Hey everyone, great website. I smoked my first pork shoulder today. This was my first smoke ever, and I must admit that I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. It was an 8 lb Boston Butt, and spent 9 hours on the smoker. The weather changed on me so I wrapped it in foil and finished it in the oven. Once it hit 205, I wrapped it in towels and let it sit in a cooler for an hour. It fell apart and everyone enjoyed it. My questions are many so I'll try to narrow it down. During the 9 hours on the smoker, I burned through 18 lbs of charcoal (9 lbs of hardwood briquettes, and 9 lbs of hardwood lump). Is this normal for a smoke? I have a Smoke Hollow 4 in 1. I know I have some mods to do to make it more efficient, but 18 lbs still seems like a lot. I was able to keep the temp around 225-250 but I was adding a full chimney of charcoal every hour or so and kept the damper wide open. I also had a lot of ash build up in the SFB, which started to affect the fire. I added chunks of hickory and cherry throughout the smoke, but they only seemed to smoke for 30 minutes or so then I had to add more. Is this normal for a smoke, or is there something I'm doing wrong or could be doing different? Anyone have any advice or suggestions for next time? Thanks in advance for the help. Happy Smokin'.
