Smoking some butts for a small little get together *With QVIEW*

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demosthenes9

Master of the Pit
Original poster
OTBS Member
Apr 2, 2013
1,438
142
Louisville, KY
Cousin is having a small little party on Sunday and as my luck would have it, she loves Pulled Pork.

Here are the Butts last night prior to being rubbed:


Since it's just a small get together, I'm only smoking 10 Butts (about 80 lbs)

Pic of the Butts rubbed and wrapped didn't turn out for some reason 
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Here they are getting all comfy in my Smoke Hollow 44


Bear with me while I digress for a moment, but, I've got to say that I am ABSOLUTELY LOVING the size/space in the Smoke Hollow 44.   10 Butts, around 80 freaking pounds and there's plenty of breathing space for all of them to bask in the smoke.    Heck, if I had trussed each one up with butcher's twine, I could probably get 1 more in there on each rack.

Sorry bout that, back to regular programming.

I recently picked up an 18" AMNTS from Todd and am using that to provide all my smoke.  Going with a blend of Hickory and Apple.  The SH 44 has two tube burners (left and right) as well as separate smoke boxes for each burner.    I'm only using the left burner and I'm comfortably holding 225 degrees.

I'm experimenting with some of the ideas that I've found here and I've filled the water pan up 3/4's of the way with sand.  To try and get the best of both worlds, I then put an aluminum half pan on top of the sand and filled that half way up with apple juice and water.    

Additionally, wasn't sure if heating would be uneven by only using the left burner, so I filled the empty wood tray above it with sand to act as a heat sink/baffle.  I also folded another half pan up lengthwise and placed it in a gap on the left hand side to try and force air/heat up through the center of the smoker.

The 18" AMNTS is sitting where the right wood try normally sits, over the unlit right burner.  Had to place it diagonally as it's too long to run front to back.  I happen to have a 12" AMNTS as well, which would fit, but I'm being lazy and wanted the extra 2 hours of hassle free smoke with each load  :)


Haven't decided if I'm going to foil or not.   Haven't decided if I'm going to try Eric's wet to dry chamber technique either.  Figured that I'd cross those bridges and make those decisions later   :)
 
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I'm right here with you Demo.   At least its warm out tonight.


This photo is from a different smoke, but she's full.  

Started around  10pm. Friday.  Should be coming off around 4pm Sat. 

I got a customer who likes bark so his 3 will ride it out.  The others I'll foil.   It just make life a little easier.

Just waiting for the sun to rise!

Hope your having a "smoking" night!

Edit:  Demo, I have set them on there side before to get more in.  I'm not crazy about doing that, but hey, you have to feed the people.
 
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I'm right here with you Demo.   At least its warm out tonight.


This photo is from a different smoke, but she's full.  

Started around  10pm. Friday.  Should be coming off around 4pm Sat. 

I got a customer who likes bark so his 3 will ride it out.  The others I'll foil.   It just make life a little easier.

Just waiting for the sun to rise!

Hope your having a "smoking" night!
Wow Wes, I'm loving your smoker.  I'm not sure if my cousin is a huge bark fan or not, so I might be leaning towards foiling to speed things up.  Then again, maybe not.  Her gathering isn't until Sunday at 2PM so I'm not in any hurry.  

Funny thing to me is that I planned my start time based on Todd's AMNTS.  If I started at midnight, I'd have to get up at 6am to reload it.  Being a night owl, that was a nonstarter for me.  Getting things going at 3:30am, I'll be able to sleep in til just after 9am, wake up long enough to refill the AMNTS, perhaps rotate some butts, then back to bed again   :)

I'm already seriously loving the notion that I don't have to keep reloading the woodbox every 30-60 mins.   If you are reading, THANKS TODD!!!!!!!!!!! (and while I'm thinking about it, figure out a way to make a U shaped 18" tube that will burn for 12 hours straight  :)
 
 Thank you.  I like your smoker for that reason.  Kinda like set it and forget it.  I have to stay with mine all the way through.   I don't mind it in the summer.  Winter is kind of a pain going back a forth in the snow.    
 
Wow Wes, I'm loving your smoker.  I'm not sure if my cousin is a huge bark fan or not, so I might be leaning towards foiling to speed things up.  Then again, maybe not.  Her gathering isn't until Sunday at 2PM so I'm not in any hurry.  

Funny thing to me is that I planned my start time based on Todd's AMNTS.  If I started at midnight, I'd have to get up at 6am to reload it.  Being a night owl, that was a nonstarter for me.  Getting things going at 3:30am, I'll be able to sleep in til just after 9am, wake up long enough to refill the AMNTS, perhaps rotate some butts, then back to bed again   :)

I'm already seriously loving the notion that I don't have to keep reloading the woodbox every 30-60 mins.   If you are reading, THANKS TODD!!!!!!!!!!! (and while I'm thinking about it, figure out a way to make a U shaped 18" tube that will burn for 12 hours straight  :)
Awful nice load of Butts you got going!!!

The 6 X 8 AMNPS will get you up to 12 hours of real nice smoke.

Bear
 
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I agree with David.....experiment...foil half of them...and dont for the other half.  See which one everyone likes the best.

Here lately I have not foiled and mine have been just fine and pretty bark too.

Kat
 
 Thank you.  I like your smoker for that reason.  Kinda like set it and forget it.  I have to stay with mine all the way through.   I don't mind it in the summer.  Winter is kind of a pain going back a forth in the snow.    
You're welcome.     But it's fun smoking in the snow.  I love it when people talk about smoking/grilling "season".  WTH ?  It's a year round thing, not a dang season.    As for not having to babysit the smoker, well, truth be told, I dont have that down pat yet.  Last night, I started getting real picky with my AMNTS and ended up putting it somewhere it didn't like as 10 mins later, it caught on fire.    Not just a flare up at the end, but full flame across the entire length of the tube.   Oooops  
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Awful nice load of Butts you got going!!!

The 6 X 8 AMNPS will get you up to 12 hours of real nice smoke.

Bear
Thanks Bear !!  Does the AMNPS work well for hot smokes in a propane smoker ?   If so, time to place another order with Todd. 
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Never thought i'd be saying this. You got some nice butts their guys.

you might try foil half and have a taste test.

Happy smoken.

David
Thanks Dave!!   That decision might have been made for me.  More on this below.
Lookin' good, guys!  Keep the qview coming!

Red
I agree with David.....experiment...foil half of them...and dont for the other half.  See which one everyone likes the best.

Here lately I have not foiled and mine have been just fine and pretty bark too.

Kat
Circumstances have made it so that I might just have to try that experiement.    Seems that I'm still not used to this new smoker or completely sure of the hotspots, thermal drafts, whatever you want to call them.   I was thinking that the left side had higher temps than the right, but wasn't sure.   That I only had the left burner on this time gave me some concern, but I tried to fashion a temporary baffle to combat that.

Anyways, went to bed at about 8am this mornings and got upon around 2pm and went to check the smoker.  Imagine my surprise when I saw this:


That was only 11 hours into the smoke.  IT temp was up at about 195, and it was tender, tender, tender. 

Here's what happened when I took it off the rack:


Here's how a second one looked when I took it off the rack and put it into a half pan to carry it inside.


Note:   This butt hasn't been pulled!  The dang thing fell apart while taking it out of the smoker.    I'm used to this after 16 or more hours, but these were only in for around 11 hours.

Turns out that the left hand side definitely had to have been much hotter as all the butts on that side finished in under 12 hours, while the butts on the right hand side still have quite a ways to go.   After emptying out the left side, I rotated all the racks so that the other butts are now on the left.

The bad thing is, I did a number of new things during this smoke so I'm not sure if one of those caused the temp differences ?   Or if they had no effect and it's just that the left hand side of my smoker just naturally runs hotter ?    Next time I run with one burner, I'll use the one on the right, put the AMNTS on the left and see if that changes anything.

Speaking of the AMNTS, I used a 50/50 mix of apple and hickory and as noted, had it positioned over on the right hand side of the smoker for 12 hours in total.  The butts pulled from the left side don't have a very pronounced smoke flavor. 
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  I'm not sure if that was due to too much Apple ?   Or if the placement of the AMNTS led to an uneven dispersal of the smoke ?  Or maybe I did lose a lot of smoke due to leaks (noticed smoke coming out of the lower right vent cover, which was a couple inches below where the AMNTS was.

Anyways, the other 5 butts are getting blasted with straight hickory now and I think I'm going to make some changes as to the AMNTS placement for the remainder of the cook. 
 
Thanks Bear !!  Does the AMNPS work well for hot smokes in a propane smoker ?   If so, time to place another order with Todd. 
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I don't know about gassers, but I would imagine as long as you keep it away from the flame.

Better ask Todd.

I only helped him----He was the brains!!
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Bear
 
My Smokes that I did for Memorial day did the same thing by leaving "remnants" on the racks.  I forgot to spray the racks with the Pam for Grills.  It helps me out bunches.  AND I did fat side down this go round instead of fat up like I normally do.  You will get used to the new smoker.  Just a bit of practice.

Looks yummy tho!

Kat
 
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