smoking 12 pound turkey on an Akorn

[bigwalk]

Hi all,

   Have done a lot of smoking with a vertical propane smoker and always knock it out of the park. Tonight, I have been enlisted to help my brother smoke a turkey for the family Thanksgiving meal tomorrow. He has a Char Grillers Akorn but has never done anything except grill burgers with it. I have been "googleing" and You Tubing to try and learn, but figured I should consult the experts here. We have a large bag of lump charcoal and some Hickory chunks. Planning on smoking it overnight so that it is still fresh tomorrow for the feast. Here are my questions:

-How much charcoal should I place in the grill and how much wood for an eight hourish smoke?

-How do yalll light your Akorns for smoking? He has a charcoal chimney but I feel like that would get it too hot and we would have trouble getting the temperature down

-How should I gate back the bottom and top vents to get the temperature right?

-How long could the turkey rest in a cooler before we slice it up?

-Any other tips are greatly appreciated as I have never smoked anything but chickens on my smoker. I am wooried this is going to be a "Christmas Vacation" turkey. Thanks for the help!

--Joseph

 

[JckDanls 07]

I don't have an acorn, but I would imagine it wouldn't be any different than any other charcoal smoker... I would do the minion method.. fill with unlit charcoal and mix chunks of wood throughout... light about a dozen pieces in the chimney... only let them burn until about half lit (not red hot) and then dump them in a hole created in the middle of the unlit charcoal... keep all vents wide open until it gets close to the target temp and then start closing the INTAKE vent down (leave exhaust vent wide open all the time).... control your temp with just the intake vent.... good luck and I hope somebody with an akorn stops in and tells you how they do it...

 

[sprky]

I don't have an acorn, but I would imagine it wouldn't be any different than any other charcoal smoker... I would do the minion method.. fill with unlit charcoal and mix chunks of wood throughout... light about a dozen pieces in the chimney... only let them burn until about half lit (not red hot) and then dump them in a hole created in the middle of the unlit charcoal... keep all vents wide open until it gets close to the target temp and then start closing the INTAKE vent down (leave exhaust vent wide open all the time).... control your temp with just the intake vent.... good luck and I hope somebody with an akorn stops in and tells you how they do it...

I'm right there with JD on this one. I think that's most likely the best method to use. I use it with my WSM at the lake. I use a master forge gasser at the house.