Ran out of charcoal

Did 2 buts the other day. Put them on at 11pm at 210, checked again at 0530 temps at 230. Left for work and told the wife what to look for. Well, the wife calls around 1130 and said temps are droping. I told her to knock the bottom to clean briquets. She calls again at 1330 and said temps down to 190, charcoal gone!! Meat is at 170 by this time. Well, I told her to wrap, and put in oven at 200. Meat finishes up at 195 and she lets it rest. I got home and tasted....all was well. Good flavor and bark. This is the first time I ran out of charcoal. The ring was full. Maybe if I was home and monitored it more closely, it would not have happend. Guess live and learn....

Hey Kevin. Glad it all turned out. Did you have any temp spikes early on? I've found that if I do, I burn through a lot of charcoal quickly, leaving me with less on the back end of the smoke.

I also learned the hard way a long time ago that if I'm doing a long smoke, I need to really, really load up that ring - until almost overflowing - as a sort of insurance for an extra long cook.

Anyhow, glad it turned out great.