My first overnight Butt tonight

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Great forum, hope you guys can offer some advice. I am attempting my first Butt tonight (Mr. Brown) and unfortunately have a bit of a wood crisis. I have some small chunks of hickory which I planned on cutting with some apple and cherry chunks, however all I could get was apple and cherry chips.
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Should I just soke some chips and foil them, or just layer dry apple and cherry chips while using the minion method? If so, what do you think would be the right amount to use? For instance, how much chips would equal a chunk?
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Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
 
Make a pouch from heavy duty foil, and put about a third of a cup of dry chips in, then seal it up tight and poke one single tiny hole with a tooth pick and consider that equal to one chunk.
 
I did as David suggested and put the Butt on the WSM at 10:00pm. Went to bed around 1:00 with the temp holding strong at 250. Got up around 4:00am and the temp at the lid was still holding and the internal temp was 157.

The plateua seemed to last forever and I finally pulled it off after a total cook time of 18.5 hours. I pulled the pork after letting them sit for an hour wrapped in tinfoil and secured in a cooler.

It was fantastic. A real nice bark, moist smoky meat.

I am hooked in a bad way.
 
I know what you mean about being hooked Paul! I want to cook every weekend. I even entered a comp with just a wsm and some kettles!
 
I hope mine goes as well. First pork butt tonight as well (Alaska, Tue at 11:20 pm). I'm starting the chimney soon and should have the butt on the WSM by about midnight. I'm trying wood chips layered in the briqs minion method. 6.5 lb butt (Boston cut w/o the picnic). I'll add to this thread and report.

BTW, I had done some spare ribs that turned out very nicely. I had used foil packets w/ chips but seem to affect the burn (air flow?). That is why I'm trying the chips layered. I will eventually get chunks but have to order those.

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2:20 am AK time. Butt has been in the smoker for about 2 1/2 hours. Temp at lid has been slowing rising to present temp of 280. I've been closing down the bottom vents, but temp is still creeping up. I've topped off the water pan and closed the vents down. I'm going to catch a hour's sleep and then check the temp again. I'm sure all will be fine in 4 hours but I'm curious as to what will happen with the vents (bottom) closed completely. Cool night, about 60 degrees, no wind.
 
My first time also. Very helpful. The WSM was an christmas gift a couple years ago and when I came across this site I finally decided I needed to bust it out.

All has gone pretty much as explained in the "how-to" guide and various posts. I think it is just now finishing the plateau (collagen break-down). It has been a couple hours or so at 185 - 188. Temp starting to creep up.

I'm very tired. Started at midnight, checked every hour until 4am (sunrise in AK - one day away from the summer solstice) then went to two hours checks. I have a variety of questions but I'll hold to the end of the cook and I get it off. Hopefully some more experienced cooks will read and respond.

It is fun though. Most of my smoking experience has been with a Little Joe electric smoker, wood chips and salmon. Turns out great and is simple, but can really hold the low temps like the WSM.

I already have my next smoke planned. Brisket. Now to decide low and slow or follow a recent thread that discussed a much faster/hotter approach.

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I would do a normal low and slow for your first one... Thing is about hot and fast briskets is that you have a lot of thermal power coming from fire. At such a hot temp when the brisket goes into lag around 168 it wont spend much time rendering there like a low and slow brisket would. The thermal power of the fire will blow it right through lag and up to your target temperature of 190-195 giving you a false indication of doneness and leaving tons of collagen behind.

When I have cooked hot/fast briskets you have to go by feel as I have seen some get done well over 200. When your meat probe slide in like butter and has a bit of resistance on pullout you are done.
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A low and slow brisket will be much easier to get the hang of, save the hot/fast for a few briskets later.

Nothing wrong with cooking 250 to almost 300 as it will just get done faster and have a crisper bark. I wouldn't go much over 300 though if you are using any white or brown sugars in your rub as they will burn easily.
 
Eric, Seth said it all. Try a few briskets the low and slow way to give you an idea on how the smoker functions and also how the finished product turns out then try the hot and fast.Even though hot and fast is not that hard it's definitely a different type of smoke than the low and slow. For pork butts I prefer low and slow. They seem to taste a whole lot better.
 
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