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Originally posted by daRicksta
Chuck, this surprised me. When I smoked a beef brisket over oak pellets a few weeks ago all 3 rows burnt up over the 11 hour cook. So it really surprised me when I had a row of pellets left after the 10+ hours of smoking the pork shoulder. I'm still reluctant to add a chimney to my MES 30 since airflow has been very good and the
AMNPS has been excellent at producing TBS. Todd says that a full tray should produce about 11 hours of smoke as Bear has also said a few times. That's just about what I get. I'm going to be smoking some bone-in ribeye steaks on Father's Day over hickory pellets to get the steaks up to 125° IT and then I'll sear and finish them up on my charcoal grill. I'll see then how the pellets burn over the couple of hours or so the steaks will be in the smoker.
Do you place the chimney or tube over the top vent of your MES 30? Why a 3" elbow? I'm not that great at understanding how the mods work and how you choose what materials to use. But I'm a minimalist when it comes to using my smoker which is why, except for the
AMNPS, I use my MES 30 just the way it came out of the box.
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Rick, I was responding to your lack of smoke flavor. I like a lot of smoke (more than the wife). With a bit more air flow I get a bit more smoke. I have noticed that things do seem smokier after a day or so.for some reason.
Just switching to hickory may give you what you want. Hickory is my go-to wood.
As far as the elbow goes, many people use them on MES for increased draft or to avoid wind problems if smoking outdoors. It's just a 3" adjustable elbow for vent pipe. You can set is as a straight pipe or configure it as a 90° bend or any angle in between. I took my damper out of my exhaust vent ( where your thermometer leads are in your picture) and installed it there with a 1" strip of metal wrapped around as a space to make it snug.
Be sure to give hickory a try and see how you like it. If you want more smoke after that you can look into other things.
Enjoy those rib steaks.
Chuck