Shuji Sakai
New member
Howdy all,
I'm still new to the WSM - have maybe a half dozen cooks under my belt so far, with mainly good results.
I've used Royal Oak lump for my last two cooks with improving results. I made brisket for both of these attempts. The first stab at using lump yielded an off-tasting, creosote flavored result using the Minion method with some orange wood that someone gave me. It's possible that the orange wood was still too green and contributed to the off flavor, but I think there's more to it.
For the second attempt with lump, I fell back to my store bought apple wood, and started paying closer attention with my nose. Again using the Minion method, I noticed that the dome temp was struggling to get past 175 F after an hour, and the exhaust smoke smelled more like creosote or unburned charcoal rather than tasty wood smoke.
In order to raise the temp, I opened all the bottom vents 100%. This raised the dome temp to about 225F, and more importantly, got rid of the nasty exhaust smell.
My theory here is that by imcreasing airflow to the lump, I'm decreasing the likelyhood of creosote formation. Does that sound right?
What odd is this: even with the vents fully open, my dome temp stayed around 250. I was expecting a higher temp, as I've heard that lump burns hotter than briquettes. For those using lump, what's been your experience regarding a) any creosote issues and b) holding temperatures?
I'm still new to the WSM - have maybe a half dozen cooks under my belt so far, with mainly good results.
I've used Royal Oak lump for my last two cooks with improving results. I made brisket for both of these attempts. The first stab at using lump yielded an off-tasting, creosote flavored result using the Minion method with some orange wood that someone gave me. It's possible that the orange wood was still too green and contributed to the off flavor, but I think there's more to it.
For the second attempt with lump, I fell back to my store bought apple wood, and started paying closer attention with my nose. Again using the Minion method, I noticed that the dome temp was struggling to get past 175 F after an hour, and the exhaust smoke smelled more like creosote or unburned charcoal rather than tasty wood smoke.
In order to raise the temp, I opened all the bottom vents 100%. This raised the dome temp to about 225F, and more importantly, got rid of the nasty exhaust smell.
My theory here is that by imcreasing airflow to the lump, I'm decreasing the likelyhood of creosote formation. Does that sound right?
What odd is this: even with the vents fully open, my dome temp stayed around 250. I was expecting a higher temp, as I've heard that lump burns hotter than briquettes. For those using lump, what's been your experience regarding a) any creosote issues and b) holding temperatures?
