Greetings from Lawn Guyland (Long Island, New York)

Hi Mike!   to SMF!!! We're happy to have you! Lot's of great stuff to read on here and you're going to learn a lot from the E-course!

Hello Mike and to SMF - glad to have you here - good luck with the new smoker

Hello, my name is Lance and I am an addict....

OK Mike, welcome to the site.  I'm new to the site myself but have been smoke curing, hot smoke cooking and playing around with traditional BBQ for some years.  I'm firmly convinced that if it can be cooked in a household kitchen it can be cooked with fire.

If by Brinkmann vertical you are referring to the ubiquitous Smoke 'N Grill or the Gourmet Smoker and Grill (AKA ECB, AKA El Cheapo Brinkmann) you have a tool that can produce great BBQ.  The fact that it needs a bit of tinkering and attention to produce good results consistently is a plus.  Think of it as training wheels for learning the basics.

The intake air vents are pretty restricted since assorted fools have used them over flammable surfaces and the corporate tort lawyers don't want the company to be sued any more than is normal.  There is no provision to get a stable and predictable airflow under the coals  since they were worried about small coals falling out.  Combine that with the need to sell at a low price point and so the fire sits on the bottom of the fire box and you really have little control over the draft or burning rate. 

Two easy fixes are to drill a ring of holes (maybe 3/8") between the slots on about an 8-10" circle pattern and then elevate the fire by plunking in an elevated grate.  Now you have an adequate air supply and a place for the ashes to fall without cutting off air flow and air coming up through the coals to promote clean burning and an absence of creosote and other things that can sometimes make for somewhat bitter tastes.  The grate can be as simple as one of the racks you would use in a roasting pan or a small grill rack with either one raised on a few wads of crumpled aluminum foil.  Remember that this smoker is your training wheels and tinkering and modifying it is easier than just about any other smoker.

So, with about ten minutes invested (four of them involved with finding the chuck key) you will have fixed the weaknesses of the design.

If you didn't get it right the first time and you have more air holes that you wanted = a few more wads of foil.  Not enough air holes?  Well, you know where the chuck key is now so get to work....

I use well ashed over briquettes to start and to heat things up and lump charcoal after that.  I toss in lumps of wood about half the size of a fist or a bit smaller to get the amount of smoke flavor I want.  Frankly, I usually switch to mostly wood chunks.  The two whole boned pork butts in my avatar were done in a Smoke 'N Grill about 4-5 weeks ago so you can see that they can produce darn good stuff.

If you don't have access to want some hunks of flavor woods shoot me a PM with an address and I'll mail you some.  We have a woodlot and heat a pretty large home with wood so i set aside a lot of the good stuff for friends and us for smoking and BBQ.  I've got apple, cherry, a couple of kinds each of oak and maple, beech, hickory, yadda, yadda, yadda.  Let me know.

Sorry for the long reply but, again, welcome.

Lance

Mike, your smoker is different from what I've used so you may find better advice over on the charcoal smoker forum.  I start with briquettes to get everything started heating up but unless you use a side fire to start more and let them ash over before adding them many brands of briquettes can leave a funky taste from the binders etc but your mileage may differ.  Let me kow if you want some hunks of wood.

Lance

Welcome to a great place and remember Qview is your best friend.

Hello and welcome to SMF! Glad you joined us.

Welcome to SMF

Welcome fellow Long Islander! This forum is awesome. Has helped me in many ways!!