Newbie in KY. Having trouble getting my smokehouse up to temperature.

[dinnertime]

I'm a software developer working remote. I moved out to a 25 acre property last year, with the goal of growing/raising all our own food. We have some mangalitsa pigs, a very small beef herd and some chickens. We butchered our first hog last winter, plan to butcher our second this November. Last time I successfully cold smoked some cured bacon using a classic Weber grill, a flexible dryer vent, and a cardboard box! Going forward I want a proper cold/hot smokehouse, so I built one that I hope last a very long time.

My new smokehouse is 4x4x8 with 2x4 construction on a cement slab, with 1" thick board and batten siding from reclaimed oak floor boards from the old barn on the property (so there are lots of cracks for extra airflow). A firebox sits about 12 feet away with a 6" pipe coming in through the cement floor. It has a peaked roof, with a 6" exhaust pipe leaving out the wall horizontally underneath one of the peaks with a 90 deg elbow taking the pipe vertical before the smoke exits. I bought the tejas smoker LPCAST8-2 propane burner that puts out 80,000 BTU/hr. The burner is currently situated about 6" off the ground in the center of the smokehouse (just above the smoke inlet pipe), with the venturi situated outside the smokehouse connected with a regulator to a 5 gallon propane tank.

And now to my question: I was testing this out for the first time yesterday and couldn't get the internal temperature above about 160 f. Should I install some sort of insulation? Or are there other tweaks I should make?

Thanks everyone!

Here is a link to a youtube short of my smokehouse from a couple weeks ago

 

[SmokinEdge]

That should work well for cold smoking (under 100*F) if you want to hot smoke you will need to bat the boards to close up the cracks. I built mine out of plywood 3x3x7’ and have a bigger problem keeping temps down than i do heating up except in the dead of winter where holding temps is pretty easy.

What temperature range are you wanting to run?

 

[JLeonard]

Welcome from Mississippi!
Nice smoke house. Bet when you get it totally figured out its gonna be killer. Look forward to more posts and pics of your progress.

Jim

 

[dinnertime]

@ SmokinEdge I don't think I'll have any problems with my cold smoke, except for maybe in the heat of summer. I'm not 100% sure how hot I will need to get but I know 160 f is not hot enough. I would think I need to at least be able to get up to 200 f.

So you have no insulation? Just plywood? How thick?

 

[02ebz06]

Greetings, and welcome to the group. from New Mexico.

 

[SmokinEdge]

@ SmokinEdge I don't think I'll have any problems with my cold smoke, except for maybe in the heat of summer. I'm not 100% sure how hot I will need to get but I know 160 f is not hot enough. I would think I need to at least be able to get up to 200 f.

So you have no insulation? Just plywood? How thick?

Mine goes to 200* easy and I’ve had it to 250* a few times. IMHO you have to much heat loss from the cracks in the wall boards, you can never really maintain much heat with all that vent. At least some or most of them need to be covered I think. 80,000 is a lot of BTU, I think mine is only 35,000 or so, it’s a standard turkey fryer burner.

 

[Bigtank]

80,000 BTU's will heat a 1000 square foot home in Minnesota. If it was insulated and lined with plywood you could heat with an electric hot plate.

 

[SmokinEdge]

The boards on the walls need battens as in board and batten walls. Close up the leaks if you want more heat.

After that you will need an air intake low close to the ground for air flow to move the smoke Through the house up to the chimney.

What you have built is a timeless classic old time smokehouse. They never hot smoked in them only cold smoked for the drying effect on the meat for further meat preservation. They did this in winter when humidity was up above 50-60 in day and 70’s at night, the humidity is important with cold smoking to prevent case hardening, which prevents moisture from exiting the center of the meat.

If you want a multi use cold/warm/hot smokehouse, seal it up.

 

[DougE]

Welcome from a fellow Kentuckian!

You're in good hands as far as the smokehouse goes.