Smoking pork butts

I am cooking for a large group in a week. I have two 22 1/2 inch WSM and would like to cook 6 butts in each smoker, 3 on each rack. The butts i will get weigh about 8# capped, trimmed and ready to be pumped. I have room, although it is tight, for three on each rack but I am wondering about cooking time and rotation. I have cooked two on each rack several times and depending on size ended up with good product in about 10 hours or so. Never tried three. I will be pulling the pork not slicing it. If anyone has cooked 3 to a rack I will appreciate any recommendations you might have. i have over 100 friends to feed and i am hoping to get this right. Thanks for your help.

Fred Montana

Can't help with three since I have only done 2 butts and a brisket on a WSM22, but wanted to welcome you to the forum. It is a great place to learn and to share. I am sure there will be those here who can help and have done what you are doing. Good luck and if possible, post pics of that cook.

I've done 8 butts on both my 22.5"wsm and 18.5"wsm before. You should have no problem with 6 on a 22.5"wsm. My advice would be to get the wsm good and hot before you add the meat, say 300°. Then add the butts and let it ride with all vents open, no water in the pan, and shoot for around 275°. I would also highly recommend using a digital thermometer to monitor your pit temps, if you don't already have one. Don't worry about chasing your temps too much, let the wsm do its thing. Your cook will be a lot easier if ya do. Hope it all goes well for ya and remember to take some pix! 12 butts is a good time! Feel free to PM me if you like.

Hi six and thanks for the advise. i read an article that recommends not water but about three inches of sand in the water pan. Any thoughts on that?

You will find zealots on both sides of the water/no-water argument. My take is this. The water is there primarily as a heat sink and buffer. With a pan full of water it will be difficult to get the WSM above 300F. The water makes it relatively easy to keep the temps in the range you want for low and slow.

That said, the water sucks up a LOT of the energy/heat generated by the charcoal. The phase change to steam requires 540 times as much energy as raising the same water 1*C before it hits the boiling point. So a huge amount of energy goes into turning the water to steam and the liquid water will stay at 212F until it all boils away.

Using sand or ceramic briquettes or lava rock blocks the direct flow of heat up through the pan and it does provide thermal mass, but you don't have the physics of water working for you to keep that mass at 212F. The sand will happily get just as hot as the charcoal can make it.

If you have any doubts about your mastery of temperature control, I'd stick with water in the pan, particularly on a cook where other people are depending on the outcome. Once temperature control seems like a trivial concern, then maybe you want to experiment with sand or something other than water. Be sure to provide some place for the grease to collect or you'll end up with some rather nasty sand all the critters in the neighborhood will be attracted to. Apparently large ceramic flower pot saucers are popular for this.

If you want to do a high heat cook, perhaps if you're doing chicken or turkey, then you want to cook with the water pan dry. Sand would work fine for this.

I've done 4 X 9-Pounders on my 18" WSM, so I agree that 6 X 8-Pounders on a 21.5 should not be a problem.
Just a few suggestions for you:

Watch that you do not block airflow vertically - you may want to lean the butts against eachother "teepee" style, until they shrink-up a bit.
I also like to stagger the grates - Right side-up Triangle of meat on Top Grate, Upside-down on Lower Grate.
(Forces smoke / heat to make a bit of a lazy-"S" pattern as it rises through the smoker)

All that meat will usually slow things down a bit at first, but once the temps start to rise - I do not think that the number of pieces affects the time all that much (having REALLY BIG chunks, OTOH, would)

I'm one of those "Always use the Water Pan" guys - I think that it adds stability / minimizes temperature fluctuations, and adds moisture.

Have fun and good luck to ya'

I have cooked 4 on my WSM22, and saw little to no difference in cooking 1 vs cooking 4 as far as length of time until done (but I do foil at 170). I cooked 2 on each rack, but just for fun experimented to see if 4 would fit on 1 rack and they did, just very snugly. That being said, I have cooked 3 on the top rack numerous times with plenty room to spare.

Thanks to everyone for your recommendations. i think this might just work out. one last question. what are all of your thoughts on rotating about 3 hours in. i plan to wrap at 165* which is usually about 5 or 6 hours into the cook with 4 butts depending on the weather here in Montana. I have read a lot, some say rotate some say don't rotate that over a 10 to 12 hour cook it all comes in about the same temp at the end of the cook. i usually rotate when i do 4 butts but perhaps I am just making work for myself and losing valuable heat and cooking time. Thanks again everyone you have been very helpful.

Fred,
I have only cooked one puny pork butt at a time on my 18.5 so I have no experience to tell you how to cook 12 butts. That is going to be one bad *** cook. Are you going to post pictures I sure would like to see.

With that much meat, the air/smoke flow will probably be a little different due to the butts sitting in the smoker tightly. It might not be a bad idea to rotate a couple hours in just so they all can get some color.

I've done six pork butts on my 22" WSM. No problem. i use water in the pan for moisture and keep the temps stable.

I've done 8 on a 22.5" a couple times standing on edge, foiled pan with nothing in it.
IIRC I rotated bottom to top when I foiled but don't remember how much time it added if any.

I never rotate. Just pull when each is ready.