first smoke on the WSM

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Very nice! Can we get a peek inside
drool.gif
 
NICE! I smoked a butt and a beer can chicken myself last weekend. I do love those beer can chickens and my WSM! I have always used Briquettes but I hear folks preaching about how lump is better. Is it? and Why?
 
Doing my first smoke on my new WSM.  Unfortunately it is only 17 degrees out, but I wasn't gonna let that stop me.  Doing beer can chicken on the lower rack and chicken wings on the top rack.  Loaded up 1/2 a ring and then lit about 30 coals in my chimney and dumped em on.  Using some apple wood.  Well, the temp got up to 275 with all 3 vents wide open, so I shut em all down to 50% thinking that it might still climb to 300 and then I would try and maintain it there.  Well, the temp dropped to 250.  So I opened all 3 back to 100%.  Temp hasn't gone up much, but that's alright.

Sorry, no qview.  Too cold for that.
 
Yeah... at 17° you just want to run wide open on your vents, another thing you can do in cold weather is just leave your water pan dry. Foil the pan to catch any drippings, but don't put water in it. That will help you get up to temp and maintain your temps a lot better without going through your fuel to fast.

Grats again on the WSM, and don't forget the Qview!
drool.gif
 
Yeah... at 17° you just want to run wide open on your vents, another thing you can do in cold weather is just leave your water pan dry. Foil the pan to catch any drippings, but don't put water in it. That will help you get up to temp and maintain your temps a lot better without going through your fuel to fast.

Grats again on the WSM, and don't forget the Qview!
drool.gif
I actually didn't put any water in.  I foiled it, then loaded it with playground sand, then put a couple more layers of foil on top.

I did just go out and stir the coals a bit and add some more fresh coals.  Within a few minutes the temp was climbing.

One question though.  When the charcoal ring sits on top of the charcoal grate, there is a bit of a gap on the edges and some of my charcoal was falling down into the bottom of the bowl.  What do you do to prevent that?
 
Yeah... at 17° you just want to run wide open on your vents, another thing you can do in cold weather is just leave your water pan dry. Foil the pan to catch any drippings, but don't put water in it. That will help you get up to temp and maintain your temps a lot better without going through your fuel to fast.

Grats again on the WSM, and don't forget the Qview!
drool.gif


Qview will definitely come when the weather warms up.
 
Killmeh,

Those are some good looking birds, I haven't done any stand up birds in a long time, I'm gonna have to do some again.

FIGJAM, I love fig jam and it's rare when we have some here, anyway, the answer to your charcoal grate problem is to buy another grate and wire it to the first one at 90°, this will cover the holes and the charcoal will burn longer before falling through the grates or cover the grate with some non-galvanized expanded metal.

Gene
 
Killmeh,

Those are some good looking birds, I haven't done any stand up birds in a long time, I'm gonna have to do some again.

FIGJAM, I love fig jam and it's rare when we have some here, anyway, the answer to your charcoal grate problem is to buy another grate and wire it to the first one at 90°, this will cover the holes and the charcoal will burn longer before falling through the grates or cover the grate with some non-galvanized expanded metal.

Gene


Thanks for the info.  I might have some expanded metal left over from when I did my ECB mods years ago.  I'll have to look.  If not, I might go with the 2nd grate.
 
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