Sustained heat


 
B

Bryan Angelilli

New member
I just started using a 22.5" Weber Smokey Mountain and need help with how to maintain sustained and consistent temperatures. I bought this unit for that reason. I have heard so much about how little maintenance it is so that helped me make my decision.
Yesterday was my first time cooking on this grill. I have done 3 test runs earlier this week to get a feel for the smoker. I cooked a 6 pound bone-in pork shoulder using lump charcoal as my fuel. I started with a full start chimney full of lit charcoal and the fire chamber 3/4 full of unlit. I had the bottom 3 vents open a 1/4 turn and after two hours the grate temperature was still around 300 degrees. It didn't drop to 250 degrees until 3.5 hours later. Once the temperature got below 250 I had to add charcoal 5 more times over the next 5.5 hours to keep it above 225 and sometimes it went about 300 degrees. As for my bottom three vents, for the most part I only had one vent partially open for the entire 9 hour cooking session. I also used the water pan to help regulate the heat.
Now the end result was awesome pork. The bone pulled clean out and it could not have tasted any better. My issue is with the heat. I did a pork shoulder because it is a forgiving cut of meat and can handle the roller coaster fluctuations of heat. but I am doing ribs in two days and don't want the roller coaster nor do I want to have to stand by the smoker all day and worry about the heat.
This is where I am looking to all you smoking gurus to help me out.
 
Bryan,
First, Since your pork came out well, I would suggest you have some of the basics down. Second, keeping a constant temperature isn't all that hard, but it does take a little practice.

IMHO, I would not use lump charcoal when going low and slow for a long time. I would use regular briquets. They can maintain a more constant temperature over a very long time. I have gone 13 hours at 250 degrees. Basically, you fill up the ring and only use about 10-20 lit briquets; this is called the Minion method and is described here on the TVWBB.

One thing that you must be told is that you will never maintain a perfect set temperature. There will always be some variation and that is caused by many factors to include the way you load up the charcoal. But, the variations should not be too great, and if you have a thermometer that is slow to respond, you won't see the short term variations, only the average. It's the average that only counts anyway.

There has been many discussions here about whether to use the water pan filled or empty. I would opt for filled. The water in the pan is basically a heat sink that helps even out temperature variations. Next, I wouldn't put my meat on until the temperature was near the temperature I wanted to cook. Once the meat goes on, there will be a temperature drop; how much is a function of a lot of things. Wait a bit, and watch where the temperature settles in. You can make adjustments at this point. Now you can walk away, go to bed, or whatever and feel reasonably confident things should go as you expect.
 
One thing that a new owner of a WSM should know. After a few cooks, the WSM is MUCH easier to maintain temperature. It has to get "gunked up" a bit, then it really comes into it's own.

I use nothing but Kingsford Original Briquettes and have no problem maintaining temperatures with an empty, foiled, water pan whether i am cooking at 225 degrees, 250 degrees, 275 degrees, or 350 degrees. I cook most of my pig meat at 275 degrees (ribs and Boston Butt) as well as beef brisket, and chickens at 325-350 degrees. I almost never have to add coals but don't normally do overnight cooks.

FWIW

Keep on smokin,
Dale53:wsm:
 
Thanks Barry. That is all really helpful. Since you have used the Kingsford briquettes, does it affect the meat? I'm not trying to be a barbecue purist and say I won't use briquettes I just have never tries them.
 
I wouldn't start with a whole chimney of lit (unless maybe my 22" wsm was FULL of butts). I use this combo for butts or brisket: briquettes on the bottom, fill ring with lump, and then light with a partial chimney of briquettes.
 
Robert McGee said:
One thing that a new owner of a WSM should know. After a few cooks, the WSM is MUCH easier to maintain temperature. It has to get "gunked up" a bit, then it really comes into it's own.

I use nothing but Kingsford Original Briquettes and have no problem maintaining temperatures with an empty, foiled, water pan whether i am cooking at 225 degrees, 250 degrees, 275 degrees, or 350 degrees. I cook most of my pig meat at 275 degrees (ribs and Boston Butt) as well as beef brisket, and chickens at 325-350 degrees. I almost never have to add coals but don't normally do overnight cooks.

FWIW

Keep on smokin,
Dale53:wsm:
Click to expand...

Ditto what Robert said....

http://virtualweberbullet.com/cook.html
 
I can tell you my experience with 22.5 WSM. After having seasoned it like Harry Soo says, I always use the tin can minion method, like this


IMG_5438 di BBQness, su Flickr

As you can see, the lit briqs are just in front of the vent and I use this only vent during all cooking session. The other 2 stay fully closed except for the first 30/40 minutes to reach the cooking T.
The upper vent stays wide open all the time.
The water pan is usually full of water, much more or less depends on how long I will cook.
Yesterday, for the real first time, I used ALL the 3 bottom vents to control T, cooking a 20 lbs pork shoulder, w/ water. I just open 25% or less of each vent in a non windy day and It was a hell! The T spikes to 270F instead the usual 225F and I had to drop it down with watering! So I came back immediately to 1 bottom vent control version. It work well, imo.
 
Lump or Briquettes is not the issue. Neither is water or no water. The basic problem here is that you didn't start with enough charcoal in combination with too much lit at the beginning. For a long cook, load the charcoal ring. With lump, it is important to pack the charcoal so you get as much as you can in the ring. Don't go overboard, but load the ring in two or three stages adjusting the coals with your hand to make sure you don't have big air gaps in the charcoal pile. Then, do pretty much as Enrico shows above. Light a small amount of charcoal and put it on the pile. Whether you use the tin can method or not, the lit charcoal has to be in it's own little pile to ensure that you get your initial fire going well.

Once I light my charcoal, I put my meat on. I leave my vents all open until the temp starts climbing and start shutting down vents when I get over 200 degrees. Before long, I have only one vent open and it is only open partially. Your results will be different depending on how tight the rest of your cooker is but basically, you should be able to control temps with one vent. Some people use all vents, but the point is that they will be open only slightly.

As was said, the WSM will be much more stable once you get a few cooks under your belt. You'll get the hang of your unit and the gunk build up will seal the unit. I'd say somewhere between 5 and 10 cooks and my WSM became rock solid. Note that with water, if it runs out of water, the temp will jump up. I personally find it easier to use no water. Then, once I get my temp dialed in, it stays steady for several hours. I have a 18" WSM and can go over 12 hours easy without tending the unit.
 
Bryan --- some great advise in the replies and not much I can add. I love lump for grilling, but prefer briquettes for the WSM. If you're not-so-sure about using KBB, pick up a bag of Stubbs (Lowes, Walmart) as that's my absolute favorite charcoal. (but I have 800lbs of kbb) It's an all hardwood charcoal and really good stuff.

Just as an FYI --- if I'm doing a high heat cook, like Thanksgiving turkey, I'll fire up my WSM very similar to how you fired up your pork butt cook. Seriously, you need less than 1/4 chimney of lit to get rolling.

Also, are you monitoring your temps via the lid vent? There's quite a bit which affect that reading. Sunlight, meat location & temperature, wind...
As a few examples, here's my Maverick ET-732 reading temps at the cooking grate compared to the dome temp.

A9DED658-4731-44FE-ADDF-4EF2FF5852AE-567-000000358E89DF0D_zpsac2aead4.jpg


311D9714-F514-4201-B0E1-4D0907349A53-567-00000035302AF022_zps8b01e362.jpg


2F86D42D-7C72-4947-9C25-498E8E9F6CA1-567-000000357165E7A4_zps0c848aa3.jpg
 
Jerry N. said:
Lump or Briquettes is not the issue. Neither is water or no water. The basic problem here is that you didn't start with enough charcoal in combination with too much lit at the beginning. For a long cook, load the charcoal ring. With lump, it is important to pack the charcoal so you get as much as you can in the ring. Don't go overboard, but load the ring in two or three stages adjusting the coals with your hand to make sure you don't have big air gaps in the charcoal pile. Then, do pretty much as Enrico shows above. Light a small amount of charcoal and put it on the pile. Whether you use the tin can method or not, the lit charcoal has to be in it's own little pile to ensure that you get your initial fire going well.
Click to expand...

I've never really thought too much about the last instruction since I usually start with a fair amount of lit, but he's dead on. If just a few lit are spread out, they don't have enough heat to keep burning good, and also, you'll get a lot of charcoal smoke that way. Obviously though, issue with the OP was too much lit.
 
Dave Russell said:
If just a few lit are spread out, they don't have enough heat to keep burning good, and also, you'll get a lot of charcoal smoke that way.
Click to expand...

So THAT'S why I get so much smoke at the beginning. Thanks guys!

I can't add much to what these guys have said. I agree that the main issue was too many lit. What probably made the problem worse is that I find that it is easier to control the temperature as it is on its way up than it is to rein in a temperature once you have too much burning. There's no way you should need to add charcoal on such a short cook. I've gone 20 hours without adding charcoal on my 18.5 and over 12 hours without needing to add to my 22.5. I prefer not to use water in the pan, so I foil the pan, and I foil a big clay saucer and put it in the pan for a bit of a heat sink. Also, think of temperature adjustments like a small rudder turning a large ship: make a small adjustment and give it time to overcome the momentum and settle in. Otherwise, you'll be chasing a temperature the whole time and making adjustments much more often than necessary.
 
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Bryan,
I use the Kingsford Original and NOT the quick light. I also do not use starter fluid. Therefore, I don't seem to have off flavors from the briquets. I have not been aware of anyone having a problem with off flavors using briquets. In fact, it is used in competition BBQ. I'm from the Harry Soo school; he uses the cheapest.

There are two suggestions that I would make. First, get the best price you can on your BBQ fuel. And second, use a chimney. It is fast and clean. Reserve the lump for grilling where you want a really hot fire. IMHO, it is a waste to use lump at 250 degrees.
 
I don't use a chimney as it is a fire hazard in my neck of the woods. I'll load my WSM 22.5 coal basket (modded) with as much KBB as it will hold and then use my weed burner to light the coals right in front of the vent that I plan to leave open. Now that my WSM has become a dirty girl (and a couple other mods), controlling temp is much easier. I also learned to not panic like I was when I was 25 degrees hotter than I wanted. Small adjustments and give it time...
 
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