First big cook in my custom built - Q-view

[notsbbq]

This was the first chance I had to cook in my new custom built smoker.  Its a converted 250-gallon propane tank, reverse flow. I was asked to cook for a wedding reception of 100-150 people. 

Here's what I'm cooking with:

Prepping 6 of the 24 racks of spares that I cooked that day:

Loading them:

And still loading:

All loaded up and ready for the smoking to begin:

Four hours later:

About 1/3 of the ribs, I didn't get any pics of all the tips, they didn't stick around long enough for that:

 

[SmokinAl]

Nice looking ribs! Nice looking rig! Great job, I'm sure all the people you cooked for were very appreciative of your effort.   

 

[tom37]

Yup, what AL said x2. 

Cooking for a wedding on a virgin rig is a great challenge. I cooked for a wedding reception as a wedding gift a while back, it was a chore even cooking on a rig I knew.

Is it the lighting in the pic or was the smoke a little thick? Maybe its my monitor but it almost looks like a darkish gray.

I like the way you did the flange on the doors, thats exactly the same way I did mine.

Nice work.

Ya just gotta love the way people suck down the food before you  can even snap a picture.

 

[tyotrain]

Great looking smoker and great looking ribs.. real nice job

 

[fpnmf]

Great job!!

  Craig

 

[gnubee]

Nice looking smoker. Plus nice looking ribs.

Did you test your new rig for evenness of temps from side to side and both top and bottom racks? If so how even was the temp throughout? The ribs look pretty evenly done in your pic.

As Tom37 said, it takes no small bit of courage to cook for a wedding on a virgin rig. Well done Kudos to ya !

Oh yeah about the rib tips. Rib tips need to be tied down or locked up or they seem to just walk away. Sort of like putting two socks in the drier and only getting one back. I envision an asteroid belt somewhere out there in the deepest reaches of space filled with rib tips and single socks.

 

[ugaboz]

nice

 

[notsbbq]

@Tom - That's just the way the sun was shining, when I first saw the pictures I was like "I know I didn't smoke that thick".  

@GnuBee - I had cooked in it a few times before taking on the reception.  Once I get the fire up and going (a little over an hour) there is only about a 10 deg difference from side to side.  The top racks are about 5-10 degrees cooler. All in all for my first one and not having any real plans other than what I had seen with other rigs I thought I did pretty good.  I would definitely change a few things when I build my next one. 

 

[les3176]

Nice job!!! Sounds better than your normal chicken or beef at wedding receptions!!

 

[skully]

 

[beer-b-q]

Great looking Smoker and great looking ribs...