I’m very excited to say that I just pulled the trigger on a new Weber Smokey Mountain 22!
This will be my first time using a charcoal smoker. I started out several years ago with a MES 30 electric smoker (used with a AMPS pellet tray). That finally died and I replaced it in May of this year with a Pit Boss Pro Series 1100 pellet grill which I use with an 18” pellet tube and I am very happy with it.
I decided to get the new WSM 22 for a few reasons:
I’m sure I will be asking plenty of questions… including some probably dumb questions. Like….how to figure out how much charcoal to load depending on length of time of a particular smoke session… like how much to use for 5-6 hours for ribs… or 12 hours for a 6 lb pork butt… or for a short some like an hour or so for a trip tip. Hopefully you guys don’t get too annoyed as my newbie shows
This will be my first time using a charcoal smoker. I started out several years ago with a MES 30 electric smoker (used with a AMPS pellet tray). That finally died and I replaced it in May of this year with a Pit Boss Pro Series 1100 pellet grill which I use with an 18” pellet tube and I am very happy with it.
I decided to get the new WSM 22 for a few reasons:
- I’m nervous that the pellets in my PB may draw in moisture in the upcoming rainy season which will be no Bueno as it may gum up the auger etc. and I am NOT willing to stop smoking just because of some rain.
- I like the idea of having options with more than one smoker and more smoking real estate in general.
- I like the ratio of capacity to portability of the WSM. It has plenty of capacity for doing large smokes with the two grates, especially if I get a rib rack for doing ribs, and it’s easily moveable from the back yard into the garage when not in use… which I can’t do with the pellet grill (my back gate doesn’t have enough room to get the Pit Boss or any other grill through it… I actually had to push it through my living room to get it to the yard when I got it.)
- And while I love my pellet grill… I’ve really been wanting to try something that uses real wood and charcoal, either a bullet or komodo, or a stick burner. I don’t think I’m ready for a stick burner yet, and a komodo is more than I want to spend and seems like it has less capacity so I decided the WSM was the winner… and I believe in buy once cry once… so the 22 was it without question.
I’m sure I will be asking plenty of questions… including some probably dumb questions. Like….how to figure out how much charcoal to load depending on length of time of a particular smoke session… like how much to use for 5-6 hours for ribs… or 12 hours for a 6 lb pork butt… or for a short some like an hour or so for a trip tip. Hopefully you guys don’t get too annoyed as my newbie shows