I received my AMNS from Todd this week and took it for a first drive last night.
Let me just say that hands-down, this is FAR simpler than the soldering iron, soup can method which I had used previously.
I filled two rows with the provided hickory dust ramping up the first 1 inch or so from the hole.
Lighting it was relatively simple with a butane torch and a little light blowing to fan the flame.
I was using the AMNS inside my Masterbuilt propane 2 door right in place of where the chip pan goes and having removed the water pan.
I had my thermometer in the box to watch temps and the most it ever got to was 49. Our ambient temp last night was around 34.
I smoked colby jack, cheddar and pepper jack for just under 3 hours. Removed and wrapped the cheese for the 2 week hibernation.
Two follow up questions - maybe for Todd or the forum:
- I noticed that when I pulled the cheese, it had a nice smokey aroma but didn't take on much color. Do you think the lack of color is a function of too short a smoking time (2.75 hours), not enough heat (up to 49) or not enough smoke ? I'm sure I have smoke flavor in the cheese. Just looking for what I might do differently next time to get it to take on that nice honey brown color I see in a number of pics folks post.
-For the 2.75 hours that the AMNS ran, it consumed about only 1 row of dust. I scraped the unused dust away from the smoldering dust and saved for next time. Based on Todd's directions, I had expected it to run through more than that. Do you think the slow burn is more a function of the ambient temp (around 34) or lack of air flow ? If airflow, I can't do much to open up the bottom of my unit because the burner is sort of fixed in place but I could slightly crack open the lower door of the unit. I did have my top vent fully open.
Let me just say that hands-down, this is FAR simpler than the soldering iron, soup can method which I had used previously.
I filled two rows with the provided hickory dust ramping up the first 1 inch or so from the hole.
Lighting it was relatively simple with a butane torch and a little light blowing to fan the flame.
I was using the AMNS inside my Masterbuilt propane 2 door right in place of where the chip pan goes and having removed the water pan.
I had my thermometer in the box to watch temps and the most it ever got to was 49. Our ambient temp last night was around 34.
I smoked colby jack, cheddar and pepper jack for just under 3 hours. Removed and wrapped the cheese for the 2 week hibernation.
Two follow up questions - maybe for Todd or the forum:
- I noticed that when I pulled the cheese, it had a nice smokey aroma but didn't take on much color. Do you think the lack of color is a function of too short a smoking time (2.75 hours), not enough heat (up to 49) or not enough smoke ? I'm sure I have smoke flavor in the cheese. Just looking for what I might do differently next time to get it to take on that nice honey brown color I see in a number of pics folks post.
-For the 2.75 hours that the AMNS ran, it consumed about only 1 row of dust. I scraped the unused dust away from the smoldering dust and saved for next time. Based on Todd's directions, I had expected it to run through more than that. Do you think the slow burn is more a function of the ambient temp (around 34) or lack of air flow ? If airflow, I can't do much to open up the bottom of my unit because the burner is sort of fixed in place but I could slightly crack open the lower door of the unit. I did have my top vent fully open.