First fire on my new 14.5

[JGodfrey]

Got a small WSM for Father's Day last weekend and fired it up for the first time today. Smoked about 3.5# of chicken wings. Tried to keep the temp around 250, but since it was my first run it definitely ran hotter than I wanted. Used the Minion method to fire, filled up the chamber about 1/2 full, then used ~20 briquettes lit in a chimney starter to light. One chunk of apple wood for the smoke. Started with all vents open, then took the bottom vents down to ~25% at 225, but temps went up to 275, so closed the bottom vents. Temp still went up to 300, so took the top vent down to ~25%, which brought it slowly back down. Kept them on just under 2 hrs.

I didn't grill the wings coming off the smoke, since the hotter temps definitely got some color on them.

Pretty excited to level up to a boston butt next weekend!

 

[Michael Richards]

J welcome and congrats on the first of many cooks. The color on those wings look great, just did a Boston butt on my 14 WSM today. I love my little guy!

 

[Lee Ingraham]

I would consider wings a level up from Boston butt! A butt is a long cook, but it's pretty much set and forget between 225 and 300. Wings seem to be more difficult to get right, balancing crispy skin and smoked goodness.

 

[Lee Ingraham]

One suggestion for temperature management. Just mess with one vent at a time by about 1/4 open/closed then wait for 10min to see trending in one direction or the other before additional adjustments. It keeps you from chasing temps up then down again and vice versa.

 

[JGodfrey]

I would consider wings a level up from Boston butt! A butt is a long cook, but it's pretty much set and forget between 225 and 300. Wings seem to be more difficult to get right, balancing crispy skin and smoked goodness.

The wings were a much lower monetary and time investment in case I screwed things up!