Hello and brown smoke

[Jarod L]

Hi all. I've been spending a lot of time reading here so i thought I'd better introduce myself. I picked up an MES 40 with the glass door a month and a half ago. So far I've done a couple rounds of ribs, a pork butt, a chicken, and today a pork loin. Everything has turned out great. I also bought an amnps and I love using it. It truly makes it so much easier and pellets are great.

I do have a question. I've been using traeger apple pellets. I've gotten perfect tbs every time. Yesterday and today I mixed apple and hickory. My smoke goes from tbs to a medium brown over and over. I'm concerned there's something wrong with the hickory pellets because they are the only new addition. My air flow thru the chip feeder is good, I have it barely pulled out like the last couple times. The whole chicken i did yesterday had a little bit of a creosote taste where the skin was gone and the meat was showing, and I had that same brown smoke yesterday. Anyone ever run into something like this? Only thing i can think of is the hickory pellets. it's a new bag too. Oh, and the amnps isn't getting dripped on. I've had aluminum pans under the meat.

Thanks! And i look forward to being more active here. so much good info.

 

[kruizer]

Welcome to SMF from Minnesota.

 

[gmc2003]

Welcome to the site, are the hickory pellets also traeger? I haven't used that brand. So I can't comment on how good they are. I do think I remember reading that Traeger pellets are flavored pellets and not made up of 100% the wood listed on the package.

Chris

 

[TomKnollRFV]

I'd do an experiment; just run some hickory pellets on their own and see what happens.

Then run Apple on it's own again.

Also welcome from WI! I hope this can get sorted.

 

[Jarod L]

Welcome to the site, are the hickory pellets also traeger? I haven't used that brand. So I can't comment on how good they are. I do think I remember reading that Traeger pellets are flavored pellets and not made up of 100% the wood listed on the package.

Chris

Yep, both are traeger.

 

[Jarod L]

I'd do an experiment; just run some hickory pellets on their own and see what happens.

Then run Apple on it's own again.

Also welcome from WI! I hope this can get sorted.

I'll give that a go. I picked up a new bag of the hickory today at work, and lit a few outside to see how they burned. Perfect blue smoke coming off of them. They are a different color though, so it's possible they had a bad run..

 

[TomKnollRFV]

I'll give that a go. I picked up a new bag of the hickory today at work, and lit a few outside to see how they burned. Perfect blue smoke coming off of them. They are a different color though, so it's possible they had a bad run..

Always possible, had some that never quite lit right etc.

 

[gmc2003]

Jarod here is link to a past discussion on Traeger pellets. It may help you out, but then again it may not.

https://www.smokingmeatforums.com/threads/new-info-on-whats-in-traeger-pellets.116254/

Chris

 

[Jarod L]

Thanks Chris, i'm always appreciative of good info. I'll check it out!

Jarod here is link to a past discussion on Traeger pellets. It may help you out, but then again it may not.

https://www.smokingmeatforums.com/threads/new-info-on-whats-in-traeger-pellets.116254/

Chris