Guys, thanks for all the support that you gave me in my previous post on building the Glen Blue smoker I put together, guys. However, the people who really deserve the praise are the people on this forum that share their ideas for the rest of us to look at, consider, and possibly adopt. Every idea I put into my Glen Blue Smoker came from someone else and they were all useful. I really enjoyed collecting the ideas and putting them into practice on my smoker. So, thank you to everyone that “stole” from.
I have some other ideas I have collected on this forum so I am not through trying out some things to see how they work. Right now I am experimenting with my charcoal for a very important reason.
I am using Weber charcoal in my smoker because over the years I have found it to be the longest lasting charcoal while giving me a consistent burn. Of course, Weber has decided to discontinue the manufacture of this charcoal so I will have to switch over to some other brand in the future. That is one of many points of irritation with Weber that I will share at some point in the future. Right now, though, my grill store has a good supply of the Weber charcoal and I have been buying it up to create a stockpile that will last a while when the grill store does finally run out of it. I do not plan to switch brands of charcoal until my Weber supply is gone.
My previous long cooks were on a smoker that had a charcoal basket that you just dumped the charcoal into it and lit it using the minion method. If it ran short you just added more. Obviously, with the Weber charcoal facing a lack of availability at some point, I need to be more efficient in how I use it in my Glen Blue smoker.
So, I started out building a 2 X 2 snake 1/4 of the way around my charcoal grate. That snake burned for just about 2 hours and 15 minutes. Building the same 2 x 2 snake 1/2 way around the grate gives me just a little over 5 hours burn time. I did not have to touch the kettle except to adjust the damper a couple of times to maintain 225 - 250 degree range.
Therefore, I think I can get 10 hours out of a 2 x 2 snake that goes almost all of the way around the charcoal grate. I can separate the ends of the snake with a brick so that the snake will burn completely in only one direction. Also, I think I can probably go 12 hours or more if I make the snake into a “G”.
Since I have not had much experience with the snake method, I would appreciate any information or advice that anyone here has to share about how to set it up to get the most burn for the last charcoal. I look forward to anything you can share on this subject.
I have some other ideas I have collected on this forum so I am not through trying out some things to see how they work. Right now I am experimenting with my charcoal for a very important reason.
I am using Weber charcoal in my smoker because over the years I have found it to be the longest lasting charcoal while giving me a consistent burn. Of course, Weber has decided to discontinue the manufacture of this charcoal so I will have to switch over to some other brand in the future. That is one of many points of irritation with Weber that I will share at some point in the future. Right now, though, my grill store has a good supply of the Weber charcoal and I have been buying it up to create a stockpile that will last a while when the grill store does finally run out of it. I do not plan to switch brands of charcoal until my Weber supply is gone.
My previous long cooks were on a smoker that had a charcoal basket that you just dumped the charcoal into it and lit it using the minion method. If it ran short you just added more. Obviously, with the Weber charcoal facing a lack of availability at some point, I need to be more efficient in how I use it in my Glen Blue smoker.
So, I started out building a 2 X 2 snake 1/4 of the way around my charcoal grate. That snake burned for just about 2 hours and 15 minutes. Building the same 2 x 2 snake 1/2 way around the grate gives me just a little over 5 hours burn time. I did not have to touch the kettle except to adjust the damper a couple of times to maintain 225 - 250 degree range.
Therefore, I think I can get 10 hours out of a 2 x 2 snake that goes almost all of the way around the charcoal grate. I can separate the ends of the snake with a brick so that the snake will burn completely in only one direction. Also, I think I can probably go 12 hours or more if I make the snake into a “G”.
Since I have not had much experience with the snake method, I would appreciate any information or advice that anyone here has to share about how to set it up to get the most burn for the last charcoal. I look forward to anything you can share on this subject.
