- Sep 22, 2013
- 3
- 10
Greetings from the Mile High City!
I recently decided to learn myself a bit more about the wonderful art of smoking meat and I wound up here!
A bit about myself...My wife and I live just south of downtown Denver, CO. I am a mechanical engineer by trade and currently work at a small shop doing manufacturing engineering as well as some design for new stuff. On top of tending the smoker, I also enjoy cooking, video games and RC airplanes, to name a few.
I have been using my smoker for a few years now but have always sort of winged it. I guess I wouldnt say I am doing it wrong because most of the food thats come out of the smoker has been tasty but I decided I wanted to get a bit more technical about it and see if I can tell the difference. Im not sure I will be able to because I cant even tell the difference between hickory and mesquite smoke. But its all for fun anyhow.
On to my equipment...
The Brinkman vertical smoker....i think this is a lot of peoples first smoker and it is mine too. I think mine must be an old one or something because the handles are different on it than others that I have seen. Someday I will build a big fancy one, but I need a house and a garage first:) What is that box and cord on the side of it you might ask? I'll get to that in a second.
Ive always had a hard time getting the brinkmann up to temp so a couple of years ago a punched some small holes in the bottom of it. I dont think these did much as they get clogged with ash pretty fast.
After reading about some of the mods guys were doing to the brinkmann, I decided to make swiss cheese out of the fire pan. I have not used the smoker since adding more holes.
The electrical box on the side of it is a control box for a heating element. This heating element is scavenged from a bearing heater. I thought having an electrical heating element in the bottom of the box would help to raise the temperate inside the smoker and help to stabilize the temp. Ive only used it twice since adding it and have mixed feelings so far. I may end up removing it, I think the enlarged holes in the fire pan are going to get a lot of ash on the heating element. I had not previously thought about checking the door thermometer on the smoker against anything else, so for my next smoke I am equipped with a thermocouple so I can get a feel for how accurate the smoker thermo is. I have read that they arent...I am prepping a pork loin roast for smoking as I type this and should have a new post up in the appropriate section soon.
Also at my disposal is a Master Forge grill. On the left is a 3 burner grill and on the right is a sear burner. It also has a regular stove style burner under the lid on the right. I really like this grill and have had it for a few years but it does cook on the hot side. Care must be taken if you want to keep the temp anywhere below about 400 degrees.
Anyway, now that the obligatory introductions are out of the way, on to the meat smoking!
I recently decided to learn myself a bit more about the wonderful art of smoking meat and I wound up here!
A bit about myself...My wife and I live just south of downtown Denver, CO. I am a mechanical engineer by trade and currently work at a small shop doing manufacturing engineering as well as some design for new stuff. On top of tending the smoker, I also enjoy cooking, video games and RC airplanes, to name a few.
I have been using my smoker for a few years now but have always sort of winged it. I guess I wouldnt say I am doing it wrong because most of the food thats come out of the smoker has been tasty but I decided I wanted to get a bit more technical about it and see if I can tell the difference. Im not sure I will be able to because I cant even tell the difference between hickory and mesquite smoke. But its all for fun anyhow.
On to my equipment...
The Brinkman vertical smoker....i think this is a lot of peoples first smoker and it is mine too. I think mine must be an old one or something because the handles are different on it than others that I have seen. Someday I will build a big fancy one, but I need a house and a garage first:) What is that box and cord on the side of it you might ask? I'll get to that in a second.
Ive always had a hard time getting the brinkmann up to temp so a couple of years ago a punched some small holes in the bottom of it. I dont think these did much as they get clogged with ash pretty fast.
After reading about some of the mods guys were doing to the brinkmann, I decided to make swiss cheese out of the fire pan. I have not used the smoker since adding more holes.
The electrical box on the side of it is a control box for a heating element. This heating element is scavenged from a bearing heater. I thought having an electrical heating element in the bottom of the box would help to raise the temperate inside the smoker and help to stabilize the temp. Ive only used it twice since adding it and have mixed feelings so far. I may end up removing it, I think the enlarged holes in the fire pan are going to get a lot of ash on the heating element. I had not previously thought about checking the door thermometer on the smoker against anything else, so for my next smoke I am equipped with a thermocouple so I can get a feel for how accurate the smoker thermo is. I have read that they arent...I am prepping a pork loin roast for smoking as I type this and should have a new post up in the appropriate section soon.
Also at my disposal is a Master Forge grill. On the left is a 3 burner grill and on the right is a sear burner. It also has a regular stove style burner under the lid on the right. I really like this grill and have had it for a few years but it does cook on the hot side. Care must be taken if you want to keep the temp anywhere below about 400 degrees.
Anyway, now that the obligatory introductions are out of the way, on to the meat smoking!
