Must Be Getting Old


 
L

Larry Powers

TVWBB Member
I must be getting old becuase this is about the prettiest site I can imagine waking up to:

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Unless of course it is this:

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Life has gotten in the way of my cooking this year. A couple of rib cooks but I have never done a brisket before so I made time this weekend to give it a try.

Have a smokey weekend
 
This is only my third cook with the PitmasterIQ. I have used it twice with ribs, it was easy, minion method to start, set the PitmasterIQ for 250. Throw the ribs on when the dome temp hits 200 degrees and come back in 4 hours. Sauce the ribs a couple of times over the next hour and your eating ribs.

Today I followed the same start up procedure. About an hour after the temps hit 200 degrees I went back out and the dome temp was about 270 the Pitmaster also indicated that the temp was too high. Hmm. I looked at the Pitmaster and the fan motor was off but the fan was still spinning. I figured this was due to the convection in the WSM pulling air through the Pitmaster. I shut the dome vent to half open and closed the vents on the PitmasterIQ completely. The temps at the dome are now down to 245 and I have opened the Pitmaster up one click which is about 1/4 open. I will see if this stabilizes the temps around 240 to 250 at the dome. I have learned that there is about a 20 degree difference between my grate temp and my dome temp.
 
Great set-up Larry. I enjoy watching my smoker or the kettles at work.:wsm:

I like the simplicity of the Pit Master and have been thinking about one. I'm not a techy kind of guy when it come to electronics.
I never thought of your issue happening but it does make sense given the fact the exhaust will create a lower pressure inside the smoker chamber. Guess the easiest way to correct that is to restrict airflow at the top vent.
 
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That is a beautiful sight....and the best part is : you won't get in trouble for staring at it with your mouth hanging open!
 
Gary - there is also a vent control on the Pitmaster. If I had to guess you can be open 100%, 50% 33% and 25%. Had I closed this down to one of the smallest settings when the dome temp hit 200 degrees I think I would have prevented the temp spike.
 
There may be another explanation for your attraction, your in love. It is indeed a beautiful sight, great way to begin the day. Enjoy the brisket pls. post pics of the finished cook.
 
Larry Powers said:
Gary - there is also a vent control on the Pitmaster. If I had to guess you can be open 100%, 50% 33% and 25%. Had I closed this down to one of the smallest settings when the dome temp hit 200 degrees I think I would have prevented the temp spike.
Click to expand...

Thanks, good to know. I'm thinking I would like one more for the winter cooks. I have the insulated blanket but I can't get the temps to stabilize with the blanket on it's own.
 
Once I got the temps down I was able to open the top vent on the WSM 100% and set the vent on the PitmasterIQ to 1 (about 20-25% open). Smoker temps are hold very nicely. The brisket just hit 150 degrees so I am expecting the stall to set in any time.
 
A better late then never follow up.

The brisket blew right up to 180 without stalling. I wrapped it in foil at that point and continued cooking to 200 degrees. It got there about 2 hours before dinner time so I wrapped it in a blanket and threw it in a cooler. When it was time to serve, I pulled it out and it was perfect. Moist and fall apart. Everyone loved it but me. I didn't season it enough. I used salt, pepper, garlic powder and onion powder but I didn't use enough. I put it on like I would for a roast in the oven. Next time I will put it on more like a rub. It was actually very good but not quite what I intended.

I servered it sliced with a bourbon bbq sauce.

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