Chips or Chunks, getting smoke right

[benny australia]

Hi there, I recently built my own offset after visiting the US. Having never used one before I am about as green as you would get to smoking. I built it with a tray about three inches above the charcoal. I put the chips in the tray and they seem to burn very quickly with lots of smoke but I am worried that its all creosote (I am only doing test runs at the moment) I was thinking about just putting chucks in with the charcoal but to get chucks in Australia is very hard and very expensive. Here is a photo about 5 minutes after I put chips in the tray, I am also colour blind so I am having a hard time trying to see what colour smoke I am after. With a handful of chips that smoke will go for about 15-20 minutes. Cheers everyone!

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• benny australia
• Dec 27, 2012

 

[sqwib]

You could try foil packs of chips. Lay chips in HD foil poke a few fork holes in foil and place the foil pack next to the charcoal.
Can you get firewood and burn splits?

 

[benny australia]

Oh k, do you think the chips maynot be getting hot enough? would it be worth while putting a lid on the tray? I can get fire wood but nothing like that you guys have in the US. I can get a little of what you guys use to smoke but it cost a fortune to bring it over from the US. Is that to much smoke coming out?

 

[jarjarchef]

Benny,

I don't think you need to import any woods from the states. What a lot of us use is what we have available to us locally. Here is a link to some different woods and their flavor profile.
http://www.deejayssmokepit.net/Downloads_files/SmokingFlavorChart.pdf

If you use chips and they are not in a box or foil pouch, they will burn too fast and generate the creosote and thick smoke. By putting the chips in the box or pouch it will choke them a bit and allow them to smolder and not burn too fast. So you will get a TBS or even no noticeable smoke, but you will smell it in the air. Chunks may work better with your setup. When I use chunks I just throw them into the charcole and they will smolder.

But I would look to see what local woods you have and use those.

 

[benny australia]

Ok thanks for the advice dude, I will have a look around, we dont really have to much here, got a few citrus trees though! Ill try putting a lid on my tray with some holes in it to. The chips I got were very small to so Ill try and get ones a bit bigger as well. I definatley think chunks will work better in my set up but I will see how I go to get them. Do you think that is the right amount and right colour of smoke? Thanks for that chart to! What does TBS mean to?