Standard method at 250?


 
J

J. Wilson

TVWBB Fan
So after a bunch of lurking in here.....I'm not real keen on using the Minion Method for low and slow. If I were to use the Standard Method but aimed for 225-250, how long can I roughly expect KBB to burn when going for that temp? Can I get the same amount of time as using the Minion Method? Thanks !
 
If you light all the charcoal at once it will take a long time to get your temp down and you will use much more fuel. Just curious why you don't want to use the minion method.
 
Like the first Bob said, there's no way you'll get as much time out of your fuel using Standard vs. Minion.
That being said, I used Standard yesterday for BRITU ribs and had no problems keeping temps down @ 225.
Only took 1/2 hour to bring down to temp once assembled and I had hot, flaming wood chunks pre-assembly.
First time using water in my pan. ;).
 
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Thanks for all the responses! If I do the Minion it will be with lump or hardwood briqs.... I have a bunch of KBB and have grilled with it for years and it's obvious when not fully lit something is burning off.....you can see it and smell it. Couple that with the guys that complain about a bitter taste when using mm with KBB and I'm just not sure it's for me.
 
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Don't hear from many guys complaining about bitter from the minion method and most guys here use it with KB. That being said I've used lump pretty much exclusively for the past 15-20 years so can't say from experience. Most bitter issues are from using to much wood or uncured wood.
 
Back in November there was a thread regarding excessive smoke during the lighting process. Since then we have been trying other heat sources, from different briquettes to different lump. Currently using RO lump in the grill and RO briquettes (Wally World private label) in the WSM. Have always used the minion method with the WSM and will continue to do so. I'm not very keen on having to add fuel during a cook.

We always use a completely full charcoal ring. I don't mean 1/4, 1/2 or 3/4 full. We fill it to the brim... as in a full bag's worth (if starting with an empty ring). What we don't use for a cook gets reused during the next cook. We just add back what was used the previous cook.
 
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J. Wilson said:
So after a bunch of lurking in here.....I'm not real keen on using the Minion Method for low and slow. If I were to use the Standard Method but aimed for 225-250, how long can I roughly expect KBB to burn when going for that temp? Can I get the same amount of time as using the Minion Method? Thanks !
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I use the minion method now that I have my smoker, but for shorter smokes I use the standard method. In my limited experience I can get 2.5 - 4 hours using the standard method depending on how quick you can get the temp down and other variables. I would plan on about 3 for re-fueling purposes, You will get some temp spikes when you re-add the coals. Before I got my smoker I had this issue on my kettle, and it really was't that bad. I would get temp spikes to about 275-300 when I added coals before settling down to the target temp. It seemed to still come out fine.
 
I usually use the standard method to start up. I have a cheap grill pro chimney starter that holds about 4lbs of charcoal... once those are going I dump them in the chamber and fill with unlit. Once unlit charcoal is almost completely covered with ash, I assemble the cooker and add cold water in the water pan (to the top!), close the bottom vents and wait til temp comes down to about 275 - 300 and add meat, smoke wood. I'm usually able to get about 8 - 10 hours of burn time with a full load of charcoal (with some minor vent adjustments) with 225 - 250 temp measured with a Maverick ET732. This is using KBB.
 
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