New 14.5 user

[MSanders]

Hi all

Great resource here.

I've had a 14.5 WSM for about 5 months. Never owned a smoker before that. It's been great on 4 or 5 rib attempts to get to know it and I feel I have a pretty good handle on the setup now, although fuel and time are an issue. Been finishing them off in the oven after 3 hours or so.

A couple of question you may be able to help with:

1. I have researched the lump v briquettes and generally it appears that briquettes are recommended for longer cooks. Haven't seen much about combining the two at the same time, is this a thing, does it work and are there any benefits ?

2. Weber recommend quantities of fuel for cook times. They say 30 lit / 30 unlit is 6-8 hours but I am only getting 2-3 for that amount of fuel. Marketing ploy or something wrong ?

3. Can you re-use partially used fuel from a cook ?

Other info that may help answers:

Filling water pan at start with hot water
Temp stable prior to adding meat (maybe 30min to stabilise)

I love the smoker and am happy to experiment with it, but you all may be able to shortcut the learning process.

Lastly, what do you recommend as my first bigger longer smoke ?

Thanks all and again, great resource.

Cheers

Matt

 

[BobJ]

I've never counted briquettes, but when I use a full basket with 14 or so starters center minion, I get something like 8 or so hours out of it. Wind and ambient temp has a lot to do with duration.

I reuse unspent briquettes all the time.

When I use water, it's hot to start

I wait about 45 minutes after adding the starters for the dense smoke to abate and to stabilize temp, to some degree.

I'd go to a pork butt for pulled pork, an 8 lb'er takes me about 19 hours on the 14 @ about 225, hard to screw up.

 

[Michael Richards]

Matt,
I am still pretty new to my 14" WSM, but here are my thoughts.
1. I have only used briquettes in my WSM, I started with KBB and then bought some Weber Charcoal online. Weber is pricey, but in my limited experience, it cook hotter and longer. If you have a place local that sells Weber Charcoal wait for a sale and try it. I used lump in my old brinkmann style smoker for almost a year and the day I tried KBB, I never went back. Now you asked one of those question that has as many answers as people in this forum. What you use is your preference. I have never tried both lump and briquette together, but I just read of someone doing that on this forum last week, but I looked for that post and could not find it, so it is unheard of.
2. Have you tried the minion method? I start with around 12 to 15 KBB briquettes or 8 Weber briquettes in my Weber chimney. Then when they are ashed over nicely I place them on top of a full ring (almost overflowing) of charcoal and a few buried wood chucks. I let the heavy smoke burn off and in about 45 mins when the smoke thins out and I am up to temp I place the meat on. With the minion method when I use KBB I have been able to keep it at 250 with all vents open for more then 5 hours by the 6th hour I need to add some unlit coals if I want to keep that temp going. When I use the minion method with Weber charcoal I was able to keep around 275 with all three bottom vents 3/4 of the way closed for over 8 hours.
Side note, I place boiling water in the pan right after I dump the hot coals in. I think I will keep using Boiling water until its true hot summer and then will try tap water. Below is Chris's page on the minion method. If you haven't tried this, it was a game changer for me.

Firing Up Your Weber Bullet 2/2 - The Virtual Weber Bullet

How to fire-up the Weber Smokey Mountain Cooker using the Minion Method and several variations, including waterless cooking, using lump charcoal, and more.

www.virtualweberbullet.com

3. Just started to reuse the left over charcoal, I used the left over charcoal from a pork shoulder to make some BBQ chicken, then used that leftover to cook a whole chicken. I have a small metal can that I started to put that charcoal in and then reuse it. I do not plan on use this on my longer cooks, but I have had no problems using it to this point so far.

I am with Bob a pork shoulder for your first big cook. Now you can go with Bob and go at 225 (which i have done many times in my old brinkmann) or if you want to go hotter around 275 the same shoulder took me 9 hours almost to the min two weeks ago. I got the temps to 250 with light smoke and added the meat. Adding that much meat will take the temps down, so I reopen my vents a little and gave it time to climb back up (between 90 and 120 mins) and then with Weber charcoal and all three vents 3/4 close it settled in around 275. Here is the link to the thread where I posted my experience.
https://tvwbb.com/threads/first-pork-shoulder-attempt-whats-the-best-temp-to-cook-at.80402/

I hope this helps, I have gleaned all this from this forum so keep looking around and keep having fun. Let us know how that first long cook goes.

Michael