# Broil King Keg 5000 Long Smoke Set-Up



## lakeof2smoker (Oct 28, 2017)

Hi, haven't been on this site for a while.  I'm hoping I can get some advice from a BK5000 expert.  Bought one earlier this summer and just love the thing.  I've only attempted one long smoke (pulled pork) that worked out reasonably but had issues with maintaining temp.

I'm attempting a brisket tonite and was looking for some advice on initial set up to get a good stable 225F cook going.  Here's some basic details on my situation:
1: Outside ambient temp is around 0 celcius
2: Brisket is approx 11lbs, nice 1/4in fat cap,  marinating in onion and garlic right now and was also planning on injecting it later today.
3: Was planning on using my diffuser filled with sand and placing a drip tray over it.  I don't have fan control system so I'll be relying on manually spinning vents.
4: I bought a Thermoworks smoke remote thermometer to monitor my meat and BBQ temp.  My wife is going to love the alarm by our bed tonite.  

My biggest concern is the initial lighting of the keg and getting temp stabilized.  I was planning to fill up the firebox with fresh lump charcoal (BGE charcoal) and lighting a single firestarter near the center of the pile.  Will soak around 5 chunks of smoke wood and place radially around the initial lighting area with one chunk close to the center.  Will let the initial lighting happen with lid open for 15 minutes to let a few adjacent coals get lit, then toss in the diffuser, drip pan and grate and close lid, leave the top and bottom dampers on setting 3 til I get to around 175F then close them down to setting 1 and HOPEFULLY settle in on 225.  I'll be using the reading from the remote thermometer since it will be closer to the grate where the cooking is happening.  Will let the temp stabilize for around 30-60 minutes, then toss on the brisket.  The keg 5000s are known for being leaky, so i was also thinking of duct taping around the joint at the ashtray and the locking knobs.

Any advice anyone has on an initial lighting set-up would be much appreciated - I went looking through the forums but wasn't able to find what I was looking for - I have 16 people coming for dinner tomorrow, so no pressure or anything.  

THANKS!


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## lakeof2smoker (Oct 29, 2017)

Well, here I am, bleary eyed sitting with a vibrating cup of coffee at 9:40AM.  Its been a journey.

Took notes during the cook, maybe they'll be useful for someone attempting this.  Learned a lot on this cook, particularly the wisdom of purchasing a temp controller of some kind.

- 10 PM: Set up basically as described in my original post - piled lump charcoal nearly up to diffuser, drip pan on top of diffuser, grate on high setting, mixed in 3in chucks of hickory (about a 5:1 ratio charwood to smokewood), lit a single point and allowed to sit a while til some coals were nicely alight.
- 10:10PM: Closed smoker lid and opened both dampers to 3
- 10:50PM: Smoker temp at 170F, lowered both dampers to setting 1.
- 11:08PM: Temp at 221F, closed bottom damper to 1/2, left top at 1.
- 11:08 to 11:30 - temp gradually rose from 221F to 233.3F
- 11:37 - Closed lower damper to 1/4, upper to 1/2, internal temp at 236F and generally stabilized.
- 11:47 - MEAT ON.  I left the meat out for about an hour an half to get closer to room temp, initial temp reading on the brisket at the thickest point was 47F.  The recipe I was using called for doing an hourly mop after about 4 hrs.  I really didn't want to open the BK lid every hour and mess with the temps (and also didn't want to wake up at 4 AM, 5AM etc...) so I elected to inject the meat at about 2inch spacing with beef broth and worchestershire sauce.
- 12:10 AM -  Had to open smoker vents to 3 to recover temp, back up to around 220F, moved vents back to 1 and 1.
- 2AM and 2 episodes of Stranger Things Season 2 later (great show!) - again had to open vents to recover temp back to around 220F, cranked lower vent open to around 4 or 5 for about 5-10 minutes to get back up to temp, then back to 1 and 1.
- 5AM:  I set up a "meat bed" in my basement to prevent waking my wife.  Good thing I did.  Set my "low" alarm to 195F.  Thermopro started beeping around 5AM.  After stumbling around to put some pants on, cranked up lower damper to 5 and let the temp climb back to around 220F (took around 20 minutes) then dropped upper damper to 1, lower to 2. Meat internal temp was 152F at this point, The Stall Begins.
-8:41AM: My 3 year old decided it would be a great time to play kitchen around dad's head.  3 floors in this house, 10 million toys but had to play kitchen right...by...dad's...head. In any event, BBQ temp was down to 211F, meat was at around 165F.
-9:30 AM: BBQ temp started dropping steadily despite opening vents.  Swallowed my pride, pulled it out of the smoker, wrapped it in 4 layers of foil with half a beer and tossed it in the oven.  Sweet, sweet consistent oven.

Just some general observations/things I might do differently:
1: Dial gauge on my keg was pretty consistently 25F higher than the temp at the grate, which is to be expected.
2: Outside air temp was around 33F.  When trying to recover temp at 2AM etc..., opening the upper damper seemed to just lead to a rush of our cold air entering the unit and dropping unit further so I started just keeping upper damper around 1-2 and adjusting using lower damper.
3: After opening the keg, i was a little disappointed in my bark.  Definitely a nice dark bark in some areas but in a lot of areas were not barked up.  
4: If I do this again, I'll think I'll make my target temp around 240-250 instead of 225F.  I was so concerned about overshooting my temp I ended up having to scramble at several times during the night to get back up to an acceptable temp.
5: Where do they sell these temp controller things?  ;)  Christmas is coming, maybe Santa will be kind...

Anyway, will post later on how this thing turned out.  Hope this is at least marginally interesting information.  Going to refill my IV bag with coffee now...


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## Rings Я Us (Oct 29, 2017)

Haha.. good report..


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## lakeof2smoker (Oct 29, 2017)

Well, here we are at 1:20PM in the afternoon.  Stall broke in the oven around 11:15AM.  Meat hit 195F, pulled it out and checked a few spots with my Thermapen, looking good!.  Unwrapped it to drain off any excess liquids, re-wrapped in foil, and its currently in the cooler wrapped in towels.  Not entirely pleased with the bark, but hopefully it doesn't suck.

So, after this ordeal, I did a bit of looking on these and some other forums and have elected to order at Tip Top Temp controller - for 35 bucks, can't go wrong, I hope.

Daughter's taking a nap, papa following soon....


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## Rings Я Us (Oct 29, 2017)

Hmm.. sounds kinda cheap for a temp control..   The digi Q or Party Q are all im familiar with.


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