New Smoker...

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volsfan

Fire Starter
Original poster
Jun 8, 2010
41
11
Hi all... This seems like a great forum with lots of great ideas. I am new to smoking. Have a Weber gas grill and after much research bought the 22" WSM on Saturday. My first attempt yielded some pretty good ribs and a decent pork shoulder, but it was a lot of work. My mistake was using way to little charcoal. I know that now. Basically I started with one chimney full and added some more as the smoking went on. I got there, but it was a lot of work.

Do you guys recommend standard briquets like Kingsford or lump charcoal and about how many pounds for a good 6 hour smoke?

Thanks for any advice and looking forward to lots of good conversation and even better food....lol.
 
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 First off welcome VolsGuy to SMF. You'll like it here cause there are alot of really good folks that would just love to help you with anything to do with smoking. Now we like having new folks here to give a new prospective on some of the ways we do things around here. Now if you are really new then I would suggest that you sign up fir the 5-day E-course it free and it will give you the basics on smoking and a few recipes too. Here's a link to it:

http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/forum/list/127  

 Now the next thing you have to do is run out and get something to smoke. Then just smoke it and if you have any questions just post  them here and we will answer all your questions that you might have. Oh yea there's no stupid questions we were all there in the beginning and we just really like to help others enjoy the fabulous smoked foods that we do. So again

 

Welcome to Your New Addiction
 
Welcome to the SMF, I know you'll have some very good repies to your questions, and soon.It's all good my friend.
 
Thanks... Yeah, I already signed up for that course... just waiting on my first lesson...lol.
 
Welcome to SMF glad you decided to join us. Congrats on the new WSM there are lots of people here who use them and I'm sure it won't be long till you get some good answers to your questions. Have fun and happy smoking
 
Welcome to a very addicting hobby! But at least we get to eat the evidence.
 
Hi all... This seems like a great forum with lots of great ideas. I am new to smoking. Have a Weber gas grill and after much research bought the 22" WSM on Saturday. My first attempt yielded some pretty good ribs and a decent pork shoulder, but it was a lot of work. My mistake was using way to little charcoal. I know that now. Basically I started with one chimney full and added some more as the smoking went on. I got there, but it was a lot of work.

Do you guys recommend standard briquets like Kingsford or lump charcoal and about how many pounds for a good 6 hour smoke?

Thanks for any advice and looking forward to lots of good conversation and even better food....lol.
First off welcome to smf....I have the 22 wsm and when i need a 6 hour low temp smoke... I will use about 3 chimneys full of unlit and about a half a chimney of lit on top... Place some wood in spots around and under the charcoal or lump....Foer a 12-15 hour smoke i use about a 15lb bag. Lump or charcoal seems to work about the same for me.Some say the lump taste better but i haven't decided that yet..
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Welcome to the forum. You got yourself a great smoker there..... I have the same one
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. I have basically gotten to where I do two types of loads on my charcoal ring. For shorter 6-8 hr. smokes I load the ring about 1/2 way, for long stuff I fill it to the rim. I would rather have to much charcoal and be able to shut it down with the vents when I am done, instead of having to little charcoal and running out if I hit a wicked stall. Any left over charcoal I use in my chimney to light the next smoke.

As for lump vs. briquets - lump is a cleaner fuel (no additives or binders), burns hotter, and has a lot less ash. BUT.... it doesn't stack into the ring in a symetrical way, so you can end up with either a loose pack that will burn down faster or a super tight pack that has a hard time breathing. Briquets have at least some sort of binder, and some brands have a lot more. Briquets are a uniform shape and size so I personally feel that they stack in better and provide better airflow through the ring. I used Kingsford blue bag when I did a brisket and loaded the ring full, ran the smoker for 16 hrs. at 200° on the lid therm., and I still had about 1/4-1/3 of my ring left when I shut it down.

My usual load method now is 1 layer of briquets on the bottom of the ring, 3 or 4 fist sized chunks of wood, 1 layer of lump charcoal (ring is approx. half full now), fill the rest of the way with briquets, 4 or 5 pieces of wood, one lit chimney of coals dumped in the middle.
 
Thanks to everyone for the quick responses. And good advice. I will take another shot on Thursday when I do another couple racks of ribs and maybe a ham in the middle...

I will let you know how it goes...
 
Welcome to the SMF. Glad to have you here. Lots of good folks, great recipes and knowledge. Looking forward to your first qview.
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