Another AMNPS-MES Question

[daricksta]

 
Our 5th child (Son) that was born in El Reno, OK was made in Denton, TX ... Other 4 all made and born in Ellsworth, KS ... lol 

I haven't tried the Mesquite Pellets yet, but hope they do work better than wood chips as the Mesquite chips are so powerful that it is easy to over smoke with them if not careful. Ditto on Hickory chips.

I've used Todd's mesquite and his hickory pellets. As I think you know I have a MES 30 Gen 1. With the AMNPS I get great smoke flavor but as I've said quite a few times it's the right amount of smoke. My experience with wood chips is that it's easy to oversmoke food with them because they in effect burst into heavy smoke when you lay them on top of coals or load them into a smoker, and then they burn out in about 15-20 minutes. Then you have to dump more in with yet another burst of heavy smoke and so on throughout the smoke or the grilling. With the AMNPS you load up the pellets, light them, and then they slowly burn up along the row, turn the corner, and slowly burn down the next row and so on. It's a steady, constant and controlled stream of smoke.

Also from my experience some meats take in smoke better than others. The baby backs I just smoked have a good amount of hickory smoke (which is strong flavor anyway)--almost in your face but not quite. But the beef brisket I smoked over oak a few weeks ago had the smoky flavor beautifully intertwined with the smoke. rub, and BBQ sauce flavors. I smoked a pork shoulder over hickory pellets and again, beautifully intertwined smoke among the other flavors. As I said in other threads I now only use wood chips when grilling in my Weber kettle grill, either throwing them over the coals or inside homemade foil packets.

 

[Bearcarver]

 
Mmm when he blows it out, he has a decent smoke trail.  Mine is much thinner.  MMmmmmmm.  Im going to try a hair dryer or Coleman inflator.  Thanks Bear. 

LOL----Did you read Post #2 on that thread---What I wrote???

 
Torch the bottom really well under the lighting hole through the perforated stainless steel.  It works well with the AMNTS.

-Kurt

I never tried that, because I never had to, but that sounds like a good idea!!!

Bear

 
Our 5th child (Son) that was born in El Reno, OK was made in Denton, TX ... Other 4 all made and born in Ellsworth, KS ... lol 

I haven't tried the Mesquite Pellets yet, but hope they do work better than wood chips as the Mesquite chips are so powerful that it is easy to over smoke with them if not careful. Ditto on Hickory chips.

LOL---My Son was made in Killeen, Texas, and Born in Quakertown, PA.

Bear

 

[daricksta]

 
LOL----Did you read Post #2 on that thread---What I wrote???

I never tried that, because I never had to, but that sounds like a good idea!!!

Bear

LOL---My Son was made in Killeen, Texas, and Born in Quakertown, PA.

Bear

Bear--is that legal?

 

[nothinless]

Todd,

I want to add the 4-inch elbow to my MAES Gen 2 smoker.  The vent is on the side of the smoker and I'm trying to keep my AMNPS lit.  How did you attach the 4-inch elbow?

Thank you!

Lisa

 

[brickguy221]

 
Todd,

I want to add the 4-inch elbow to my MAES Gen 2 smoker.  The vent is on the side of the smoker and I'm trying to keep my AMNPS lit.  How did you attach the 4-inch elbow?

Thank you!

Lisa

Have you tried pullimg your chip holder out 2" with dump side down? That will help some.

 

[nothinless]

Brickguy221,

Yup, I've tried pulling the chip holder out 2" dump side down and it stays lit for awhile, but never the full smoking time that I need.  Usually have to open the smoker, pull out the AMNPS and relight it multiple times during the cook.  I've taken the chip holder out completely and removed the wood chip tray inside the smoker but I'm really struggling to keep my AMNPS lit and willing to try just about anything to improve the performance.

 

[mori55]

So if you leave it out will it keep burning ?

 

[nothinless]

When I remove the chip loader and wood chip tray inside the smoker it stays lit longer but not the entire time.  I'm assuming it has a lot to do with the Gen 2 not having good air flow, but I wanted to make sure it wasn't something I was creating either.

 

[mori55]

But have just left it out of the cooker to see if it'll stay lit ? Just try a row of of pellets and see if they stay lit outside of the cooker. That'll tell you if the smoker is to airtight or if something is wrong with your pellets. Or maybe your lighting technique is wrong.

 

[Bearcarver]

So if you leave it out will it keep burning ?

 
When I remove the chip loader and wood chip tray inside the smoker it stays lit longer but not the entire time.  I'm assuming it has a lot to do with the Gen 2 not having good air flow, but I wanted to make sure it wasn't something I was creating either.

Mori meant---If you light the AMNPS & leave it out of the smoker will it keep burning?  If so---More than an hour (out of the wind)??

I believe you're at about 1200' Altitude, which could have a little effect, but not much.

Bear

 

[Bearcarver]

But have just left it out of the cooker to see if it'll stay lit ? Just try a row of of pellets and see if they stay lit outside of the cooker. That'll tell you if the smoker is to airtight or if something is wrong with your pellets. Or maybe your lighting technique is wrong.

OOOPS---Didn't see this post before I posted #190.

Bear

 

[dr k]

 
You BETTER give yourself credit as the cook, Brick!

I've never smoked burgers. For Father's Day I smoked some boneless ribeye steaks and they were awesome definitely thanks to me, the cook.

I used hickory pellets. But last night I grilled boneless chuck eye steaks (ever tried a chuck eye? They're called "the poor man's ribeye" for a reason--just incredibly tasty and tender when grilled.) over charcoal without wood chips. Among the best steak I've ever grilled. What's funny is that I checked the IT of the largest steak with my CDN thermocouple therm and it read 164° so I thought I blew it. But when I cut open the steak it was medium rare which is what I had wanted. Not sure why that happened but it isn't the first time.

My favorite part of grilling is the smell when the charcoal briquettes are firing up inside the chimney starter. I used to use newspaper but hated how the ashed settled over the meat. With the paraffin cubes I don't have that and all I need is one cube. I love using my grill because the food cooks and tastes differently from the smoker. And besides, I just like flipping steaks and burgers on the grill while standing beside it, and turning corn on the cob over and over to get a good char on the husks. I was grilling long before I bought a smoker and in many ways I find it more fun to use my Weber kettle grill. The goal this year is for the wife and I to combine on finally successfully grilling a pizza on a pizza stone over charcoal and wood chips. She makes the pizza from scratch and I grill it. The grilling part has been the downfall--so far.

Was your son born and raised in NY? My dad was and he sure knew his way around what we used to call a BBQ but now call a grill. But I'm from California so I don't know if my grilling skill is West Coast born or from my NY DNA.

Preheat the stone at least a half hour.  45 min. to an hour is best.

-Kurt

 

[daricksta]

 
Preheat the stone at least a half hour.  45 min. to an hour is best.

-Kurt

Really? I hadn't read that but it makes sense. My wife preheats the pizza stone she keeps in the oven about 30 minutes before she places a pizza on it. I'll do the same. I do believe grilled pizza will be on next week's dinner menu. Thanks, Kurt!

 

[dr k]

 
I cant seem to get mine lit properly at the start.  But once the smoker has been on for say 1.5 hours, then I have no problems.  What would cause this?

Also, I had issues starting up my AMPS again.  This is actually becoming a problem.  Luckily my wife went downstairs about 45min after I put in the AMPS and saw there was no smoke.  I had to restart it.  It think its failed now 4 out of 6 smokes.  This is a trend.  Once it gets going its fine.  It doesnt go out.  But to get it started is failure at this point.  Last night I didnt want to mess around given that I was going back to bed.  I nuked the pellets for 2min in the micro.  I torched it for 30 seconds.  I let it burn a flame for 10min.  But BAM, it died out, again.......

I then left it in smoker, quickly opened the door for 10 seconds, torched it again, and it INSTANTLY flamed up.  The pellets were obviously nice and hot.  The flame was so strong I couldnt blow it out.  I had to remove the tray and blow on it really hard to extinguish the flame.  Quickly put it back in, and I could immediately see nice smoke coming out the vent.  I watched it for 30min and went back to bed.  No further issues.  It did not go out from that point onwards.

So in short, there is nothing I can do about the temp swings for the first 2 hours.  This will be a big disappointment to the "set it and forget it" crowd, one of the main reason we go all MES (and Im not talking about being lazy, just that I cant go back to bed, or leave the house to go to the store etc).  Big bummer.    

But, with the AMPS, there are a lot of you guys that are having success and I could really use some help.  I've watched Wade's vid and read up on everything.  I know the basics and what to do.  The key variable here that I cant explain is that why if I light the AMPS in the smoker after 1.5 hours in the smoker does it instantly light up and not go out from that point onwards, yet when I put it in the smoker at the start, it dies out after 30min.  This has happened on all 4 failures.  I cant explain it.  Thoughts?

I saw the 40" Gen 2.5 BT at Sam's with the leg kit for $329 today.  I took out the water pan, chip tray, drip pan and grease trap (I couldn't get to the chip loader with other merchandise next to it) to see how it was different than my Gen 1 40".  There seems to be unrestricted air flow from the bottom grease trap hole in the middle of the drip pan with the grease trap in place.  The heating element is wide open (visible) with no metal box surrounding it and the chip tray.  The chip tray is open above the heating element which is visible all around.  The chip tray is closer to the right wall than the gen 1, meaning the air after passing over the chip tray can disperse anywhere.  The gen 1 has three holes in the loader and three holes on the left side of the chip tray housing, shooting air to the middle of the smoker where the AMNPS sits on the rails.  Plus the grease drain in the back center of the dip pan provides a lot of air.  Somehow directing the air from the grease drain towards the AMNPS may be an idea (a 1"X 8" aluminum tunnel  with covered ends but open on the top end under the AMNPS.)  Or getting the AMNPS on the bottom rack above the opening of the water pan on the right or left wall for convection with a tent to keep grease off of it may be an idea.

-Kurt

 

[nothinless]

I will try leaving the AMNPS outside and lighting a row of pellets.  I really appreciate all your insight and knowledge!

Altitude shouldn't be an issue in Wisconsin that I'm aware of.

 

[daricksta]

I always light my AMNPS and once the fire is going I place the tray on the ground for about 20-30 minutes and I get smoke for at least 11 hours with a full tray. If the AMNPS is burning and smoking outside on the ground, it will continue to do so inside a smoker unless there's a real airflow problem. Some people blame the AMNPS when the actual culprit is the inside of their smoker.

 

[brickguy221]

 
I always light my AMNPS and once the fire is going I place the tray on the ground for about 20-30 minutes and I get smoke for at least 11 hours with a full tray. If the AMNPS is burning and smoking outside on the ground, it will continue to do so inside a smoker unless there's a real airflow problem. Some people blame the AMNPS when the actual culprit is the inside of their smoker.

I am going to try my 12" Smoker Tube one day next week when my Son & wife are here for the week. Is the Tube any more difficult to light than the 5 x 8 MAZE?

 

[Bearcarver]

 
I am going to try my 12" Smoker Tube one day next week when my Son & wife are here for the week. Is the Tube any more difficult to light than the 5 x 8 MAZE?

No the tube is easier to light & keep going.

Only trouble I ever had with the Tube was getting too much smoke, but that's probably because I have better air flow than most, which is one of the reasons my AMNPS works so good.

Bear

 

[brickguy221]

 
No the tube is easier to light & keep going.

Only trouble I ever had with the Tube was getting too much smoke, but that's probably because I have better air flow than most, which is one of the reasons my AMNPS works so good.

Bear

I am wanting to use it for Jack Daniels Pellets which I found on my first try with them on my 5 x 8 MAZE that they don't provide as much smoke as the other pellets. This was confirmed by Todd that they don't provide as much smoke because they are made from the charcoal the whiskey is filtered thru and not from the raw chips of the barrels. Todd said the charcoal won't provide as much smoke as pellets.

 

[dr k]

 
I am going to try my 12" Smoker Tube one day next week when my Son & wife are here for the week. Is the Tube any more difficult to light than the 5 x 8 MAZE?

I fill mine over half way full, shake it side ways to level without the open cap.  I torch the pellets at the bottom of the opening then underneath through the perforated stainless steel to get a good cherry at the bottom.  The open ended cap covers holes at the end of the tube smoker,  blocking ventilation when lighting.  I put a round shot glass in the opening that fits perfectly in the AMNTS when shaking side ways to level the pellets and to set them back an inch from the open edge.  I then remove the shot glass before lighting.  Seems to be ready in 10 minutes.

-Kurt