We now have a better picture of what’s going on.
Indeed - I put ALL the information ANYONE would EVER need to know in my first post.
NOT!!!!! Of course I thought so, but of course I didn't..... ;-)
Please read the thread Chef Jimmy posted for you. I have contacted the member who posted that tutorial and asked him to read your post and lend his advice. I am sure he will be along as soon as he can to share his knowledge. GREAT guy.
I will re-read that. And thanks for the other referral.
I am going to offer my opinion for what it is worth. I thought you might be getting that bitter acrid taste. Almost like: I can't tell if it is pork, beef, chicken or cardboard but IT'S SMOKED!!
I certainly wouldn't go that far! More like, this is good, but I wonder if it could be better?
I am going to assume that your wood fire is on a grate in the fire box and not on the floor and that you keep the stack fully open at all times.
Stack open all the time, but wood fire is on floor of firebox - is that bad? What is the advantage of a grate? I just kinda figured sitting on the floor - or rather a bed of ashes would help things burn more slowly. I thought that would be good. No?
I may be over thinking this and please , I mean no offense; but just seems to me that your nice brick smoker should be WAY more efficient.
No offense taken! I'm looking for input! Hey, if I don't like it, I can always ignore it - but I will certainly weigh all input.
It may be that your fire box is leaking as you said before. When I used my offset, I built a large wood fire, let the logs burn down and I was good for 10-12 hours. I added wood chunks from time to time to hold temp and add smoke if more time was needed. I would have thought that nice brick smoker would be WAY more efficient than my metal offset. Without seeing it I just can’t get my mind around the fact that that nice brick smoker is requiring you to stoke the fire that often.
Your smoker does sound efficient. I agree with all you say. I wonder also why mine seems to need more wood than one might think.
I am sorry to keep posting and asking questions but I have that can't see the forest for the trees feeling. I just think the solution is staring us both in the face and we are missing it. I am sure it is just me being stupid.
I am not of the opinion that anything you have said is stupid. I am looking for as exact an answer as I can get. The only way I can get that is if the inputter (is that a word?) has a very clear picture of what is going on - only way that is going to happen is by asking questions! So ask away!!!
My advice is to seal your fire box and try again.
I'll do that. Gotta run - gotta pick up my sweetie........ ;-) Thanks
Other than that, buy a cheap BBQ/ fire pit and use that to pre burn your logs so that you only add coals to your smoker. Then add a few sticks/chips for smoke flavor. Hopefully someone will come along with better suggestions. Sorry I can't help more. Keep Smokin!