Long smoke question

[Chad Bman]

Did my first long smoke over the weekend. Fired up 30 KBB briquets in the chimney and 20 minutes later dumped them on top of a fully packed ring of lump on the 22.5 WSM. Made for a cool iPhone photo at 3:30 am

At 4am, the (dome) temp was 205 & I put the 23.5 lbs of meat on (2 butt/shoulder & a loin) with a foiled clay saucer (no water)

Since I kept a log every 30 minutes, at 8:30 I was still rolling at 240 degrees. But that's the point where the temps started to drop. At 10am, I added the rest of the 20 pound bag of lump because the temps had dropped to 180 with all vents wide open. (wasn't many lit coals left and I was only 6.5 hours in)

At the 12 hour mark, I had all the meat off the grate with the pan of beans left sitting on the lower rack. At 5:15, the beans came off and I was done with my 14 cook. The beans, loin, & PP turned out excellent.

With all of the history out of the way, my question is this.

How long of a burn should I 'expect' to get out of a fully packed ring or a full 20# bag of lump?
When I pulled the beans off, I picked up the ring & shook all the ash into the bowl to see exactly what was left.
After 14 hours, this is all that's left of the 20# bag plus the 30 briquets to get things rolling.

Does that seem about right?

 

[Dwain Pannell]

Chad, there are a lot of variables to how much fuel is used to cook how much food for how much time. I think your mileage may vary (YMMV) based on factors such as ambient temp, wind, snow/rain, etc. Plus, using lump is a variable unto itself because each bag is different. A lot of folks use briquettes for more predictabilitity. I prefer lump. Bottom line you look like you had a successful cook and could have gone longer if required.

 

[Dave Russell]

Chad, I completely agree with what Dwaine said.

I figure that for a longer burn you would've needed better lump, wind protection, or weather, and the first two would probably cost you more in money AND convenience. Thankfully though, compared to my 18.5" wsm, my 22.5" wsm has such a large door opening and amount of space under the pan that it makes refueling easy, and I don't mind having to refuel lump in it one bit.

 

[Chad Bman]

The weather was pretty good --- for late December. Automatically I'm trying to create an additional 50 degree temperature swing compared to July. Since I've only had the smoker 2 months or so, all I know is the cooler weather. This was also the first run with lump. I've been asked to supply PP for a party in 2 weeks, so I'll give a jam packed ring of KBB a run & see if it's any different. Then again, Mother Nature might toss a wrench into the equation. Meh, it's all part of the learning curve. Thanks fellas...