I've been rigging my gas grill to smoke on. It's an old Weber Genesis 3 burner (red with the wood slat shelves) that I inherited from my grandfather. I'd like to get an actual smoker though. I was originally thinking electric for ease of use but I was trying to stay around the $100 or less and read many problems about not enough heat or too much heat or elements going out. So I thought about gas, but of course then you have to deal with a tank and some of the reviews again mention heat issues. I hadn't really considered charcoal or wood because I was under the impression you had to baby them, but reading Jeff's comments on the WSM on Smoking-Meat.com and finding out about the Minion method it sounds like charcoal and a WSM might actually be a pretty easy way to go after all.
So as you can see I'm now completely lost on what I should buy. Obviously since I'm looking at the WSM my price range has jumped to around $300. If I can at least get some help figuring out which style I should go with I can start researching models and such in the appropriate forum, but I don't even know where to start right now lol. I do know that I'd prefer a setup where I'm choosing my own wood type instead of some pre-made pellet or puck. If it helps, right now I'm mostly interested in doing brisket, ribs, and sausages with probably the random fish and chicken or turkey parts occasionally. Later on I might start doing pork shoulders as well
So as you can see I'm now completely lost on what I should buy. Obviously since I'm looking at the WSM my price range has jumped to around $300. If I can at least get some help figuring out which style I should go with I can start researching models and such in the appropriate forum, but I don't even know where to start right now lol. I do know that I'd prefer a setup where I'm choosing my own wood type instead of some pre-made pellet or puck. If it helps, right now I'm mostly interested in doing brisket, ribs, and sausages with probably the random fish and chicken or turkey parts occasionally. Later on I might start doing pork shoulders as well