Best setup for kettle overnight smoke with (or without) Smokenator?

H

hominamad

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Hey everyone - going to be doing my second attempt at a brisket on my kettle this weekend and trying to get some ideas about the best setup. The first time around it came out good, not great. I didn't have the smokenator at the time and it was a pain struggling with temps (was also a lot less experienced then).

Now I have a smokenator and a bunch more smokes under my belt and trying to figure out the best way to arrange the thing. The longest I have smoked with it was around 5-6 hours. It was easy to maintain temp but I still had to tend to it quite frequently to add water to the pan, shake ash off coals, etc. to keep it going - all things that will stop me from getting any sleep.

Does anyone have any good insights or clever ways to set up so that it needs the minimal amount of attention? If I could go 4-5 hours at a time and maybe wake up once during the night that would be great.

PS - I will be sleeping with my wireless Maverick next to my bed.

Thanks~!
H
 
Take out the smokenators water pan and fill the whole cavity up with charcoal. Minus a small amount so you can fit in the 12 or lit coals. Then you can use like a regular loaf pan on top of the smokenator where the small one goes, only this one will sit down in. U can use any type of bigger pan.
 
Forget about the little water tray. Instead, place a disposable aluminum pan next to where the coals are and fill it with water instead. Since it'll be sort of underneath the brisket it'll act like a drip pan too.


On edit...looks like that was just said.:thumb:
 
The ring of fire method will get you nice stable temperatures for long periods of time on the kettle. I did this with a couple of briskets before I built myself a UDS.
 
aawa said:
The ring of fire method will get you nice stable temperatures for long periods of time on the kettle. I did this with a couple of briskets before I built myself a UDS.
Click to expand...
^^^this^^^
 
That's a great idea. Definitely going to try that. Also was wondering if it would be better to place the lit coals all on one side rather than spread along the top. Seems like that would make it burn slower but haven't tried yet.
 
You just place the lit coals at one end of the ring. The ring will follow the trail till it gets to the other end of the ring. Make sure to leave space between the starting end of the ring and the back end of the ring so you don't light both sides.
 
So ring of fire method would be in place of using the smokenator I suppose? And then would I just use fire bricks as a divider/heat reflector?

I actually was asking about using smokenator and placing lit coals all on one side instead of spread out.
 
You use the ring of fire method without the smokenator. I don't use a fire brick to seperate the ends. I just leave a small gap. I do put foil in the middle shaped like a bowl, and then fill that with a little bit of water so it acts as a drip pan so the fat doesn't drip into the bowl.

here is a good thread on how to set it up with lump charcoal.
http://www.bbq-brethren.com/forum/showthread.php?t=160741

If you do it with briquettes, just do a 2x2 snake around the charcoal grate.
http://i984.photobucket.com/albums/ae328/Fishawn/Fishawn3/ring.jpg
 
Either one works great. I have used both. I had the smokenator before I learned about the ring of fire. I never dumped lit coals on just one side of the smokenator. You could give it try it that way.
 
Ring of fire will burn a loooooooooong time. Excellent setup. Your food is pretty close to those 12 lit coals but i've never seemed to have an issue with it.
 
A large packer brisket can just barely fit on the grate - wouldn't it be a problem with the meat sitting too close to the lit coals on the edges and getting dried out, etc?
 
I cooked a 12 lb brisket using ring of fire method averaging around 275 to 300 for the entire cook. It lasted 9 hours (when the brisket was done) and still had another hour or two left if I hadn't snuffed out the fire.

Keep in mind, I always cook nekkid, no foil or butcher paper, so the brisket could of been done sooner had I wanted to wrap with foil.
 
That looks great! So do you have a "half ring of fire" under there?
 
As others have noted, a ring of fire will give you a good long burn. I used this with great success before I picked up a WSM. The setup was based on a post by landarc here in Q-talk.



Here it is cooking. Granted, it's only a flat, but it cooked up nicely and the temp remained around 275-300 for about 8.5 hours. (The brisket actually finished much sooner; I just wanted to see how long it would go.)



There are plenty of posts here on achieving long burn times with a kettle. This site is treasure trove of information.
 
What vent settings do you guys use for your ring of fire?

I've been smoking pretty much exclusively on Kettles for over a year now (for anything less than 5 butts), and have just now learned about this method.

In my first trial last weekend, I had read that you were supposed to leave both vents wide open. My ring was 3 deep with briquettes.

Temps ran from 300 to 350 for over 8 hours (with about 4 inches of coals left unlit). I'd like to get it down to 250-275. Dialing the bottome down to 1/8th inch, like I do for a typical Kettle smoke, at the 6 hour mark did finally get it down to about 280 towards the end.

Next time, I plan on going 1/8th inch pretty much whole way (with the top wide open), once it gets cranking.

Is that what most people do?

I figured the 3-deep ring was about right, is that what most people use?
 
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