Smoke is no joke

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steve doc

Newbie
Original poster
Jul 14, 2017
3
10
Basically a beginner from southeast Pa. Using an older model offset Brinkman heavy gauge steel. Offered as a gift, rusting, and in poor condition, I dismantled it completely,and with a lot of care and effort, turned it into a brand new one. I've used it for ribs,chicken,brisket, but I'm having a problem with smoke. It's too much. I've been using mostly cherry. Hot coals, lay on a piece or two, and I just get clouds of white smoke.Looking for that thin blue smoke that makes the difference. I've heard that brinkmans can be troublesome without modifying them to some degree which I have done, but my concern is heavy smoke. Any advice is welcome as I will not give up.
 
Steve Doc, welcome to SMF!. Glad you are here with the new old Brinkman and ready to put it to good use. 

ALL charcoal and wood smokers, mods or not, put out that heavy white and grey smoke until the fuel and wood heats up and begins burning cleanly.  It can take a hour or more before the fire starts making TBS.  Don't load the meat until you see hints of blue. 

Try a dry run, no meat, and wait it out.  You'll get an idea how long it takes for your smoker to start making TBS. 

Enjoy the forum.

Ray
 
Welcome from SC. It's good to have you on this great site. I start my fires with charcoal to get a good bed of coals and to get the CC up to temp. I always pre-heat my splits before putting them on the fire. The pre-heated wood will ignite quicker, keeping the fire from dropping too fast and keeping the smoke cleaner. Quick igniting wood will not smolder and give off white billowing smoke.

Good luck and good smoking, Joe. :grilling_smilie:
 
texas.gif
  Good morning and welcome to the forum from a partly cloudy day here in East Texas, and the best site on the web.

        Lots of great people with tons of information on just about everything.

        Gary
 
:welcome1:

What everyone else said! With an offset, there's two ways to run it. With charcoal, using wood for flavor or using an all wood fire as your heat sources and getting smoke as a byproduct. Personally, I prefer the latter but use both depending on time and fuel supply. For a charcoal fire, I will light a half chimney of briquettes, fill my firebox with unlit charcoal, and then dump the fully lit chimney in the center. After adding the lit coals, I put a small split or two on top of the lit coals and let them burn for about five minutes. Close up the smoker, dial in the temp and wait until the smoke is thin and blue to put the meat on. I don't add any more wood after that. The only problem with this method, especially in smaller offsets, is ash production from charcoal. On longer smokes the ash can build up and choke your fire. Which is why I prefer a wood fire. I use an adapted version of Joe's method and it works very well. The best thing is that when you're running a clean hot fire, your meat doesn't get over smoked and you produce very little ash. If you are in an area where you can an affordable supply of wood, I highly recommend you try it.
:grilling_smilie:

Lance
 
Thanks everyone for the helpful tips. I'm sure to give them a try.
 
Any time suggestions for putting down smoke on a 13.21 lb. brisket? Been on cherry for 2 hrs have to finish in oven.
 
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