Smoker Basics

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TunaciousBBQ28

Fire Starter
Original poster
Jul 10, 2021
69
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I have used a pellet smoker for the past 10 years, My sister, who lives an hour away, bought a Nex Gen 29" Charcoal Barrel Smoker with an off set fire box. My job is to smoke ribs for an upcoming BBQ house warming party.
I want to use a combination of Kingfords charcoal and Hickory chunks for the cook.
I need to know how much Hickory versus charcoal in the fire box to maintain 250 degrees and how much is Too Much Hickory smoke.
I know I have to adjust the side openings and smoke stack to control temperature.
What color should the smoke be. I don't want to starve the grill of Oxygen and produce putrid smoke.
My method is 2 hours of smoke, 1.5 hours wrapped and .25 hours to set the bbq sauce.

My guess is to light 20 briquettes in the off set box and add a couple of 2" X 2" hickory chunks, and then add more Hickory as the first burn down.
In my experience, charcoal lasts about 45 minutes, so I would add about 10 briquettes every 45 minutes to maintain the heat source.

Any help will be much appreciated.
 
A little hickory goes a long way so for me one 4x4 chunk at a time, letting them burn out before adding another.
With charcoal you don't have to stress temp control as much as with sticks.
Start out with inlet wide open and when the temp starts to exceed your target start to close it down a little at a time until it hits the spot.
I find the exhaust less important than the inlet temp control wise, so around half way.
 
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No way for anyone to tell you how to run that pit.
I think you are on the right thought path. Keep the exhaust wide open and control air flow at the fire box. A nice thin blue smoke is the best, but a little white smoke won’t hurt you. Billowing white smoke is bad and is corrected with more air flow. Good luck.
 
You're kind of in a bind, using a barrel/offset you've never used when you're used to a pellet smoker. Totally different animal.
SmokinEdge hit the high points.
Good luck!
Welcome to the forum, BTW!
 
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Yep, you are in a tough situation. Do you have time to do a couple of cooks to get an idea of how it will react fuel and air?
 
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Thank you all for the comments. Looks like I will need to do a test run prior to the party. Thanks for the comments on keeping the top stack open. I had it closed half way. I did use the lower vents to control air flow and thus temperature. I have the small Nexgen at home that does not have a side firebox and did a test run of coals and Hickory chunks. I used a 3" X 3" chunk of Hickory and it produced a lot of white smoke in this tiny grill. I will follow all of your advice and do a test run with exhaust wide open.
BTW. I have browsed all of the forums and like the content. I found the site with a google search.
 
Thank you all for the comments. Looks like I will need to do a test run prior to the party. Thanks for the comments on keeping the top stack open. I had it closed half way. I did use the lower vents to control air flow and thus temperature. I have the small Nexgen at home that does not have a side firebox and did a test run of coals and Hickory chunks. I used a 3" X 3" chunk of Hickory and it produced a lot of white smoke in this tiny grill. I will follow all of your advice and do a test run with exhaust wide open.
BTW. I have browsed all of the forums and like the content. I found the site with a google search.
You may find that you'll need to run at higher temps with the offset to keep the smoke right.
That's ok. Let the smoker be comfortable....
 
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