Frustrated trying to keep heat down


 
B

Brad Smith

TVWBB Member
All right gang looking for some tips....

Doing a 11.7 lb Brisket overnight

Put on at 11:45 pm EST used Minion with 20 briquettes lit to start. Once hit 205 shut down the vents to about 25% on all 3 bottom vents.

Now at 1 am I'm up at 270 degrees and trying to keep this cook until noonish tomorrow. Meat is already up to 108 degrees.

I have the "double" charbroil charcoal pan for my water pan with 2 gallons of hot water in it.

Tips for slowing this bad boy down?
 
Forgot to mention, I've had all 3 bottom vents shut completely for the last 25 minutes (shut them down when it was 259....
 
Well, I reverted to the Weber Pan and swapped it out instead of the "Piedmont" pan Charbroil set-up. Talk about a delicate operation...

Hoping the direct fire on the pan with the water in it will allow for more temperature control.
 
For a low and slow cook,you could always add Cold water to the pan. That will help Alot. If the WSM is in the 15 first cooks it would need water and the vents choked hard.
 
I use a foiled clay flower pot base in a foiled water pan. This has happened to me. I believe it was due
to 2 things.
1: I put in too many lit briquettes in the beginning.
2: My target temperature was 250F. I let it get to 225F before dampening it back.

What I do now.
1: I light my charcoal pile in a couple of places with a propane torch.
2: I bring the temperature up much slower, giving it at least an hour to reach temperature and stabilize.

Good luck,

Bob
 
I'm assuming your WSM is new; when mine was new I could run it at 225 - 250 with all bottom vents closed. Took awhile for it to "gunk" up. Probably too late but but try closing down two of the bottom vents leaving one at 25% and see where that puts you.

Also, I know a many on here are against touching the top vent, however, I routinely ran my WSM with the top vent 1/2 closed with no issues. On my ceramic I run my top vent/hat open at about 1/16th of a turn and have never had any issues.
 
Close all bottom vents to 0% when you're at least 25 degrees before your target.

BTW, 270 is not a crisis. It'll come down and you won't notice a whit of difference.
 
I try to come up slowly but starting with 1 vent closed and the other 2 around 50% or less. Then shut them down gradually as I approach 210
 
Brad - if you shut the bottom vents and still need to lower temp, start shutting the top vent a little (if not all the way) and it should do the trick.
 
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">All right gang looking for some tips....

Doing a 11.7 lb Brisket overnight

Put on at 11:45 pm EST used Minion with 20 briquettes lit to start. Once hit 205 shut down the vents to about 25% on all 3 bottom vents.

Now at 1 am I'm up at 270 degrees and trying to keep this cook until noonish tomorrow. Meat is already up to 108 degrees.

I have the "double" charbroil charcoal pan for my water pan with 2 gallons of hot water in it.

Tips for slowing this bad boy down? </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

You're worrying too much.
icon_wink.gif


270 isn't that bad - you'll learn that if you wait until the temp is already running a bit hot that it's a little too late to keep it from rising. Since all you can control is the vent opening, you're not going to get immediate feedback. In the future, start closing your vents off a before you hit your target temperature. The good news is that unless your smoker is leaking air, the temperature WILL come down eventually. But like I said: Running for an hour or so at 270 isn't going to hurt anything.

One other thing is to start with cold water and less briquettes. Make sure to keep smoke logs so that you can see the effects of any changes you make for future smoking sessions.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

 

Back
Top