What happened?!

[dkelsey56436]

Hi everyone,

I'm a new member and relatively new to smoking. I've done quite a bit of reading here and have appreciated the vast amount of information. Now, I've got a strange issue I hope someone can help me with.

I smoke on a slightly modified offset chargriller and decided to do some country style ribs today. Got my fire and everything set properly, it started pouring down rain for about an hour and the smoker sits outside with not protection from the weather. I watched my temps, fire, and smoke very carefully, but checked on the meat after the rain to check the temp and sauce them if ready. Instead of seeing pretty smoke meat, it was all grey. Not like slightly grey, but road kill grey. What happened? My first thought is creosote, but the smoke never once turned from thin blue to white. It was very Thin blue the whole time and I was using mostly lump charcoal that had a very nice bed of coals. I placed a few peices of cut cherry wood, very well seasoned, about 3"x3" throughout the timeframe.

I'm very used to this smoker and know the basics pretty well, but this has never happened to me. Any help would be very appreciated!

Thanks!

image.jpg

• dkelsey56436
• Jun 30, 2013

 

[dkelsey56436]

Looks worse in real life than in the picture lol

 

[dkelsey56436]

No one with any thoughts?

 

[fwismoker]

Need some more details such as...

1) What is your thermometer? 

2) Did you soak your wood?

3) What was your temp pit temp and internal meat temp and how did you verify it?  

4) Was your stack open or closed...especially when it was raining?

 

[kc5tpy]

Hello.  I think FWI is thinkin the same as I am, we shall see.  Usually when you see that grey color and the white pools it means you lost heat.  I won't commit until I see the answers to questions FWI asked but tryin to smoke uncovered in the rain with an offset is TOUGH my friend.  Give us more info.  Keep Smokin!

Danny

 

[cmondo84]

I agree, looks like the temperature was the most likely the culprit.

 

[chef jimmyj]

I'm thinking more Steamed than Smoked...How long were they smoking before the rain? What Temp?...JJ

 

[dkelsey56436]

Chamber temp was 225 at the grate in the beginning, it did drop to just under 200 about 15 minutes later when the down pour started, but I was able to get it back up easily. I use a wireless Oregon (?) thermometer at grate level. The internal temp of the meat was 130 after an hour, which is much higher than I expected. I used an instant read thermometer at that time only. The stack was wide open and the wood was very dry, not soaking. It's cherry wood and I typically use it for fuel as well after I get a good bed with lump.

 

[jeoberg]

Char-Griller in the rain, been there. It loses heat in a hurry. I was adding to a fire every 15 minutes when I did some pork last weekend. Only thing that saved me was the first 3 hours had good smoke.

 

[dkelsey56436]

One slight mod I made was adding about 25lbs of lava rock to the smoking a chamber to help hold heat, so it's not near as drastic as before.