21" Saga in 45 Degree..slightly windy NJ weather


 
J

John Moncrief

New member
The forecast was for 45 degree weather so I brought my 21" WSM inside to warm up the day before. I filled two chimneys, lit them, got them gray, and poured them on unlit coals to pretty much make a full ring of coals.. Waited about 45 minutes and then put on my butterflied 11 pound turkey. and added some alder wood chips. I sought the 325 to 350 temp range recommended in the Virtual Weber BB recipe.. Using the Flame Boss temperature controller, which was going at 100% fan, I could not get above 295. After an hour, added another lit chimney and then another and finally resorted to big chunks of hickory (only chunks available). I maybe got it up to 305. I thought I was going to have to finish up in the oven.. But lo and behold after 2 1/2 hours the bird was done ... let it rest.. and then put it in the cooler to stay warm. Stayed in there at least 45 minutes. Came out very warm. According to my daughter, the bird was my best smoked effort... not dried out. i was too stressed to enjoy it. i am assuming that the lower temperature worked because the bird was not that big? But why the hell could I not get the temperature higher than 305? Is that the max for a 21" WSM in 45 degree weather?
 
When you say temp 45, I immediately think, oh warm lets get some putside stuff done.
Good chance the thermometer was off or in the wrong place, like near cold food or something. I assume all the top vents were open. The fan taking care of the bottom vents.
 
Tony-Chicago said:
When you say temp 45, I immediately think, oh warm lets get some putside stuff done.
Good chance the thermometer was off or in the wrong place, like near cold food or something. I assume all the top vents were open. The fan taking care of the bottom vents.
Click to expand...
The Flame Boss directions tell you to close the bottom vents (except for where the fan fits in) and open the top vent a crack. The idea is the the fan will do the job, I assume. My replacement Weber lid thermometer seems to be broken. I was using the Flame Boss temperature reading. It uses a wire clipped to the grill. I do not think it was broken.
 
I've never had much luck with high heat cooking on the 22" WSM - I hit the link that Dan added to this thread and I agree with other posters that the "Stock" WSM doesn't have enough air flow capacity to hit 350 w/out special mods. If you think about it, you have three sets of vent holes in the bottom, but only one set on the lid, and no matter how hard a fan is trying to push air into the WSM, those fans aren't really designed to overcome that much back pressure....

Next time I want to try high heat, I'll figure out a way to leave the lid cracked open to help with that air flow and see how that goes. Might be some easy mod that can be added to the WSM to create gap under the lid that is repeatable.
 
Open the top. Still wonder if the frate therm was close to turkey. But even it spot on, the top needed to be ooen for some air flow. But it seems to have cooked exceedingly well.
 
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