14lb Turkey Smoke - Help with Temps

[Ben Robbins]

Hi All,

I am smoking a 14lb bird on my Weber Smoker. I used one full chimney of lit, then added another full chimney of unlit. Once everything was grey and hot, I put the turkey on (it had been at room temp for about an hour).

It has been 40 minutes and my lid temp is stuck at 250 (was looking to cook at 325-350 for about 3 hours). I just tested my taylor thermometer in boiling water at it registered 200 instead of 212, so it's possible my actual lid temp is more like 265.

I have a few options:

1) just let it fly and cook the bird a little longer to achieve the proper meat temp, at risk of drying it out.

2) add another chimney of lit charcoal in the hopes of adding heat.

What do you guys think? Also, I did not empty out the old ash at the bottom of the cooker - could that have reduced my heat? I didn't even think about it.

THANKS FOR YOUR HELP!!

Ben

 

[LarryR]

Turn your door upside down and prop it open. If that doesn't do it crack the lid a bit. Should be good to go.

I would have emptyed the ash, however, as long as it's not in your new fuel you should be OK - Gobble Gobble

 

[ChristopherCG]

I had same problem on my first smoke. The directions on the recipe section (I believe are wrong). If you only light one chimney and use another unlit it will take an eternity to get all the coals lit. Today I used two chimneys (borrowed a friends). Temp has been holding steady at about 310.

I wound up adding another 3/4 chimmey to get my temp up. I tried messing with the door but couldn't get it working right.

 

[John Solak]

I dumped one chimney full of unlit charcoal and then dumped a full chimney of lit on top and didn't have any issues with temps. WSM ran between 335* and 320* and I didn't touch a thing the whole cook other than I forgot to put the empty water pan in. I took it into the house to foil it and forgot all about it until around 45 min into the cooking process.