Temperture control


 
M

Mike Taylor

TVWBB Member
I've done ribs twice and a turkey breast. I'm having trouble keeping the temperture up after about three hours. I started with two full lit chimneys each time. Top vent is open 100% for the full smoke. At around two and half hours the temp starts to drop and I start opening vents and tapping the legs. I ended up adding more charcoal each time. My WSM seems to be pretty tight. Any help would be appreciated.
 
Start with a full ring of unlit and add no more than 1/2-2/3 chimney of lit, "all" vents 100% and you can hold higher temps much longer this way. A Foiled dry pan will get the highest temps.
 
Seems like a lot of charcoal for a five to six hour smoke. I used to do it with two chimneys in my 25 year old Brinkman. On the other hand I'm still in the learning process.

Thanks for your reply.
 
For cooks shorter than 6 hrs, I would go 2/3-3/4 ring of unlit and as noted above on the lit. It won't take long to reach your temps I promise. For less than 4hr cooks you can do the same on unlit and go 1 full chimney of lit. If your looking for temps above 275 just leave all vents open till you see if you need to close down.
 
I did two 7.5 lbs. butts for Super Bowl. Ran my probe wire down thru the top vent, stuck it thru a potato to measure the temp at the grate. Low and behold it was pretty close to the Weber lid thermometer. The grate temp stayed around 235-240 and the butts were done in 11 hours. The pulled pork was excellent...lots of compliments.
 
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