Low and Sloooow


 
P

P Scott

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How are some of you getting 15 - 18 and more hrs. out of a ring ? 10.5 at 150 degrees seems to be my limit, with regular Kingsford.

You using a different fuel or what ? Did a butt yesterday and had to add a little fuel toward the end.

Appreciate any help
 
Think it depends on what you start with in the chimney. I usually go half chimney, but should most likely go 1/2 of that or just do 20 coals.
 
are you doing the minon method? if you start with 10-12 coals it's a lot easier to get a longer burn time.
 
What size WSM are you using?? I have a 22 load the ring to capacity and will still have unburned fuel after 14 hours. Another question is what are you cooking at 150 degrees?
 
James Lake said:
What size WSM are you using?? I have a 22 load the ring to capacity and will still have unburned fuel after 14 hours. Another question is what are you cooking at 150 degrees?
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I was cooking an 8 lb. butt, started with full ring unlit then distributed 20 lit evenly on top. Pretty day mid 80s a little windy. 22"
 
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P Scott said:
I was cooking an 8 lb. butt, started with full ring unlit then distributed 20 lit evenly on top. Pretty day mid 80s a little windy. 22"
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Don't think I can be of much help, I usually run my smoker at 225 - 250 when doing butt. And the soonest I pull some of the butts is with an internal temp of 170. What temps are the butts when you take them out of the smoker?
 
+1 to the 150° thing. I don't know why anyone would cook at such a low temp, so i assume its a typo and you meant 250°. 150°is what you would want to do jerky at. When i cook butts i use a full ring of kbb with the tin can minion method, w/o water, and I'll get around 12-14hrs at 250-275°
 
+1 to 150° as it sounds more to me as your trying to do a cold smoke. I run 225° to 250° on most of my cooks and use regular Kingsford and it last about 14 hours
 
If it was windy I could see a full load (15-20#) of charcoal being consumed in 10.5 hours.
My last cook was with left over coals and the new version of KBB and I think it was a 15# bag (but it could have been a 18#er) that I started with 1/2 - 3/4 chimney of the left over coals, that ran overnight @ 220 for >12 hours and I have ~1/4 of it left over. There was no wind that night.
I measure my temp on the grate with a Maverick.
Sorry I have no recommendations to extend your run time.
Since you are cooking at ~250 I would think you could get 14 hours + with calm wind conditions on a 20# load of charcoal.
 
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Charles H. said:
If it was windy I could see a full load (15-20#) of charcoal being consumed in 10.5 hours.
My last cook was with left over coals and the new version of KBB and I think it was a 15# bag (but it could have been a 18#er) that I started with 1/2 - 3/4 chimney of the left over coals, that ran overnight @ 220 for >12 hours and I have ~1/4 of it left over. There was no wind that night.
I measure my temp on the grate with a Maverick.
Sorry I have no recommendations to extend your run time.
Since you are cooking at ~250 I would think you could get 14 hours + with calm wind conditions on a 20# load of charcoal.
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Next long cook I am going to start with a full ring unlit and 12 lit on top, see how that works. Course the smoker is new maybe a little more smoke and
grease will help.
 
P Scott said:
How are some of you getting 15 - 18 and more hrs. out of a ring ? 10.5 at 150 degrees seems to be my limit, with regular Kingsford.

You using a different fuel or what ? Did a butt yesterday and had to add a little fuel toward the end.

Appreciate any help
Click to expand...

I've got an 18" WSM and I have trouble with really long burns using KBB. I want to say I've made it to about the 11-12 hour mark with a full ring of KBB. Of course by that point I've got so much ash built up under the charcoal grate that my air-flow is seriously hindered. For really long cooks (12+ hours) I have started using to Stubbs and have had good success. Over the past 4 big sales, I've stocked up on KBB so I'm still using that for my shorter ( 10 hours or less) smokes and in my kettles. But once that's all used up I will likely start using Stubbs exclusively.
 
P Scott said:
Next long cook I am going to start with a full ring unlit and 12 lit on top, see how that works. Course the smoker is new maybe a little more smoke and
grease will help.
Click to expand...

P Scott, I would suggest giving the minion method a shot. What I do is fill my ring and then dig a hole in the center where I put half a chimney of started coals. Give that a try. Sorry that I got distracted by the typo on the initial temp.
 
If I'm only cooking one butt or brisket I can easily get 14 or 15 hours from a heaping ring of charcoal in my old 18" WSM with coals left over. However, I generally prefer to use Comp K rather than KBB since the ash is finer and it won't choke off the fire like the thick KBB ash will tend to do overnight. Costco regularly has sales on two-packs of Comp-K and that makes briskets go so much easier. I also use a Stoker for long overnight cooks to regulate my temps at roughly 225.

All bets are off with a high meat load. For my big summer party I've done 3 butts and one big brisket and I regularly run out of fuel after about 10 hours. No big deal, though. I made a little chute out of 4 feet of ducting; place one end in the firebox and pour unlit into the pit and presto.
 
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