Second time on our new to us WSM at a loss as to why the temp problem


 
Rich Dahl

Rich Dahl

R.I.P. 7/21/2024
We did our second cook on our new to us 18.5 wsm and I’m at a loss on this one.
Our first cook was pepper stout beef and I had to fight the wsm to keep temps under 300.
Ended up running with one bottom vent 1/4 open and the top vent wide open to hold 260-270.

This time with the 10 pound butt cut in half to get more bark and hopefully speed up the cooking time. I got the idea from Christopher H’s post.

Had the exact same set up, tin can minion start, two chunks of Cherry wood, sunny 80+* light breeze, the twin to the first cook. Even the charcoal was from the same bag. No matter what I did the wsm would not go over 235, even with all the vents open. Even when we foiled and I had the lid off the temp hit 325, but within 15 minutes it was back to 235. All this measured with a maverick and the dome thermometer which reads 10 degrees lower was reading 220-225.

The PP came out okay but took forever and I like to do PP at 260-270 I think it renders out the fat a little better.

I will say Christopher’s idea sure did give us more bark and if I hadn’t cut that 10 pounder in half it probably would still be cooking.

Any ideas as to why the wsm ran so low?
 
FWIW, I generally do my butts at 220F. However, as to your question, if EVERYTHING is the same then it is bad karma. I suspect that you have not accounted for airflow or some such thing as a result of where it was located. Were the briquets piled the same? Did the same number fire up as the first cook?
 
That's odd about the temp struggle, especially if the vents were all wide open. Maybe more lit starter coals & unlit minions next time?
 
Tom Golden said:
FWIW, I generally do my butts at 220F. However, as to your question, if EVERYTHING is the same then it is bad karma. I suspect that you have not accounted for airflow or some such thing as a result of where it was located. Were the briquets piled the same? Did the same number fire up as the first cook?
Click to expand...

That's what is so frustrating, exact same location, orientation, same amount of unlit give or take a little, 15 lighted coals. Only variance I can see is it was a little more humid yesterday then the first cook.
I'll go with the bad karma.
 
Rich Dahl said:
That's what is so frustrating, exact same location, orientation, same amount of unlit give or take a little, 15 lighted coals. Only variance I can see is it was a little more humid yesterday then the first cook.
I'll go with the bad karma.
Click to expand...

Hmm, that is really odd. What about the meat temp, was the halved 10 lb butt straight out of the fridge?
 
Each cook is so different , it's just amazing. You'd like to think you can zero it in to be perfect , but you just have to fly by the seat of your pants every time.
 
One thing I discovered this afternoon when I cleaned it and put it away, there was a whole lot of unburned coals in the center all the way to the outer edge of the charcoal ring. About one to two coals down with lots of ash sitting on the top of the unburned coals. Nothing burned down past two coals, it was a surface burn only. The other cook burned to the bottom but only about half way out to the ring edge.
Might not have been enough coals going at one time to generate the required heat.
Never had that happen on my mini.
Weird!
 
Did you reuse old coals and just add fresh to the top? I do it all the time, but I shake my fire basket first to get any old ash out. If you did reuse, maybe there was a layer of ash that prevented the coals beneath it from lighting?

Just a guess...
 
I have no ready explanation for you Rich. But, there are only a few options if the first cook was very similar to the second.

1) When you foiled the pan there was some extra foil on the outside of the water pan the inhibited convection
2) The charcoal got moisture in it and did not light as quickly as the first time - this would have resolved itself after a couple/three of hours though.
 
Rich, way back before I even owned a WSM, while I was a lurker, I read a post from one of the Pros that said he always opened the vent on the back of the charcoal bowl and then positioned the center section door and the lid vent opposite from it, said it created a cross flow rather than the air going straight up and out the top vent (made sense to me), after I bought my WSM I have always done that and haven't had any problems with my temps, also using the same theory, when I want high temps for RSC I open a vent on the windy side and place the door and top vent opposite of it, like that temps of 325°-350° are no problem, ...however I must admit I always use lump.
 
Dave/G said:
Some people swear by the tin can method. Personally, I don't like it. Try spreading lit over the top of unlit. Try it once and see if you don't like that way better. Chuck smokes nicely at 300. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=coU0RJEexYc
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I do what Dave does.

I get about 1/2 chimney of lit coals and just spread on top. This will get me 245-265 depending on weather. One vent completely close and the others 1/2 open. Top vent wide open.
 
Rich;
In addition to the excellent suggestions above, I, on occasion, use a rubber mallet to tap the legs to knock any ashes off as the cook progresses. This can be a great help. I use the tin can minion method at all times and never have a temperature problem, but I align the vents as suggested above...

Keep on smokin',
Dale53:wsm:
 
Rich Dahl said:
One thing I discovered this afternoon when I cleaned it and put it away, there was a whole lot of unburned coals in the center all the way to the outer edge of the charcoal ring. About one to two coals down with lots of ash sitting on the top of the unburned coals. Nothing burned down past two coals, it was a surface burn only. The other cook burned to the bottom but only about half way out to the ring edge.
Might not have been enough coals going at one time to generate the required heat.
Never had that happen on my mini.
Weird!
Click to expand...

that's gotta be it... gets me sometimes too.

>>>edit: I should add - I never minion, I'm more about air/fuel/heat ratios.... I suggest adding more lit to start with, but I'm also interested in the snake method for low temps for jerky or smoking in the kettle..... I also tend to higher heat, like 275-325, mainly out of convenience, but also seems to be no downside, flavor wise.
 
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THoey said:
Did you reuse old coals and just add fresh to the top? I do it all the time, but I shake my fire basket first to get any old ash out. If you did reuse, maybe there was a layer of ash that prevented the coals beneath it from lighting?

Just a guess...
Click to expand...

This was all new coals with no leftover ash present.
 
Thanks guys for all the responses, I'll try some of them and see how it goes. Being that it's just our second cook I'm sure I'll get a handle on it. It just caught me off guard seeing that I did everything the same and the results were so different.
 
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