Is my AMNPS getting enough airflow? (MES 30)

[yqyxzroh]

Unfortunately... both those brands are for cooking (heat)... meaning they are not 100% flavored wood... This does not mean that this is why your getting such high temps (which I really am confused about)... Those two brands are a mixture of different woods designed specifically for cooking at high temps...
A-MAZ-N Products (where the AMNPS comes from) has 100% flavored woods that are used for the maze or tube ... 100% apple means 100% apple... no oak, alder, or anything else mixed in ... 100% pecan means 100% pecan and so on ... He has a Pitmasters Choice blend that is absolutely scrumptious ...

Wood Pellets and Pellet Dust | A-MAZE-N

A-MAZE-N wood pellets and sawdust are made from 100% all natural hardwood with no added fillers, binders, or oils. Single and blended flavors are available.

amazenproducts.com

The Bear Mountain pellets I am using are a blend of various woods but the Lumber jack ones I bought are all 100% flavor woods - 100% oak, 100% apple, 100% cherry.

Mine works Great every time:
I have the same interior as yours, except mine is a 40" MES.
I put the AMNPS on the bottom rack, all the way to the right end, just above the dumper.
I pull my Chip dumper out about 3", and rotate it 180°.
Top Vent all the way open.
I usually use Hickory Pellets, but anything but Straight Cherry will work good.
The ashes should be Gray, and collapsed in the lanes, when finished.

If you put it in a Pan, it won't get the proper air flow.

Bear

I ended up taking it out of the pan and putting it on the bottom rack with a pan on the rack above. I am currently trying a run where the MES is powered, in my previous tests, the MES was not powered.
Is there any downside to leaving the chip tube completely out?

About an hour into my test my temperature is holding steady at ~235F when set to ~245F. The smoke looks OK, but I don't have enough experience to judge whether or not it could be considered "thin blue smoke".

 

[daveomak]

'Trying' to smoke meat at temps above ~140 ish, doesn't work too well.... You are melting the fat... Fat coats the outside of the meat... Smoke sticks to the fat.... The outside of the meat turns dark color...

 

[Bearcarver]

The Bear Mountain pellets I am using are a blend of various woods but the Lumber jack ones I bought are all 100% flavor woods - 100% oak, 100% apple, 100% cherry.


I ended up taking it out of the pan and putting it on the bottom rack with a pan on the rack above. I am currently trying a run where the MES is powered, in my previous tests, the MES was not powered.
Is there any downside to leaving the chip tube completely out?

About an hour into my test my temperature is holding steady at ~235F when set to ~245F. The smoke looks OK, but I don't have enough experience to judge whether or not it could be considered "thin blue smoke".

With the AMNPS where I said to put it,
I believe you get better air flow to the AMNPS with the dumper about 3" out & rotated 180°.
All the way out gets less air flow. IMO
It doesn't really have to be an actual blue smoke. The important thing is "Not Too Heavy" which doesn't happen with an AMNPS, if you only light one end. Lighting both ends is too heavy a smoke.

Bear

 

[yqyxzroh]

With the AMNPS where I said to put it,
I believe you get better air flow to the AMNPS with the dumper about 3" out & rotated 180°.
All the way out gets less air flow. IMO
It doesn't really have to be an actual blue smoke. The important thing is "Not Too Heavy" which doesn't happen with an AMNPS, if you only light one end. Lighting both ends is too heavy a smoke.

Bear

When you do a cook, do you preheat the MES to temp before adding your AMNPS? Do you put your food in immediately after the AMNPS is in or do you wait a bit?

 

[JckDanls 07]

When I use to use electric... I would put the unlit tray full of pellets in while it was pre-heating ... when I was ready to put meat in I would light the pellets and put meat in at same time ..

 

[Bearcarver]

When you do a cook, do you preheat the MES to temp before adding your AMNPS? Do you put your food in immediately after the AMNPS is in or do you wait a bit?

In a perfect world that would be a good thing to do.
However I do this order:
#1. plug MES in, set time to 20 hours, set temp, & start MES.
#2 Put Pellets or Dust in AMNPS or AMNS, and light one end (setting on my deck railing, in a pan).
#3 Stop back about 6 or 8 times, blowing on the fire in the AMNPS to get the cigar-like cherry burning deeply.
#4 By the time my MES is up to Temp, my AMNPS is ready to go, so in it goes, and adjust chip dumper for air flow.
#5. Put Meat in & hang Maverick sensor about 3" from Meat.

Bear

 

[yqyxzroh]

Just a quick update - great results. I found a partial pork butt in my freezer and tested a smoke on it.

1. I removed all grates/drip pans and heated MES to maximum temp (about 290F) for about an hour to burn any residual grease/stuff out. There was a lot of smoke coming out at the beginning, which I assume was the residual grease burning off. Chip tube tray was about 2-3 inches out with the chip area facing down.
2. After about an hour, I filled my AMNPS and lit it (not inside the MES). I let it burn for about 8 minutes before the flame died by itself. I blew on it one last time to make sure any flame was 100% out.
3. I lower MES to cooking temp (250F) and put in the bottom drip grate and grates. Smoking AMNPS went on the bottommost rack and a foil drip pan went on the rack directly above it to catch any drippings. Temp dropped to about 200F after opening the MES to do all of this.
4. I let the AMNPS smoke inside the MES without any food for about 10-15 minutes while the MES got back up to cooking temp and stabilized (250F).
5. After the temperature stabilized, I put the meat on and started cooking

The result was great. I wrapped the pork butt in foil when it reached 160F internal and to my surprise, it was not completely black! It was a dark mahogany and looked absolutely amazing. My previous attempts with the stock smoking tray, third party smoking boxes, Masterbuilt cold smoker, and my initial setup of having the AMNPS in a pan all resulted in a really black bark. My previous attempts never tasted super bitter to me so I assumed black/a little bitterness was correct/normal...

Now my only issue is with the MES unit itself, as it never seemed to break 250F with the unwrapped pork inside of it... After wrapping the pork, I was able to hit temps of 260-270F. I guess these temps are fine as I'm told 225-250 is the ideal range for bbq/smoking...

Thank you to everyone who replied as all of these responses helped me in achieving this result!