help with cold weather barbecuing


 
G

GShin

New member
Hello BBQ lover,
I live in Ohio and it is very cold here this time of year but I would still like to keep on Barbecuing. I got my first Weber Smoker this August so I haven’t dealt with the cold weather. I would like to hear your tricks and tips on cold weather smoking. How it affects the meat and how to keep the smokes heat in better, other than more coals.


Thank you guys!!

Gshin
 
I smoke year round here in Iowa. Sometimes I shovel the snow away from my performer or 18.5 wsm so it can be done. Wind is your biggest enemy so add a barrier. Otherwise it is not that much different but your friends will be impressed.

Mile
 
Like that link says, wind is the enemy. Beyond that, if you don't insulate you just burn more fuel to maintain temps. I find that a bag of KC won't quite last the night. If I use a full bag plus about a starter full of unlit piled on top in my 22", it will last the night but need more fuel in the morning to finish a cook. I typically do the big cuts (brisket, butt) overnight, starting around 9pm. The last one I did, it was in the teens out but not windy. At 8am when I got up, my pit had dropped from 250F to about 200F and was almost completely out of fuel. A full starter of unlit dumped through the door did the trick and got me across the finish line for the brisket I was cooking.
 
I live in Minneapolis and I have done overnight cooks in weather well below zero. I always start with a full ring of charcoal. I don't think the weather has much of an effect on the WSM. You do need to block the wind, however. I use a big cardboard box and I tape the end flaps so that it stands upright and open at the ends and is about 4-5 feet tall. Then I just put it over the WSM once I get the WSM up and running.
 
I live in Wyoming and we got down to -10 ambient temperature last week. I took it as an opportunity to experiment some more with the WSM in an extremely cold environment.

What I have learned is that I can still do high heat cooks in extremely cold weather - but I have almost no ability to hold a low and slow cook when the air temp goes below about 30 or 35 degrees. I know it seems counter intuitive but it's a lesson I've learned the hard way. Even last week at sub-zero I could still get the inside of the WSM up around 350.

If I stoke the WSM with a full load of Kingsford blue I find that it will power through just about any outside air temp. I'll just burn a little more fuel than normal. But whether from a lack of skill on my end or just the realities of living on the high plains, if the temp goes below freezing I just can't hold temps of between 225-250. I find myself losing temperature to well below 200 and then getting hot spikes as I try to get it back.

As a final note, I have found that wind is just simply disqualifying. I haven't tried to build a wind break because unless I built a permanent structure it wouldn't matter much out here come winter time. We had an 89 mph gust north of town last week.

So to sum up, my advice is to use the winter to get comfortable with high heat cooks. Hope it helps and good luck!
 
Gshin,

I'm a couple hours north of ya on I-75 and cooked last weekend and will do so this Sat. I use what Harry Soo does.......water heater insulation! This is the ticket!! I wrap it around the midsection of the smoker and it REALLY helps! It's very cheap to buy and I've used it on a half-dozen cooks so far and it's still holding up fine. I've used it on High heat cooks as well as slow and low. Once during a HH cook I noticed my temp was going down and when I went out to check the smoker I noticed the insulation had fallen off the smoker. Once I but it back on, we were good to go! If I think of it, I will try to take a pic of it this Saturday when I'm smoke'n a HH brisket! Good luck!

Tim
 
GShin,

Here is a pic of my smoker with the water heater insulation covering it.
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Of course we are in the middle of getting 6-8 inches of snow right now too!!
 
Tim that looks great! I picked up some over the weekend and I am going to smoke some chicken tonight and I Can't wait to try it out! Thanks so much for the help!
 
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