Smoking with the WSM in the winter?


 
A

Andrew Augustine

New member
Hey all,

Unfortunately spring hasn't came to Iowa yet.. I am going to smoke some ribs tomorrow via the BRITU recipe on this website. What do you usually do to keep the temperature within range in the extreme cold? For the record, the temperature is forecasted to be around 25 degrees at the time of smoking. The BRITU recipe on this website calls for 2 chimneys of charcoal. Should I do 3 just to keep the temperature up or what to you recommend? Any other tips to make sure I don't fail at smoking these ribs tomorrow? Thanks for your help!
 
I'd rather have too much charcoal verses running out & adding more. It also depends what charcoal you're using as some burns faster than others. As Bob said, it ain't the cold you gotta worry about.
 
Wind is projected to be 5 to 10 MPH so it should be a nonfactor hopefully. I will be using normal kingsford charcoal. I may do 3 chimneys because the first time I did ribs I did 2 and was pushing the lower limit the last couple hours despite having the vents fully open and smoking in 80 degree weather. Is there any problem to using 3 chimneys full of charcoal (instead of 2) besides potentially being to hot? If i do get too hot, what can i do to cool it besides closing all of the vents? Thanks for all of your help!
 
I had some bad luck with some ribs once from the wind. It was like 40 outside, but the wind was wiping pretty good that evening and I had to jocky the vent around a ton on the bottom of my mini WSM. Maybe the big boy WSM will do better though that the little knock-off version I built. I still love my mini though!
 
RCBaughn said:
I had some bad luck with some ribs once from the wind. It was like 40 outside, but the wind was wiping pretty good that evening and I had to jocky the vent around a ton on the bottom of my mini WSM. Maybe the big boy WSM will do better though...
Click to expand...

Not really, since the big wsm has a LOT of surface area to get cooled off from the wind, and the meat is farther from the fire. Of course, it's relative to how much meat you have in the thing, but I don't like to use the big wsm if I don't need the space. I'm fairly sheltered on the back patio on the east side of the house, but I need to get a big welding blanket.
 
Andrew,

Cold weather with low wind you should be okay. If you haven't started yet, I'd recommend start with one chimney lit, put the WSM together, take off the access door, and wait til it gets 50 or so degrees above your cook temps before throwing the ribs on. If you start with 3 lit and it's too hot, it will be harder to bring the temps down.

Also, I'd recommend trying the snake method with the charcoal for ribs; ring of charcoal around the inside of the chamber ring. I've tried it a few times and it seems to work well-better airflow for shorter cooks.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

 

Back
Top