New WSM, first cook this weekend


 
JohnT-Virginia said:
Ha ha, I did start small... I got an 18" instead of a 22", and a WSM instead of a big ole stick burning offset. I guess you missed my second post where I said that I had bought a 12lb shoulder. I couldn't resist. It was cheap and it looked really-really good. Starting small-small, as with burgers, is sort of not my style. I'm in for the challenge.

So here's the play by play on my first cook... I realized that according to the 1.5 to 2 hours per pound rule it was likely that I wouldn't be eating Q on Sunday if I didn't get that 12lb butt started last night. I lit the smoker about 8pm and initially it was looking good, so I applied the rub and fritzed with the controller awhile, taped up the vents, and put the butt on at 9:00 with the smoker a little above 225F. I anticipated that the temp would continue to climb and when I switched over to the controller it would be spot on for the night and I'd get some sleep, waking up a time or two to check on it. I can hear y'all laughing from here.

The controller units sync'd fine, temperatures were reading, and everything seemed in order but the fan never came on. The smoker temp dropped down to 210, so I opened up the exhaust vent to full and continued trying to figure out why the fan wasn't working. I read the "Getting Started" instructions several times and all seemed to be in order... until I realized that the probes were reversed. You have to have the air temp probe in Channel 2 for the Billows to operate. Fixed. Still no fan. Meanwhile the temp is still dropping and the fan is not running. I opened the two closed intake vents a bit and it came back a some. So, the "Getting Started" sheet had a QR thingie for the long form instructions. I scanned it and started reading the complete instructions. It's supposed to go into "Fan Mode" automatically and it wasn't doing that. I had already checked the connections and confirmed that it was getting AC power. At some point it occurred to me that the little adapter with two USB-C ports that came with the Billows wasn't supposed to plug into the Billows –– it was supposed to plug into the controller. Bingo! Fan Mode on and the fan is working. I closed the other two intake vents and waited for the temperature to come up.

It comes up to around 235, but I had the target set to 275 and it's not looking like that would happen. I had already lost a couple of hours at this point (low but at least it was on) and I realized that the Billows is just not blowing enough air. Ambient temperature is 43 degrees, so I assume this is the reason it's struggling. So I opened the other two vents about 1/4 and waited. Yup, the temp came up almost immediately. I had a steady 260 and I was good with that so I sprayed the butt and went to bed with the remote unit on the nightstand. Two hours later the alarm went off –– temp was dropping again. I got up and stoked the fire, added fuel, sprayed the meat, opened the other two vents full, and went back to bed. The meat was getting up to about 140 and rising, so I was satisfied that despite the struggle to maintain temperature, it was cooking nicely. Two hours later, another low temp alarm. Same deal; stoke, add fuel, spray, back to bed.

This time the meat was at 165, but I could see that the high temp had been up to 168. This told me it was in the stall, so all I have to do is maintain temperature and wait. Smoker is now holding nicely in the 275 range, all vents open full. Two more hours and it's getting light outside. Meat at 172, smoker at 270. Time to wrap. That's where I am now –– meat wrapped and now reading 178, smoker 269. Ambient temperature is 45, wind blowing at 14 mph, overcast and sprinkles. I'll move it to the oven if necessary; hard part is done. I'll leave it on the cooker as long as stirring the coals keeps the temperature up, but not adding fuel. I burned about 20lbs of charcoal last night. I'm sure it must've been the wind and ambient temp that made it more challenging. Someone told me to expect it to burn about 1lb per hour. I guess that's at 75 degrees with the sun shining and wind not blowing.

What a fun adventure. Pulled pork for lunch today. Time to make slaw and some of that Eastern Carolina spicy vinegar sauce. If anyone is nearby, drop on in.

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Good work John. Mistakes make for good learning, but still winding up with good bbq makes it fun and worth retelling. The pork looks good man. Be proud of the work you put in on it for your first one.
 
Nice Job, John !!!
Once things settle down and the pork butt is behind you, there's a couple of items that might need addressing...
First off and most importantly, did you have the top vent fully open or did you follow the Billow's instructions ?
Next, did you use water in the pan ?

Bob
 
Love my Billow's(y)(y) And scrap the minion method with the Billow's it's not required! Load that bad boy right up with charcoal and your wood chunks and let her rip, You will get much longer burns! That's what so sweet about the Billows, Let it do it's job.👌
 
Bob Bass said:
Nice Job, John !!!
Once things settle down and the pork butt is behind you, there's a couple of items that might need addressing...
First off and most importantly, did you have the top vent fully open or did you follow the Billow's instructions ?
Next, did you use water in the pan ?

Bob
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I started with the top vent 1/8 open per the instructions, but when I saw it struggling to get up to temp that was the first thing I did. Ran with it open all night. Half way through I opened the bottom vents too, and shoveled more fuel every two hours. The Billows wasn’t pushing enough air to burn the fuel and keep the temp up.

Yes I did have water in the pan, and I realize that it was absorbing heat and turning it into vapor. What is your recommendation? Replace with a diffuser plate?
 
Whatever you do, John, don't tell anyone how easy it is to make pulled pork! Let 'em think it's really hard, and they need to keep bringing you libations as you tend the smoker! :)

Look delicious!

R
 
I think you started out strong! That looks great.
I use a terracotta saucer from the garden department, works very well, wrapped with foil and just replace it every time I clean it up. Works nicely.
Yes, like Rich says, tell everyone it’s a huge headache and just keep the easy part to yourself.
 
JohnT-Virginia said:
I started with the top vent 1/8 open per the instructions, but when I saw it struggling to get up to temp that was the first thing I did. Ran with it open all night. Half way through I opened the bottom vents too, and shoveled more fuel every two hours. The Billows wasn’t pushing enough air to burn the fuel and keep the temp up.

Yes I did have water in the pan, and I realize that it was absorbing heat and turning it into vapor. What is your recommendation? Replace with a diffuser plate?
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If you end up going the diffuser route, look at the vortex plate hunsaker's makes. But running the water pan empty does in effect do the same thing.

Aside from the Billows not running at first and that complicating things, it may have just been you didn't have enough coal lit at the start. Remember the advice someone gave here earlier. Don't change too much at one time. On your next cook, try it with water in the pan (hot water), but see how you do getting it up to temp first before trying without water.
 
I find that my WSM 18, will be rock steady at 225-240 with water in the pan. If I want any higher no water and a pizza pan covered in foil on top of the empty pan for easy cleanup will get me to 275ish. If I want higher I need to start hotter (more lit coals) and have all the vents wide open.
 
John -- even though you are quite likely a Hokie, here's a couple of friendly tips on getting your WSM18/X2/Billows to work better so you can sleep more on your next overnight. FWIW, that is the exact same rig that I have.

One. I'd suggest doing some shorter cooks without the ATC so you can get a feel for how the cooker more generally works. Using the ATC, which I love for long cooks, is a more complicated process to get down and adds additional variables.

Two, read the directions. Amazing how much better the X2/Billows worked for me once I finally/belatedly read the directions!

Three, the ATC likes to run with more coals lit up in the cooker. When there are a lot of lit coals in the cooker, it is easy for the fan sporadically puff on and puff off to slightly raise/lower the temp. When I do a Minion cook without the ATC, I might only light 10-15 coals. When using the Billows, I do the opposite. Interestingly, the instructions say "fully light ½ -¾ of a chimney worth of fuel." A little too much is better than too little.

Four, make sure you keep the top vent mostly closed. This is also the exact opposite of what you do running without the ATC. Surprisingly, this is what the directions tell you to do.

Fifth, if you are cooking one butt, you might as well cook two. My standard cook is a Costco boneless two pack. Smoked pork freezes great.

With/without water is a whole topic unto itself. But for me, water seems to be mostly about temp control (not moisture). So with an ATC handling the temp, I use a FireDial diffuser instead of the water pan. Saves a lot of fuel BTUs. If I want some moisture, I'll spritz or put a small foil pan of water in the cooker for a few hours.

For my overnight cooks, I start about 10 pm. Before turning in at midnight, I rake the coals and maybe add some more coals/wood so there will be plenty of lit fuel in the cooker. I set the temp at 235 and turn off all the alarms (which are quite annoying to neighbors and spouses). Even without the alarms on, I always wake up a couple times to check the remote.

So long as the cooker doesn't burst into flames or go completely out, any cooking temp is fine with me for the overnight run. Having knocked off the first 8 hours in the smoke overnight, you'll have tons of time to land the plane on time for lunch/dinner the next day. On the back end, you can hold the wrapped meat for many many hours in a warm oven or in a cooler with towels.

Welcome. And Wa-hoo-wa!!
 
Rich G said:
Whatever you do, John, don't tell anyone how easy it is to make pulled pork! Let 'em think it's really hard, and they need to keep bringing you libations as you tend the smoker! :)

Look delicious!

R
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Funny you should say that –– I invited a friend over later in the week to help consume some of this, and she said she's bringing a 6 pack of my favorite beer. I've been gluten-free for 25 years, so GF beer is a treat. The good ones are hard to find and not exactly cheap. I can see this beer for BBQ thing working out nicely. Yea, I'll keep the secret... I'll talk about getting up every two hours and making the big sacrifice :LOL:
 
@ Timothy, Joe, Jim- knowledgable suggestions and wisdom noted. It's interesting how differently you set up to run it with the Billows. I definitely want to get that method perfected. I was more afraid of the temp getting away from me on the high side before starting, and then was perhaps too reactive when it was slow to climb to even 225. I think I'll go ahead and order a diffuser. It does seem like a waste of energy to be heating water, not to mention the extra trouble. The stock pan blocks access to the fire too such that it's hard to see what's going on. Thank you all for the insights. Much appreciated!
 
John, just go to a garden shop, a terra-cotta saucer will be about twelve bucks and you can have it tomorrow. They are cheap and easily replaced, I’ve used the same one for about four years but, I do have a spare, just in case. Then again, I use nothing as far as ATC is concerned so, my design is pretty simple. A friend said he stopped using any of them, after years. Just said the bullet is so well designed, it was not that hard to maintain temperature with a little practice, I agree but, I’m cheap!
 
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