Two bone-in butts from our local butcher, one was 7.2 lbs and the other 7.8 lbs. Rubbed, refrigerated overnight, then re-rubbed before smoking them over apple, hickory, and oak for roughly 13 hours.
Filled the charcoal chamber with unlit briquettes and smoke wood then added about 30 hot coals (started in the chimney starter), problem I ran into was the water pan was sitting on top of the pile of coals when I put it in. So I had to remove the water pan and rearrange the coals/wood more towards the outside of the ring so the pile wasn't so high in the middle which seemed to fix the problem.
Also, when it came time to add more fuel, rather than fire up the chimney and add hot coals I simply added 20 or so unlit briquettes right into the chamber with the already burning coals. My temperature had started to spike at this point from having the lid open too long, so I thought the unlit coals would help bring down the temperature some. Is there any way to prevent the temps from spiking when the lid is open? Or I probably just had the lid open for too long?
I still feel like everything I've smoked so far has come out too black in color, could this have anything to do with the brand of charcoal I've been using?
Anyway, pictures below.
Filled the charcoal chamber with unlit briquettes and smoke wood then added about 30 hot coals (started in the chimney starter), problem I ran into was the water pan was sitting on top of the pile of coals when I put it in. So I had to remove the water pan and rearrange the coals/wood more towards the outside of the ring so the pile wasn't so high in the middle which seemed to fix the problem.
Also, when it came time to add more fuel, rather than fire up the chimney and add hot coals I simply added 20 or so unlit briquettes right into the chamber with the already burning coals. My temperature had started to spike at this point from having the lid open too long, so I thought the unlit coals would help bring down the temperature some. Is there any way to prevent the temps from spiking when the lid is open? Or I probably just had the lid open for too long?
I still feel like everything I've smoked so far has come out too black in color, could this have anything to do with the brand of charcoal I've been using?
Anyway, pictures below.


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