First Butt on My New WSM

wyojay · Aug 4, 2017

My WSM is a week old now, and after seasoning and breaking it in with 3 racks of St Louis style ribs last weekend (which turned out AMAZING), I'm going to smoke an 8 lb pork butt for my B-Day tomorrow. I have smoked many pork butts over the years in my old Brinkmann Smoke N Grill, which meant virtually no temp control and constant babysitting. I'm going to fire up the WSM at midnight for what I anticipate will be a 12 hour smoke, and then go to bed. I'm an early riser, so I'll probably be out to check it around 5am. I usually wrap my pork butts in foil once the IT hits 165F, and pull them out of the smoker to rest when they hit 200F. I always used to fill the water pan in my old Brinkmann, but I've read that a lot of WSM users prefer not too. If anyone has any tips for a WSM newbie, I'm all ears!

Jason

mike5051 · Aug 4, 2017

Hi Jason! I load up my WSM with KBB and 5 chunks of wood, and throw on about 25 lit briquettes, foil the water pan, no water. I have the top vent wide open and bottom vents wide open until the smoker reaches 225. Then I close two bottom vents completely, and leave the third bottom vent 1/4 open. My WSM will stay at 225-250 for at least 8 hrs without touching a thing at this point. I will add that this is with mild wind conditions, gusty winds will make require adjustments, but if you smoked with a ECB, you've got this covered!

Mike

wyojay · Aug 4, 2017

mike5051 said:
Hi Jason! I load up my WSM with KBB and 5 chunks of wood, and throw on about 25 lit briquettes, foil the water pan, no water. I have the top vent wide open and bottom vents wide open until the smoker reaches 225. Then I close two bottom vents completely, and leave the third bottom vent 1/4 open. My WSM will stay at 225-250 for at least 8 hrs without touching a thing at this point. I will add that this is with mild wind conditions, gusty winds will make require adjustments, but if you smoked with a ECB, you've got this covered! :77:

Mike

Hi Mike,

Thanks for the tip! I have the KBB"s and wood loaded, and the water pan foiled. I'll give the waterless method a try. The vent tips are a huge help! I found myself fiddling around with them quite a bit last weekend, so I was a little nervous about going to bed. Thank you much!

Jason

mike5051 · Aug 4, 2017

No problem Jason! Just another tidbit of info...I've had butts take over 18 hrs to smoke! That is without wrapping, I generally don't wrap until they are done, about 205. I wrap in foil and towels and rest in a cooler for at least 2 hrs. I think the bark is better this way.

Mike

wyojay · Aug 4, 2017

18 hours?! Wow! I generally smoke 4 to 6 pounders and I think 10 hours smoking time has been my max. I started wrapping mine about halfway through the smoke though. True that the bark isn't as good, but I love the amount of juice it preserves. I mix that in when I pull it. I also brine my butts for at least 24 hours. I'll have to give your method a try sometime. I do like a good bark! Thanks again Mike! :)

Jason

mike5051 · Aug 4, 2017

Pork butts love all kinds of methods! Yours sounds great! I've never tried brining a butt, I'll bet it's good. There are also some great finishing sauce recipes here for mixing with pulled pork!

Mike

wyojay · Aug 4, 2017

Thanks Mike! I started brining them fairly recently. The flavor is incredible! I'll have to look up those finishing sauce recipes.

Jason

SmokinAl · Aug 5, 2017

Sounds like you have a plan!

And after a couple of smokes on the WSM, you will find it is pretty much set & forget.

Al

wyojay · Aug 5, 2017

SmokinAl said:
Sounds like you have a plan!

And after a couple of smokes on the WSM, you will find it is pretty much set & forget.

Al

Thanks Al! Yeah, she's still pretty green and wants to run hot. It took me a couple of hours this morning to get a steady 225F, but that's still lightyears ahead of my ECB. 6 hours in and this butt's IT is at 165. Time to wrap it!

20170805_062712.jpg

wyojay
Aug 5, 2017

Jason

wyojay · Aug 5, 2017

Only 9 hours into the smoke and the IT hit 200...had to pull it out, wrapped it in a couple more layers of foil and a towel. I'm thinking my thermometer in my lid is off by around 50 degrees. I hope the butt's not ruined! 6 hours yet until dinner too... SMH

SmokinAl · Aug 5, 2017

Yes the lid therms are off quite a bit, on mine it's 50 degrees.

It won't matter though, I smoke my butts at 270-280 all the time.

They just get done quicker.

Next time you run the smoker put water in the pan, it will help keep the temp down.

Al

Rings Я Us · Aug 5, 2017

IMG_20170729_134959.jpg

Rings Я Us
Aug 5, 2017

pork butt sounds good.. I'm gonna see if I can find one and do that tomorrow [emoji]128077[/emoji] good luck with the new smoker.. have fun!

wyojay · Aug 5, 2017

SmokinAl said:
Yes the lid therms are off quite a bit, on mine it's 50 degrees.

It won't matter though, I smoke my butts at 270-280 all the time.

They just get done quicker.

Next time you run the smoker put water in the pan, it will help keep the temp down.

Al

I honestly have no clue what I normally smoke them at since my ECB only has a guage that reads "Warm, Ideal, and Hot." I always tried to keep the needle on the e in ideal. Lol! I just assumed that was between 225 and 250 judging by the 1.5 hour per pound guideline. I'll try water in the pan next time I want to do a long smoke though! Thanks Al!

Jason

wyojay · Aug 5, 2017

Rings R Us said:
IMG_20170729_134959.jpg

Rings Я Us

Aug 5, 2017

pork butt sounds good.. I'm gonna see if I can find one and do that tomorrow [emoji]128077[/emoji] good luck with the new smoker.. have fun!

Thanks Rings R Us!

Hey, those are some nice mods on that ECB! I bet they make a world of difference. I never got ambitious enough to try anything like that. Thumbs Up

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