55 magnum off on its maiden voyage


 
J

Jeff T Miller

TVWBB All-Star
I got the finishing touches done to the magnum and the reason to cook a lot of meat. I have one brisket and 4 butts on 3 racks. I started it about 7:30 at 9:30 it was at 230 degrees. I shut them all to about a quarter open. I just checked and it has dropped about 5 do I am starting to open them again.

I got pics. First off I added 3 dampers to the bottom just like the wsm has. I am hoping I will get the stability of the wsm also as others have reported many problems controlling the temp. An inside shot of the damper. An outside shot. Note the picture is sideways.

I got about a dozen pieces left out of a 20# royal oak charcoal in it. I could have probobly got the rest on there but I had it dished nicely for the lit. I didn't want to mess it up.

Ok here is getting it ready and charcoal shot.

The bottom grate is brisketand another. Here I am putting in the water pan. I was thinking of leaving it empty as per the discussions around the forum. I decided to not fill it completely. One new thing at a time.
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This pic is all buttoned up. I was trying to get some smoke in the pic but it doesn't show up in the pic. I didn't get an inside pic of the meat. I had assembled it and there was too much smoke to get a good pic.

One thing I find interesting is something driping from the lid inside. Here is a look at it. It is very humid here today. I figured that had something to do with it. A little liquid smoke I guess.
 
Well a little update.

Last night around 7:30 I got the last bit of meat on for the cook. Around 9 the temp hit 230 so I proceeded to shut down the vents. I set the screws way too tight had a hard time moving them. I left all 3 somewhere around 25-30% open. At 10 the temp was still at 230 so I slightly open the down wind vent. There was quite a breeze last night.

11pm sets in and I am thinking about some shut eye. So I open the down wind vent to 100%. About midnight It was at 250 and slowly climbing. It went up 3 more degrees in 20 minutes. I go to the 100% vent and close it down 10%. I set the alarm on the trutemp to about 270 degrees and went to bed.

I woke about quarter til 6 and looked at the thermometer and it was at 220. I checked the charcoal and added the rest of the bag of RO. At 7 I added a few pieces of Kingsford and checked the temps. The brisket was at 160 which I thought was low for that amount of time. The butts were at 170. I came home about 10 to take off the brisket and checked the butts. They were at 190 so I pulled them also. I didn't have enought time to get away later anyhow.

The brisket was very tasty. I took it back to work for lunch. I haven't tried the pork yet but it looked excellent.

I am very happy with the new smoker. While I wasn't checking the temp through the night, I feel the addition of the damper vents was worth the hassle I had ordering the dampers from weber. I would be interested in feedback from other magnum owners. Everyone says they were a hassle to control the temp. From the results I reported above I would say that mine was no hassle at all, and held the temp very well. I think if I had added more charcoal before going to bed it would have probobly still been chuging at 250.

I didn't have time to get pics of the finish. I was in a hurry.
 
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