Anyone doing 2 butts in a mini?


 
BrianBishop

BrianBishop

TVWBB Member
I'm heading to the lakehouse for the 4th of July holiday and subsequent weekend. I'm planning an overnight cook of two pork butts in the mini during our stay. I only have a couple cooks in the mini under my belt thus far and I'm a little nervous about going at it with two butts but its happening regardless :rolleyes:

Anybody with experience in a cook like this have any suggestions for me?

One thing I would like to mention is that I bought a second SJS and added the vent control handle to it. I plan to use this second grill to spark another minion fire probably 8 hours into the cook when my first fire starts to fade and swap the pot to the new base with fresh coals. I'm thinking this is a good way to extend cooking without having to deal with an overabundance of ash blocking off the snorkel. I initially made a charcoal basket for my SJS mini but it has been brought to my attention that it isn't necessary in the silver, so I will likely eliminate it so I can fill that whole base with kbb.

What are your typical max cook times maintaining temps around 250 before having to refuel?

Here is the cooker that's up to the plate
 
Wow, that pot looks 99% like mine. Good taste! :)
I did an 8 pounder yesterday (just one) and went 11 hours before I refueled.
 
Well I got word today from my brother that the two costco butts total at around 14#s so they should be a little over 6 after trimming... putting the cook probably in the neighborhood of 10-14hours...

Is your mini a gold or silver chad? And what is your refueling process?? I will be thrilled if I can get 11 hours out of it but I'm fairly certain they won't be done at that point.

I'm excited to get this going, it will be very satisfying smoking two butts overnight on the little mini I built.
 
Brian looks like you have good plan in place. Try to take pics and post if possible.
 
BrianBishop said:
Well I got word today from my brother that the two costco butts total at around 14#s so they should be a little over 6 after trimming... putting the cook probably in the neighborhood of 10-14hours...

Is your mini a gold or silver chad? And what is your refueling process?? I will be thrilled if I can get 11 hours out of it but I'm fairly certain they won't be done at that point.
Click to expand...

Sorry it took me a day or 3, but here's the link for my build. It's a silver.
http://tvwbb.com/showthread.php?39966-My-*WEBER*-mini-build

Last weekend was the first time I had to refuel. I was only an hour or two away (at most) from the end of a butt cook when the temps started to slowly drop. I removed the pot to stir the coals and there was nothing left but ash. Eek! I just filled a chimney starter about 1/3 full and got it started on the side burner of my gas grill. I only let it roll for a few minutes to make sure the 'bottom' row of charcoal was lit and not all of it. When I dumped it onto the charcoal ring, the top (unlit) pours out first with the bottom (lit) landing on top. Kind of a minion method when all is said and done. It didn't take long to get back up to temp and I was happy with the process. Pretty quick and easy.

How did you make out?
 
I'd like to see pics of your setup with 2 butts. I've done it twice with mixed results in that the head room on mine is a little tight... not a lot of air movement around the meat. I love my setup on ribs butnits a bit tight for 2butts
 
I'm just gathering the parts for building my mini WSM. Sorry if this is a dumb question, but when do you do 2 butts do you put them both on the same rack or do you have multiple racks in the mini that you put meat on?

Thanks,
Bob
 
Well I'm home after the long weekend at the lake. I had great expectations of taking pics of mini puffing away with the lake in the background, but alas, I was drinking pretty heavily when I was getting things going so you'll have to settle for a pic of me and my hunny on the deck with no smoker.



As far as the cook goes, I would say it went pretty well with a couple hiccups. My temps were running on the low side (200-225) most of the cook. This was my first cook with a 12" pizza pan which combined with a FULL load of coals in the bottom of the SJS, the airflow may have been too restricted. At one point the temp dropped into the 190's and I gave the coals a stir which got them climbing to where I wanted them. Another issue I may have is the gutter screen I used on the charcoal grate. The holes may be too small causing the ash to build up on the coals instead of dropping below... I plan to just get another charcoal grate and ditch the screen.

The total cook time wound up in the 14 hour range, most likely because of my temps running low, but not abnormally long... At the 10 hour mark the coals were getting low so I started the minion in the second SJS base, foiled the butts, and continued the cook on the second fire. Once they were probing tender I pulled them off the cooker and placed them in a foiled pan to rest for a couple hours before pulling. They pulled quite nice into an impressive pile of tender pork with plenty of bark to go around. Everyone eating, raved about the flavor and there were seconds taken all around! I thought the taste was good, but not the best I've made. It seemed like I was getting a hint of bitterness in the smoke, perhaps from the fire struggling.

In response to SmokeyBob, yes one butt on each rack. These were probably a little over 6 pounds after trimming and they took up a big portion of the Smokey Joe cooking rack.
 
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