Smoke Daddy Pellet Pro Vertical Smoker

[jbinfla]

Wow thanks all. That is a lot of info to digest. I have made another smoke on Friday and maybe will do another tomorrow. Here's what I did, and the results:

1) As to wood chips on diffuser, unfortunately when I tried to put a pan on there the grease tray above it would not sit right. There's only an inch or so between the diffuser and grease tray. Sooo, I set the pan with wood chips / chunks on top of the grease tray. Did not get ignition so I will have to revisit this. I'm worried if I remove the grease tray I'll start a fire, and not the good kind.

2) I lit the AMAZN tube with Mesquite pellets, let it go for 15-20 minutes before I fired up the grill to confirm it was burning. It stayed burning for most of the smoke (5.5 hours or so) so I'm glad for that. I can only guess last time that it didn't stay lit, I didn't do a good job of lighting it!

3) I used the Big Kahuna. I had to reload it about every 30-40 minutes. I put a layer of chips on the bottom, then chunks, then chips. I believe this is so much smaller than the Magnum PIG that the two probably aren't the same. I did get TWS for the duration of my smoke, but oddly didn't pick up a lot of the smoke flavor (but a small hint did come through). I was very hopeful when I realized if I added another couple chunks, and some chips, every so often I could keep it going with smoke. Perhaps the fact the air is moving so fast makes a difference. Not sure.

As to the vents - I do have top vent closed and side vent open. I'm thinking about fixing up something to close the side vent and open the top just a little bit. I saw one of the Smoke Daddy videos and they had the side closed and the top open. This is something I'm thinking about anyway.

4) Temperature held steady though I did see some times it got up to 10-degrees hotter. Not sure if that was related to me adding fuel to the Big Kahuna, seemed to be tied to that so maybe it adds a few degrees for a bit.

Since I wanted to be apples to apples, I did the same cook times / temps / wrap schedule I normally would have done. I also was in the habit of cooking my ribs the day before eating so I did that this time too. I find the wrap method great but the rib meat falls off the bone when done, and I don't like that. By happenstance one day I had to cook some ribs for a large Kingdom Hall gathering and I did them the day before so we could just throw on the grill and warm up day-of at the park. Turns out they were so much better, still tender, same flavor and smokiness, but the bones didn't fall out (meat did come cleanly off bone just not accidentally). So, once I realized that letting the meat congeal in the fridge over night, then grilling for 30-minutes the next day makes, for me, the best ribs. SOOOO, long story short, I wanted to be apples to apples and followed the same routine for this cook. Cooked Friday, and ate ribs for breakfast this morning :) Gotta love that

Results? Very slight smoke aroma. Normally, the next day when I unpack the ribs the smoke aroma would be strong and very noticeable, you could tell they were smoked ribs. Today a very close sniff and I could "kinda sorta" tell but not what I was hoping for. It was better than the last batch. I thought for sure the TWS from the Big Kahuna would have made it taste bad but it didn't. So, I didn't get that taste I like.

I'm a bit nervous about removing the grease tray to put a pan of chips on the diffuser but a pan of chips / chunks burning always worked on my gas smoker. I just need a way to get the chips there and still be able to access the chip / chunks to add more if needed and under the grease tray that isn't happening. Anyone have thoughts on this? Is it a severe fire hazard to remove the grease tray? Maybe put a pan under the ribs? For now I'm only doing one rack testers so easy to do, but when I have a large gathering and a dozen racks, not so sure about that then.

What do I think I need to do? I'm contemplating how I can fit a Magnum PIG on there, or maybe make my own but I really don't have machine tools so not sure that's an option. I believe the PIG is so much bigger that it works better. I'd have to break lump charcoal into smaller pieces to fit into the Big Kahuna, the PIG looks to be much larger. I'm also contemplating starting my smoke at 180-degrees or something to see if I can get more smoke out of the pellets but I hate changing my temps and cook times because then I'm dealing with another set of problems. That's the whole reason I'm just doing ribs now, one thing I knew how to cook routinely and very well. Once I get these I'll venture into other meats, and maybe try that brisket I've been dying to do.

Anyway, long post, but I wanted to be thorough. I'll keep posting here until I get it just the way I want them. For now, here's a pic shortly after I replenished the Big Kahuna.

- Joe

 

[RCAlan]

Wow thanks all. That is a lot of info to digest. I have made another smoke on Friday and maybe will do another tomorrow. Here's what I did, and the results:

1) As to wood chips on diffuser, unfortunately when I tried to put a pan on there the grease tray above it would not sit right. There's only an inch or so between the diffuser and grease tray. Sooo, I set the pan with wood chips / chunks on top of the grease tray. Did not get ignition so I will have to revisit this. I'm worried if I remove the grease tray I'll start a fire, and not the good kind.

2) I lit the AMAZN tube with Mesquite pellets, let it go for 15-20 minutes before I fired up the grill to confirm it was burning. It stayed burning for most of the smoke (5.5 hours or so) so I'm glad for that. I can only guess last time that it didn't stay lit, I didn't do a good job of lighting it!

3) I used the Big Kahuna. I had to reload it about every 30-40 minutes. I put a layer of chips on the bottom, then chunks, then chips. I believe this is so much smaller than the Magnum PIG that the two probably aren't the same. I did get TWS for the duration of my smoke, but oddly didn't pick up a lot of the smoke flavor (but a small hint did come through). I was very hopeful when I realized if I added another couple chunks, and some chips, every so often I could keep it going with smoke. Perhaps the fact the air is moving so fast makes a difference. Not sure.

As to the vents - I do have top vent closed and side vent open. I'm thinking about fixing up something to close the side vent and open the top just a little bit. I saw one of the Smoke Daddy videos and they had the side closed and the top open. This is something I'm thinking about anyway.

4) Temperature held steady though I did see some times it got up to 10-degrees hotter. Not sure if that was related to me adding fuel to the Big Kahuna, seemed to be tied to that so maybe it adds a few degrees for a bit.

Since I wanted to be apples to apples, I did the same cook times / temps / wrap schedule I normally would have done. I also was in the habit of cooking my ribs the day before eating so I did that this time too. I find the wrap method great but the rib meat falls off the bone when done, and I don't like that. By happenstance one day I had to cook some ribs for a large Kingdom Hall gathering and I did them the day before so we could just throw on the grill and warm up day-of at the park. Turns out they were so much better, still tender, same flavor and smokiness, but the bones didn't fall out (meat did come cleanly off bone just not accidentally). So, once I realized that letting the meat congeal in the fridge over night, then grilling for 30-minutes the next day makes, for me, the best ribs. SOOOO, long story short, I wanted to be apples to apples and followed the same routine for this cook. Cooked Friday, and ate ribs for breakfast this morning :) Gotta love that

Results? Very slight smoke aroma. Normally, the next day when I unpack the ribs the smoke aroma would be strong and very noticeable, you could tell they were smoked ribs. Today a very close sniff and I could "kinda sorta" tell but not what I was hoping for. It was better than the last batch. I thought for sure the TWS from the Big Kahuna would have made it taste bad but it didn't. So, I didn't get that taste I like.

I'm a bit nervous about removing the grease tray to put a pan of chips on the diffuser but a pan of chips / chunks burning always worked on my gas smoker. I just need a way to get the chips there and still be able to access the chip / chunks to add more if needed and under the grease tray that isn't happening. Anyone have thoughts on this? Is it a severe fire hazard to remove the grease tray? Maybe put a pan under the ribs? For now I'm only doing one rack testers so easy to do, but when I have a large gathering and a dozen racks, not so sure about that then.

What do I think I need to do? I'm contemplating how I can fit a Magnum PIG on there, or maybe make my own but I really don't have machine tools so not sure that's an option. I believe the PIG is so much bigger that it works better. I'd have to break lump charcoal into smaller pieces to fit into the Big Kahuna, the PIG looks to be much larger. I'm also contemplating starting my smoke at 180-degrees or something to see if I can get more smoke out of the pellets but I hate changing my temps and cook times because then I'm dealing with another set of problems. That's the whole reason I'm just doing ribs now, one thing I knew how to cook routinely and very well. Once I get these I'll venture into other meats, and maybe try that brisket I've been dying to do.

Anyway, long post, but I wanted to be thorough. I'll keep posting here until I get it just the way I want them. For now, here's a pic shortly after I replenished the Big Kahuna.

- Joe
View attachment 489051

For your ribs, if you’re doing the 3-2-1 method, I would recommend switching up and either don’t wrap the ribs at all or try 4-1-1 instead. Wrapping for 2 hours can definitely over tenderize your ribs and that’s 2 hours less that your ribs have exposure to your grills smoke production. The Magnum P.I.G. smoke generator is definitely larger then the Big Kahuna, but before you go out and buy the Magnum P., I would recommend try using a Smoke Basket... It’s a lot cheaper investment and you can load it up with charcoal and hardwood. To give you an idea, here’s a couple of pictures of the $4000.00 IronSide Smokers Vertical Pellet Smoker and how they burn real hardwood in theirs...

You can add a Smoke Basket to your Vertical Smoker for about $30.00-$50.00 dollars and you would also have easier access to the basket then you would in a traditional pellet grill to reload it as necessary. The IronSide Smoker has more available space near its burn pot, but you can do something similar by adding a Smoke Basket to your Pellet Pro Smoker. Sometimes you have to think outside the box and be creative. FYI. Also, always start your bbqs at the optimal Low and Slow temps for the first couple of hours to maximize the smoke production within your smoker as well. Good luck.

Pellet Pro Austin XL and a few more mods... In SoCal and Always... Semper Fi

 

[kstone113]

I apologize, RCAlan is right, i mean to reply to Jbinfla, not bill1 so apologies on the confusion.

Jbinfla - I know the Big Kahuna is smaller but try filling it with charcoal instead of wood and then adding chunks. You may need to cut chunks smaller to fit but chunks are better than chips for better smoke. I sometimes have to cut chunks to even fit into my magnum PIG. I saw someone make a mod where they curved the air pump pipe so it didn't go right through the middle so it is easier to put bigger chunks. Even with the cold smoker (kahuna), I would start your pellet smoker on low for an hour or more. I assume since your smokedaddy is PID controller, the fan would go off/on like my Recteq Bull? That is assuming it is hot outside and the fan does need to adjust but the fan going off/on would allow the smoke to stay in longer.

One other thing I suggest is you change your or try changing your method on ribs. I like you was a 3/2/1(or something modified) guy. I tended to go 3 1/2 to 4 hours of smoke, 1 to 2 wrapped and 30 minutes or so unwrapped but lately(a year into having my pellet smoker) I finally decided to try the unwrapped method like other had suggested. I think ribs on pellet smokers come out better unwrapped. I do spray every hour with apple juice/apple cider vinegar which does help with smoke absorption. Since pellet smoker smoke is not only lighter but b/c of the fans, it moves along faster, this makes the case for no wrapping. I think you will be happier with the smoke flavor if you go unwrapped. To me, wrapping is to speed up the process and/or stop smoke absorption because of so much smoke. If and when I get an offset smoker, I would go back to 3/2/1 but with a pellet smoker, it is a different ball game.

I do think overtime as you learn this smoker more, you will go to love it. You can put wood chips right on the heat diffuser. You don't necessarily have to have in a pan. Or you could make a foil boat with wood chips on the diffuser also. Even with only an inch, if you user foil or just put the chips directly on there, should work fine.

Good luck!

 

[jbinfla]

Yes I am so glad I've had such great comments, it helps to have experience guide you. I am sure I will end up loving this, just got to figure out how to get the smoke.

I will try the chunks directly on the diffuser in a foil boat as you mentioned see if I can't get some thick smoke. From everything I hear, smoke absorption by the meat is usually only in the first few hours and after that the meat is too warm, or it's set, or something I don't recall all the details just that I remember somewhere hearing that the smoke flavor is established in the first few hours. SOOO, if I can get three hours of smoke without any intervention, and I can taste it, then I'll say I've got exactly what I wanted. For now, I've got mostly what I wanted and honestly I'm kind of enjoying the experimentation. I may have committed a sin tho, I'm afraid to admit to it here. But, since this is therapy I guess I have to be honest. I bought a bottle of liquid smoke from Amazon, just showed up. It's the hickory stuff no funny ingredients just condensed smoke and water. I think next smoke I'm going to do two racks, no wrap, one spritzed with apple juice and other one spritzed with apple juice and some liquid smoke. This is for educational purposes only, of course I would never do anything like this :) Unless it works. Never tried it but I'm getting desperate. My mom got her COVID shot and hasn't been out of house since March so I'd like to have my family over for my famous ribs (hey, my nephew thinks they are). Sadly, right now, they are not what he remembers but it's been a year since they've been over and I'd like to get this dialed in and first time in a year have my whole family over.

 

[JWFokker]

The forced airflow in the pellet burner makes evaporation take place faster, so you could in theory power through the stall faster. Higher temp settings also increase the fan speed, so evaporation can happen even faster, but smoke is thinner. The case can be made that low and slow is the way to go on pellet burners except when cooking poultry. I usually run mine at 180-200F and turn the temp up to 250-275 whenever the color looks good to break out of the stall and finish.

 

[bill1]

The forced airflow in the pellet burner makes evaporation take place faster, so you could in theory power through the stall faster...

+1 on all JWF said.
Also, clever use of manifolding or channeling your smoke flow makes a big difference...

On a pellet grill, arrange empty beer cans or foil wads around the empty perimeter of your meat so the smoke is re-directed to flow closer and faster to the meat. Same thing with the space above the meat. I have a 2nd row of grates I hardly ever use, and my meat is seldom so tall it reaches them. So I wrap them in foil (or replace with steel sheet) with only a single hole directly under the chimney.

In a vertical pellet smoker (like the IronSide) place steel sheet (in place of factory grates, or hung under the factory grates) to force the smoke to meander left and right like a snake instead of heading straight up to the exhaust.

 

[jbinfla]

Okay so this past Sunday I did another smoke. This time I did the following:

1) Set smoker to 225°
2) Lit one AMAZN tube with pellets
3) Lit one AMAZN tube with fine wood chips
4) Put wood chunks on top of heat diffuser
5) Tried to keep the Big Kahuna cold smoker going (it requires attention every 30-min or so)
6) Cooked ribs 6-hours, no wrap. Normally I would do 4-2, then refrigerate night before and grill briefly next day to warm up (they were usually a bit too fall-apart after 2 hours in foild)
7) I added a few tbs of mesquite liquid smoke to my water spritzer. No juice wanted to see the flavor.

How did it go? Pellet tube seems to last just shy of 6 hours. Tube with chips last about 4 hours so I did refill it. Big Kahuna maybe could go 1-hour but the last 20-minutes it'd be little smoke so I add chunks/chips every 30-minutes. I don't like that maintenance schedule. I will probably look into ways to add the Magnum PIG, with a bend or something if I have to.

Results: As always it maintained a pretty solid temp, but I did notice opening and closing the door every hour to sprits causes temp to drop to 170-180, then it goes up to 250 and settles back at 225 over next ten minutes. but once it hits 225 it's pretty solid at 225. Ribs had a mild smoke flavor, so compared to the "out the oven" flavor of the other ribs this is a step up. The outside was not tough, but was not as tender as I'm used to. Flavor was good so I will say I now have ribs I am happy with, but I will keep refining as I would like a much heavier smoke flavor.

What am I going to do next? I'm going to explore ways to get more wood chunks on top of the heat diffuser. Wish there was more room to do a fire box like some others have shown. The grease tray is only an inch or so above the heat diffuser which limits my ability. I'd be willing to remove the bottom shelf and raise the grease tray up a few more inches and add way more chunks. I could get more in there now as I only covered 60% of the surface area, next time I will cover 100% of surface area and then also look at ways to elevate the grease tray. I am not sure about the AMAZN tubes. I will use both, but the pellet one put off more visible smoke, but the fine chips (one step up from sawdust) burned faster. I'm not sure which is better. So, guess I'll do pellets and see. May buy one of those smoke trays as well to put my chips in so two pellet tubes and one tray. I know, it's getting ridiculous but I want something I do not have to tend to often that was the whole reason I went the pellet route. Lazy, I know :)

 

[jbinfla]

Well figured I'd update everyone since I've had a couple more smokes and have I think finally gotten the results I'm looking for.

Last weekend invited family over for a good smoke. Make several racks of ribs and two chuck roast.

Ribs:
I cooked ribs Friday night, same 225° as usual. I did 4-2 for the method with the St. Louis style ribs (4-hours no wrap, 2-hours foil wrapped). I used two AMAZN tubes, both with pellets (Pecan) I've not been using the fine chips in there as I believe the pellets create more smoke. They also give about 4-hours of smoke which is low maintenance for what I'm interested in. I put some chunks on the heat diffuser along with some chips. I kept the Big Kahuna going for the four hours best I could, it does require frequent refilling. Dan at SmokeDaddy said the spring in the smoke generator is only if using pellets, and since I used chunks/chips I could remove it. This allowed me to get marginally more in there but still less than an hour and I needed to top it off.

I did almost screw up pretty bad. I looked at the chips/chunks on the diffuser and I noticed that they were black but didn't appear charred. In my infinite wisdom I thought maybe I'll throw a light to them. Bad move, they flamed up big-time instantly and I had to run and get a spray bottle with some water and put it out and in that bit of furor it spiked to 290° fast. But just for a couple minutes so no harm.

Next day was the day everyone was coming over and I pulled them out 30-minutes before I wanted them done and threw on the grill for the warm up and final cook. They came out pretty good if you ask me I am now happy with how my ribs work out.

Chuck Roast:
I've never made one but saw some post about this being an alternative to brisket. As I went to Winn Dixie after 6pm on Thursday to get the meat the butcher was gone so if I wanted I could have gotten a whole brisket packer or whatever they had in the meat case. So I saw a couple smaller chuck roast about 3lbs each. Figured I'd give them a try. I did the math figured I'd need about 6-hours each at 225° so tried to time it, and thankfully around 6-1/2 hours it hit 185° my target temp and I pulled. No stall. I smoked for 4 hours, then wrapped in paper for last 2-1/2 hours. I pulled off meat and it was not "medium" as I had hoped, it was more like med-well but everyone loved it. I used a rub with coarse ground black pepper, garlic, sea salt and very little crushed pepper. It wasn't too tough, though it wasn't this fall apart with juice running out like some of the brisket you-tube videos. But, I'll make another again maybe next time I'll hit the butcher shop find some nicer cuts or get a small brisket just the flat or butt. Anyway, below is a pic I took at around 160° when I pulled them to wrap. The flavor was delicious, my only wish was if it were a bit juicier. It wasn't terribly dry, but not what I wanted.

All in all everyone loved the ribs and the beef, too bad I forgot the chicken on the grill and brought in "charcoal" for the two who were "on a diet" :) They had to suffer with ribs and beef! Ohh and some sausage that I put on but I don't count that because it was pre-smoked I just added some more and warmed it up :)

 

[jbinfla]

Ohh, for anyone who is thinking of buying one of these:

1) I've not had a single problem. No errors or other things I was worried about. So far, it just works. Not sure how many hours it can go as I've not smoked over 6-7 hours at a time and it doesn't even use half of the hopper so I think I can get 12-18 hours out of a hopper. I don't mind tending to the pellets every 6-hours if necessary :)

2) It holds temps pretty solid. Adding the chunks / chips to the diffuser will raise the temps a bit, so I just dial it down to keep it steady. I may at some point stop putting wood on the diffuser and see if the two AMAZN tubes i'm using do the trick. I may even buy more, they're easy to use and make a ton of smoke. And, there's a lot of room inside the smoker so having a couple tubes in there doesn't limit anything.

3) I also plan to see if I can discontinue using the Big Kahuna and get the results I want. It requires a lot of tending and the whole point of me going pellet was so don't have to tend to a fire every 30-minutes. I have gone out for a couple hours in the middle of a smoke and kept my thermometer on logging and it has been solid. So it is doing what I want, it's just the smoke that I have been trying to add more of so now that I've got results I like I'll fine tune and try to "simplify"

 

[chef jimmyj]

Glad to hear its working so well. Its too much smoker for my needs but Im prone to excesses and would love one...JJ