First smoke on OakJoe's smoker bitter

[miatawnt2b]

As to not ruin ribs or a brisket I have been dialing my smoker in empty. I was comfortable maintaining temps with the help of a MYPIN PID control so I thought it time to smoke something cheap. So I grabbed a beef roast at the store and went to town last night. on my old electric I would usually crutch once my internal temps hit 140-150 or so, but this time I didn't. It spent about 7 hours on the offset with a finish temp at 190.

The meat is really tender and juicy with the connective tissues all broken down which is good, but the bark was really heavy and bitter. Looking for some help.

I used a large bed of charcoal bricks (about 7 lb) along with a split of pecan to get started. After about 3 hours, the temp started to drop, so I added another 3lb of charcoal and another two small splits. I closed the firebox lid immediately and in about 5 min noticed thich white/brown smoke. This dissipated after about 20 min. In another 2 hours, temps fell and I added another split. Again thick smoke for 20 min, but after nice TBS. Another 2 hours in and another split with same result.

So what I don't know is how green the pecan is (I just picked it up at a local cordwood yard) It has been raining in Tucson, so the wood was slightly damp even if it wasn't fresh cut.

I didn't let the splits catch fire with the firebox lid open before I closed it. I just threw them in. I am wondering if I should let them catch first. I know that I probably should have wrapped the meat about 4 hrs in as I usually do and that probably would have been better, but I'm looking for some advice on fire management.

Thanks all!
-J

 

[forkin pork]

I'm assuming this is an offset ... and I'm thinking that, your not maintaining the fire correctly. You've got to really pay attention to your fire and kinda know when that fire needs more charcoal, and not wait for the temps to drop.
better to have temps creep up a tad then drop.
With that being said, as far as the bark taste, you really must always add already lit "hot" charcoal, unlit charcoal will leave and bitter taste and make sure your wood is seasoned and if possible, pre-heat the wood by placing on top of the fire box or near to it.
This will help the wood flash into flame and not smolder and give you a much better lighter smoke.
I hope this helps, please feel free to PM me with any questions.

 

[tbrtt1]

While I am fairly new to the stick burning world, my smokes have not been bitter and have been very successful ( thanks to all the good information on this forum!) I use a cheap old country Pecos offset.

Bitterness is always either too much smoke or bad smoke (Unless you put a bunch of bitter stuff in your rub!).

A good bed of coals is good to start with but that doesn’t have to be a good bed of charcoal. I start with enough charcoal to start three or four splits on fire. I let these burn for 30 minutes to an hour with all the doors open so that my good bed of coals is the wood itself. Given enough oxygen these coals will burn very clean. Then I typically start shutting everything down and seeing the temperature starts to rise in the pit.

I always have some splits heating on the firebox. I also cut my splits down to make sure I’m not putting any large ones. I often add two small splits. I always make sure the firebox has enough oxygen for those splits to catch on fire and stay on fire until they start to burn down. It doesn’t have to be a roaring flame but flaming is always burning cleaner than smoldering. The vents on my firebox were very large so I can close my firebox door with my vents wide open and have plenty of oxygen feeding the flames and/or coal bed. You may actually need to keep your firebox door open somewhat to feed enough oxygen.

My goal is to have a small hot fire/bed of coals striking a balance between having an actual fire in the firebox and hot clean burning coals or some combination of those. The famous Aaron Franklin always wants to see flames in his firebox; Clean, hot burn.

When i add a pre heated split it catches immediately and there is no more than 1-3 minutes of heavier smoke, then it’s back down to mostly invisible or very TBS.

Of course, you may just have very green wood.

 

[tbrtt1]

Get one of these:

It’s called a Kindling Cracker. Got it at Northern Tool.

 

[yankee2bbq]

How does it work?

 

[tbrtt1]

You hammer the split/ branch into it and it splits. YouTube it.

 

[yankee2bbq]

Okay, thanks bud!

 

[forkin pork]

Tbr, you sound relatively experienced with Qin and from what I gather somewhat new to offsets & splits.
Your on the right track for sure, JMO but after seeing your firebox, I thinking more charcoal hotter fire and only 1 preheated split. (remember to add charcoal that is pre-lit and ready yo cook with)
Your doing fine, I hope this helps, just got to understand your cooker.

 

[keithu]

Your OKJ has a warming plate, use it to preheat wood like this:

When I need to add fuel I start some lump charcoal in a chimney and then add a split to the chimney a few minutes before I add it to the firebox. Don't close the lid until the wood is burning nicely.

The OKJ unfortunately doesn't have great airflow so you might need to run it with the clean out door partially open until the wood is burning. Smouldering wood leads to bitterness, and bitterness leads to hate.

 

[forkin pork]

Also, make sure your exhaust pipe is wide open, never damper it down using exhaust pipe.