Hi all. Total novice here who has enjoyed poking around these threads. This forum is obviously full of experts, so my apologies for what is probably a very pedestrian question.
My mom & I would like to get my Dad a new offset smoker as a 70th birthday gift. My Dad is almost blind, so he can’t do this kind of research himself (he would love to be able to read all the different threads on this forum!) He has enjoyed smoking on his old offset pit for years, but he’s been complaining of issues with his old pit that isn’t worth refurbishing- so, we’d like to surprise him with a new one . Not necessarily looking for the fanciest model with a lot of bells and whistles- just a solid, heavy, high-quality pit that is long lasting and will be fun for him to use. For reference re: what it will be used for: he smokes 2-3 briskets/month, enjoys smoking turkeys for the neighbors at Thanksgiving and will smoke steelhead a few times a year.
They live just outside of New Braunfels, Texas and I‘m sure folks on here have suggestions for smaller companies or semi-local Texas based pit builders we may want to look at (we would prefer to support a small business rather than buy something at Cabellas if we can). Would be happy to pick up ourselves within a 300 mile radius to avoid shipping costs, and budget is about $1,200-2000. Because this is a surprise, I can’t ask Dad about special features he’d like- but would appreciate any thoughts/feedback.
Any advice as to a few different builders, models & features we might want to look into would be much appreciated!
My mom & I would like to get my Dad a new offset smoker as a 70th birthday gift. My Dad is almost blind, so he can’t do this kind of research himself (he would love to be able to read all the different threads on this forum!) He has enjoyed smoking on his old offset pit for years, but he’s been complaining of issues with his old pit that isn’t worth refurbishing- so, we’d like to surprise him with a new one . Not necessarily looking for the fanciest model with a lot of bells and whistles- just a solid, heavy, high-quality pit that is long lasting and will be fun for him to use. For reference re: what it will be used for: he smokes 2-3 briskets/month, enjoys smoking turkeys for the neighbors at Thanksgiving and will smoke steelhead a few times a year.
They live just outside of New Braunfels, Texas and I‘m sure folks on here have suggestions for smaller companies or semi-local Texas based pit builders we may want to look at (we would prefer to support a small business rather than buy something at Cabellas if we can). Would be happy to pick up ourselves within a 300 mile radius to avoid shipping costs, and budget is about $1,200-2000. Because this is a surprise, I can’t ask Dad about special features he’d like- but would appreciate any thoughts/feedback.
Any advice as to a few different builders, models & features we might want to look into would be much appreciated!