Old hand with 18.5" WSM, just bought a 22.5" Woo-Hoo!


 
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Greg Fountaine

TVWBB Member
Doing the initial smoke on it today! Got 2 chickens butterflied and ready to go.

One thing I have noticed -it's taking a lot longer to get up to temp than my 18.5" even without water in the pan.
 
I have a question - I've done (6) large pork butts (9-10lb) on my 18.5" unit on many many occasions. How many butts have folks fit onto the 22.5" unit?
 
Greg Fountaine said:
I have a question - I've done (6) large pork butts (9-10lb) on my 18.5" unit on many many occasions. How many butts have folks fit onto the 22.5" unit?
Click to expand...

Wow, that's a lot of butt for an 18". I've only smoked five in mine at once, and none were over nine. I consider four 9lb butts a full load for my 18, and the most I've smoked in my 22.5" is eight at a time. My buddy smoked a dozen using a middle grate in his, but it's tight or touching between the grates. It's best to put in longer grill straps so the pan will be closer to the fire if you want to do a dozen. There's a lot of space in there, and I think that's why the 22.5" uses so much more charcoal. Just bigger, and a lot of space to heat up between the meat and the fire. I have no idea how folks do the fuse method with it at BBQ temps with much meat on it.
 
I put the butts on end, fat cap on outside and form a triangle on each rack to get to 6. I don't rotate, flip or do any of that jazz. Just keep the temps around 225<250. Works great! :)
 
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This is how I get 6 onto the 18.5" WSM - works out well. I used to think butts had to be cooked fat cap up. I now cut as much of the cap off as possible, makes 0 difference in the finished product except I don't have so much of the rub and smoke wasted on fat that gets thrown away :)
 
I have the 18.5"wsm and once got 8 butts in that thing. I bet you could get 12 in the 22.5 " wsm. Here's what I did.
 
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