Trouble smoking with charcoal grill

[juicemia]

I picked up an Oklahoma Joe's Judge charcoal grill and smoker recently because I love smoking with my Weber kettle but I wanted more space to smoke more things at the same time. I'm having a hard time keeping the temperature below 275 on it. If there's anybody on here with a Judge I'd love to hear your tips for using it to smoke.

When I smoke on my Weber I can use the Minion method or the snake method and have coals burning low and slow for a long time. I have no trouble keeping it between 225 and 275. I have a ThermoPro digital thermometer that I use to keep track of the temperature so I can continue working or doing stuff around the house while it's cooking without having to check on it all the time.

When I try to replicate the same setup on the Judge I notice that no matter how closed the vents are the temperature won't dip below 275, and in order for me to get it down there I have to basically remove all the coals because they don't light slowly across the snake like they do on my Weber. I set the intake and exhaust openings to 1/8 of the way open (so just barely cracked) and wait 10 minutes. The temperature keeps climbing to like 325-350 and I'll see that the snake is 3/4 of the way lit (after having started with 4 coals on the tip of it).

I noticed that the judge leaks from the lid and the exhaust, so I'm wondering if that leaking means extra oxygen is getting in and causing the fire to burn hotter than it should. Everything I've read online about leaky smokers says that they don't get hot, not that they don't get too hot.

I also realized yesterday that whenever I smoke on the Weber kettle, I use a water pan, but I haven't used a water pan on the Judge. However, even if the water pan keeps the smoker cool, I don't see how it would fix the charcoal burning so quickly. I want to be able to put in a big pile of coal, have it lit from one end, and have it burn all day without having to fuss with it.

 

[gmc2003]

First I would keep the exhaust fully open. At least until you get a clean burn. Next how many lit coals are you using? I don't have and never cooked on a judge, but it looks like a bottom feeder similar to the kettle except it's rectangular in shape. I would fully lite maybe 6-10 coals and place them against the back wall of the smoker single file double stack the left over. Then I'd dump more unlit coals all the way to the front of the grill. Maybe two to three coals thick. Bury your wood chunks in the unlit coals - one near the lit coals, and spaced evenly until you reach the front wall. This will allow your smoker to burn back to front similar to the way a snake works in the kettle.

As for the leakage. I'd wait until you have a few cooks on the grill before making any modifications. The leaks may seal themselves up as the grill seasons. My WSM did.

For about the same price. You could have had a Weber 26" kettle which has almost the same cooking surface as the Judge, but that's a moot point now.

I hope I'm not confusing you more. Sometimes it tough to explain things clearly.

Chris

 

[juicemia]

First I would keep the exhaust fully open. At least until you get a clean burn. Next how many lit coals are you using? I don't have and never cooked on a judge, but it looks like a bottom feeder similar to the kettle except it's rectangular in shape. I would fully lite maybe 6-10 coals and place them against the back wall of the smoker single file double stack the left over. Then I'd dump more unlit coals all the way to the front of the grill. Maybe two to three coals thick. Bury your wood chunks in the unlit coals - one near the lit coals, and spaced evenly until you reach the front wall. This will allow your smoker to burn back to front similar to the way a snake works in the kettle.

As for the leakage. I'd wait until you have a few cooks on the grill before making any modifications. The leaks may seal themselves up as the grill seasons. My WSM did.

For about the same price. You could have had a Weber 26" kettle which has almost the same cooking surface as the Judge, but that's a moot point now.

I hope I'm not confusing you more. Sometimes it tough to explain things clearly.

Chris

Thanks for the explanation. I'm not confused but I do have a question. Would opening the exhaust fully cause the coals to light faster and burn hotter?

The wood chunks are also a thing I'm thinking about now. I never thought about them when smoking in my kettle, I'd just throw them in and let them light, but now I'm wondering if the wood chunks lighting are making things significantly hotter.

 

[juicemia]

I've had no time to actually try what was suggestion, all I've been able to do is ruminate on this. Some other things occurred to me and I'm not sure if they're relevant or not.

On my Weber, I don't start with lit coals. I arrange the coals and then light one end with a tumbleweed, and it comes up to the temperature I want. On the Judge, they recommend doing a burn off to clean the grates before cooking, so I take a chimney full of lit coals and let the grill come up to 400-450 to burn off any old stuff before I start working on the temperature. Maybe if I started with a cold grill the same way I could more easily dial in that 225-275 range I want.

Another thing is, on my Weber I always have used a water pan but on the Judge for some reason I've never thought about using it.

Another thing I've thought about doing is getting a couple of the Hasty Bake deflector plates. I measured the charcoal grate on the Judge earlier today and they look like they would fit perfectly. I'm thinking I could then arrange the coal from one end of the grill to the other and at the same time I could use the whole grill grate on top. I've never used deflector plates like that though so I'm not sure it would work, but it's a similar idea as to what Cooking with Ry does in this video with the Weber heat deflector:

 

[chopsaw]

I think you're answering the question . If you're wanting to smoke in a longer cook , start cold or just like you do on the Weber . I'm not schooled on the grill you're using , so maybe that isn't possible .
Maybe a couple charcoal baskets would also work .
Top vent open , and control the heat by adjusting the intake damper . Also if it's windy , position the grill so the wind doesn't blow directly into the intake .
Starting with a full chimney will keep the temps up until it burns enough to cool down .

 

[JckDanls 07]

As chopsaw said... start with a cold smoker like you do the weber... It's way easier to take temps up rather than try to bring them down...

I noticed that the judge leaks from the lid and the exhaust, so I'm wondering if that leaking means extra oxygen is getting in and causing the fire to burn hotter than it should.

One way to tell is... When temps get close to where you want them... close the intake all the way and open the exaust all the way... If temps keep rising rapidly after 15 minutes or so then you know you have air leak issues... I would imagine the firebox door and the chamber lid both have air leaks...

I'm kinda thinking it is more of a grill than it is a smoker... Adjustable coal grate kinda points towards that ... Reread your title for the thread ...

 

[babydocsmoker]

I wonder if the methods above don't help...if you could find where your leaks are and use a little high temp silicone / grill gasket to seal things up?

 

[jcam222]

Devils advocate of it likes to hold a consistent 275 roll with it. My Lang loves ruining at that temp. I usually don't fight it unless I'm done by something where I actually want to extend the smoke time. As an example I do eye of round for lunch meat to 145. Because of the low finish temp I do like to run 225 to 250. For most things like butts, brisket, ribs etc I love cooking at 275. Results are excellent

 

[Newglide]

As I was reading this I was thinking the same thing jcam222 said, What's wrong with 275?
If she likes it go with it.

 

[JLeonard]

I let my cooker settle in to what ever temp it wants that day as long as its between 225-300 degrees depending on what I'm cooking. I used to work myself to death trying for that 225. And every cook its a different temp....Your environment will dictate the temp alot.

Jim

 

[juicemia]

As chopsaw said... start with a cold smoker like you do the weber... It's way easier to take temps up rather than try to bring them down...



One way to tell is... When temps get close to where you want them... close the intake all the way and open the exaust all the way... If temps keep rising rapidly after 15 minutes or so then you know you have air leak issues... I would imagine the firebox door and the chamber lid both have air leaks...

I'm kinda thinking it is more of a grill than it is a smoker... Adjustable coal grate kinda points towards that ... Reread your title for the thread ...

It's definitely a grill. I was thinking of buying a cheap offset smoker but I decided I liked the Judge better even though it's a grill, because I do also grill a lot and I like the adjustable charcoal grate. I figured I could treat it the same way as I do my Weber kettle.

 

[juicemia]

Devils advocate of it likes to hold a consistent 275 roll with it. My Lang loves ruining at that temp. I usually don't fight it unless I'm done by something where I actually want to extend the smoke time. As an example I do eye of round for lunch meat to 145. Because of the low finish temp I do like to run 225 to 250. For most things like butts, brisket, ribs etc I love cooking at 275. Results are excellent

The issue isn't being at 275. The issue is that's the lowest I could get it after fighting with it and constantly having to be taking out coals. I usually don't mind getting up to 300 but that day I was doing a turkey breast and since I was cooking to 155 I didn't want to cook too fast so it could get some smoke on it.

 

[juicemia]

I wonder if the methods above don't help...if you could find where your leaks are and use a little high temp silicone / grill gasket to seal things up?

I bought the gasket already I just haven't applied it yet. I want to try some other things first before I do.

 

[juicemia]

So the other day I did a practice burn on the Judge without any food just to take notes on how the fire behaves when I do different things.

I made a pile of briquettes that was about 4 on the bottom and 3 on top of that, running from the back of the grill to the front, along the side closest to the intake. I say "about" because it wasn't meticulously stacked. To that I added about 7 lit coals to the back end of the pile and closed the lid.

I started cold with the exhaust all the way open and the intake open about 1/8 of the way. When it hit 210 I reduced the exhaust to 1/2 open. The smoke was clean by then. After about half an hour it had climbed to 279 so I reduced the exhaust to 1/8 open. After 8 minutes of that it hit 301 so I closed the intake to 1/16 open (just barely cracked). After 10 minutes of that the temps reached 311 so I closed the exhaust to 1/16 of the way open. From there the temps climbed to between 335-345 for a while before eventually they started to fall. I didn't close vents anymore. All in all the temperature was above 200 degrees for almost 3 hours. I wish I could have gotten a longer burn at a lower temperature instead of it eating all the coals up.

I had two temperature probes, one closer to the fire and one farther from the fire, and both were consistently within 10 degrees of each other. The temperatures I took note of were from the probe closer to the fire.

I did notice as someone said that the grill was leaking less smoke as it gets used because I guess grease is building up and sealing it like they said.

The next thing I'm probably going to try is starting with about 12 hot coals instead of 7 and just starting with the intake completely closed and the exhaust about 1/2 way. I see people putting whole chimneys of briquettes on top of huge piles of briquettes filling up half a Weber kettle and they get that slow burn I'm after. There has to be a way to do that with this grill.

 

[juicemia]

Something happened where it quoted a reply to myself instead of editing my original message.

 

[JLeonard]

Seems like you are on the right track. Try it with a 2 and 1 (1 coal on top of 2) and using only 3 or 4 lit coals at one end. See how that does on your temps. And as it self seals with grease/creosote you might see a little better temp management.

Jim

 

[BigW.]

I'd keep the exhaust open as much as possible. Adjust air with the intake on the side. There is a lot of space (air) in chamber and you also mentioned air leaks on that grill. So intake barely open may work great for smoking. Wide open when grilling hot for burgers and such. As suggested above try the 6-7 lit coals and a skinnier snake. I usually do 2x2 in the kettle.

 

[juicemia]

Seems like you are on the right track. Try it with a 2 and 1 (1 coal on top of 2) and using only 3 or 4 lit coals at one end. See how that does on your temps. And as it self seals with grease/creosote you might see a little better temp management.

Jim

I tried with 2 and 2 with 4 lit coals on one end first, the temps didn't pass 180. It seemed like it wasn't going to burn hot enough. Maybe I just didn't have enough patience.

 

[BigW.]

I tried with 2 and 2 with 4 lit coals on one end first, the temps didn't pass 180. It seemed like it wasn't going to burn hot enough. Maybe I just didn't have enough patience.

Where was the intake and exhaust vents at? You'll figure out the right air/fuel mix soon.

 

[juicemia]

Where was the intake and exhaust vents at? You'll figure out the right air/fuel mix soon.

It was a while ago so I don't exactly remember but I think they were all the way open. I'll figure it out for sure. Just need to keep trying different things.