Well, this has been a journey, so this will be a little bit longer read, with how I became the proud owner of a Bell Fab Smoker.
It all started when I married a Texan. For the first several years of our marriage she complained for years that she hand't had good BBQ since she left Texas. (We lived in Idaho and then Nebraska at the time)
Wanting her to be happy (because she deserves the world), I bought a Cabela's brand propane smoker at a significant discount in their bargain cave. It was the Cabelas brand, probably built by whatever generic company (Masterbuilt?). The metal was thin, it leaked like a sieve, but I turned out some good BBQ. I smoked everything on that thing, brisket, chicken, lots of pork butts, and even some bear hams (those made a mess). I learned a lot about flavor profiles and heat control.
Then I started watching BBQ pitmasters and I knew I wanted something bigger. I dreamt of Stubbs gravity feed charcoal smoker, or even a Backwoods Party, but my budget didn't allow for that at the time.
We had moved to Wyoming (that's where I did the bear hams), and then to Nevada. One day, I found myself at Home Depot, it was the end of the season and they had all their smokers on clearance. It wasn't exactly what I wanted, but when I ended up buying a Brinkmann Trailmaster Limited Edition Horizontal Offset, for $125
I couldn't complain. That smoker has served me well for the past seven years, but I live in Oregon now. The thin metal rusted out in the ash pan, and quite honestly it just wasn't BIG enough.
See, we have five boys, and they have friends, and my wife has friends, I have a dog. It's not uncommon for us to feed 30 people if I have the smoker going.
So I started shopping.
After lots of shopping and frustration I settled on buying an Old Country Brazos. (wait, what, I thought you said you bought a Bell Fab.....calm down, I'll get there). The Brazos is a good smoker. 1/4 steel, and well built. It's just not built well enough to survive subpar shipping packaging from Mexico (where they are manufactured) to Oregon. The Old Country (ordered through Academy) seemed to be what I wanted at a price point I could stomach and shipping was way less than a Lang (an now I know why). The smoker arrived looking like it had been drug behind the truck for the last 15 miles.
The pictures don't do the amount of damage justice.
(To be Continued)
It all started when I married a Texan. For the first several years of our marriage she complained for years that she hand't had good BBQ since she left Texas. (We lived in Idaho and then Nebraska at the time)
Wanting her to be happy (because she deserves the world), I bought a Cabela's brand propane smoker at a significant discount in their bargain cave. It was the Cabelas brand, probably built by whatever generic company (Masterbuilt?). The metal was thin, it leaked like a sieve, but I turned out some good BBQ. I smoked everything on that thing, brisket, chicken, lots of pork butts, and even some bear hams (those made a mess). I learned a lot about flavor profiles and heat control.
Then I started watching BBQ pitmasters and I knew I wanted something bigger. I dreamt of Stubbs gravity feed charcoal smoker, or even a Backwoods Party, but my budget didn't allow for that at the time.
We had moved to Wyoming (that's where I did the bear hams), and then to Nevada. One day, I found myself at Home Depot, it was the end of the season and they had all their smokers on clearance. It wasn't exactly what I wanted, but when I ended up buying a Brinkmann Trailmaster Limited Edition Horizontal Offset, for $125
I couldn't complain. That smoker has served me well for the past seven years, but I live in Oregon now. The thin metal rusted out in the ash pan, and quite honestly it just wasn't BIG enough.
See, we have five boys, and they have friends, and my wife has friends, I have a dog. It's not uncommon for us to feed 30 people if I have the smoker going.
So I started shopping.
After lots of shopping and frustration I settled on buying an Old Country Brazos. (wait, what, I thought you said you bought a Bell Fab.....calm down, I'll get there). The Brazos is a good smoker. 1/4 steel, and well built. It's just not built well enough to survive subpar shipping packaging from Mexico (where they are manufactured) to Oregon. The Old Country (ordered through Academy) seemed to be what I wanted at a price point I could stomach and shipping was way less than a Lang (an now I know why). The smoker arrived looking like it had been drug behind the truck for the last 15 miles.
The pictures don't do the amount of damage justice.
(To be Continued)
