Planning first smoke on new 22.5 WSM


 
J

Jason Godinho

New member
I was planning to do some beef ribs I picked up at the butcher yesterday for Thursday dinner. They are 6.5 lbs and I've never had beef ribs before.

I started to wonder though if they are suitable for a first time smoke on a brand new WSM. I've read that new smokers run a bit hot at first and that I might have some trouble keeping the temps down.

What are your opinions.

Also I purchased 3 8kg bags of Kingsford, Royal Oak and Maple Leaf briquetes as I want to compare them.

Thanks

Jason
 
Go for it! I did my first cook on my 22 wsm 2 weeks ago. Did 2 pork butts and had no trouble keeping the temp in the 225 range. I caught the temp on the way up and gradually closed the dampers so it settled in at 225 and stayed there all day. The only exception was late in the day when one of the hickory chunks caught fire and the temp spiked to about 275 for about 20 minutes and then came back down.

Be aware that with a new cooker the other problem nobody talks about is the cool down time. I finished my cook at 4pm, closed all the dampers and it was the next day before it cooled off enough to clean up, empty the water pan and cover it up. My second cook didn't take as long to cool down.

I used a full bag of charcoal on the first cook and filled the water pan with 3 gallons of water. Some people have suggested the water was holding temp so I cut the amount of water back and didn't use as much charcoal the second cook. I now understand how these cookers can go 12 hours at temp without having to reload charcoal...
 
Jason, I love beef ribs. They smoke up just fine. Maybe not as forgiving as a butt, but you will be keeping your eyes on them anyway being your first WSM cook. I was really suprised at how little the bottom vents need to be open to maintain a low smoking temp. Do a search here on temp control there is a vast amount of info. I use the minion method with the coals but instead of spreading the hot all over the cold coals I place mine on only one side of the ring. Use less hot than you think you need, I only use lump but a few briquetts should go a long way in getting things going. Using water is your choice of course, I find I like the cook better without water in the pan.

Have fun, most of all and send us pics of the success!!!!!!!!

Mark
 
Well I started working on the fire today at 10am. I had dry rubbed my beef ribs over night after removing the membrane and trimming a bit of excess fat.

I had to adjust the bottom vents from 100% open to 33% to stabilize the temp at around 225 but I think I used too little coal and might have to add some more for this smoke. I didn't even use half of the 8kg bag of charcoal.

Right now the its been smoking for 90mins and the temp is at 225 with all vents 100% open.

Oh I also through in a few homemade sausages along with the ribs. Hope it turns out great but next time I will put more charcoal as I believe it is better to have more then less.

Jason.

BTW I started it with a layer of charcoal in the smoker and used a chimney to start some and then just placed them on top when they were ready. I also filled up the water pan with hot water from the tap.
 
Jason, (great name by the way)

Your stuff looks fantastic.

I am a new WSM owner too. I want to do ribs soon. I will probably do pork bb's though for the first rib cook. I might have to throw on some sausages too after seeing yours all done up nice like that.

Thanks for sharing, great job.
 
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