couple of questions about offset smokers

[cal1956]

i have never used an offset wood smoker before but have thought about buying one
but what i would want it for is cold smoking so my question is could you maintain a decent smoke
with little to no flame ? ( looking to maintain 100 degrees or less )
also how well would small Hickory blocks work in them ( like the one's you buy in the bags ?
i have a rather large batch of sausage to smoke soon and thought one of these might help speed up the smoking

 

[Chasdev]

Not gonna happen, IMHO.
You have a lot of ambient temp metal to heat up and that alone requires some sort of decent size fire.
I think 200 or thereabouts is as low as you can go and still keep a lit fire.
I never got near 200 myself and I tried, unless the fire was going out and the whole thing was cooling off.

 

[Hamdrew]

sure it would. you just may have to keep relighting small amounts of coal/wood as it goes.

ive been trying to learn how to play sticks this year myself. doing things wrong sometimes just to see what happens. last week i experimented with huge splits (2-3x what they should've been. this pretty massive fire was still hard to keep the cooker above 200*F, with the firebox door needing to stay open to keep the smoke blue

 

[h8that4u]

I think it would depend on the smoker its self, my Texas Original Pits Pearsall offset also has an upright smoker that works perfect for cold/cool smoking. I can hang a slab of bacon and smoke it at 120 with no problem for 4-6 hours. I also use a pellet tube or tray and can cold smoke with just that in it. Don't see why you could not do the same with almost any offset smoker.

 

[cal1956]

with my vertical propane smoker , i CAN keep the temp right around 100 by filling the wood trays and using a very low flame
( just enough to get the wood smoking then shutting it off )

 

[sawhorseray]

I use a A-Maze-N pellet tube in the firebox of my SQ36 offset to cold smoke salmon during wintertime, the meat goes into the cook chamber. Work perfectly! RAY

 

[cal1956]

not looking for anything that uses pellets !!!
i always kinda thought the offset smokers worked by a very low smoldering fire

 

[jcam222]

Does not seem to me that buying an offset with the sole purpose of cold smoking makes sense. That’s especially true if you don’t want to run pellets / dust in a smoking tube or tray. I guess a question too is how cold do you want to run?? Cold enough for cheese?

 

[rc4u]

in my tube i pack chips n few chunks an it works perfect..i use cast iron preheated tray and have lump charcoal in and tube on side. you just have to learn the right amount. in my smoke hollow there are 3 big holes in bottom. i can put my charcoal starter under center hole, its a tight fight i can put chunks on the lump and dont even need the propane.

 

[sawhorseray]

not looking for anything that uses pellets !!!
i always kinda thought the offset smokers worked by a very low smoldering fire

That's how to cold smoke using a offset, you never go over 90º. I live in AZ and only cold smoke salmon and cheese during winter, and in the morning. That how it's done using an offset. RAY

 

[bbqbrett]

If the outside temp is cool it will work. I actually smoke cheese on mine that way. I just use a couple of briquettes and and a chunk of wood.

 

[cal1956]

i mostly smoke sausage and am about to make 150lbs
using my vertical smoker i can only smoke about 40 lbs at a time
i smoke them at 100 ( or less when i can get it that low ) for about 6 hours, so i was considering the offset to double my capacity
if i could buy one cheap enough

 

[BenCarlson]

If you were open to using pellets/dust, I think this could be done pretty easily. However, you're not. So maybe you could get a small coalbed going(with charcoal) and then just add slivers of wood from splits? Seems like a major P.I.T.A. but I think in theory it could work, though I've never tried it.