Any advice for first cold weather long cook of the year


 
Michael Richards

Michael Richards

TVWBB Emerald Member
Getting ready to put a 11 lb (pre trimmed) pork shoulder on the WSM 14 here in a few hours. Going with empty foiled water pan, Hickory and Pecan wood, and some of my last Weber charcoal. It is 30 degrees, flurrying, and windy. Any advice to mange the long cook in these conditions. I have been running at 245 ish with a 4 briquette minion method recently (the WSM 14 and Weber Briquettes are magical together) . Do I increase that minion method due to the cold? How do I handle the winds? I am open to any advice!
 
Just a guess on briquette. Try six. If you can rig a wind barrier around it that will help. Wind is a much bigger problem than the cold.
 
That was my exact thoughts also. OK going to go with six briquettes. It will be set up as much in the two corners that I can. I am getting a privacy fence set up here soon, that will make it a great bbq set up, but that won't help tonight.
 
I have a WSM 18 and at that temperature I need 20 briquettes to hit 225 to 250 in a reasonable time. Once at the desired temperature the DigiQ holds it like a rock even in a blizzard. It's 25 degrees here in Northern Illinois with a slight wind and I was going to start an 18 pound brisket tonight for an event tomorrow night but the event got canceled due to Covid. So the brisket is going in the freezer for another time.
 
Michael Richards said:
That was my exact thoughts also. OK going to go with six briquettes. It will be set up as much in the two corners that I can. I am getting a privacy fence set up here soon, that will make it a great bbq set up, but that won't help tonight.
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You can improvise a wind break. Heavy lawn chairs or anything you can put around the third side will help. I used a broken down cardboard box once with a chair and duct tape. It's McGyver time. 😁
 
Jerry We said:
I have a WSM 18 and at that temperature I need 20 briquettes to hit 225 to 250 in a reasonable time. Once at the desired temperature the DigiQ holds it like a rock even in a blizzard. It's 25 degrees here in Northern Illinois with a slight wind and I was going to start an 18 pound brisket tonight for an event tomorrow night but the event got canceled due to Covid. So the brisket is going in the freezer for another time.
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I have yet to pull the trigger on an ATC, maybe winter cooking will push me to it. The little guy (WSM 14) with the super fuel that is Weber Briquettes that's very little to cruise at 250. Sorry to hear of the ax of the event due to Covid, I can't wait to hear how that brisket goes when you get to cook it.
 
Lew Newby said:
You can improvise a wind break. Heavy lawn chairs or anything you can put around the third side will help. I used a broken down cardboard box once with a chair and duct tape. It's McGyver time. 😁
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It is not the easiest to see, but the door to my storage shed is off right now I am work on an issue with the frame so I laid that down with supports on both sides and have the WSM 14 set back in there, I need it, the winds are moving. IMG_20201201_221706.jpg
This pic is easier to see, it is the 11 lb monster pork shoulder that I will make sure fits in that little smoker. IMG_20201201_221655.jpg
 
Thank you everyone for the needed advice, staring with a larger minion was absolutely needed, I think moving forward with the rest of my Weber charcoal I will double the minion method started from 4 to 8 if it is below 35 degrees.
I started the 6 briquettes at 10 pm, meat went on at 11 pm, pit was reading at 230 before the meat went on. Pit dropped to 140.Took until 1 am to get to 245. Went to bed at 130 am after pit was stable at 245 for over half an hour. Was at 285 at 3 am, sprayed the meat and adjusted the vents. Every hour until 8 am stayed right between 245 and 250. At 8 am reading 210, realized charcoal was running low, did the hot squat pushed lit coals to the one side added new unlit briquettes, opened all vents. By 9 am back to temp reset vents, double foiled the shoulder and back on the pit. Just come off and resting now in the cooler until dinner.
The wind has been nasty, but I think putting up the door as a third side barrier really help keep the wind from having to much of an impact. I think it would have been a different experience without your insight and insistence Lew!
Now this was the first time I had to add more Weber Briquettes on a pork shoulder cook, I ran empty water pan, but I think the cold just caused it to use more fuel which I was ready and able to handle.
Here is at 1 amIMG_20201202_114916.jpg
Here is at 9 am getting ready to be wrappedIMG_20201202_114933.jpg
 
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Weird. I start with like 15 briquettes chimney lit in the middle of my minion. Never had an issue with temps yet.
 
Timothy F. Lewis said:
Wind is the biggest enemy I seem to have to deal with. This thanksgiving I had to add an umbrella to the set up I posted in the “My new windscreen” thread as it was stupidly rainy! I’m glad things turned out as well as they did.View attachment 18994
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Tim,
I was just talking about your wind barrier the other day to my family, my daughter wanted me to show her a picture so I was able to do that! I will also show her all the awesome wind barriers in Chris's homepage article. We are getting a 6 ft high privacy fence installed that to give up some separation with the new neighbors, but I really hope/think the added bonus with be that it creates a nice three sided barrier for for where I grill and smoke.
 
Question for the ATC folks -- to what extent does your ATC take care of the wind issues?

Two bottom vents will be 100% closed. The third vent is covered up by the fan.

So does the wind mess with the operation of your fan in any way? Not at all? Or maybe just a little bit still? Maybe a lingering issue only with gale force winds?

Top vent will still be open. Is wind really an issue for the top vent? Or does wind really only mess with the operation of bottom vents?

And if you have the wind problem solved, do you need to worry about the cold problem (outside of extreme cold)?

In my set up, I have a pretty easily available wind break on two sides from a 30 inch high garden wall. So I'm wondering the extent to which (with an ATC) I need to worry about doing anything further to protect the two other sides and the top. I'd assume I'd put the ATC on wind break side.

Since I just sprung for a Billows, it would be nice if the answer was that the Billows is also going to solve all my winter cooking concerns.

Thanks, Jim
 
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When I was using an ATC with my WSM winds didn't seem to affect the temp control. I'm in Florida so always mild temps but we do get stiff winds especially during PM thunderstorms. Can't speak to cold weather and an ATC. Didn't use one until the last 10 years.
 
Jim,
You will still need some sort of wind break. If not, then the atc will be in a constant state of upset.
Not sure what wind speeds you're talking about, but we get gusts in the 40+ range here during Santa Ana wind events.
Just over the hill from us, in Fremont Canyon, it's normal to see 70-80 mph gusts.
We try not to BBQ during Santa Ana wind events as they are also very dry winds, ie extreme fire danger.
 
Happy to have had the picture easily accessible!
I’ve added some,rare,earth magnets to the inside of the “Roof panels” so they will store more easily. The nice thing is, I can fold it,up,and get it stored in the garage pretty easily.
 
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