart getting a bag of coal and saw the brinkmann smoker marked down to $25 from $37. I threw it in my cart and brought it home. So whats the story on these? I'm not super happy with smoking on the kettle because even with the minion method it seems like its just a matter of time until my fire is too hot. No matter how few coals I start with, no matter how spread out or close together I put them in, my fire will be heading past 300 in a hour or two.
I know the brinkmann has a relatively poor reputation but I figure a lot of you have used it. Will it hold me over for a year or so until I buy the wsm? What are the issues with it? If it rusts out in a year thats fine. Can it hold a relatively stable temperature with minion? I'm open to modding it too if that will help. I'd just like something a little larger than a kettle to put butts and the like on for the next year or so.
So what do you say, can it work alright or should I just take it back to walmart and keep with the kettle?
edit: Also, I did find someone selling food grade 55 gallon drums with lids about an hour away from me for $35 each and did consider that but I don't have a truck and I'm not sure they'll squeeze into the backseat of a large sedan
Last night though I was in walmart getting a bag of coal and saw the brinkmann smoker marked down to $25 from $37. I threw it in my cart and brought it home. So whats the story on these? I'm not super happy with smoking on the kettle because even with the minion method it seems like its just a matter of time until my fire is too hot. No matter how few coals I start with, no matter how spread out or close together I put them in, my fire will be heading past 300 in a hour or two.
I know the brinkmann has a relatively poor reputation but I figure a lot of you have used it. Will it hold me over for a year or so until I buy the wsm? What are the issues with it? If it rusts out in a year thats fine. Can it hold a relatively stable temperature with minion? I'm open to modding it too if that will help. I'd just like something a little larger than a kettle to put butts and the like on for the next year or so.
So what do you say, can it work alright or should I just take it back to walmart and keep with the kettle?