Another newb

[brucebq]

Howdy all,

After too many years of doing psuedoQ on a Weber gas grill, I've just ordered up a GO "Big Block" smoker. I didn't find Jeff's site until after I'd ordered it, and just discovered it's the very one Jeff got to try out a gas smoker. From his review it sounds like this smoker works fine, so I'm looking forward to giving it a try.

Seems to be plenty of good advice to be had here, so I'll just be out back having read ...

Bruce

 

[bwsmith_2000]

Hi Bruce,
You made a good choice in smoking equipment. I have the GOSM wide body and I was lucky enough to have found one of the stainless steel double walled smokers. I really do enjoy using it and I'm sure you will too. One thing I would heartily recommend to you. Try using different woods. Not only hickory and mesquite but try some apple, pear, peach, walnut, maple, oak, pecan, etc. to experiment. And while doing the experimentation, keep notes. If I cound make one point, it would be to keep notes on every cook. Record weather conditions, time smoked, temperature, wood used, wind conditions, recepie used ... rub, mop, etc. I have found that this is the singular most important thing I have done (outside of barbequing of course). It is the foundation for progress to higher levels of the art.

 

[bob-bqn]

Welcome brucebq.

I've had the 36" GO smokers in gas and charcoal, but presently have 2 big blocks and love them. Congrats and good luck with your new smoker. :D

 

[kennymn]

Hi Bruce I have a Big Block GO smoker and I found out that the temp probe in the door is not accurate. My is 25 degrees. to low so I use 2 Taylor digital probes for inside air temp and for meat temp . Today ( Mothers Day ) I made 2 batches of Jeff Phillips Great Meat Loaf recipe with it and it works great ! Good pick on a GO Smoker and Welcome to SMF. ( pics will follow )

 

[jlloyd99]

Howdy Bruce,
Welcome to SMF. This is a great place to learn all about making great Que. Once you've had your read if there are any other questions be sure to ask. We love helping out the newbies here.

 

[Dutch]

Hi Bruce, Welcome to Smoking Meat Forums!! If you find that you need some more reading material, check out Jeff's Smoking Basics eCourse. The is a lot of useful info there too.

 

[brucebq]

Hi guys,

Thanks for the welcome and advice! I'm glad to hear folks have been happy with the GO smoker.

Woods wise, I'm going to start with what's easily available locally: maple, apple, cherry, alder, maybe oak. I've never heard mention of it one way or another, but was wondering if anyone's used hazelnut / filbert wood? Being a nut wood, I'd think it a likely candidate, and there's a lot of it around here.

Thanks for the tip on the thermometer. I'd been looking at the Taylor for a meat thermometer. I've got a nice Cooper instant read with a long stem that I'd used for coffee roasting. I plan on putting some holes in the smoker box so I can read temps at different levels.

 

[kennymn]

Hi Bruce,

Here are some pictures of my smoker with external thermometers.

 

[brucebq]

Hi Kenny,

I like how you've got those thermometers mounted. I'll probably try something similar myself. Just today ordered some custom probes for the thermocouple thermometer I use for coffee roasting. They ought to be safe from the two main probe death modes I've heard about: toasting or crunching the cable.

As soon as I saw Jeff's topic on smoking the meatloaf, I knew there was going have to be some in my not-too-distant future. Just wish that 80 lb box would hurry up and show up on my porch ...

Bruce