newbie question...

[slinkyredfoot]

hello brothers and sisters!... i'm a relatively new "smoker", about a dozen sessions under my belt... but i may run into something tomorrow i've not run into before..

rain.

i'm in a new apartment, and have no garage or porch, my usual way for dealing with possible rain... it's supposed to rain tomorrow, will i be ok?
i use a weber smokey mountain smoker, i'll be smoking a pork butt, and i'm pretty confident on my temperature maintenence skills... my top thought would be having to pay more attention to temperature... but any other thoughts would be appreciated... i'm sure some of you have run into this before..

thanks in advance!
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[bmudd14474]

is there any way to get any type of cover for the smoker? If it rains hard and is cooling the smoker alot you may run into a issue. Even rigging a umbrella over it would help.

 

[ocsnapper]

I'm new to smoking too and the other day I ran in to the same problem and the best thing I could do at the time was to take the table umbrella and use it to keep the rain off the smoker so the temp would not go down too much.. I could tell by the humidity that it does effect cooking time some, I'm sure others on here can give you some more tips...good luck..

 

[slinkyredfoot]

an umbrella!.. so simple it just might work!.. i'm sure i can "MacGyver" up some sort of umbrella rig... as well as positioning it out of the possible wind..

so you'd agree, temp control will be my biggest issue?

 

[bmudd14474]

Yeah before i got a covering to cook under when i had rain i noticed I had issues with the temp being lower than normal.

 

[slinkyredfoot]

thanks for the advice...

one more quick thought..

i DO have an old brinkmann electric bullet smoker...would this be preferable in this situation?... for temp control purposes?.. once i got the weber, i swore i'd never go back, but it does seem like an option here...

 

[bmudd14474]

not sure about that but something tells me that electricity and rain arent a good combo. Also I do not think that the watt burners could recover better than your charcoal. I dont own a watt burner but thats what logic tells me.

 

[slinkyredfoot]

fair enough... i'm an electrician by trade, so i have the safety thing covered, but you may be right on the watt burner vs. charcoal recovery time...

now that you mention it, if i'm constantly tending, i should be able to have more control with the charcoal..

thanks so much for your advice, thoughts and patience... i've been trolling the forum and there is so much info here!... looking forward to being a part of such a distinguished group!

cheers!
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[bmudd14474]

No problem at all. Glad to be able to help. I look forward to seeing some of your Qview.

 

[tasunkawitko]

i didn't read all the replies yet, but has anyone suggested a tarp? bigger than an umbrella and can be hung up or taken down from anywhere.

 

[slinkyredfoot]

a TARP!... even better... and i have one!... as well as as a clothes-line pole to make a nice little wall/awning...

it seems the simplest ideas are making the most sense... but i guess what we're doing isn't rocket science...

so you'd agree?.. try to keep the rain/wind off and pay close attention to temp?

 

[tasunkawitko]

i'd say that the wind will be your biggest enemy. try to set up in an area that is least affected by wind as possible, set up your tarp and find the spots that don't get wet, then if you can set up some sort of wind break for any wind that does exist, and smoke away!

 

[slinkyredfoot]

tasunka, bmudd, and ocsnapper... thanks so much for chiming in!...

i'll let you know how it turns out!

cheers!

p.s. anyone else who has done the rain thing... keep the ideas coming!

 

[bigsteve]

Well, that and lightning........