Smoke Hollow to WSM - A new frontier

The minion method is really easy, i got it right on my ECB the first time I tried it.

Minion method works pretty good. I would say it was closer to 30 mins for me before the smoke died down enough to get started. I also closed the 2 front lower vents by 1/3 after the first hour, and then could smoke @ 250ish for hours. I also had the lid so the vent was @ the 1 o'clock position as advised by Gary Wiviott, and his book Low and SLow, which is a book geared towards the WSM.

I liked the WSM that I had as a loaner, but I just bought a GOSM gasser for the same price I could have gotten a barely used(used 4 times) WSM for. I didnt like the small capacity of the WSM, but it was easy to use, and turned out pretty good bbq imho.

enjoy your WSM.

I received my wsm last week and did my first smoke last weekend. We did a 7.4 lb Boston butt for 11 hours at 220. I used the minion method and used a full 2 gallons of water in my pan. I only had to adjust the vents once. I closed the bottom three to 1/4 open and left the top one wide open the full cook. The only time the temp spiked was 8 hours into the cook when I moved the coals around. In my very limited experience I have learned that the water pan makes for many variables as far as cooking temp. Full with cold water to start is going to keep the temp's low. Fill it with boiling water and you will have higher temps. Fill it with sand and you have essentially created a baking stone. The variables are endless. Good luck and enjoy. You are gonna love it.

I've never used a gas fired smoker, but I did dump my gas grill the the very reasons you described. I wanted to be all charcoal and wood. I've been using a wsm all summer now and absolutly love it. It's not a "set it and forget it" but it's pretty close.

I use the minion method and have a couple of times pulled off 12 hour smokes without adding any lump. Just a couple of wood chunks here and there. I hate to promote another site, but this is a good one for learning about your specific smoker.
http://www.virtualweberbullet.com/

Chisoxjim and ALX helped me getting started with mine. Here's a link to a smoke from this last weekend. There's a few picts that show me setting up the wsm.
http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/for...ad.php?t=79797

Also, make sure you wrap that water pan in foil. It'll save you a ton of frustration durng clean-up.