First WSM and thanks for member approval


 
T

Tom Nelson

New member
First cook on this resurrected 18WSM. Doing a 9# butt with Smoke 4x and Billows. Hoping for steady 225 ish starting at 9pm tonight. Looking forward to this trial and new cooks as time goes with what I expect to learn from this great community! Thank you all!
 
Thanks for all the kind welcomes. Well it is now 10:15 next morning and IT is 188. All vents shut down including the top and temp has risen to 266-270 from a fairly steady 250 all night. No way was I able to get the temp down to 225. Water pan full, vents on bottom all closes, except for the Billows that only came on briefly at the start. Top vent barely open. So, must have leakage and will track them down for correction. Only opened the lid once, this morning to add some water if needed, since starting the cook.

Any other suggestions to get the temp down to a 225 ish temp will be most appreciated. Btw I just ordered some hole plugs for the bottom vent holes to seal tighter. TIA

sorry if I am in the wrong area for my questions.

tom
 
Is the billows still physically connected? Try blocking some of the area around the inlet fan.

I used blue painters tape once.
 
Assuming
Tom Nelson said:
Thanks for all the kind welcomes. Well it is now 10:15 next morning and IT is 188. All vents shut down including the top and temp has risen to 266-270 from a fairly steady 250 all night. No way was I able to get the temp down to 225. Water pan full, vents on bottom all closes, except for the Billows that only came on briefly at the start. Top vent barely open. So, must have leakage and will track them down for correction. Only opened the lid once, this morning to add some water if needed, since starting the cook.

Any other suggestions to get the temp down to a 225 ish temp will be most appreciated. Btw I just ordered some hole plugs for the bottom vent holes to seal tighter. TIA

sorry if I am in the wrong area for my questions.

tom
Click to expand...
Dan's suggestion to block off some of the air intake on the billows is a good one. Start by covering it half way and see if that helps at all. The billows is oversized in my opinion for WSMs, even the 22" so restricting the air intake is even "recommended" from TWorks. Tworks even has a restrictor that snaps into the fan intake hole for this reason.

The other reason why WSMs can run too hot has to do with lighting it off too hard (starting with too many lit coals) Please check this section of the website out if you haven't already https://www.virtualweberbullet.com/firing-up-weber-bullet-1/

Anyway, running a little too hot on a pork butt is not a huge problem. I'm sure it's gonna taste great. Good luck and welcome to the forum!
 
Thanks Dan and John for the insight. Yes the billows has the adjustable restrictor. Going on 16 hrs now with butt at 194 And temp at 275 now. Will do a probe test at 200 and if good, wrapped and into the cooler until dinner at 5.

i appreciate everyone taking the time to read and respond to this.
 
Sounds like you are home free... I usually let mine go over 200 up to 203/205 just incase the probe is in a hot spot. I recommend wrapping and resting for a at least 30 min before pulling/shredding. On future cooks, you can wrap after the bark is set and save several hours. Butt and Brisket both have a long "stall period" that starts when the meat hits around 160 to 165. Wrapping in butcher paper or foil is the best way around this when you don't want to manage a cook for more than 8 hours or so.
 
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