Hello all!
I'm Andrew from Washington, DC, and I recently picked up a used WSM 18 after owning a 22-in kettle for a little over a year. I have modded my kettle and smoked on it in the past, with decent if finicky results. I cooked on the WSM for the first time yesterday (chicken) and had decent results, but definitely had an uneven burn on the fire using B&B oak lump that I simply poured into the fire-bowl over apple chunks (a la Harry Soo) and started with the minion method. My question is for those who use lump charcoal: do you find you have to manually build your fires or do you just pour your charcoal and hope for the best? If you hand-build, what are some tips and tricks you've picked up over time? Thanks!
Edit: additionally, the fire in my above example had burned more completely on the door-side, so I'm curious whether you veterans out there have a particular way you like to align the door compared to the bottom vents, i.e. over a vent, or away from a vent etc.
I'm Andrew from Washington, DC, and I recently picked up a used WSM 18 after owning a 22-in kettle for a little over a year. I have modded my kettle and smoked on it in the past, with decent if finicky results. I cooked on the WSM for the first time yesterday (chicken) and had decent results, but definitely had an uneven burn on the fire using B&B oak lump that I simply poured into the fire-bowl over apple chunks (a la Harry Soo) and started with the minion method. My question is for those who use lump charcoal: do you find you have to manually build your fires or do you just pour your charcoal and hope for the best? If you hand-build, what are some tips and tricks you've picked up over time? Thanks!
Edit: additionally, the fire in my above example had burned more completely on the door-side, so I'm curious whether you veterans out there have a particular way you like to align the door compared to the bottom vents, i.e. over a vent, or away from a vent etc.