Modded Weber 26.75 kettle setup for Brisket #2


 
L

Larry_C

New member
Getting ready to try another brisket on the kettle. Its a 26.75 kettle that I added a BBQGuru DigiQ to. Here is how I'm setting up the grates.

I'm using a smaller charcoal grate that sits right above the Sweepers. (in fact I wrap a small roll of foil around it in three locations to give it a little height to completely clear them. You can see that the BBQGuru adapter is above this grate which isn't optimal but if it was below it would interfere with the sweepers. You can also see that I foiled half of the grate, I'll stack my charcoal on the unfoiled half. Notice I put the coals opposit the guru adapter to hopefully minimize any blowing of ash.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/107512638@N08/10632863343/in/photostream/lightbox/

To help direct the air supply from the guru under the grate, I'm just going to use foil. Hopefully this will work ok.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/107512638@N08/10632623766/in/photostream/lightbox/

I will use a water pan, and I am going to use to charcoal trays as a stand for it. This will give me a little height above the coals, and I won't need a second grate to hold the water pan. Sorry for the blurry photo. I plan on foiling up the side of the tray that is closest to the coals out to the edges of the kettle. ( not sure if its really needed, but what the heck :) ).

http://www.flickr.com/photos/107512638@N08/10632623746/in/photostream/lightbox/

Here it is with the water pan (foil tray) sitting on top of the charcoal trays. Now I have a nice open area for the coals.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/107512638@N08/10632611094/in/photostream/lightbox/

Here is a pic with the top grate in place. I don't think I will need to, but now I'll be able to add coals more easily if needed.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/107512638@N08/10632599415/

Anyways ... Keep the fingers crossed. I'm going to start this in the early morning so that hopefully we can be eating early afternoon :)

http://www.flickr.com/photos/107512638@N08/10632624136/in/photostream/lightbox/


Hope you all have a great weekend!

Larry
 
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Struggling this morning with temps :(!

I got everything setup around 5:30 in the am. here is how I laid out my coals

http://www.flickr.com/photos/107512638@N08/10645460293/in/photostream/

I had started 8 briquets in a chimney, and two small peices of wood. I put them in a small area in the center of the unlit coals. I set the digiQ to a temp of 225. I also added boiling water to my water pan. got the meat on, and temp probes all setup. I also set up a maverick temp probes so I could monitor the temps inside easier. Very quickly I could tell that with the 4 temp probe cables..the lid did not set well, and had a significant air leak. My temps quickly skyrocketed above my set temp, and were contiueing to climb . I pulled the maveric probes out, so the lid would seal better hopefully. I also spritzed the coals with some water spray, closed the lid, closed all the vents. It didn't help at this point. the temps didn't climb anymore..but was holding steady above 270. So I made an executive decision.. I lifted the meat rack out...dumped the charcoals in a metal tray.. I picked out the unlit coals, and put them back on the charcoal grate, along with my wood chunks, then placved about 4 lit briquets back in ..now with about half the total number of briquets. Then put everything back in. Temps had obviously dropped. But alas...even with the changes...my temps are still overshooting. My top vent seems to be a pretty significant leak, as well as the lid itself.
 
A little High temp aluminum tape to seal part of the top vent, and a make shift wind break, and the temps came right down. DigiQ is doing its thing now. I think a big issue is that I tend to say to myself "big kettle…needs more charcoal" I'm learning its really doesn't seem to be the case.

Larry
 
Larry_C said:
Struggling this morning with temps :(!

I got everything setup around 5:30 in the am. here is how I laid out my coals

http://www.flickr.com/photos/107512638@N08/10645460293/in/photostream/

I had started 8 briquets in a chimney, and two small peices of wood. I put them in a small area in the center of the unlit coals. I set the digiQ to a temp of 225. I also added boiling water to my water pan. got the meat on, and temp probes all setup. I also set up a maverick temp probes so I could monitor the temps inside easier. Very quickly I could tell that with the 4 temp probe cables..the lid did not set well, and had a significant air leak. My temps quickly skyrocketed above my set temp, and were contiueing to climb . I pulled the maveric probes out, so the lid would seal better hopefully. I also spritzed the coals with some water spray, closed the lid, closed all the vents. It didn't help at this point. the temps didn't climb anymore..but was holding steady above 270. So I made an executive decision.. I lifted the meat rack out...dumped the charcoals in a metal tray.. I picked out the unlit coals, and put them back on the charcoal grate, along with my wood chunks, then placved about 4 lit briquets back in ..now with about half the total number of briquets. Then put everything back in. Temps had obviously dropped. But alas...even with the changes...my temps are still overshooting. My top vent seems to be a pretty significant leak, as well as the lid itself.
Click to expand...

Larry, may I respectfully suggest you leave the ATC out of the cooking equation until you get more experienced with your kettle.
I would also suggest for what you are trying to do you either adopt the snake method or approach your indirect set-up a little differently. Foiling the unused portion of the charcoal grate is a good thing. Fire brick to dam coals against the inside wall of your kettle is a good thing. Put fire brick on the other side to use as a support for the grate holding your water pan. This will work well. Then you can set the grate on the brick. It will be stable and give you the clearance you need. I hardly ever use water but if that's your choice by all means. Then use the cooking grate as planned. Open your top vent 50%. Mark your bottom vent at 1/4 open and adjust plus or minus only the width of the diameter of the vent lever or in other words left to right a quarter of one inch.

I have modified my 26 beyond this using wooden plugs to force more cross flow from my indirect fire and I have placed Nomex under the lid. Maverick wires work well with the Nomex but for your purposes just try what I have suggested until you can achieve stable temps.

As for the ATC I have a feeling your biggest problem is that the air it is providing is not coming up through your fire but rather above the fire so in effect, for your fire to burn, you are relying on a down draft as opposed to an updraft method. The problem with that is you need updraft to exhaust, so your fire dynamics are in conflict.

Hope this helps.:)
 
Great tips.. I think you are correct on the airflow issues. I was trying to find some firebricks the last few days, but everywhere I went they were out. I just ran out of time :)
 
Larry all do respect but why are you over thinking and over complicating a simple brisket smoke?
 
Noe said:
Larry all do respect but why are you over thinking and over complicating a simple brisket smoke?
Click to expand...


LOL, I'm good at doing that :). Actually this is all new to me, so I enjoy posting up so I can get input from you guys that are more experienced, and maybe somebody like me will read this and get a little more insight. Once I got the initial high temp overshoot under control it went the rest of the day on cruise control. The DigiQ kept the temp spot on, and I pulled the brisket off at 8 hrs, and let it rest 1.5 hrs. Everybody thought it was really good ( and since there is none left for leftovers I'm guessing they aren't shining me on. ). I'm looking forward to trying Gary S's tips next time!
 
Larry_C said:
LOL, I'm good at doing that :). Actually this is all new to me, so I enjoy posting up so I can get input from you guys that are more experienced, and maybe somebody like me will read this and get a little more insight. Once I got the initial high temp overshoot under control it went the rest of the day on cruise control. The DigiQ kept the temp spot on, and I pulled the brisket off at 8 hrs, and let it rest 1.5 hrs. Everybody thought it was really good ( and since there is none left for leftovers I'm guessing they aren't shining me on. ). I'm looking forward to trying Gary S's tips next time!
Click to expand...
Glad everything worked out, Larry simple is usually the best and easiest way. Remember to much smoking is bad for you, lol.
 
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