Lake of the Ozarks new 250 Reverse Flow build NOOB NEEDS HELP !!!

Well, here I am again, still chomping at the bit to try every little thing smoked. This past weekend 10/8/11, while still working on Grizzly, I thought I could try my hand at smoking some cheeses. Ive been reading some articles about this on this forum, and now understand about COLD smoking and keeping a cheese smoke at about 85 to 100 degrees. Well, I thought I could get this beast going on a minimum, low roll and achieve this... NOOOO.. Even with a minimum effort, I had great problems keeping this thing below 150. I shut off every damper, closed the lids, even put a pizza tray over the stack thinking I could smother this thing into submission... nope... I started off putting my cheeses on the expanded metal smack dab in the middle closest to where the separation of the doors. My thinking was to keep it away from the fire box side away from the heat, and also keep it away from where the smoke comes up from the RF side.. middle right?? Well, the baffle held the heat alright, and so did the rest... Oh, by the way, I got my thermometers in and installed them that day. Now I know more about whats going on inside. Anyway, I started with the experiment of 6 different cheeses. All about 1/2 pound each. Starting on your left side, running from top to bottom I have 1) Colby Jack, 2) Hot Pepper, 3) Sharp Cheddar. Now on your right side top to bottom is 1) Long Horn Colby, 2) Farmers Cheese and 3) Big Eye Swiss By the way, this is the AFTER picture. Getting ahead of myself, Ill insert the question I think you might be having right now looking at the picture. What the hell is the cheese in holding them in perfect round shapes. Answer.... They are hamburger press molds from Tupperware.



As I was trying to contain my temps, trying everything in the book I could think of, my cheese started to melt and began dripping through the expanded metal. NOT GOOD...SO, I broke out the aluminum foil thinking I could just lay them on top so they would not drip through. Needless to say, I had 6 cheese blobs, and not very attractive.



I had this brilliant idea about how to get them shaped back to some form of a cheese block. I was getting plenty of smoke, but still too much heat. I tried putting each block into the mold and spraying them down with ice cold water thinking they would form again. They did, but only for a short period. That's when I decided to just go get 5 more molds and leave them inside. That way, I could store them in the same mold and they would keep perfect shape. Wifey asked if I was gonna melt her coveted burger molds.. Setting her mind at ease, I reminded her that the dishwasher was hotter then what was currently happening, and besides, were on foil, so no worries. The only thing is, about 2.5 hours in, I turned the cheese over, so both sides would get a good dose of the hickory I was throwing at them.



SO, now for the hard part.... waiting the recommended 2 weeks before the sampling. Wifey just don't understand and tried for a more hurried schedule. Now the deal is, for a SMALL sampling at the end of ONE WEEK, then put back up for the next week to see the difference. Everyone on here SWEARS the 2 week period is a must, so we shall see. Now.. I been laying awake at night thinking about.. OK,,, what next and I have an idea that might just warp your noodle. Any suggestions or comments will be welcome.. What say you on the subject of smoking WINE? I'm thinking a nice Port would be an excellent start to throw some fruit tree smoke at, like cherry wood?? Any thoughts? I even thought of the method, don't laugh, but I think it involves a fish tank and fish pumps aerating the wine with smoke... hmmmmm That might be a real Dandy... More later, Ken

Bikes Blues BBQ said:

Hey Ken,  nice looking build.   I'm just up the road from you in Fulton, so if you need help taste-testing some of that Q, I'm your man.   Seriously, I'd like to see your smoker in person some time.  

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You can come down to the lake any time. If you want to add something of your own to the mix, just let me know and we can plan for it. I can be reached via email from this post. Cheers

hdflame said:

I do like your doors.  I had actually thought about finding a small wood stove on Craig's list to use for my fire box.  Good idea using the doors.  What was the problem you ran into when mounting?

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Thanks for your kind words. The doors can be a challenge since you end up doing your fabrication AROUND and to meet the already existing doors that were made for something else. The hard part is figuring out the geometry of the hinges without actually having what the doors came off of in front of you. We originally tried mounting the hinges flush with the box, but we automatically found out that we had to offset the bracket away from the fire box wall in order for the hinge mount to have free swing range open and closed. Then, if you get them too far away, you create a gap between the doors and the wall making the doors not seal correctly. I still have about a 1/16th gap between the doors and the frame it sits on, even after I re-roped the stove doors with fiberglass rope. The gap seems to be be negligible at this point, but it was a challenge getting the hinges set correctly.. Good luck with yours, and holler if you need to be walked through it. Ken