Coach me on the WSM

Swap out the KBB and you should be golden.

I use Stubbs or Royal Oak lump.....or both.


However, I always fill my ring except for a space on the side big enough to accept my chimney of red hot coals. I like it this way as I am of the opinion that the hot coals getting air from the bottom and one side burns a bit cleaner early on while lighting the unlit coal from one side and not all around in a circle. It just gets me to thin blue a tick quicker.


I also add my large fist sized flavor woods by hand one at a time every 1-2 hours depending on what I'm cooking. It gives me a little more control over how much smoke I get and what kind of smoke(cherry, peach, apple, hickory ect).

I used to heat the chunks up a bit before throwing them on but it turned out to be a bit too anal even for me.:redface:

KBB is fine, if you don't believe me just ask Harry Soo. If you are just cooking ribs or chicken 1/2 or 2/3rds will work, a butt or brisket filler up. I like to fill mine up, pull a half chimney of briquettes out of the middle, litght em up and pour them back into the middle of the ring.

I think you have it. My only suggestions would be to soak your wood and only open one bottom vent( depending on the temp you want to smoke). I smoke at 250. I also find a full chimney starter is better than half. I tried using half a chimney and it takes a long time for the smoker to heat up.

Get rid of the KBB. Stubbs or ROCS are far superior briquettes, or use lump.

I don't use step 7 anymore. It can be skipped and still have a successful cook.

Just sayin'.

I use KBB and my smokes are fine. Everything looks pretty good. I'm probably in between a few in that I use about 3/4 of a chimney in the soo donut instead of a full or half. All methods have proven to work.

nothing wrong with KBB (stubbs is good too, more natural). Briquettes give you a steady predictable burn...I also recommend filing the ring all the way, and reusing whatever coals you have left on the next cook. You will get a smoother minion and steady temps during the burn. I would also leave a gap in the center for the lit coals.

I used KBB for the first 6 months with my WSM and found it always choked my fire way too early (typically after 5 hours). Since I switched to Royal Oak Lump, I've never had a problem. Also, you will always want to wrap the water pan in tin foil with each cook. I usually only wrap the bottom of the bowl with foil.

I also use KBB w/o any issue, but haven't experimented with the others to compare. I leave a big gap in the middle where I put the hot coals. I only fill my starter about 1/2 to 3/4 full, but I eventually went out and got an IQ110 to manage temps. I also stuff wood chunks around/under the KBB with 1-2 on top, no soaking.

I use a smidge less than 1/2 a chimney in my 18.5" WSM. Let it run with all the vents wide open until its about 50ºF from desired temp, then close them down pretty drastically until you sneak up on the desired temperature. It takes nearly an hour, usually.

Also, unless you decide to go with a PID controller (which isn't necessary), leave the top vent open and manage the fire with the bottom. If it gets to the point where you have to close down the top vent to keep temps down, you've started with too much charcoal.

(Interesting tidbit above about starting the charcoal off to one side. I might have to brainstorm and play with that idea this weekend.)

Sounds pretty good. everyone has a different way of doing it. try different methods and see what you like. For a long time i ran my wsm with water, then i though I'd give waterless a try. I like it much better and haven't looked back. I wrap the pan with foil on top to help with clean up. I use the "tin can" minion method and really like that too. I use what i think is a No.10 can with the top and bottom cut out, light half a chimney, put the can in the middle of the charcoal ring and fill the ring with unlit (I use kbb too). Then poor the lit into the can, remove the can. Now you have a good hot core of lit that gets great air flow. I throw a few chunks of wood on the lit and assemble the wsm, add the meat and away we go. Temps get to target in about 30-45mins. Also, don't bother soaking the wood it doesn't do anything. The wsm doesn't burn as clean as a stick burner this way, but as long as you don't have real thick white or brownish smoke your fine. If you want real clean smoke try running it with used charcoal and a full chimney of lit. I do that for ribs and it works great, better ring and flavor. Good luck and have fun! The wsm is a great smoker and you'll get much better sleep on overnight cooks then you would with a stick burner.

Ditching the KBB is the best advice given so far IMO. It is fine if you are just used to it. Since I've gotten away from it in my WSM a few years, I keep trying it every once in a while because of those holiday specials. Now the KBB only gets used for grilling if I'm out of Stubb's. I have had good luck with K comp when the stores were out of Stubb's.

I skip steps 4 & 5 by using a DigiQ2 temp controller and enjoy step 7 over and over.

Here is the best starting place for the WSM

http://virtualweberbullet.com/

I get KBB for around $.25 per pound when it is on sale so I stock up a few hundred pounds. It is all I have ever used so I can't testify to whether the others are better. I suspect the other fuels mentioned are in fact better but they are 3 to 4 times the price of KBB. I always fill my ring full no matter what I cook. I just shut it down when the food is done. On the next cook I clean out the ash and refill the ring with more charcoal and wood chunks. My wood to charcoal ratio is somewhere around 1/4 wood chunks to 3/4 charcoal. This produces food that is pretty close to the taste that stick burners produce. On the big WSM's I light up 15 or 20 coals in my chimney and just spread them out over the top of the full ring. I let this run for 45 minutes or so until the smoke cleans up while I adjust the vents to get the temp I'm going to cook at.

All kinds of great advice here. The nice thing about the WSM is there are lots of ways to use it well. One idea I would add -- leave the smoker unassembled for 10 minutes or so after pouring in your hot coals. I've found that speeds up the creation of TBS.

I always dump my full lit chimney, add wood chunks, and then add unlit coal on top.

Seems to work for me.

Ron_L said:

Yeah, close :-D

I use Stubbs briquettes instead of KBB, and I always fill the ring. I would rather snuff out the fire at the end of the cook than have to add more mid cook. I also leave a depression in the middle of the ring and that is where I put the lit charcoal.

Click to expand...

This is what I do too. Next to an electronically controlled cooker, I think these are as close to set it and forget it you can get.