Propane smoker only develops smoke after initial start

[jetjock17]

Hi guys I hope you can stand another question from a newbie!  Just bought a propane Grill Master Smoker and tried it out twice in the last week.  Great ribs but brisket a little tough after 14 hours!  I was wondering if you could help me out with the following:

• Put the dry chips in the smoker cast iron container with lid that came with the smoker and fired the smoker up to high.  After 15 minutes or so, smoke was poring out so turned down the propane and opened the door to put in the meat.  Heat stabilized at around 250 F at low setting and all seemed well.  After about a half an hour, the smoke had died right out so opened the door and added more chips.  One hour later, no smoke so took a look, chips were still sitting there but showed no sign of charrring.  After two more hours with no smoke, removed chip pan from the smoker and placed on my gas grill with full heat.  After 10 minutes, chips were smoking.  Removed and set back in smoker.  20 minutes later, no smoke and chips looked blackened but were not smoking.  Left well enough alone and removed the ribs two hours later.  They were pretty good but not much smoke flavor.

I should add that the smoker burner was set down as far as it could go in order to maintain between 250 and 275 F. That is the temp read on a calibrated probe as the smoker temp gauge reads approximately 50 to 75 F high.

Any ideas how I can keep the smoke going?  I was using wood chips rather than the sawdust type of Hickory.

Thanks for any advice you can offer.

 

[pineywoods]

Welcome to SMF please stop by the Roll Call section and make a thread to introduce yourself and tell us about you and your smoking equipment.

Personally I replaced the cast iron chip pan with one of these and it works much better

http://www.lowes.com/pd_183371-4798...tk=i_products&ddkey=http:SearchCatalogDisplay

 

[Dutch]

jetjock-I use a propane smoker from time to time (when I don't have enought to really fill the Lang 60), there is a couple of things you need to remember-you may not see smoke all the time but as long as you can smell the smoke you're fine. Typically a load of chips don't last very long -about 45 min. max- so you may want to think of switching over to wood chunks. A couple of hockey puck sized pieces will last me almost 1 1/2 hours which is perfect cuz I spritz the meat in the smoker about every 1 1/2 hours.  Remember, you want a thin blueish/grey smoke, not a continious bellowing white cloud.  Some white smoke is okay at the start but is should settle down to TBS within a few minutes.

As for any meat, it's done when it's done.  You didn't mention the size of your brisket, but I've had 12# packer briskets take as long as 18 hours-those kind of smokes are called "All-nighters" for a reason.

Keep at it and don't give up-we'll be here to help you along.

 

[jetjock17]

Thanks for the idea of using a stainless smoke tray.  Unfortunately we don't have Loews in this part of the world but I will look for tray next time I'm down in the U.S.

Larry

 

[jetjock17]

Hi Dutch,

Thanks for the advice.  I am not sure how often to open the door of the smoker.  I have read threads where the writer says to swap a brisket every hour, you mention spritzing the meat every 1 1/2 hours and then I see where some claim you add a half hour or more to the cooking time every time you open the door!  To say nothing of opening the door to add chips!

Thanks again,

Larry

 

[aeroforce100]

Thanks for the idea of using a stainless smoke tray.  Unfortunately we don't have Loews in this part of the world but I will look for tray next time I'm down in the U.S.

Larry

Do you have an Expo home center? they should have the same stuff Lowes has, or so I am led to believe