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If you really want to get it hot fast, I light 2 full chimneys and dump them in at the same time. I do the same for turkeys except I put a layer or two of unlit in before dumping the hot coals in.

It makes me wonder if the reading is increasingly off with higher temps or if the dome and exhaust temp are not the same. Since I have 2 lid vents I have a lot more air movement now compared to stock.

I was cooking a chicken last night on the 18.5 and thought I would just check the gauge to the thermapen. I was running 300F according to the dome gauge and when I stuck the thermapen in the vent for a few minutes it settled in around 389F. That was the first time I had checked it at that...

I do St Louis style ribs on my 18.5 at 250-275 with water in the pan for 5.5 to 6 hours, no foil. I use Steven Raichlen's Memphis dry rub without the cayenne pepper.

When I do a poultry cook I run them both wide open to get higher temps in the cooker instead of cracking the lid. I was kicking around the idea of an internal baffle so the air doesn't have a straight shot out of the lid.

I picked up 4 packages last night at HD for 9.88 per bundle. Signs said limit 10 per customer. I originally only planned on getting 2 packs but while they were rolling in more pallets one of the guys heckled me so I grabbed 2 more lol.

I have an extra lid vent on my WSM for poultry cooks. The last time i used it I noticed that the chicken on one side had cooked faster than the other side. I forget which was which but there was a noticeable difference in meat temps. That got me to wondering if all the airflow on one half of...

Another option would be to cook the butts, then add more lit coals to the smoker and ditch the water (if any) in the pan to ramp temps up. Then cook the chicken while the butts rest. I have not tried that personally but if you are set on using the WSM for the chickens it could work

On my 18.5 I have cooked 6 bone in breasts, a family pack of thighs (10 pc?) and a family pack of drumsticks (10+ pc) using both grates. That filled up 2 grates with me trying to leave a little space between pieces for more even cooking. I would think that you would have space for 6 chickens...

Just thought I would give an update on this. I built myself a Piedmont Pan and smoked some wings and pieces over the weekend. Even with using 2.5 chunks of apple/cherry there was no black skin on the chicken. I still heard sizzling and there was a bit more smoke than water / pork cooks but...

I did my first / only brisket fat cap up on the top grate and the bottom 1/8" was dried out and the knife wouldn't cut it. Fat cap down for me next time.

Last time I did pork loin I did two halves of a full loin and it was about 2 hours @ 250 or so.

It was certainly a tight fit with the two in the bowl. I was wary of the chimney not sitting flat and being unstable but I should mock that up.

I have since gotten an old enameled pan that I will put on my top grate so I can sit the 2nd chimney on that. It was kind of a pain to get both chimneys out, put the charcoal ring in then dump both chimneys anyway so hopefully this new setup works better. Once I get a performer I will just use...

I had gotten in the habit on high heat cooks of starting both chimneys of lump in the base of my WSM over the winter. A week or two ago I smoked some wings and meatloaf so I set things up like usual. It was a very still night and when I went out to check the fire things were roaring and the...

The majority of my chicken cooks have been using either half or mostly lump charcoal and I light 2 chimneys full then dump them in the smoker. I only add unlit when doing longer turkey cooks so I don't think it is smoke from the KBB lighting up. Unfortunately at this time I do not have a...

I forgot to mention that I have done 3 turkeys so far and never had the black skin problem, but I only cooked on the top rack and had a drip pan on the bottom grate each time so the drippings weren't burning. Seems all signs are starting to point to the burning drippings.

I wonder if there is a foil pie pan of the right size that I could just set into the waterpan instead of using foil every time? That or the Piedmont pan might work for this setup. I cook chicken regularly and couple turkeys a year so it would be worth it to build one.

I normally use my thermapen to check meat temps and the meat is not dried out, so I'm not thinking the color is from being overdone. I normally put the dark meat on the bottom grate so it finishes up when the white meat does.