Help with smoking pork.

[nfored]

I am struggling to get TBS and not Thick Nasty Grey.

So I read that it was caused buy to much un burned fuel, So I started with lump wood charcoal in a chimney go that going put it in the smoker and waited until the smoke was barely visible. I then put two large logs in thick smoke came as expect I waited a I bit turned the log, waited a bit more turned it again, this last time it was completely on fire. After that I closed the intake to put out the fire and checked the logs and they where black all over no signs of bark or wood color. 

Yet still I have thick nasty grey smoke, do I have to wait until the logs are glowing red?  really try to get TBS.

I have a Brinkman Tailmaster Vertical with hing mode and both chamber and firebox gaskets as well as RTV, seal seems pretty good I don't see any smoke escaping.  I am using pecan wood that is about 10 to 12" long and about 1.5 to 2" thick.

I am attempting to hang my ribs this time to see if that gets better coverage compared to slicing them and putting them on a rack

Thank you all kindly,

 

[noboundaries]

The problem is "large logs" and wasted heat energy.   It is an easy fix. 

You are adding cold wood to a moderately hot fire that has used up quite a bit of available heat energy while the smoke was clearing.  When you add the logs the cold wood sucks heat from the available fire, cooling the fire further and preventing the logs from carbonizing cleanly.  The fire needs to provide more heat energy than the wood needs to burn cleanly.  A fire that is hot enough should quickly ignite the entire log.  Understand I don't have a wood burner but I do use wood in my WSM and have a bit of an understanding how fires work.  

You have a couple options.  First, you could add the wood like you are doing, and immediately  add another chimney of hot charcoal to put more heat energy in the fire.  Or, if you have a weed burner, you could blaze the new logs to add the heat energy necessary for the log to pre-heat so it can carbonize cleanly. 

An easy option would be how you build your fire.  Put down a layer of new charcoal.  Put your logs on top of the unlit charcoal, then put down another thin layer of unlit charcoal on top of the logs.  Ensure all your vents are full open.  Then dump your hot charcoal on top of that.  By following this process you are not wasting heat energy like you are doing now by waiting for the charcoal smoke to clear before you add the logs. Heck, you could even put a couple logs on the outer edges of the hot pile so they'll pre-heat and be ready to ignite cleanly later. 

Give it a try and let us know how it works out. 

 

[nfored]

Thank you for the suggestion I will try the easy option next.

I did feel as though I wasted a lot of coal letting the smoke clear.