- Jun 11, 2019
- 17
- 4
New member here! Recently stepped into the offset stick burner world from solely being a Weber Kettle guy. It’s been fun so far and I’ve seen a ton of videos on fire management but I do have a question: What is the goal when building that fire- 1) Pre heating the cook chamber and getting to a clean/thin rolling smoke, or 2) getting a hefty layer of hot coals/embers?
I’ve been sort of having the mentality of the first option and find myself running wayyy too hot in the beginning (320F+ with a chimney of briquettes and 4 skinny wood splits) and when I try to close the intake a little, to lower the temp, the fire smothers and I get a nasty thick smoke. Then within 2 hours I all of a sudden find myself with virtually no coal bed because my temps were already so high that I couldn’t add more wood in the early stages. Once the coals have dwindled so early I’m left constantly adding tiny splits in attempt to keep a coal bed during the cook.
I’m starting to think I need to try just leaving all doors and vents open, getting a large fire going (4-5 hefty logs), and letting it burn all the way down to coals before I close the cook chamber door, firebox door, and intake door, and finally add the meat once my temp is where I want. Maybe then my temps won’t go so high since it will just be coals (versus big flames) and then I can just add a split every now and then to maintain that coal bed.. Any thoughts from you experienced offset stick burner folks?
I’ve been sort of having the mentality of the first option and find myself running wayyy too hot in the beginning (320F+ with a chimney of briquettes and 4 skinny wood splits) and when I try to close the intake a little, to lower the temp, the fire smothers and I get a nasty thick smoke. Then within 2 hours I all of a sudden find myself with virtually no coal bed because my temps were already so high that I couldn’t add more wood in the early stages. Once the coals have dwindled so early I’m left constantly adding tiny splits in attempt to keep a coal bed during the cook.
I’m starting to think I need to try just leaving all doors and vents open, getting a large fire going (4-5 hefty logs), and letting it burn all the way down to coals before I close the cook chamber door, firebox door, and intake door, and finally add the meat once my temp is where I want. Maybe then my temps won’t go so high since it will just be coals (versus big flames) and then I can just add a split every now and then to maintain that coal bed.. Any thoughts from you experienced offset stick burner folks?