Fathers Day smoke is going up in smoke


 

Jonathan Jarembek

TVWBB Member
Howdy,

this is prob my 6th smoke and i am having the hardest time getting the weber over 200 degrees.

i have done ribs before with 0 issues but today i am having the worse luck.

right now i have 6 racks of ribs on after 2 hours i can only get the heat to about 190 ish top rack and over 200 at the vent.

i started with 1 chimney of lit coals and i dumped them over another chimney of unlit coals.

i used a fullbowl of water for this cook.

so does anyone any ides how i can get the heat up or is my fathers day smoke just up in smoke.

thanks

Jon

oh yea i did try adding a few other pieces of charcoal and moving everything around down there and still no luck
 
Johnathan, what are your vent position and did you start with hot or cold water in your pan? Also when you added additional fuel and moved things around what did your coals look like? Is there any chance your charcoal may have gotten wet?
 
all vents are 100 percent open,

the tap water if i think about it was on the cooler side, and the coals are white powdery.

it seams the water is getting up to temp as its starting to slightly bubble.
 
Hmmm . . . odd, how confident are you that your thermometer is accurate? Have you tested it with boiling water?
 
Damn this is strange. Full chimney of lit (plus more lit), 100% vents open and you're only getting max 210 lid . . . any way the charcoal got wet during storage? What kind are you using?

Also, I doubt it as temp would be lower than 200 but you're probe isn't touching your meat is it?
 
naw it was a brand new bag of kingsford i got last night.

in desperation at this point i added the 3 more handfulls of coal and opened the top and i saw the prob slight touching a piece of meat.

i re-adjusted it and its around 215.

so fingers crossed i can salvage this smoke.

so i guess the question is now its been up for about 3 hours at 170 - 200

do i push it to 250 to try to make up time or just keep it between 225 - 250 till the tear test works ?
 
Personally I'd bump it up to 250 (if she'll go that high). I think the probe on the meat was likely your problem.
 
Jonathan, where are you located? What kind of ribs are you smoking? You can always open the door ajar and see if that brings up temp. If you're pressed for time and smoking spareribs or st. louis style ribs you easily go to 275ish without any ill effects. If you're smoking babybacks you can bring the temp. to around 300-325ish.

Erik
 
i am in phoenix az,

i am cooking a few racks of spareribs.

right now i got the temps at 258 ish strong.

so it could of been the prob touching the meat. :-/

at least i can save the extra coal i tossed on for next smoke.
 

 

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