Snake Method for Boston Butt On An OTG


 
R L Bagwell

R L Bagwell

TVWBB Pro
Want to try smoking a Boston Butt (for pulled pork) using the snake method on my 22.5 one touch gold next week (never tried before). While I know how to arrange the briquettes and wood chunks, I'm unsure as to what open/closed settings on upper and/or lower vents to use. Can anyone who has had decent results with this method (I know - ambient temps, wind, humidity, etc., will change and so will the settings, to a certain degree) share how much and when they adjusted one (or both) vents?

Thanks in advance for any input you might provide.

Regards,

Rooster
 
I usually go half closed on the bottom and half to 3/4 closed on the top, seems to work pretty well, usually start with about a 1/4 chimney.
 
I use a modified Minion Method when doing long, indirect cooks (rib, Boston Butt, etc.). I use two fire bricks and dump one chimney of unlit behind the bricks on one side. Then, I light 8-12 briquets in my little IKEA Silverware Caddy and dump the lit on top of the unlit. I have my OTG marked as to the lower vent setting and, at first, I set it about 1/2 open on bottom and open on top. I have a Maverick 732 remote thermometer and I watch and as the temp gets to 200 degrees, I reduce the bottom vent to as little as 1/8th open. The top can also be adjusted but never below 1/2 (you must have enough air for clean combustion.

Obviously, I am not doing the snake method, but the same technique will apply.

FWIW
Dale53
 
I just did this for the first time yesterday. I left the bottom vents wide open and controlled the temp using the top vent. The top vent ended up being about 1/2 open most of the time to maintain the 250F which was my target temperature. Like the members here told me, I made only small adjustments and waited 10 minutes before determining if I needed to make another.
The only real surprise I had was that I went through 2-1/2 "snakes" of charcoal/wood to get the job done. Maybe I did something wrong.

The pulled pork came out AWESOME! It took 13 hours to cook the 7 pound bone-in Boston butt.
 
I run the top vent wide open, and keep the bottom vents just cracked a bit. I can run 250 for about 6 hours on the 22, or 8 hours on the 26.
 
Just did my first pork butt on my 22.5" OTS yesterday. Used a snake method (three on bottom, 2 on top) almost the whole way around (just enough room left to start one side with 10 hot coals w/out the other side catching). Bottom vent was either closed or barely open with the top vent anywhere from 1/2 open to all open pretty much the entire cook. Took a little over 13 hours for a nearly 8lb butt. And the finished product was amazing. I just posted a thread with some pics. Good luck!
 
Thanks to all for their input - hope to capture effort w/pix and post when I'm done - BWalker, that's some mighty good looking butt you had there, by the way!

Regards,

Rooster
 
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