Water seems to have a negative affect on smoke flavor???


 

RyanSmith

New member
Hello everyone,

I've been lurking on this forum for years an have never joined, so much awesome info on here. With that being said I will tell you that I have owned a 22inch WSM for years now an I never use water in the pan just foil it up. I have made some truly awesome Q on it. A few months ago I picked up an 18 for smaller cooks. I find it super hard to foil that deep pan on the 18 so I just started using water in it. I have cooked butts on it twice, and the smoke flavor is seriously lacking compared to my 22. Is it the water causing this? I use the same amount of wood I use in my 22, could that be the problem. Also I have noticed that the pan in very very close if not barely touching the coals, could this be the problem? I know that's a lot to ask haha.
 
I use a Brinkmann pan on my 18.5 but they're real hard to find these days. I just replaced the pan on mt 22.5 with a Pizza pan. A pizza pan or something flat would give you more room over your coals. Lots of threads here on water pan modifications.
When I did cook with water in the 18 I didn't notice a difference in smoke flavor when I switched to no water.
I doubt that the pan being close to the coals affects smoke flavor.
FWIW I think I get more smoke flavor with my (Less well seasoned) 22 than I do with my 18. Makes no sense to me but the food still tastes good.

Also, welcome to the forum.
 
Water has no effect on flavour. As an example, people love to do beer can chicken, with beer in the can. Waste of good beer. For starters, hardly any of the liquid (beer or water) goes anywhere IMO (from personal experience on my grill).

I end up with as much liquid in the can as I did when I started (maybe more, what with maybe chicken juice dripping into it during the cook).

When I used beer, I could detect no difference in flavour to when straight water was used. My beer is now only for drinking, not dumping out :)
 
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I have heard that water tones down or washes smoke flavor but have not experienced it. I rarely use water, but the few times I did I didn't notice anything lacking.
If anything you would think the 18 would give out more smoke flavor because of the smaller footprint.
I own both and the big guy is only used for full racks of ribs or partys.
And a double also, welcome to the board:wsm:
Tim
 
Hello everyone,
A few months ago I picked up an 18 for smaller cooks. I find it super hard to foil that deep pan on the 18 so I just started using water in it.

You just have to foil the top with a slight depression, 18" foil works.

Tim
 
Bigger smoker = bigger fire, bigger fire = more smoke.

Sorry don't agree with that:).
Folks have been making mini's for quite some time and Weber reintroduced em recently, and I haven't heard any one complain on lack of smoke flavor.
It's all about proportions, size your fire and smoke-wood to whatever size WSM you use. You're still trying to maintain whatever temp you like to run at, so...

Tim
 
Water, from an article I read (somewhere - can't remember) does have an effect on smoke flavor in a positive way. With that said, I have never smoked a butt without water, to date, but I may go waterless in the near future as an experiment.

For what it's worth, I get good smoke flavor in my 18" WSM with H2O, but I also use locally-harvested Carolina hickory too.
 

 

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