Ash problem

[Rick Body]

I hear everyone talking about tapping the bowl of the WSM to stir the ashes.

Yesterday, I had to cook (2) 6lb butts for a FL/GA football party. I woke up at 0130 in a pouring rain and got the butts going. Later towards the end when I went to check my other WSM for the ribs I had on, I bumped the one with the butts. Not hard, almost as if I was just tapping the bowl. Both butts got covered in ash. I was horrified. I lightly blew most of the ash with a small fan then turned them on their side and "rinsed" them off with apple juice. They seemed to be ok. 30 minutes later, I did it again. I was able to get most of the ash off both time by heavily spraying them with the apple juice, basically rinsing them off and they came out good. Had the butts been done more I probably would not have been able to lift them on their side like I did

.......soooo, how on earth do you guys (and gals) tap the bowl without ashes going everywhere, and how do you keep the food from getting covered? I have had the smokers for over a year and never had this happen. What am I missing?
This was the first time I cooked for a large group and it almost turned out to be a disaster

 

[Steve Cole]

You could try using a good lump charcoal. It produces very little ash and you don't have to knock the ash off the coals.

 

[Rick Body]

I may try that. I've never had a cook go so far that I had to knock the ash off, so it was a total accident, but either way if lump doesn't produce much ash it would be less to worry about.

I am so used to KBB though

 

[Chad Bman]

Lump doesn't produce the ash like KBB does, but it also doesn't have the long burn time. I used an entire 20# bag of lump in the 22 WSM for a long butt/rib/bean cook and had to add KBB near the end. I'm a fan of the hot-squat if I need to make fairly drastic changes to the fire. KBB is so cheap, it's my default fuel so I just deal with it's quirks.

 

[Karl Freienmuth]

Rick, Just a thought here.
Perhaps note where the dampers are positioned prior to tapping. Close dampers, tap, wait a minute or two, open dampers to noted position.
Wouldn't that close the vacuum of air through the smoker?

As far as an accidental bump, I think spritzering the ash off with apple juice was a smart reaction.

 

[James Lake]

How much wind was there? I have tapped the legs on my 22 for long cooks and I have never noticed ash on my cook. However for most cooks I never remove the top lid until the meat is done. Did you have your water pan in?

 

[Tony R]

I never had that problem. It's a long ways from the bottom of the smoker to get to he top. Maybe wind was a factor...

 

[Rick Body]

There was no wind, it had been raining all night but at the time it happened, it was not. I had the windshield up next to the smoker next to the one with the problem but the wind was null. I had the water pan in with the clay saucer. I opened the lid when I noticed what I thought was ash coming out the top vent. The meat was covered with ash (not thick, thick, but noticeable) as was the inside walls of the smoker and the lip where the lid sits. This happened both times that I bumped it.

Maybe closing the vents would stop the vacuum. I believe at the time 1 vent was closed, one vent was a fraction open and the other vent was a quarter way open.

I am confused and kinda worried as to what went wrong here so I don't do it again

 

[Bob Sample]

Close the top vent and that will stop the convection through the smoker. I bet if you hadn't noticed and allowed the cook to continue the juices mixed with the ash would just become part of the bark and you wouldn't have ever known.