Best charcoal smoke method


 

AlfonzoW

TVWBB Member
Just curious how you guys with smokey Joe mini set your charcoal up for a smoke minion, snake methods etc.
 
Thanks. I will be doing my build tomorrow and smoking something Sunday. Probably beef ribs.
Assuming you don't have a charcoal basket, lay out your charcoal one at a time, don't just pour the bag into the charcoal chamber. It takes about 5 minutes to lay each one flat and you will greatly increase your burn time. If you can, get a bag of the Kingsford Mesquite, that's a wonderful charcoal for beef ribs, and you get blue smoke immediately after getting your SJ-Mini going. Good luck and take some photos

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Add that in with lumped charcoal or 100% briquets?
I'm 100% Briquets guy, never really got into Lump. I think it's because a small piece popped out of my chimney and I stepped directly on it with bare feet and that sucker burned at least 10 seconds before I could finally dig it out of my foot.....still burning :mad:
 
Couldn't find a extra grill grate at any of the main stores guess I'll be ordering from Amazon. Should have some photos tomorrow of a mostly finished mini!
 
Looking forward to seeing your mini Alfonzo. Don't give the 2nd grate too much nevermind, I use my 2nd grate maybe 10% of my cooks in my Mini (and I use my mini a lot)
 
ChuckO any particular reason you mounted your top grate higher up? I was going to mount mine 4 inch's down.
I have 3 grates in total in my Mini. One 3" from the bottom where my diffuser sits, only 3 inches above the diffuser grate and then one 4" above the middle grate. It's not too often I use my middle grate, maybe a half dozen times in all the years I've had it. However, I recently did rolled ribs in my mini, and that's a cook I'll likely do again, when only doing a rack or two, so my lower grate would compare to your 4" down from the top, and is going to see more use than it has in the past
 
I wanted 3 grates in mine also but I wanted to cut one to fit at the very bottom of the pot. Have the thermometer and first grill grate all set up. It's just me and my wife so 1 grate will be fine but want another grate for bigger cooks when family and friends are over.*

I can smoke on it right now but there's a few more things I want to do.
 
Nothing special but can't wait to try it out. I'll be using the the metal pan with holes that came with the steamer pot for now.

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Nice job on that mini Alfonzo! Now let's see some cooks. Where in Texas are you located?
 
I'm south of Houston. I'm not to sure if the wsm center section14.5 works but I'm sure you could "make" it work. Got some expanded metal today to make a charcoal basket with the charcoal grate that came with the smokey Joe then I found this posted by user Alan dively. I like the way it widens towards the top for more coals.

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I use that same metal pan with holes that came with the pot. It has been working fine for me.
Good luck on Maiden Voyage!!!
 

 

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