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Weber 26 inch kettle...smoking set ups?

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worktogthr

worktogthr

Master of the Pit
Original poster
OTBS Member
SMF Premier Member
Nov 3, 2013
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Massapequa, NY (Long Island)
Well.. Craigslist got me again! Found a brand new weber premium 26.75 kettle for 100 bucks and I couldn't resist. I have kind of a weber thing. Charcoal and gas, their quality just surpasses all other grills I've used and owned. So my question is this. On my Performer which is a 22 inch kettle I have used the snake method with some success. I was wondering with the Increased size of this grill does the snake have to be significantly wider or higher to maintain temp a between 225-275? Does some kind of top down minion method work since I will have a lot of extra room. Any pics of your set ups? Thanks!

Here's a pic of the new toy:

image.jpg

image.jpg

 
I usually use a big snake on my 67cm (27") Weber but to keep it hot enough you do need to have quite a large one. It needs to be somewhere at the boundary of where a snake ends and a Minion begins. Because of the large surface area for heat loss you will find it harder to maintain temperature on cold or windy days.

If you have the standard Weber charcoal baskets then I sometimes just use 3 of them on cold days and that works quite well. Also if you can put something over it like a welding blanket that helps too.

I used it last weekend to cook 4 full racks of ribs. The weather was fine and I just used one full lit charcoal basket with a snake next to it. The basket gave the base heat and the snake allowed for the additional fine tuning.
 
Last edited:
Wade said:
I usually use a big snake on my 67cm (27") Weber but to keep it hot enough you do need to have quite a large one. It needs to be somewhere at the boundary of where a snake ends and a Minion begins. Because of the large surface area for heat loss you will find it harder to maintain temperature on cold or windy days.

If you have the standard Weber charcoal baskets then I sometimes just use 3 of them on cold days and that works quite well. Also if you can put something over it like a welding blanket that helps too.

I used it last weekend to cook 4 full racks of ribs. The weather was fine and I just used one full lit charcoal basket with a snake next to it. The basket gave the base heat and the snake allowed for the additional fine tuning.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the insight Wade! Just curious, how much charcoal did you light in the chimney to start that snake? I have extra baskets from my performer 22 so I could use three like you mentioned.
 
Noboundaries said:
I don't use the minion method on my Kettle, but DANG, what a GREAT SCORE!  I'm envious. 
Click to expand...


Lemans said:
I got my 18 inch new at a garage sale for 5$ but a new 26 for 100$. You got the better deal. That's a 300$ toy.
Click to expand...

I couldn't believe what a good deal this was. I look at grills and smokers a few times a day every day on Craigslist. Kind of an obsession. Webers usually go so fast and if you don't pick one up the day it's posted you lose it. I saw this for 150 but really didn't want to pay 150 for my 11th grill/smoker hahah. Threw out a 100 dollar offer and was honest. Told her I can't justify paying more than 100 for any grill because I have 10 of them already haha. I told her I understood if someone offers her more she should sell to them because it's brand new, in the box but I guess I got lucky and no one offered more than I did. My wife thinks I'm crazy and now I have to try not to complain next time she spends money that I think is unnecessary haha.
 
worktogthr said:
Thanks for the insight Wade! Just curious, how much charcoal did you light in the chimney to start that snake? I have extra baskets from my performer 22 so I could use three like you mentioned.
Click to expand...
I used Heat Bead briquettes (Weber Premium would be very similar) and I lit about half a chimney. From there I took about 8 well lit briquettes to start the snake and then poured the rest into the charcoal basket. I gave the snake about 10 minutes to get started before also placing the lit basket in next to it.
 
Seasoning her now. Just using a full chimney of kingsford and random wood chunks that ended up on the bottom of my BBQ storage container. Full chimney with coals on each side in the baskets is giving me 450-475. Weber therm is reading about 50 degrees higher than the maverick which I have in the center of the great (where the indirect food would cook).

image.jpg

image.jpg


Later on today I am going to make some wings. I'll try to share my first cook depending on how my 2 and half year daughter behaves haha
 
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