New to smoking - controlling heat

[Turboconman]

Howdy all.

First off, forgive me if this is the wrong forum to post in. Still getting my bearings.

So I’m from Nashville. Grew up eating bbq probably once a week on average, three times a week as I got older. Now I live in Switzerland where there are no bbq joints to be found.

So, after nine years here, I’ve decided to take my fate, and fight homesickness into my own hands and learn smoking.

I got me a cheap little 70.- bullet style smoker (https://www.amazon.de/dp/B00IXFO4Y2...724435238&sprefix=deuba+smoker,aps,123&sr=8-1).

It’s got one vent up top for controlling air flow, and a charcoal pan that sits above an otherwise open bottom, with a little grill to lift up the coals.

And heck if I can’t control the heat.

I’ve done a butt and a rack of ribs. Last time, I got the heat up to a stable 230, dropped the ribs on, and then struggled for an hour and a half to keep the heat around 200, with it dripping to 180 a lot.

Eventually I dropped some more charcoal on it, let it jump up in heat, and then got it “stable” between 225-250.

I had to keep the top vent and charcoal door wide open or it died, and blow until I was light headed on the coals every 15 minutes, adding a handful of charcoal every 30minufes to an hour.

Normal?

Or what am I doing wrong?

 

[jcam222]

Can you post a pic of the smoker? Link is a little wonky for me with country change required.

 

[BigW.]

How are you lighting the coals and type of charcoal used? Do you have a charcoal chimney? A hair dryer or leaf blower might help with being light headed:) You can certainly cook anywhere in the 225-275 range. Your smoker will settle in where it likes. Several good tips on here for Bullet Smokers. Help is on the way.

 

[Turboconman]

Can you post a pic of the smoker? Link is a little wonky for me with country change required.

I’ll have to try and get one tomorrow, it’s already night here. But yeah, awkward German Amazon site.

It’s called “deuba smoker”, if that helps.

How are you lighting the coals and type of charcoal used? Do you have a charcoal chimney? A hair dryer or leaf blower might help with being light headed:) You can certainly cook anywhere in the 225-275 range. Your smoker will settle in where it likes. Several good tips on here for Bullet Smokers. Help is on the way.

Yeah, I’m using a chimney with lump charcoal (just whatever bag I can get at the store here, the brand is in German). Gotta just grab what I can here, we don’t have Kingston and Weber is suuuper expensive.

The hair dryer is a good idea.
If I could keep it between 225-275 I’d be happy, but I really struggled to keep it above 200.

I put a lot of charcoal in it in the beginning, but maybe I didn’t keep up with it enough? I’ve wondered if air flow was the problem.

 

[BigW.]

I'm sure air flow is the majority of it. Keeping the fire door cracked some and top vent wide open? A Weber Smokey Mountain takes a while to get going. But once it does, they go for hours. OP smoker:

 

[DougE]

I'm sure air flow is the majority of it. Keeping the fire door cracked some and top vent wide open?

Unless that outfit you posted the pic of has an air intake at the bottom on the other side, it will have issues. It needs an air intake on the bottom that can be regulated for the fire to burn correctly and to control temps. With only a vent at the top, the fire will be starved for air.

Think convection ......... air heated by the fire rises. If you have no air intake on the bottom where the fire is, the fire will be starved for air by only having an inlet on the top. Cooler incoming air cannot go down to where the fire is.

 

[SmokinEdge]

I don’t own a bullet smoker, but I have cooked on some way older Webber WSM cookers that are very similar in build with no actual air vent at the bottom, only a wide open bottom underneath.

Harry Soo has won multiple BBQ championships on the WSM, and has some good advice you may look into, he is cooking with the current WSM which has a sealed bottom and a lower vent but still good reading. Here is a link.

https://www.slapyodaddybbq.com/2014/03/fire-control-and-seasoning-a-new-weber-smokey-mountain-pit/

Now that said, if it was me, I would listen to Harry and fill my charcoal in the burn pot and make a well in the center of that like a volcano. And that is where I would place about a half of a chimney full of lit coals. This will let the fire burn 360 from inside out. Making a much more consistent burn. You will use your lower door for air inlet, which is not that odd, plenty of vertical offset smokers do just that with no vent to the firebox.

 

[Turboconman]

I’ll definitely look into Harry’s advice.

I did drill some holes in the charcoal pan to try and get more air. It helped between then butt and the ribs, and I’ve drilled a few more.

Yall think I should try and figure out how to I stall something like a vent near the bottom of the smoker? Opposite the door perhaps?

 

[normanaj]

Adjustable vent(s) would be ideal provided that's something available to you and you have the tools for the install.

 

[gmc2003]

I don’t own a bullet smoker, but I have cooked on some way older Webber WSM cookers that are very similar in build with no actual air vent at the bottom, only a wide open bottom underneath.

Never saw a WSM without any bottom vents. Hmmm must have been a year one design.

OP you can always purchase a couple of daisy wheels from Weber or maybe Amazon and put them on your smoker. You may need to alter the flatness or roundness a bit.

 

[Turboconman]

Never saw a WSM without any bottom vents. Hmmm must have been a year one design.

OP you can always purchase a couple of daisy wheels from Weber or maybe Amazon and put them on your smoker. You may need to alter the flatness or roundness a bit.

View attachment 703038

Could do that, I’ll look into it!

 

[SmokinEdge]

Never saw a WSM without any bottom vents. Hmmm must have been a year one design.

You are correct, I miss spoke, it was a Brinkman smoker, not Webber. Like this

 

[abk]

Now I live in Switzerland where there are no bbq joints to be found.

So, after nine years here, I’ve decided to take my fate, and fight homesickness into my own hands and learn smoking.

Cool, I'm in the same boat! Where in Switzerland are you? I'm in Bern myself. Also where have you found a pork butt? People have told me Schweinhals is the same area, but I never see it with a fat cap or the bone in.

Sorry to derail your thread, I could also start another one.

 

[Turboconman]

Cool, I'm in the same boat! Where in Switzerland are you? I'm in Bern myself. Also where have you found a pork butt? People have told me Schweinhals is the same area, but I never see it with a fat cap or the bone in.

Sorry to derail your thread, I could also start another one.

No worries brother (sister?)!

I’m in Vaud, Palezieux-Village to be exact, but we’ve just moved here from Lausanne.

I usually get it at Alligros. There’s one in Ecublens and one in Fribourg but not sure where else. BUT, they’re small. 2.5 kilos/6ish pounds, and no bone. I have seen it with the fat cap though.

 

[abk]

No worries brother (sister?)!

I’m in Vaud, Palezieux-Village to be exact, but we’ve just moved here from Lausanne.

I usually get it at Alligros. There’s one in Ecublens and one in Fribourg but not sure where else. BUT, they’re small. 2.5 kilos/6ish pounds, and no bone. I have seen it with the fat cap though.

Ah great, we do have one in Bern and I hadn't checked there yet. Do you remember what the French or German name for it is?

Also have you seen spare ribs anywhere? I only see baby back, but they always call them "spare". A couple of butchers said they could cut spares as a custom order, but only with a week or two notice.

 

[Turboconman]

Ah great, we do have one in Bern and I hadn't checked there yet. Do you remember what the French or German name for it is?

Also have you seen spare ribs anywhere? I only see baby back, but they always call them "spare". A couple of butchers said they could cut spares as a custom order, but only with a week or two notice.

In French it’s “épaule de porc”, you can find it as “roti d’épaule” or just “épaule”, which I’m guessing is the distinction between shoulder and Boston butt, but I’ll be honest and say I’m not 100% sure. In German you’re on your own! Don’t speak a word of it.

As for spare ribs, Alligros again is your friend! They have spare and baby backs, properly labeled in English. And, their whole pork section goes on sale fairly often. I can get a 2.5 kilo butt for 16.- of a rack of ribs for 13.- when they go on sale (which is cheap for Switzerland). Alligros is really for restaurants, so you can find basically anything there (but not sure about a bone in butt).

Even a whole pig!

 

[Turboconman]

Fun update.

Couldn’t get my smoker up to temp before. I drilled a few more holes in the charcoal pan, followed Henry’s method for getting it lit, and now it’s too hot, even with the exhaust and fire down closed completely.

What a life.

 

[Turboconman]

So I’m into a next smoke, and while it started fine (ish) now I feel like the coals just keep going out if I don’t keep blowing on them.

I went for lunch, came back and couldn’t get a red glow out of hardly any of them. Since then I’ve been fighting to keep it above 200.