Minion in ECB

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scmelik

Smoke Blower
Original poster
Apr 17, 2009
114
10
South Dakota
I have been reading alot lately about the minion method and how great it works especially for longer smokes like a brisket or a butt. Anyways after reading over and over how to do it there is one things that i am getting hung up on and that is that he says when you dump your lit coals on the coal bed to have the vents all the way open. Well my ECB does not have any of the mods done to it so I don't have control of any vents. Does this method still work, or work as well in an ECB as it does in other smokers?
 
If you don't have vent control, then presumably the smoker's layout provides sufficient airflow for coals to burn in normal use. Such airflow would also be sufficient for the Minion Method.
 
Which model Brinkman do You have? Many models are just called ECB for short, but at least one has slightly different mods that need to be done.

Billbo gave you a link for the basic vetical. Here is one for the Gourmet. They are almost the same thing, but the Gourmet already has some mods done from the factory.

http://brinkmansmokermods.com/default.aspx

I wouldn't expect using the Minion method to be very usefull if you're using an umodified Brinkman bullet smoker.
 
Did you check out the link I pasted? Does it make sense?

In the link Billbo gave you, there are many things that don't need to be done to yours. You won't be moving feet, drilling holes in the pan, putting the coal pan on threaded rods.....

Also, the lid is designed to fit loose. You don't need to add a vent to the lid. However, if you plan to use it as a grill frequently, then a lid vent might be okay. The lid fits on the coal pan much tighter than it does on the cylinder. I found on longer grills, my coals started to snuff out. But I just set the lid down a little cockeyed to fix that.

I got mine pretty well figured out, will be happy to help if you need it.
 
I did check out that link and I am going to try all of that this weekend. I just hope I can find a grate that size.
 
The grate is a coal grate from an 18 1/2 inch Weber kettle. You can get them at Home Depot, and Lowes around here. Good bet that our local Ace hardware may have them too. Maybe a patio store.Make sure you use stainless steel hardware.
 
I will have to take a look and see what i can find. Our WalMart and our Lowes here sucks so it maybe iffy on what they have.
 
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