Hi, my name is Brian Pittman, I am a 32 year old military vet, who recently became interested in smoking. My father is one heck of a smoker when it comes to brisket and ribs, and I am set out to beat him out.. lol He smokes on an old homemade smoker almost identical to the one in this sites logo. lol I however do not have the patience to sit out and check temps and wood all the time. Therefore, I went out and purchased a MES 30. I tried using dads recipe to smoke a brisket first. It turned out horrible. WAYYYY to much smoke!! This happened several different times to me. I tried to adjust my wood amounts, and adjust air flow, but no matter what I do, it seems the wood was giving the meat waaaaay to strong a flavor. SO.... I just bought the AMNPS, and some pellets from the link on this site. I got them friday in the mail and decided I would try both some ribs, and a brisket this weekend. I went straight by everyones suggestions on this site on were to place the AMNPS, and starting the coals suggestions. I first put my brisket in at 220 degrees for about 6 hours. I then pulled it out and wrapped her up, and back on she went for another 5. I pulled it out last night at an internal temp of 210, and the thing was supper tender!! but STILL TOO MUCH SMOKE!!. Today I am trying the ribs out with the Pitmaster blend pellets. I pray they dont turn out the same way.. Is there any suggestions on what to do, to not make the smoke flavor so strong?!! I mean the edges of the brisket were almost black! The ribs I have on now seem to have black puddles on top of them were grease has pooled.. I dont know what the problem is!! Any help or advice on how to run this setup would be greatly appreciated. If someone could give me detailed instructions on what to try and for how long. I will definately give it a run.