Walk away from an overnight burn?

Some posts of past give me the impression users are comfortable enough with the WSM's consistent temps that you are actually starting it up and going to bed for the night to wake up to good Q. Is this true?

I have been using he Minion method and find that over the first 2 hours I have to make vent adjustments to stabilize the temp as the coals catch. Then again as the coals burn down at about hour 8 I have to make adjustments to get more air and keep the temp up. If you are sleeping through this what are you doing differently?

Thanks ? and looking forward to a good butt sandwich for breakfast.

Musky-Hunter, I can set mine and go to bed. I think I could run a good 16 hours on one load. I use Kingsford Charcoal and it only takes me about 45 minutes to 1 hour to set the temp. I leave the top vent wide open and the bottom vents about ? open. I might have to shut one bottom vent completely shut, but that is the way I do it.

Once that temp is stabilized, you should be able to get a good nights sleep.

Take care and enjoy your BBQ!

MH
I try to start 3 to 4 hours before I want to
sleep. Before leaving the pit I will check the water pan for fullness and then sleep
6-7 hours( that's about all I can sleep for anyway). On getting up I will check the pit and make the needed adjustments.
Unless the weather really bad that works just fine.
Jim

On October 1 I will be publishing a new topic on the website featuring an all-night cook of brisket. I agree with Jim that starting about 3 hours of so before going to bed should work well. I didn't start until midnight, stayed awake until 1:00am, snoozed and checked the cooker occasionally between 1:00-3:00am, then pretty much slept until 9:00am.

Regards,
Chris

The overnight cook has got to be the best feature of the WSM.
Last night (Friday night, Aussie time) I loaded 3, 5 pound bone-in butts (using BRITU rub) into the trusty WSM at about 8 pm. WSM fired up per Minion method. Waited for the temp to settle (monitored with my new Maverick Remote Check) over a few hours, while watching live Olympic telecasts, then hit thesack. At 6.30 am found that the WSM still chugging away at 225*.
To cut a long story short, I took them off at 14 hours at internal temp of 190* and wrapped them in foil and kept them in a cooler for a few hours. Meat fell off the bone and easily pulled. Smoke ring 3/4" and a distinct red-wine colour. It tastes great now.
Looking forward to the next few feeds of BBQ pork on CWB, etc.
regards,