For smoking cheese I use my WSM with the AmazN tray. I switched from pellets to sawdust quite a while ago. Dust gives a cooler, cleaner, liter smoke. Much easier to control the amount of smoke and I can eat the cheese that day. Anything can be used as long as you have good air flow. Some folks use a cardboard box.
Chris
I use my Mini WSM, this is 4# of cheese, so it's possible to get another pound in there. I agree with you 100% that the sawdust generator is a great way to go, and I use one stick as the control sample piece too so I can dial in the smokiness. I generally wait 2 or 3 days before gifting any and it's fine to eat. I just found 2 blocks of Kerrygold Irish cheddar from January, it mellowed out really nice, but most of mine is gone in about a month.