Thin Blue Smoke or Clouds of White Smoke (Qview)

[plimtuna]

I am new on SMF, I have been smoking for years in my propane grill, fighting the high temps and finally bought a Masterbuilt 40' electric.  Since coming here I have been on a quest to get Thin Blue Smoke.  Main reason, my wife says my first efforts have been way too smokey.  I have to agree, I had some ribs a couple weeks ago that were way too smokey.

This weekend I did a brisket and a port butt.  I used only two closed handfuls of dry apple wood chips.  Here is a result after the unit was warmed up and I had added a handful of apple wood.  Five minutes after adding....

20150207_082715.jpg

• plimtuna
• Feb 9, 2015

By any definition of the term, I can't see that this qualifies as TBS.  There is a brisket and a butt in there, not visible, but they are there.  

Proof is in the pudding, it turns out that both items turned out wonderfully, with minimal smoke flavor, the wife approved and I gained a smoking reprieve.  But for me, I wanted a bit more smoke flavor.

Here is my question - Is there expected a cloud, then TBS?  Is TBS the only smoke I should ever get?  

Proof that the overall cooking worked.  A 5 brisket flat after 11 hours and the but that literally fell apart when I went to take it out of smoker after 14 hours at Internal temp of 194.  deboned in one pull and shake.

20150207_190259.jpg

• plimtuna
• Feb 9, 2015

20150207_215259.jpg

• plimtuna
• Feb 9, 2015

 

[bmaddox]

When the smoker was full of white smoke did you look down the loader tube to see if the chips were on fire? And did it stay full of smoke like that the whole time?

When my MES is cooking along with good TBS you really can't see much smoke through the glass. 

 

[inkjunkie]

You did have the exhaust vent open, correct? I have only used the chip loaded a couple of times and have never had that much smoke from it. To me the chip loader is a pain in the butt....not the porks but the users. Requires way to many trips to keep it smoking. Ever considered getting one of Todd's products?

Just noticed the puffing on the side.....is the vent all the way open? I have a Gen 1 MES with the vent on the top, perhaps that is why I have never gotten this much stagnant smoke in the box while using the chip loader...

 

[daveomak]

Looks as if the exhaust is mostly closed....

 

[plimtuna]

Was not using my cold smoke chip loader,  used the small tray over the element.  Exhaust is full y open.

 

[plimtuna]

Was not using my cold smoke chip loader,  used the small tray over the element.  Exhaust is full y open.  No, the smoke does not stay like that the whole time, it clears out and then I will get TBS or TWS for about 20 minutes.  The question is do you ever get a cloud?

I think next time I will use the cold smoke side car and not the internal tray.  I have used it for cheese, olives, salt etc and that works great.  I just hate using to use two tools when one should do it.

 

[daveomak]

I use the AMNPS in a Mail Box modification...

 

[bmaddox]

 
Was not using my cold smoke chip loader,  used the small tray over the element.  Exhaust is full y open.  No, the smoke does not stay like that the whole time, it clears out and then I will get TBS or TWS for about 20 minutes.  The question is do you ever get a cloud?

I think next time I will use the cold smoke side car and not the internal tray.  I have used it for cheese, olives, salt etc and that works great.  I just hate using to use two tools when one should do it.

I only used the chip tray a few times before I gave up on it (had to be loaded too many times). It never smoked like that using the tray. I would think that the chips you had were probably overly dry and were catching fire instead of smoldering. If the cold smoke unit works good for you then I would stick with that. You would be killing two birds by regulating your smoke and reducing the amount of babysitting the smoker requires.

 

[daricksta]

 
I am new on SMF, I have been smoking for years in my propane grill, fighting the high temps and finally bought a Masterbuilt 40' electric.  Since coming here I have been on a quest to get Thin Blue Smoke.  Main reason, my wife says my first efforts have been way too smokey.  I have to agree, I had some ribs a couple weeks ago that were way too smokey.

This weekend I did a brisket and a port butt.  I used only two closed handfuls of dry apple wood chips.  Here is a result after the unit was warmed up and I had added a handful of apple wood.  Five minutes after adding....

20150207_082715.jpg

• plimtuna
• Feb 9, 2015

By any definition of the term, I can't see that this qualifies as TBS.  There is a brisket and a butt in there, not visible, but they are there.  

Proof is in the pudding, it turns out that both items turned out wonderfully, with minimal smoke flavor, the wife approved and I gained a smoking reprieve.  But for me, I wanted a bit more smoke flavor.

Here is my question - Is there expected a cloud, then TBS?  Is TBS the only smoke I should ever get?  

Proof that the overall cooking worked.  A 5 brisket flat after 11 hours and the but that literally fell apart when I went to take it out of smoker after 14 hours at Internal temp of 194.  deboned in one pull and shake.

20150207_190259.jpg

• plimtuna
• Feb 9, 2015

20150207_215259.jpg

• plimtuna
• Feb 9, 2015

A number of guys are commenting about whether the exhaust vent was fully open or not. No one is mentioning that you barely used any wood chips at all. From what I read you used only 3 handfuls of wood chips over a 14-hour smoke, and those 3 handfuls were added at the beginning. Wood chips need to be replenished at about the rate of one handful every 30 minutes or so for at least 6 hours. If you decide to foil what you're cooking then there's no need to add more wood chips after that. So the lack of wood smoke flavor is due to the fact that you went totally the other way to please the wife.

I can see in the smoker window that it's full of smoke and you've got smoke coming out of both vents. You had plenty of smoke in the beginning but I think it all dissipated over the 14-hour smoke. Personally I use the AMNPS filled with wood pellets so I never have to worry about adding wood chips.