Smoking 4 Butts on 18"


 
K

Kenny S

TVWBB Fan
I have been gone for awhile. I am running for City Council in my hometown and been very busy. I have a question. I am hosting 50 people or so for my 40th birthday. I have mastered one butt but I suspect I will want 4 9 pounders. Will the 18" fit four on there? Will my cook time be longer? Any advice?
 
It will take about the same time to cook.
I would put the temp gauge on the smaller butt.
 
I had 8 butts on my 22" so I imagine 4 wouldn't be an issue. My time was extended a bit longer, but not enough to REALLY worry about. Ironically enough, 4 of the 8 were done at the first probe test. 2 from each rack. Good luck with the cook, happy 40th, and I'd vote for ya... :)
 
Kenny S said:
will the 18" hold 4 9 pounders?
Click to expand...

I've never done 4 but I always do two and I only use the top rack so 4 using both racks should be no problem. I would put a temp gauge in a butt on the bottom rack and check the top ones with my instant read hand held thermometer.
 
I cook 4 on my 18.5. No problems. Like said above, check the small one for doneness first. Then go to the next smallest and so on.
 
Kenny S said:
will the 18" hold 4 9 pounders?
Click to expand...

Four will fit with no problem. Expect to take a while to come up to temp, and you'll go through more coal that you would with just one or two. If you have one that's bigger than the others, give it a half-hour or hour head-start. If you have a runt in the litter, hold it back for an hour. In my experience, both grates cook at about the same temp.
 
I did 5 butts almost 10 pounds each in an 18.5" on Friday night (48lbs total), see this thread for more details.

http://tvwbb.com/showthread.php?41919-Catering-question-Pulled-Pork-for-50

Short answer, 4 will fit no problem. It will take more fuel and the ones on the bottom rack will cook faster. I rotated half way through - but I had 3 butts on the top shelf and they were practically hanging over the edge of the rack when I put them on so I wanted to try to distribute the heat equally when they started to shrink. I put the biggest of the butts on the bottom rack at the start of the cook and they were 10 degrees higher when I moved them around.

Also, expect the cook to take 14-15 hours and use the probe method vs relying on the thermometer. Mine never got over 180 but they were fall apart tender after 16 hours.
 
Four is absolutely not a problem as far as space goes. As several people have indicated, the biggest challenge is managing your fuel. I have had cooks like that run in excess of 16 hours. You can cut that time if you use foil, but personally I don't. Make sure you are prepared to add more hot coals to it. My recommendation is don't let it get down to running on fumes before adding coals. When you are in excess of 12-13 hours and it starts dropping, you need to you need to start considering adding fuel. I always add lit coals only so there is some lead time involved.
 
Last summer I did 6 8-10 pounders for a dual graduation party I co-hosted. It was a little tight, but still had room to close the lid. I smoked a little lower temp wise(225-238) and with a full water pan. Looking back at my post from last year, it appears the session went almost 22 hours, and I had to do a full chimney fuel refill 3/4 of the way through.

I JUST did 4 butts last weekend (two for a beer tasting my brother was hosting, two for my family) and still had plenty of room for my Maverick temp guage that I usually have on the second shelf.

Also have done 4 full size racks of spares, and two chickens on a 18.5 as well.

You should have no issue with 4 butts on a 18.5.
 
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