how to lower the temperature?

[scott w]

My first smoke is underway, and I seem to have a temperature problem. I started with the Minion method: full unlit charcoal with three large chunks of cherry. added about 2 dozen lit coals to the top, assembled cooker and let it get to 200 (took about 1 minute to reach 200).

I shot up to 260 with air vents at 10%, so all 3 are now closed (lid vent full open) and I am consistent at 272. I've been there for over an hour.

I tried extinguishing some coals by squirting with water via the door, but to no avail.

Suggestions?

 

[scott w]

p.s. that's the temp at the cooking grate using a remote digital thermometer and is temperature adjusted for calibration. It's a boston butt that is cooking.

 

[Bob McFadden]

Scott
I would close the top vent down. Try 50%, I have closed the top vent completely before with no problems. The best way to control temp is on the way up. If the temp is rising rapidly, close the bottom vents down sooner. The good news is the butt is forgiving and you have a long way to go. I don't think 272* for an hour over a 16-18 hour long smoke will hurt you. Good luck and let us know how it came out, I'm sure it will taste great.

Bob

 

[Konrad Haskins]

There is nothing wrong with 272. If the temp is between 225 and 275 I just don't worry and I never get that accurate with my tempretures. Shooting water on the charcoal makes for a bad flavor IMO. I'd not close the top vent any. Just relax and enjoy. In fact why don'y you try a cook at 275 to 300 and see for yourself that nothing bad will happen.

 

[Henry Joe Peterson]

I get spikes all the time where I have to shut down the top vent, too. It's no big deal. Give it 20-30 minutes and it will be back down to a reasonable temp. Then you can open the top vent again.

If it continues to drop, just open ONE vent , not all 3, just a teeny bit to get the temp to stabilize and you will be fine.

 

[scott w]

Well, it's 3 hours later and I'm at 255 with the top vent 90% closed. It took me a while to try that even though I read is in tvwb's temp section- probably cause it's taboo for big offsets.

Anyhoo, I will soon be adding water & going to bed, and I'm gonna let the baby ride...

report in the morning!

 

[Paul G.]

I've only heard one person suggest squirting water on the coals to lower temp in the WSM, and I would not follow that suggestion for the reasons given above.

The temp range you're in is not a problem. Use the top vent as a last resort for run away temp and you're not at that point. I imagine your prob in the a.m. will be getting temp back up. Tap the ring gentley through the door and see if you still have fuel. If you're concerned, add somemore lit.

Good luck.

Paul

 

[Jim Minion]

I would rather run hot than close the top vent.
Jim

 

[Jim Babek]

As stated above I wouldnt put water on the coals, from personal experience it gives the meat a bitter/sour flavor...

 

[scott w]

Well, here's the results and the lessons learned:

I finally got up around 830 (which is really sleeping in around here) and stumbled outside. The temp was at 302 and the butt smelled like bacon. I opened the lit and there was this black meteorite dripping into a pool of boiling oil.

So I grabbed a plate and my bbq gloves and managed to peel the majority of the thing off the grate (the part that stuck was the remaining fat cap- if you can call that remaining).

I went inside and took a taste and it was okay. But my wife walks up and starts nibbling...she loves it. We both like meat fairly dry, but this wasn't too dry once you got past the bark, and she's loving it!

So the lessons:
1. light the coals with fewer briqs,
2. forget the water, it didn't help and I can see where it can stir up dust. also, it can crack the enamel if you're not careful,
3. when cooking one thing, put it on the lower cooking rack if temp is a problem, and
4. keep trying.

I have a friend that said I'd hate the wsm because he hates his brinkman. he says you can never keep control of the temperature. I can see already that the problem was mine and in the next couple cooks I'll have it down.

Lastly, I stil had a goot 3pounds or so of lit coals going when I stopped. That's 12 hours on about 14 pounds of charcoal and 3 chunks of cherry! My Lang 84 uses that (in wood equivalent) in couple hours! In fact I used the remaining coals to fire up my big offset for today. I'm also cleaning up the wsm in preparation for another go.

Thanks everyone for you thoughts and help!

skippyp

 

[John L]

When considering how hot my WSM will run or thinking about adjusting the temp, I always ask myself a few questions:

1. Could I start with more food? You'll have less temp problems with 2 or 3 pork butts than with one, every bit of meat acts as a heat sink. You might have the reverse problem (too low heat) if you were cooking 4 butts.

2. What's the weather like? Is it hot, cold, windy, raining? All of these conditions factor into your WSM temp. If it's windy, I would open up only the downwind vent and consider using a windbreak. Is your smoker in direct sunlight? That can affect your temp as well.

3. If the temp is way too high, should I add some water to the pan? In your situation, this is the first thing I would've tried, even if I was using sand. Do you have the large Brinkman pan? Adding cool water is a huge heat sink. I'd start with very little water and add more later if necessary, having to take some out later (I've done it) because the temp is too low isn't much fun. You were messing with vents and never mentioned how much water you were running in the pan.

4. Start with top vent open, and only one bottom vent open...then adjust from there, starting with the lower vents. As other said, only close the top vent to about 50% if your temp simply won't go down. I wouldn't close it less than that for fear of killing your fire altogether.

5. Do I need to stir the coals, or did I cover my coals (I always use the Minion method) with too many wood chunks (I now only do about 3-4)? Sometimes I've had to take one off till things got going good, but that wasn't the problem you had.

6. In case of low temps, do I need to stir the coals or tap the ring? If too high, could I take out some coals? I wouldn't consider spraying them with water like I might on a grill, as others said here as well.

Oh well, that's the questions I usually ask if I'm having a tough time keeping the temp from 220-250, but lately the ole WSM has held pretty true. Try cooking more stuff next time, it runs pretty hot if almost empty, plus, you'll make more people happy.