Too Much Fuel / Smoke Wood?


 
T

Tyler Robert

New member
Warning - I am wordy, and this is kind of long! Sorry, but I appreciate the feedback!

This past weekend I did my first long smoke on two Boston Butts, total of about 17lbs. Overall, things went well for my first time, but it left me with a few questions regarding the amount of charcoal and smoke wood normally used on this type of cook.

The basics:
It was cold outside, as I'm in Indiana, probably about 30deg or less.
18" WSM with full bowl of warm water
1 Maverick probe as well as an oven thermometer (I wanted to ensure that I finally found out the difference in temp from the OEM lid thermometer)
"standard" Kingsford - the stuff that went on sale a while back at Home Depot
Chunks of Cherry and Hickory (about 40 / 60 or so)
Overall cook time of about 13 hours to internal temp of 195 or so, then a rest of about 30 minutes before pulling (couldn't wait any longer!!)

I set up with my understanding of the Minion method. I made sure the bottom of the chamber was empty of any ash from previous cook. I loaded the chamber about 90%full with unlit coals and buried about 4 small fist sized wood chunks. I put about 45 -50 briquettes in a chimney and lit until about 90% grayed over. At that point, I poured and spread over unlit coals, and then added another 3 small fist size chunks of wood. I let it set for about 10 minutes while I assembled cooker / added bowl. At that point I added room temp butts, both on the top grate. I had all vents fully open for the first half hour. I was shooting for 225 - 240 at the top grate, but it took me 2 hours to get down under 250, even after closing vents to only 25% open. After the first 3-4 hours I came to the conclusion that my lid temp gauge is showing about 35deg lower than my top grate (which helps to explain my past sub-par rib results). By 5 hours in, I'm now struggling to keep temp at approx 225, even after opening the vents back up to almost 100%. I feel like I'm loosing it!!
At 5 hours I flipped butts and took a look at the coals and realize they are AT LEAST half way gone and there was a ton of ash still in the chamber so I added about 3/4 of a chimney of lit, grayed over coals. I also noticed that the chunk wood was black, but didn't seem to really be burning all the way through. After another 2 hours I was again struggling to keep above 225 so I added yet ANOTHER half of a lit chimney. This time I left the middle section off for a little longer while I let all the partially burned coals more fully engage. From here forward, no problems with temp and I was relieved. Overall, I was surprised that I ended up using about 1-1/4 bags of charcoal and 7 chunks of wood (meat came out with what I would consider a noticeable, but mild smoke flavor).

Is this a "more than normal" amount of charcoal for this type of cook?
How long do you normally let the lit coals engage the unlit before assembling and starting cook?
Am I starting off with too much lit coal?
Any other ideas / suggestions?

Side note - At the end of the day I ended up with quite a bit of pretty darn good pulled pork, I would really like to get through these issues and save myself a little stress during the cook.
 
Seems to me, you added too many lit charcoal. You said as many as 50, I think 20 would have been more than enough. You did use a lot of wood, but if you were happy with the flavor, then so be it. The area you may need work is the bottom vents. If they are wide open, then you will burn lots of fuel. What you want to do is smolder at an adaquate temp. Threes many ways to do that, basically the most straight forward is to let you wsm come to temp and start closing the vents. The goal is to have a goof long smolder with as little vent adjustment as possible. From what I can tell, you had a very successful cook, only it ate a lot of fuel. You just need to learn how to drive it fuel efficiently, which is gained through experience. Congrats on the boatload of tasty PP, and keep up the good work, consentrating on fuel management
 
Well.... myself.... I would not use water at the ambient temps you describe (actually I never use it anymore - even when it's 100*+). It's a heat sink and with the cool weather you have described, you will burn lots of fuel to get & keep 225* in the cooker. Your initial temp spike was caused (imho) by using WAY TOO MUCH lit charcoal for a MM start.

I would suggest using no water, a full ring of charcoal & 12 lit coals for the MM start & catch the heat (adjust vents) around 20* or so before your target cooking temps. You really don't need to add wood chunks after 2 hours or so because the meat will not absorb much smoke after that.

Outside of that.... seems like you did quite well & the proof is in the pudding.
 
Anytime I find myself losing temp, especially a few hours into a cook, I'll take some tongs and give the coals a gentle stir. This always seems to help rejuvenate the coals.
 
Agree with Chuck and Robert 50 coals is way to much for a minion start especially in an 18.5. Also you burned a lot of fuel heating water, I never use water just foil the bowl for easy clean up.
The meat will only absorb smoke for a couple of hours depending on what it is, so adding wood after that doesn't do much.
Although it sounds like you had a very successful cook, keep experimenting and it's never a failure if you learn something in the process.
Also welcome to the forum will be looking forward to seeing some of your cooks.
 
Tyler,
I had similar problems with my 22 WSM when I first got it. I had water in the bowl, was adding a chimney of lit to a chimney of unlit and was burning a lot of fuel. I too struggled with temps. The advice above is sound. I quit using water a few years ago and fill the cooker up with unlit and add ~10-12 lit charcoal. I set my 3 bottom vents wide open to get it up to temp. and adjust them to hold the desired temp for ~30 minutes before adding my meat. I use a lot less fuel now and find that I don't adjust much while the cook is going either by bringing the cooker up to temp with out the meat in it.
 
Too many lit coals for sure. I use 25 at most when doing a long cook (pork butts). It takes an hour or so to get up to temp, but it's much easier to control. Start shutting the vents down when you get to 200 degrees. I usually have two vents open just a sliver, to maintain 250 or lower.
 
Thank you for the input! I've been hesitant to ditch the water in the pan, but I guess it's time to give it a try. While I'm back, I figured I should add some pictures from the cook.






 
I also agree that to many lit coals were used. I usually use 10-15. If the temps are colder I'll go up to 20. I also agree with Rich on the water subject. It takes a lot of energy/fuel to heat or maintain the temp of the water. I use a pizza stone as my heat sync as do many others and have had great success with it.
 
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