First post, picture of rig, and questions about maintaining temps

[chapterthree]

Hi All,

I'm new to the forum, and new to smoking meat. :)  My wife got me a CharBroil American Gourmet (the cheap one, not the Deluxe) smoker for Christmas.  So far I've done 3 smokes, 2 with Boston Butt (boneless) and 1 with St Lois Cut Ribs.  The pulled pork has been OK, but tough, I haven't been able to get the meat temp above 165, even after 10+ hours of smoking.  The ribs came out pretty good.

Anyway, basic story is I'm having a very hard time maintaining temperature, which isn't that surprising considering the 'quality' of my entry-level smoker. :)  So I have decided to make a few modifications to my smoker, and I'm going to smoke a *bone-in* Boston Butt (prolly 4-5 lbs) this Sunday.  I'm hoping these mods will help.  I live in a coastal climate where it is usually breezy (5-10 mph), temps are cool (50-70 F), and the air is fairly humid (all of which doesn't help maintain good temps in the smoker either).

Current Mods:

- Using fryer basket as a charcoal box (use normal Kingsford Briquettes)

- 3" dryer vent to extent chimney down to grate level

- 4 normal red concrete bricks wrapped in foil in the cooking chamber

- Not visible, but used a high temp silicone on some of the metal joints (you could see daylight through them)

Wanted to share, and see if anybody had any more advice. :)

photo 1.JPG

• chapterthree
• Aug 24, 2012

photo 2.JPG

• chapterthree
• Aug 24, 2012

 

[drwarner]

Here is a list of cook times and temps.
http://www.smoking-meat.com/smoking-times-and-temperatures-chart.html

 

[boykjo]

Your fire needs to be above the damper hole so I would find a heavy duty grate to place inside your firbox to raise the fuel. Dont be afraid to put some fuel in there too.. dump a full lit chimney of charcoal in there and then refill and dump another full lit chimney in there and  place some unlit lump charcoal over the top to get them temps up...... I would also ditch the bricks.... Doesnt look like theyre doing anything to me... The heat is going right over the top of them....  Thats what I would do.....

Welcome to SMF

Joe

 

[cliffcarter]

Hi All,

I'm new to the forum, and new to smoking meat. :)  My wife got me a CharBroil American Gourmet (the cheap one, not the Deluxe) smoker for Christmas.  So far I've done 3 smokes, 2 with Boston Butt (boneless) and 1 with St Lois Cut Ribs.  The pulled pork has been OK, but tough, I haven't been able to get the meat temp above 165, even after 10+ hours of smoking.  The ribs came out pretty good.

Anyway, basic story is I'm having a very hard time maintaining temperature, which isn't that surprising considering the 'quality' of my entry-level smoker. :)  So I have decided to make a few modifications to my smoker, and I'm going to smoke a *bone-in* Boston Butt (prolly 4-5 lbs) this Sunday.  I'm hoping these mods will help.  I live in a coastal climate where it is usually breezy (5-10 mph), temps are cool (50-70 F), and the air is fairly humid (all of which doesn't help maintain good temps in the smoker either).

Current Mods:

- Using fryer basket as a charcoal box (use normal Kingsford Briquettes)

- 3" dryer vent to extent chimney down to grate level

- 4 normal red concrete bricks wrapped in foil in the cooking chamber

- Not visible, but used a high temp silicone on some of the metal joints (you could see daylight through them)

Wanted to share, and see if anybody had any more advice. :)

165° is too low for pulled pork, you should cook it to an internal temp of 195° at least for pulled pork, thus 10 hours was not long enough.

Briquettes in the firebox will create too much ash which will choke off the air flow making it difficult to keep proper cooking temps. Use a good lump charcoal instead. I recommend Royal Oak.

The dryer vent mod should not extend to the cooking grate IMHO, 3-4 inches from the cooking grate is close enough IMHO.

The bricks will do nothing except soak up the heat from the fire, you want to cook the meat not the inedible bricks. 

You do not mention what cooking temps you are trying to maintain, 225° or something higher perhaps?

 

[chapterthree]

So a few clarifications and additions:

The dryer vent and bricks are new mods that I have not smoked with yet (I'm doing a 4.5 lbs pork shoulder bone-in today actually).

The other note is that I'm using the Maverick Remote Thermometer system, the one with a grill-level probe and a leave-in meat probe.

The fryer basket actually sits on top of the charcoal grill that came with the smoker, so it's about 1.5" off the bottom of the firebox, so I have good airflow below the coals, and throughout the smoke I have a tool that I'm able to use to get the ash buildup out from under the charcoal grill, so I'm not starving the coals (this was the problem I had on the first smoke I did, which is why I got the fryer basket).  I may need to look into lump charcoal though. :)

So now you guys are making me second guess the recent mods I made. :)  Over the past few weeks I had been doing a ton of research on various sites, and some of the commonly recommended mods were bricks and getting the chimney down to the grill level. :)  I think the bricks will help maintaining a consistent temp in the smoking chamber since the smoker is made out of light gauge metal.

I would say my biggest problems had been maintaining temp (I'm targeting 225).  I think the heat was escaping through the various 'holes' in the smoke chamber, which is why I've also used high temp silicone to help seal those up.

So far today things are going better.  I'm about 2.5 hours in, and I'm just adding my second chimney of coals now, and I've been keeping in the 210-240 range.  The meat is at 127 right now.

-Kevin

 

[chapterthree]

So a quick update on today's smoke (I know, derailing the thread). Don't want to jinx it, but things are going better today, maintaining good temps (only 1 dip down to 185 due to wind), 6.5 hours in and meat is at 166. :yahoo:

-Kevin

 

[cliffcarter]

Sounds like you are on your way

JM2C but those 4 brick represent 32 pounds of thermal mass that must be heated inorder to "retain" heat, that will take fuel, fuel that you should be using to cook the meat. In an offset smoker those brick give you no advantage IMHO.