I'm saying try it. What's to lose?
Certainly going to give it a try, concerned about bridging though
I'm saying try it. What's to lose?
Sounds more like you have a wood stove going than a smoker.If you're going thru "loads" of wood that's a problem.
Can you ID both the charcoal and wood you are using? Also the source for the wood? Couple others things, what smoker were you using prior to this and did you have a lack of smoke flavor with it too? Have you tried the food the following day and if so did it still lack in smoke? Sometimes I find the day I’m smoking and tending the smoker I go nose blind to smoke somewhat until the following day.
cherry and oak dont produce heavy smoke flavor, maybe try hickory if possible, not saying this is your problem but worth a shot.
If you can't find it try playing with top vent like mentioned and dont worry to much about the thin blue smoke, as long as it's not billowing out like a old locomotive you'll be fine.Thanks, will do.
Though hickory, mesquite etc are hard to come by in any sort of quantities in the UK.
If you can't find it try playing with top vent like mentioned and dont worry to much about the thin blue smoke, as long as it's not billowing out like a old locomotive you'll be fine.
On my Gravity, I can easily get too much smoke. Cooking temps have a lot to do with it. 225 and loaded with wood in the bin, and you produce way too much smoke for big meats like a butt.
For Brisket, I like running at 275 and I place similar sized chunks of wood in with the charcoal. Sporadically placed. Drop in ten to 15 coals and add a chunk something like that. I also place wood in the firebox about every 30 minutes to an hour for the first 2-3 hours. I buy B&B chunks of hardwood which seem to be better than your average store bought chunks. They tend to smolder for quite sometime before finally burning up.
Also, do you start with your meat cold? Colder meat will absorb more smoke flavor.
As already asked in several posts above, what's your wood source ? My guess would be you're using kiln dried chunks. Those chunks have very low moisture content.
I would find a wood lot and get some properly seasoned wood and stay away from the bagged stuff.
Ash bin. I empty it before I place wood in it.What do you mean by the "bin"? The chute or ash bin?
B&B chunks?
Very interesting comparison between your off-set smoker and your MB560… I also check the type of smoke that is being produced by my smokers and the color that the proteins are taking on that are being bbq’d. From reading your comparison, it’s clear that your off-set smoker is producing a different type and amount of smoke then your MB560. Also, You never mentioned at what temp your smokers were set at. A difference in temp will also effect the color of the proteins being bbq’d. To me, it’s obvious that your off-set smoker is burning more hardwood then what’s being burned in your MB560. Remember, these are two different types of smokers and they have to be approach differently. I to was surprised at how clean the smoke was being produced in my CG-980, but when compared to a stand alone pellet grill, producing only pellet smoke, the CG-980 hits a Home Run every time. With any new bbqing equipment, it takes time to figure out all the nuances to get the best out of that particular equipment. The more hardwood that’s used in the charcoal hopper and ash bin, the more smoke your MB560 will produce. FYI. Completely lit charcoal will always produce Thin Blue Smoke. Quote.. The hardwood smoke that’s being produced in the ash bin will smoke up through the hot charcoals in the hopper and the hot charcoals will clean the impurities out of the hardwood smoke…. As quoted by Stump McDowell on BBQ Pitmasters “NY State of Cue” 7/14/2013…. So when comparing apples to oranges, there will be some obvious differences. On your next bbq cook, start with dumping some pre-lit charcoal into the charcoal hopper using a chimney starter and mix in some quality hardwood chunks, dump another pre-lit load of charcoal into the charcoal hopper, add some more hardwood chunks and the finish off the rest of the fill will unlit charcoal. In the ash bin, I would add about 3 decent size wood chunks and some lump charcoal, but don’t over fill it. Do that and I’m sure you’ll see a difference in the smoke production on your next bbq on your MB560. Will it be the same as your off-set smoker? No, because they are two different types of smokers. With your MB560, amount of smoke can be managed and increased just like you can with your off-set smoker though. Take notes, keep sharing your findings and Good luck.Hang with me here....... I'm gonna make a case that GF's are not about smoke flavor. I could be right, I could be wrong.
I found a Masterbuilt 560 GF on sale for half price. I expected to get a lot of white billowy smoke, I was surprised that it was blue thin smoke. Cuz, when I light a chimney of charcoal, I get white billowy smoke until it all ignites.
I remember watching " BBQ Pitmasters " and the guy who invented GF was a contestant, Walter Stump. He said " the superheated air cleans the smoke " . That stuck with me and until I bought the MB560, I was skeptical.
Stump is still building GF's, here's his site
https://stumpssmokers.com/
The fan blowing on the charcoal does " superheat " the smoke. And while it gets rid of the smoke particles we don't want, does it also get rid of the good smoke particles ?
Earlier this summer, I did a comparison rib cook. I did a rack of ribs in my Franklin offset and a rack in my MB560. Everything about the ribs was the same, except the smoker. At 2.5 hours into the cook, I checked the ribs to wrap. The Franklin ribs had the right color and were ready, but the MB ribs were still pale. They had not taken on enough smoke to get the right color. I left them on another 30 minutes before wrapping and they never did develop the same color.
Now that was a one off comparison. Maybe I did not have enough hickory in the MB ? I had a small thin split vertically in the hopper and a couple good size chunks in the ash bin. I'm gonna do this comparison again and put more wood in the MB.
Stump developed his GF for comp cooking. If you go to the link , there's a whole story of why. He did not want to have to tend to a smoker at comps. The GF really caught on with comp cookers, because of that. It was like a pellet smoker with better smoke flavor.
But in comps, smoke flavor is secondary at the most. They doctor those meats up with brines, marinades, rubs, sauces ...........so many different flavors that smoke flavor has got to get completely covered. They're producing a " one bite " piece of meat that has to packed with flavor.
So that's where I'm at on my MB gravity feed. I'm questioning if the " superheated " air does too good a job . I think the problems with pellet smokers are similar, they burn too clean, but the amount of moisture in pellets is another factor.
Here's the pics of the final product of my rib comparson. The MB rib is in the middle. It never got the color of the offset ribs, which the one on the right is a duroc rib from the offset, the other two were commodity ribs from Sams.
View attachment 512225
On your next bbq cook, start with dumping some pre-lit charcoal into the charcoal hopper using a chimney starter and mix in some quality hardwood chunks, dump another pre-lit load of charcoal into the charcoal hopper, add some more hardwood chunks and the finish off the rest of the fill will unlit charcoal. In the ash bin, I would add about 3 decent size wood chunks and some lump charcoal, but don’t over fill it
Why would I want to do all that ? The smoke on MB560 is thin blue. I've had the MB560 since January. I'm comfortable with what I do. I appreciate your advise, but I'm no rookie. I've cooked on a WSM since 2002. I'm not new at this.
I don't buy hardware chunks. I make my chunks from splits, which I either buy at the woodlot or from trees cut down that I find. When ya got an offset, hardwood chunks are a by-product.
So Stumps last name is McDowell, I thought Stump was his last name, hahaha.
Actually, the bottom line on my comparison cook is flavor. And the MB560 had a very definite charcoal/chunk flavor, more charcoal than chunk.