First smoke temp issue


 
E

Eugene Deel

New member
I'm 90 minutes into my first smoke of baby backs on my new 14.5 WSM. I filled the charcoal basket with unlit and then placed 15 lit coals over the top. I have the water pan in, filled with water, and 2 racks of ribs on the top rack. Vents are fully open top and bottom. The cooker wants to stay around 205-210. If I remove the door it starts to climb. Putting the door back after about two minutes when the temp is 240 but then temp drops back to 205-210. Not an overly windy day and temp is about 80 outside. I'm using the Walmart brand charcoal briquettes, which I believe people suspect is the same as RO. Any thoughts on how to get the temp up 20 degrees or so?
 
How are you measuring the pit temp Eugene? The lid therm or a Maverick type therm on the grill grate? The lid therm does not read the great temp that most of us prefer.
 
I think maybe I need to hang my head in shame. When I started the cook I made a special trip around the smoker because I wanted to make sure I opened all the bottom vents. They were open. Well, at about the 2 hour mark I took a look at the lid vent.... closed. Bob... after opening the vent I used my Thermopop and measured 230 so I think I'm probably doing okay considering my rookie mistake of not opening the top vent.
 
Don't sweat it Eugene. We all make mistakes. That is how we learn. Something to consider would be a Maverick that has both a grate therm and a meat therm. And it is wireless so you can sit inside and track the temps. Most of us prefer to check the pit temp at the grate instead of the lid therm. I will bet your cook turns out really good.
 
At the end of the day these baby backs turned out to be absolutely fantastic. Once I got the top vent open I was able to keep the WSM dialed in exactly where I wanted it.

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Water boils at 212 deg. It doesn't get any hotter. So with a giant mass of 212 deg water the smoker shouldn't be to far off that. Especially if things are still in the process of lighting up. That said you can get higher temps is you crack the door open but you will be buring more coal and boiling water. Which are both ok with me.

I like to do higher temp chickens 300-350 deg range. I start off with a full water pan and a couple handfuls of lit coal on a pile of unlit coal and Apple wood. I do a smoke for around 1 1/2 hrs. Then prop the door open and bring the temp up to 300-350 to finish the birds off.
 
Great looking ribs Eugene.
May I suggest you to try to smoke with much less water just enough for the first hour of smoke ?
Put it in a muffin pan over the meat rack and foil the empty water pan.
 
Bob... I used the Nexgrill rack from Home Depot. $9.97 I think it's the same rack as the Brinkman rack that others have recommended for the 14.5 WSM. It worked great.
 
I'm so jealous! You only get to do the first time once!

I will never forget the first time I did ribs, got it right and finally understood what the fuss was about. It will put you off restaurant ribs forever.
 
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