Adding Fuel during Minion

[S. Fink]

If I'm doing a Minion cook and need to add fuel late in the process, should I be adding lit or unlit?

Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks.

 

[Alan D]

I add it unlit, just put it in over the existing coals and get it shut back up quickly to try and keep the temp as close to where it was as possible.

 

[Bob Schwarz]

I agree. You should add unlit. The exception would be if your fire has almost died.

 

[Rick Soliman]

I all most always add lit or partially lit. I have tried adding unlit in the past and have had temp spikes and drops its just not consistant.

 

[S. Fink]

WSM is running too hot tonight. Can't figure out why. Can't keep it under 270. Looks like I'll probably need to add fuel late night.

 

[Mike_M]

I always add unlit, because I have yet to think of a way of adding lit without burning myself.

I also would think that adding lit would spike temps more than unlit. I usually push the coals already in the cooker to one side with an old golf club, and then I fill the ring forward with coal so that it would burn towards the door.

 

[Brian Bo.]

You can light some up in the chimney and then take tongs and throw the coals into the WSM one-by-one (I've only had to do this once).

Other than that, I throw in some unlit and it works just fine.

 

[Shawn W]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by S. Fink:
If I'm doing a Minion cook and need to add fuel late in the process, should I be adding lit or unlit?

Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>Possibly both. If you throw too much unlit on top your temps can take a big nose dive and quite some time to recover.

Roughly, I'd say if you need to add more than about 30 briqs make sure to throw some lit on top of it. Esentially, rebuild the MM. This can be briqs that are already in the WSM or some new lit stuff.

Alternatively, if you know you are going to need more fuel start adding about a dozen briqs about hourly at least a couple of hours before you run out of fuel. The briqs have time to light up this way and not tank your temps like they can when adding them all at once.