WSM 18" long cooks


 
I still have some time till tomorrow midnight when I plan to start my overnight butt adventure for Saturday party)))
So, now you've made me think if I should even use a water in my water pan. Or apple cider vinegar, or apple juice, or whatever mix. If yes, what amount and what proportions?
 
Misha said:
I still have some time till tomorrow midnight when I plan to start my overnight butt adventure for Saturday party)))
So, now you've made me think if I should even use a water in my water pan. Or apple cider vinegar, or apple juice, or whatever mix. If yes, what amount and what proportions?
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Personally I always lined my pan with foil and always just used water. I sprayed with 1/2 ACV 1/2 water but I am not sure if spraying makes a large difference or not and I am sure there are different opinions.
 
I started out with water in the pan. If you are switching to B&B from Kingsford, that is one change. I would not make a second change by going dry and put hot water in the pan (but only do about 3/4 gallon) and see how it goes. I am fairly certain it will lock in on a temp for you and it will make a great butt. And butts are very forgiving.
 
@Misha - I agree with @Todd K Wisc, don't make too many changes at once. If you're still learning how to manage your temps, I would recommend using water for this first overnighter. Like I've said before, moving away from KBB made a significant difference in how long I could cook solely because of the reduction in ash buildup below the charcoal grate. You may still have to add coals in the morning (especially if you use water and don't plan on wrapping your butt), but there should be sufficient airflow to maintain a fire.
 
I agree with "change one thing at a time."

There's nothing wrong with cooking with water -- that is the base case for how the WSM is designed. It works very well -- it just isn't the most fuel efficient way to cook.

So for your upcoming overnight, I'd stick with the water. But load up your coal ring to the top. Either KBB or B&B would be fine. Maybe start out with hot water in the pan. And maybe use a little less water than the full 2.5G.

On an overnight cook, the fire will naturally tend to die down a bit. Which means you need less temperature suppression as the cook progresses. So having most/all of the water boil off sort of compensates for the smaller fire.

And don't by shy about wrapping the butt in the morning (foil or pink butcher paper) and/or finishing the cook in your kitchen oven. At some point the smoke stops being absorbed, and so after that you are just applying heat to get the meat to the tender point of 195-205 ish. So any heat source will do that job just the same.
 
Ok, so instead of changing a few things at once I decided to use Kingsford Original charcoal again but put much less water this time, I only added about 1 quart. Attaching photos of how did I setup and lit coals. I also added 5 cherry wood chunks. I did about a full basket of coals. I originally started with 220 and it was going 11PM to 11AM unmanaged, got a bit hotter over night and came up to 290 by 5AM, probably because all water evaporated by this time and temp started rising. Lowered temp by adjusting vents and kept cooking. No wrap this time, straight 12 hours cook to reach 205 internal. Butt came out great.
 

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Misha said:
Ok, so instead of changing a few things at once I decided to use Kingsford Original charcoal again but put much less water this time, I only added about 1 quart. Attaching photos of how did I setup and lit coals. I also added 5 cherry wood chunks. I did about a full basket of coals. I originally started with 220 and it was going 11PM to 11AM unmanaged, got a bit hotter over night and came up to 290 by 5AM, probably because all water evaporated by this time and temp started rising. Lowered temp by adjusting vents and kept cooking. No wrap this time, straight 12 hours cook to reach 205 internal. Butt came out great.
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Looking good Misha! How do you feel the fuel management/consumption went this time? Did you have any left over coals, and if so was it more or less than you anticipated/wanted?
 
Misha -- sounds like a very successful cook. No big deal if your temp creeped up a little. For a pork butt, any temp beginning with a 2 works. And that higher temp probably saved you a few hours on the overall cook time.

Interesting that you put the probes through the front door rather than the side grommet. I find the grommet to be very inconvenient and hardly ever use it. You might want to consider adding the notch/slot in the future. Lots of instructions and suggestions on here about that.

And if you want to consider an ATC for a future overnight, come back and we'll talk. As you discovered, you totally don't need an ATC. But the ATC crutch significantly improves my sleep quality.
 
Thanks again to everyone for your suggestions and help.

Brian Johnson said:
Looking good Misha! How do you feel the fuel management/consumption went this time? Did you have any left over coals, and if so was it more or less than you anticipated/wanted?
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I am still thinking that snake method is much more fuel efficient, then minion. I am wondering if we can do snake on WSM same as on kettles? I totally agree that just dumping coals is easier than building a snake, but for me extra 3 mins of work is not a big of a deal on 12 hours cook. We have left just a little bit of coals that allowed us to quick smoke and cook some salmon for another hour too after we took the butt out before the coals were completely gone.

Jim C in Denver said:
Interesting that you put the probes through the front door rather than the side grommet. I find the grommet to be very inconvenient and hardly ever use it. You might want to consider adding the notch/slot in the future. Lots of instructions and suggestions on here about that.

And if you want to consider an ATC for a future overnight, come back and we'll talk. As you discovered, you totally don't need an ATC. But the ATC crutch significantly improves my sleep quality.
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I saw it somewhere so decided to give it a try, worked fine. But the cables so soft that there was no problems to run it just between drum and lid, wouldn't be any smoke leaks. I also have a few spare silicone grommets off of Amazon, these are kinda tight while new but works just fine, just need to find a time to drill and install it to the WSM as mine doesn't have one from the factory.
Sorry, don't know what is ATC 🤷‍♂️
 
I use the snake method in my 22.5" WSM when smoking Bacon ! Remembering that the number of LIT coals determines the HEAT range, the snake is perfect for low temperatures.
 
I also have a few spare silicone grommets off of Amazon, these are kinda tight while new but works just fine, just need to find a time to drill and install it to the WSM as mine doesn't have one from the factory.

Opinions vary, but imo the factory grommet totally sucks. I wouldn't bother to drill a new hole for that. Just keep using as is unless/until you cut the notch/slot -- which is the best option imo.
 
Misha said:
I am still thinking that snake method is much more fuel efficient, then minion. I am wondering if we can do snake on WSM same as on kettles?
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@Misha - There was a thread a few months back (https://tvwbb.com/threads/snake-method-on-wsm.97417/) that talked about the snake method in the WSM. This post in particular has a couple of pictures, including what I would call a hybrid snake/minion method. I only call it that because looking at the picture, the volume of coals looks more like a variation on the minion method than a snake (which in my mind's eye would be neatly stacked 3-6 high or wide). Anyway, I just wanted to show you an example snake setup in a WSM.

*Edited to add links to original thread​
 
Brian Johnson said:
@Bob Bass - Have you used the snake method on long cooks (sorry if you've answered this already)?
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Hi Brian,
Short answer is no. I just don't do long cooks at low temperature. Other than bacon, my lowest temperature is in the 250 - 275 range. Mostly 275. I don't remember what temperature I used to use when first started cooking BBQ (mid-late 1970s).
 
I am still thinking that snake method is much more fuel efficient, then minion. I am wondering if we can do snake on WSM same as on kettles?

Misha -- If you love love love the snake, just go back to the kettle.

The WSM snake idea has been beaten to death on here. One thread example is below. But search around and see what others say and do.

Only reason to do a true kettle type snake in a WSM is if you are trying to smoke something ultra low temp -- like 150F.

Othewise, just do Minion. You don't need to go to the snake configuration on a WSM. Because the WSM has way more vent control than a kettle does. Because the WSM has a big temp suppressing diffusing water pan that a kettle lacks. Because the WSM has several feet of distance between the fire and the grate. Kettle has like six inches.

Now some people do what you could call a "directional Minion." They make the fire spread in one direction -- side to side, front to back, or around in a circle. Rather than spread from the center out. That totally works. Go for that if you like that better for some reason.

The best way to increase WSM efficiency is to just cook more stuff in each cook. Doesn't take much more fuel or time to cook 2 or 3 or 4 butts than to cook just one.

tvwbb.com

Snake Method on WSM

I a new 22" WSM owner, long time kettle owner. And I have used the snake method many times with the kettle. I have used the WSM only 3 times and I'm wondering if the snake method could be applied here to lengthen cook times, or at least reduce charcoal usage.
tvwbb.com tvwbb.com
 
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Jim C in Denver said:
Now some people do what you could call a "directional Minion." They make the fire spread in one direction -- side to side, front to back, or around in a circle. Rather than spread from the center out. That totally works. Go for that if you like that better for some reason.
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"Directional Minion" - I like that name & description better than what I termed a "hybrid minion/snake". I think I may have played around with this idea once or twice. I believe my goal was to get the fire to burn toward the access door so that if/when it came time to add coals I'd have easier access to the existing bed of hot coals and wouldn't have to do a hot squat... though I don't know if it was successful. Clearly I wasn't impressed enough to keep doing it.
 
Brian Johnson said:
"Directional Minion" - I like that name & description better than what I termed a "hybrid minion/snake". I think I may have played around with this idea once or twice. I believe my goal was to get the fire to burn toward the access door so that if/when it came time to add coals I'd have easier access to the existing bed of hot coals and wouldn't have to do a hot squat... though I don't know if it was successful. Clearly I wasn't impressed enough to keep doing it.
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Yeah - thats my 'directional minion'..... I like that terminology alot better than snake.
While one of the reasons for me setting it up this way was to be more efficient with coal usage, the main reason for the setup is to ensure continuous smoke thru out a 6-7-8 hour cook -- which is what I do the most of - pork butts. I don't have to worry or guess about when a chunk of wood is going to catch or the bigger problem of them all catching at once for MASSIVE dose of smoke (I had that problem once and I vowed never to repeat it). It also allows the wood to be buried in the coals per Harry Soo..... If I were to do a longer 10-18 hour cook - I would fully expect to and plan on refilling the donut at ~ the 7-8 hour mark - which is actually pretty easy and I'm not adverse to having to do that. I've also concluded (from both the WSM and Kettle) that the best and longest heat is more dependent on the depth of the coal bed, not the diameter of the coal bed --- shallow coal beds just don't throw a lot of heat for very long and tend to just taper down in temp too quickly. Its not a problem if you are willing to fill the coal ring to the top for every cook, but it seems wasteful to me and I hate dealing with leftover half burnt coals myself.

Misha --- I feel your pain about the amount of coals needed for a cook on an 18 --- it still seems to me than it uses more than it should. But it is what it is, and its so worth while. I just try to maximize the amount of meat now to make it worth while and make sense --- I hate cooking only one butt - two is no more effort than one -- three becomes more laborious and logistically difficult, but doable (limited fridge space). Same with chickens - but I've picked up a kettle that does as good or better job than the WSM while using much less coals. I'm really hoping that I run across a WSM 14 at some point --- that would be fun to play with!
 
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