Mesh underneath charcoal ring

[James Mundy]

Hi guys,

Hope you've all had a great weekend of bbq, over in the uk we had last Friday and today off as bank holidays providing ample bbq time, got a chance to give my new 57cm one touch premium a go.

Anyway, my question is, does anyone else put a layer of mesh underneath the charcoal ring when cooking with lumpwood?

I've been doing this a while as I almost purely cook with lump and you sometimes get little bits that would straight fall through the charcoal grate otherwise, only issue sometimes is that not all ash falls through and requires a shake around every few hours to release it. I don't use it for briquettes as it's unnecessary. I'm just wondering if this ash build up lowers temps over long cooks, it seemed to be the case on a couple I've done. Or do you have to do the same with briquettes also?

Thanks.

 

[Rich Langer]

I like to use lump in my WSM - I have wired to the charcoal ring and two charcoal grates turned at 90 degrees. Makes it easy to shake off ash and keeps small pieces from falling through.

 

[timothy]

I do like Rich, and some use a circular piece of expanded metal which has a diamond shape. Depending on how tight the spacing is on mesh, or the size of the holes it will work, or clog up.
I would think a half an inch would be the smallest I would use, quarter, three eights maybe, depending on how light the ash is.

Tim

 

[Mike Leiter]

I just use two charcoal grates on top of each other going in opposite directions. Keeps the real small pieces of lump from falling through but also not small enough not to let ash fall through freely during a cook.