High Altitude - hard to keep coals cooking


 
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Clay J

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I've had the WSM for a week and done 3 cooks now. All came out good, but with some difficulties.

My biggest problem seems to be with starting and keeping the coals burning hot.

I'm in Colorado Springs. About 6,500'. I have left a full chimney of coals burning for almost an hour and the top 5 to 10 coals never light. Once I put the coals into the weber I have to leave the vents wide open just to keep 200 - 215 degrees (with a full pan of water), and if I shut the vents down much at all the fire nearly goes out.

I did a brisket Saturday evening to sunday morning. I did the minion method with a pan of cold water and vents 100%. It took 3 hours for the temp to get to 170. Finally at 4 hours it was at 200 (by which time the water was pretty much gone). I did the rest of the cook at about 215 with an empty water pan and wide open vents.

After 16 hours the meat finally hit 180 and was excellent.

Is all of this just a symptom of smoking at high altitudes?

Does anyone else have experience at this altitude?

Also, does anyone know a good smoke wood source in the Springs/Denver area?
 
Couple of things will help you with the altitude:
1. Try using sand in or a dry waterpan, you don't need to heat water.
2. Try using lump charcoal and start out with a full chimney of hot coals. Leave the vents all open till you close to your target temps, then just back off enough on the vents to stabilize the cooker.
Let us know if these don't help.
Jim
 
Just as a sanity check - you might want to calibrate all the thermometers that you are using.

You just need to know ahead of time, at what temp does water boil, given your altitude. It's my understanding that water boils at lower temps at higher alts.
 
During the brisket cook I left the vents 100% open throughout the entire cook and barely got to 230 or so when the water had all boiled off.

I bought a nice thermometer from Home Depot and calibrated it as soon as I got home. Water boils around 200 degrees at my altitude and it ready dead on. I also use an oven thermometer inside with the meet (just to cross check) and it also reads within a few degrees of the the one from home depot.

I haven't tried lump charcoal yet, maybe I'll try that in a few days.
 
I've had similar experience with my cooks. I soon learned to let the coals burn longer in the chimney and get really good and hot before putting them in the cooker. Also, I've seen a difference between 2 different bags of Kingsford. My first bag didn't burn as hot as the second. I'm just picking up things as I go along, and each cook is an imrovement over the last.
 
I guess there are good things about being at sea level ( besides high salt content /infopop/emoticons/icon_frown.gif )
 
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by matt goin:
[qb] I guess there are good things about being at sea level[/qb] <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>Or below... /infopop/emoticons/icon_rolleyes.gif
 
I have no idea if it will help, but you might want to try the BBQ Guru. It has a small blower that helps stoke the coals. You see a number of post about the BBQ Guru in the forums here. I have a Guru and plan on taking it and my WSM to Western Colorado in August. I'll be staying at a friends house which is at 8,400'. If it works there there it'll work at your wimpy low altitude.
 
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