New 14.5 owner (have had it about a month now)

[Dwayne M]

long story short after trying to deal with doing indirect smoking with a cheapo charbroil horizontal barrel grill (no smoke box not that that really matters they are bad either way) after lots of research on the net I determined the WSM to be the best bang for your buck and decided on the 14.5" "mini" for multiple reasons after research, live in a house of 3 only so don't have a major need for smoking tons of meat, ability to easily take it camping being the top two reasons.

Long story short i've been using it for nearly a month now and its a dream, before I bought it I had already ordered gaskets for the charbroil in my attempts to get decent temp control and such but decided to repurpose them by cutting them down with scissors in thickness so i could use them to seal the two areas the WSM always leaks from the door and the lid otherwise no other mods to it.

Brand new first dry run.

getting ready for first run with the new nomex gaskets i cut down and repurpose for the wsm

first baby backs on it.

dying to try something bigger I couldn't find any full pork butt's at the time around here for whatever reason but was able to find cut down pork butt at a local asian supermarket so i bought the two biggest ones (if i recall it was 3.5 lbs on the left one and 2.75 lbs on the right one or so)

and they are almost done (the lower probe in the pic is sticking under the grate not into the meat)

Finished product after about 7 hours i think, No foil but due to small cut sizes the stall didn't last too long on these which was nice as it was my first time doing pork butt ever.

Continued on next post due to image restrictions.

 

[Dwayne M]

some St Louis ribs cut in half i did last saturday in bad weather, for this one it was my first attempt at foiling and doing it a more advanced way taken when i was checking to see if it was ready to foil or not wasn't ready yet (or so i thought at least lol)

getting ready to foil these same ribs

putting them back on after foiling to set the sauce (Apple juice and agave nectar mixed with 4 parts bbq sauce, taken from one of harry soo's recipes its really good if you like a sweet thin sauce)

finished product, they were a tad overcooked and meat fell off the bone far to easy, alas that just gave me an excuse the next day to go find more ribs to try again with!!! lol

on the next attempt i cooked a nice 4 lb back rib slab cut in half the same way i did the st louis above, forgive me for the lack of pics on these it was really bad weather last sunday when i did them so just took shots of the finished product (the best part!)

The thicker half came out nearly perfect (ones on the right side of the pan) the thinner half was still a tad overcooked, live and learn all were Delicious anyways

Loving the little smoker and I look forward to doing some more smokes in it, only other mod i'll probably do is get a BBQ Guru just so i don't have to babysit it as much if i don't want to esp on long cooks but in general it holds temps really well with or without water in the pan (the last two rib cooks were done at 275F with no water as per harry's recipe, all others done at 225F with water in the pan) the gaskets are nice because it definitely makes it a bit more easier to throttle temps down if need be than without them and also the grease no longer glues my lid to the top with the gasket there (had to pry that sucker off the day after a cook more than once man its no joke)

 

[Bruno]

Looks like your off to a heck of a start! Nice work.

 

[ChuckO]

Welcome Dwayne! Always good to see another kalifornian, and a Bay Area'er to boot. You killed it with those ribs, very impressive! Memorial Day weekend is the annual "smoke day" here, we may have to team up, ribs are the bill of fare, and it's a tough crowd. You got what it takes!

 

[Dwayne M]

Thanks guys and yeah I may be interested in attending a local thing like that so long as its nothing serious. I kinda doubt i'd ever get into full on competition but backyard stuff sure

 

[Robert McGee]

Dwayne;
Looks like you and your new Weber 14.5" WSM are getting to know each other! They are FINE smokers, for sure. I probably use mine more than I do my 18.5" (we are a two person household). Frankly, I typically do two Boston Butts in the 14.5" averaging 8-9 lbs. or six half racks of ribs (in rib racks) at a time with NO issues. I have also done two small corned beef brisket pieces to make "Faux Pastrami" on several occasions. Further, the 14.5" does fine when doing chicken parts using the "High Heat" method Chris outlines in the cooking topics.

The 14.5" WSM is a very versatile piece of gear just like it's bigger brothers. And-d-d, it does it with less fuel, too...

Thanks for sharing with us and,
Keep on smokin',
Dale53

 

[Enrico Brandizzi]

Welcome to the forum Dayne. Your cooks look all perfect.

 

[RShu]

Welcome Dwayne! Really great looking cooks so far! I have an 18.5 and a 14.5, i like the smaller one because cleanup is so much easier. Keep up the good work!

 

[Bob H.]

Looks like you are off to a great start with your 14.5. I think the 14.5 WSM just might be my favorite Weber product of all time.

 

[Jerry N.]

Wow! Nice picks showing the capabilities of the smaller WSM. Thanks for taking the time to take and post the picks. I usually get a few picks of the meat after I rub it, but then get involved in the cook and other things and forget to take any more pictures. Looks like you had a pretty good month of eating.