My first smoker.

One question I have is about the accuracy of the Weber thermometer on the top of the grill. I did the burn in last night. I don't have my Maverick therm yet but my gf had a digital probe one laying around. I checked that one with icewater and I was getting 33-34 degrees, so it was close on the lower end. I didn't check it it boiling water. During the burn in I inserted the probe into the top vent just to see how it would compare with the Weber thermometer. It was reading temps about 50 degrees hotter than the Weber one. Is this right? Can a meat probe be used to check the smoker temp.

After last night I do see the importance of having a thermometer that not only monitors the meat temperature but the temperature of the grill. We are thinking that we may smoke some ribs today, a shake down cruise if you will.

Did my first smoke and can use some advice. I did pork spare ribs using a rub I bought from BBQ galore. I also bought some sauce to have on the side. I bought the ribs from the supermarket (being my first time I didn't want to invest a lot of money in it). I got the smoker up to a good temp where it was stable and then added the meat. After that I couldn't get the smoker back up to temp. I had the bottom vents wide open and even added charcoal after 1.5 hours. I was using water. Finally after about 2.5 hours I got rid of the water and added yet even more charcoal. The temp go back up to a good range. I took the skirt cuttings off the grill at about 3.5 hours, this is the first time I took the top off the grill. The flavor wasn't bad so I was thinking the ribs might turn out OK. At that time I decided to use the sauce to glaze one of the racks because I was worried that they looked dry and I wanted a sample of both dry and wet ribs. I took the ribs off at about 4 hours 15 minutes and let them rest while I grilled corn on my gas grill. When I served them I thought they had a nice flavor (I used hickory). Not over powering but a nice subtle smoky flavor. The smoke ring was about 1/8". They weren't quite as tender as I had hoped but they did bite clean off the bone and I wonder if that was because I didn't have enough heat early in the smoking. Neither the wet or dry ribs were dry. All in all I was pretty happy with the results. Here are my questions, though"

1. How much charcoal should I have used on a 22.5 WSM. I started with a full chimney and a few surrounding it. I added a couple of handfuls at 1.5 hours (still with water in the pan) and a few more at 2.5 when I scooped out the water. At that point I saw that I had a lot more ash than charcoal. I expect having the vents wide open made them burn too quickly but I had to have them open to even get the grill close to 200.

2. Water. Do y'all use water when you smoke. If so, how much. Weber's guide said to fill it up so I did. Having water in the pan makes it really hard to add charcoal as well. If you do use water how much do you use?

3. Vents. OK, I didn't have a clue on how to adjust the vents (I've been using a gas grill - not a smoker - for years. I started with the bottom vents at about 1/2 and the top vent at about half. When I was having trouble maintaining heat I had the bottom vents wide open and found closing the top vent got the grill hotter. Is the top vent more for temp control and having it fully closed increases the temp? I was getting smoke coming out where the top of the smoker sits and I was getting some coming out of the access panel so I was thinking I could just close the top vent.

4. Meat. I know that there is a big difference in the quality of beef but I really don't know much about pork. Like I said, I didn't want to invest a lot into the meat this time since it was my first effort. But, is there a big difference in the quality of pork if I go to a higher end meat store.

Thanks in advance. I am a newbie at this (though no longer a virgin) and I know my questions reflect that. My gf loved the ribs and even her non BBQ eating daughter had the dry ones and liked them (she doesn't like sauce on them) so I am going to claim a success on my efforts.

Yeah, Tom. I took a look at the directions and figured out I put the water basin right on top of the charcoal ring. It is supposed to hang right below the bottom rack and I saw the damn brackets but I had a blonde moment which evidently gray doesn't fix. I expect I pretty much was trapping the heat down at the bottom and with the vents full open was just burning charcoal.

Last Saturday I did 6 racks of spare ribs. It was my son's B-day and I promised ribs for my bookkeeper, my fiberglass guy and my UPS driver on top of having a big crowd for the party. I did a lot better with the temp this time though occasionally the temp would jump up to 250 for no reason I could see. Later in the process the temp started dropping to the high teens. I was trying to keep it pegged at 225. We made up some of Jeff's Memphis Sauce #1 which was really good. I left out the liquid smoke and the cayenne pepper (don't like liquid smoke and too many women were there for the cayenne) from the sauce recipe. I do recommend Jeff's book. Very simple and straightforward.

I also recommend the Maverick 732 thermometer. I only used it to monitor the smoker temp and I was really glad to have it. I picked up a brass lamp stem and drilled a hole in the side for the temp probe. Works great.

When you get your Weber the only complaint I had with the directions was that they don't call out where to use the two different washers. Counting them will clue you in but the metal ones are used with the smoker leg attachments and the composite ones are used on the outside of the grill for the grill/water basin brackets.

My UPS driver is a smoker and he gave me an A- overall. He said I didn't oversmoke it so the ribs had a nice flavor. He knocked me down a bit for tenderness but I still wasn't completely satisfied there. He said the sauce was excellent. 4 of the ribs I used the 3-2-1 method and the other two I never wrapped but, instead, spritzed with apple juice. I had planned on using cherry but mistakenly put in hickory instead. I also used lump charcoal this time with briquets in the charcoal starter (minion method). I used Jeff's trick of using the side burner of my grill to start the starter. I probably should have used a bit more charcoal because of the temp drop in the last hour.
 

First I heated it up with nothing inside and as hot as I could get it. I think that is a must, you have to burn off any chemical residue from the manufacturing process. I wouldn't smoke anything before doing that. Then I sprayed everything with a "Pam" type spray and cooked some ribs from the grocery store. Like many on here I just didn't feel like wasting meat but with my first smoke I didn't want to spend a lot on the meat. Even though I screwed them up with putting the water basin in the wrong place and not cooking them long enough (you need to do 6 hours and forget about the meat temp) they were all right, at least the flavor.

You do want to drill a hole for the probe to go in. I went to Home Depot over where they have their lighting display. There was a rack with some odds and ends and you can find some brass lamp nipples there (it comes in a blue pack of assorted different lengths and on the bottom says 1/8 etc). The smallest nipple is all you need. I think I used a 7/16" bit to drill the hole but I can verify that for you. It was just large enough for the nipple to thread through. I put duct tape around the spot I wanted to drill with just a small part in the center open because I was worried the drill might slip and scratch the finish. I drilled the hole about halfway between the top and bottom grill.
 

Let me know if you have any questions from a newbie on here. I am really happy with the Weber, I think it was a good choice for me. Since I did choose big and went with the 22.5 I think it is probably the only smoker I will ever need. Let me know how you're doing with that. I can say that my fiberglass guy took my ribs home today and I think he is thinking about getting into smoking as well. When he isn't at work he is at home with his family and he really is the type of guy who likes doing things himself, and doing it well.

Weber just makes good stuff IMHO. I've had other grills and even bought a not so cheap grill from Sears, which didn't last any better than the Char-broil ones I used to get from the Home Depot. What I really like about the WSM is it is supposed to be pretty easy to manage. Also, while the 22.5 is big it still is smaller than any offset grill out there. My gf's backyard patio isn't huge so space was a consideration.

For the record, I used a 25/64" bit to drill the hole for the probe nipple. It looks and works just fine. I suppose if I wanted to get really fancy I would put a screw on cap on it with a notch just big enough for the probe wires but I don't see that as being necessary.