I did my first cook yesterday with babby backs. I put in 1 1/2 gallons of water in the pan and full lump minon style, on new 2010 18.5. The temperature at guage went up to 300 and stayed there. Thirty minutes in I closed the two front vents by 1/3 and temp stayed at 255 for 2.5 hrs. Checked ribs, done but dry in rib rack. What can I do to drop temp to 200 to 220? Or should I have not used the rib rack? Any suggestions on vent settings would be apreceiated.
Temp Control
- Thread starter D Badger
- Start date
If you follow this procedure you should be fine, if not you may have some leakage.
Fire-Up The WSM
Fire-up the cooker using the Minion Method. Fill the charcoal chamber almost to overflowing with unlit Kingsford charcoal briquettes or lump. This should be enough fuel to fire the cooker for 12-14 hours, maybe longer depending upon weather conditions and how much meat is being cooked.
Light 20-40 briquettes using a chimney starter and spread them over the unlit briquettes. Arrange the smoke wood chunks evenly over the lit briquettes.
Assemble the cooker and fill the water pan from above immediately with hot tap water.
Then I would set bottom vents at 25% and it should dial right in, at least mine did from the start with no problems.
Fire-Up The WSM
Fire-up the cooker using the Minion Method. Fill the charcoal chamber almost to overflowing with unlit Kingsford charcoal briquettes or lump. This should be enough fuel to fire the cooker for 12-14 hours, maybe longer depending upon weather conditions and how much meat is being cooked.
Light 20-40 briquettes using a chimney starter and spread them over the unlit briquettes. Arrange the smoke wood chunks evenly over the lit briquettes.
Assemble the cooker and fill the water pan from above immediately with hot tap water.
Then I would set bottom vents at 25% and it should dial right in, at least mine did from the start with no problems.
Thanks Glenn, I was trying to follow the recipe in the low and slow book and I should have done more research about vents. I took off the two racks and let the cooker run after refilling the water pan with cold water and the temp ran on up to 350 and stayed there for 2 hrs then dropped down to 240 after being on for about 7 hrs. I did not check it after that. They must have changed the size of the water pan because it holds way more than 1 gallon.
Yes the pan is much larger. If I have the lid off more than a min I shut the bottom vents off, when I put the lid back on I wait to see what the temps are doing before I open them back up.
You will learn how to adjust over time to where ya don't need to watch the guage as much, it will be natural.
You will learn how to adjust over time to where ya don't need to watch the guage as much, it will be natural.