250dg on a kettle how to?

I did low n slow ribs last weekend on my kettle. I was having trouble keeping a steady temp, but it ran between 213 and 260 all day!
I used the snake method with 2x1 brigs of KBB. and 2 handfuls of cherry chips.
the top vent wide open, and the bottom vent just barely.
Usually I can get it to stay at 230* with no problem. I think the extreme heat we had over the weekend contributed to the fluctuations.

This is the start of a large brisket @ 260~270.....I cooked down the trim to get juice for the beans.....





This is the re-load when the bean pan went in....






If you load a ton of fuel, it's more likely to catch & burn faster or hotter.....try a 2 & 1 with wood chunks, vents only open a bit (like 1/8", if One Touch) & top vent all open.............

A chain will work more on available fuel rather than available air.....the vents matter some, but if there's a thick pile to burn, it will.........

This was for a 250~260 cook....point & tri-tip....





Chips of lump for burn insurance.....

Depends on what I cook. Here is a general way I get temps where I want. I took baskets apart which I only use the "L" shaped part which I turn backwards with bottom on water pan and side as a guide for holding coals. Baskets always seemed to cause problems with temps since seemed the holes would clogged up which choked fire. The water pan is a non stick pan 9"x 13" with 1/2" water. I use one Weber wax square with 1/2 chimney full of charcoal, light the wax cube go to getting meat ready. When wax cube is down time to put on one side of pan. Open all the vents wide open temp stabilizes at 275. Less coal less temp. Add coals every 1 hour to pile. Hopefully you have the flip up grill. Now if I want a butt I would use Snake method.

Do you have the top vent open? There has to be more exhaust than intake, or your coals go out. Make sure that your fuel is packed tight, and place unlit charcoal on top of your started coals to get the ignition of new fuel started. If you are using wood for smoke, lay it to act as a fuse to the unlit charcoal.
Are you letting the kettle settle at temp before you put the meat in? If you try to regulate the temp with the meat on, it's hard to get it right. Start early and catch the temp as it rises, let it stabilize there for a little while, then put the meat on..
One thing I have noticed is that the number of coals you need to start with can vary between kettles. For example, the number of coals recommended in many posts here are too few for me. That's another reason to start early, you can add more coals to increase the temp more easily than you can get it down afterwards.
As Ron says, 250 deg is not always needed. I, personally, am happy with a stabilized temp within 25 deg of my goal.

bbqmike_ny said:

Yes wide open top, bottom is probably open a bit more than 1/8th usually, I will have to keep track of that better.

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Since you have air and heat, I'd look at the fuel angle. Whether you use a snake or the minion method, the most likely cause of failure is the charcoal not touching the lit coals.

I just have a weber charcoal rail and baking pan in my kettle, light about four coals on one end and she will run 6-8 hours around 230-270

Two great things about a snake is that you can set the time it will burn (determined by length of the snake) and you can set the temp it will burn at (determined by number of coals in each "segment" and also the number of lit coals to start)

Start with a simple 1x1 snake with 5 or 6 lit coals. This is a single line of coals.
Next, double the line up so that you have 2 coals side by side in a single layer.
Next, same side by side with an additional row of coals on top.
Next, double row on both top and bottom. If you have trouble stacking 2x2, then make 3 lines of coal on bottom with 1 like of coals on top.


For the most part, the number of coals lit at any one time sets your temperature range. Adjusting the vents fine tunes within that range.

bbqmike_ny said:

1buckie: with that 2x1 snake how many coals would you start to light it? I never start with less than 1/4 chimney, maybe its too much?

I am not stuck on 250 dead, it just seems to be recommended often, that last try was closer to 325 average, I am trying to extend the window where I can take if off before it drys out, I can't get a big packer locally, so its likely going to be a flat or mini packer, prob 9lbs at most.

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8~12, depending on what the weather is like.....
You can use a dozen, pinch the vents a bit & when the cold meat goes on it will drop some, ideally to near where you want to cook for the remainder...

Let the cooker bell heat for a time before starting the cook....it's been said above, but it's important to get off on the right footing with these things.....

looks good to me! So bummed to see the price of brisket these days... Nice looking CAB though

Seems like you're on the "under" side of things now, as before it was work to keep it lower ("trying to maintain less than 280 is very hard")....

"the 2x1 started with 10 coals was only giving me 220dg, I gave it an hour, but it never picked up,"

Did you maybe try just opening the vents a bit at that point?

See, it's hard for me here to say: "Do this exactly" because the weather, wind, dryness of charcoal, insulating build-up on the particular kettle, heat-up at the start & maybe other factors all affect the burn a little bit each...

Basic approach might be, set up, lite & place 8~12 coals, cap it, wait 20~25 minutes without changing anything, place on meat & at that time check the general grate temp with the therm that's sitting right next to where the meat goes....



If low, push some of the burning coals a little farther onto the chain & possibly open vents a bit......
If higher, tamp down vents a tiny bit......


Cap the bugger & cook.......somehow, something's amiss......there's times when I load the coals, lite a few leftovers, set on the meat & don't even look at the vents (knowing that they are opened up at least some already), go off to sleep & the dawgs wake me up @ 4AM to check.......everything runs fine.......the less I worry, the better it comes out, no kiddin' ........:clap:

It don't look too bad, but sorry you had to stress on the cook.......a bit of practicing run-thrus will get it right I bet......maybe even do a few dry runs with a pan of cold water to simulate the meat & see how it goes.....charcoal's usually cheaper than the food it cooks & you can choose when to do it without folks waiting to eat.....you'll get the hang of it soon enough, I'm sure !!!!

bbqmike_ny said:

Struggled with this one, the 2x1 started with 10 coals was only giving me 220dg, I gave it an hour, but it never picked up, so I added more lit coals and got it to 270. Sat there for a 3 hrs or so, and kept adding in coals. I let it get a little low, and added more lit, at about 155 I.T. and wrapped then, ran around 350 then for a while, and let it fall down to 280.

Unwrapped it for another hour, and my guests were getting restless, it was now almost 8 hours in, I pulled it an rested, it wasn't probing as well as I wanted, but I was afraid it was drying out. Here is a pic of it finished.

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If you need to constantly add more fuel, to me, that means you didn't start with enough. Some people have good luck with snakes, others don't. I usually don't lay out snakes in a 2X anything form. I pack the charcoal around the rim, concentrating on getting as much contact between pieces. I then add started coals, and regulate the final temp using the vents as the temperature rises. Also, all that opening the lid makes it very hard to maintain an even temp.

I see you were using Kingsford, try using Stubbs. Stand your briqs on edge, leaning them against the one next to it. This will increase the fuel density and you will have better air flow due to less ash. I think you can get the temps you want, but it's tougher with the one touch vs the older daisy wheel Webers. This was my experience anyway. I had to keep the one touch nearly closed and cooked at ~275°.

Well this just based on my experience, but almost by accident I set up my snake differently.

Mind you, this is with kingsford with those ridges.

For a while I set up a 2x2 snake in a "domino" formation..coals overlapping around the ring.

It worked ok, but I always noticed that as the cook went on, the temp had a sort of "domino" effect of its own. Meaning that I would start the 2x2 with about 12 coals and it would hold nicely at 225-250.

Then, after maybe 3-4 hours it would spike to 280+. This is with careful air flow monitoring.

I noticed that the bottom row would catch faster than the top. To the point where the bottom row would be burning way ahead of the top. Picture the charcoal snake having the bottom row burning further down the line with the top row cold earlier in the line.

So, I tried making the snake in a different way. Instead of overlapping in a domino fashion, I laid them out so that the coals were only touching edge to edge.

It produced a much steadier burn and temp. Where the new coals lit as the old ones burned out. Rather than having coals light up before the old ones burned out. I had a steady 250 all the way.

I'm sure this is very anecdotal, based on coals used etc... but maybe it's worth a dry run.

If strict temp control in a kettle is your goal, then i'm becoming more convinced that how the coals are set up for burning is very important.

But..................................having said that, i've just found a happy medium where my kettle burns and how to cook accordingly.