Craig;
That's a nice tutorial. I, too, settled on the
WSM 18.5" and have been extremely happy with it's size and performance. My children are grown, so there's just two of us. When we have friends or family over we're only talking one or two families at a time.
My two favorite items to smoke are ribs (Costco Loin Back Ribs) and Boston Butts for pulled pork.
If you use two racks, you can easily do three full racks of ribs. It is necessary to cut the racks in half and put six halves on each food grate. That is really NO problem at all. It takes no special skill at all. I found that Wal-mart had a roaster complete with rack that doubles nicely as a rib rack when turned upside down. It was on sale for $7.50 including the roaster. It holds one more half rack than Weber's does and the design is easier cleaned than Weber's. That is all a plus.
My typical rib cook is a cryovac pack of three racks. The St Louis cut gets the same treatment. One advantage of cutting the racks in half - you do not get any over cooked ends. The halves fit nicely in the center of the food grates (the edges are where the heat rises around the water pan to the cover).
One suggestion I might make. I was not happy using the Weber
charcoal starter (works perfectly with my Weber OTG grill) when lighting small number of briquets. I went to IKEA (it is local for me but you can get the same item from
Amazon) and purchased a silverware caddy. It's what restaurants use to segregate their silverware wet from the dishwasher. I use is as a mini-chimney to light my small number of coals (I actually count out 20 coals for the Tin Can Minion Method). Here is the caddy at work:
http://s269.photobucket.com/user/Dale53/media/PepperStoutBeef2-7-2013Selects-1744_576x768.jpg.html
Here's where you buy it if you don't have an IKEA store locally :
I use one Weber lighting cube and the coals are ready in just a few minutes. I light the cube first, then carefully arrange 20 briquettes on top. I use a pair of water pump pliers to dump the coals in the tin can, then use the pliers to remove the hot bottomless coffee can. Of course, you have to be careful as the mini chimney and coffee can are HOT...
Dale53