Took 1st Place at my first contest...now what

When learning fire management on a WSM I recommend an 18.5. Its much easier to manage the fire on and you get longer more consistent cooks. Once you learn the 18.5 the 22.5 becomes more manageable but will never burn as long as the 18.5. Force air systems to manage fire are nice but unnecessary on the WSM. They run well all on their own with very little learning curve.

Go with the smaller WSM and cook with the top vent open, bottom open one fourth and use what is called the minion method as taught to Jim by Judy Anderson (mad momma) and Al Ruskin. It'll hold temp and allow 4 to 6 hours sleep on the big meats and can then be used on ribs and chicken at higher temps.

Cooked on 2 or 3 for many years and still have 5 of them. Anyone in Texas want one? The price can be made right.

Congrats on your success. I like the idea of the WSM 22.5 as others suggested. If you don't want to manage a fire a Traeger, Green Mountain Grill or if you want to take a step up on quality and price a Yoder would do you well. These cookers use pellets and take the guesswork out of fire management.

Congratulations! Retire undefeated!

I would suggest that you get up to Council Bluffs on Friday night for the BBQ at the Bluffs contest. This is a KCBS 'pro' contest with some pretty good teams. I'm going to miss it this year because of a conflict with my Sam's local, but it is a good contest to walk around and see everyone's setup. If you are there Friday night, most teams will take the time to talk to you and show you their cookers. You will get a good idea of what other guys are competing with and and idea of the range of setups.

Also, join GOBS (Greater Omaha BBQ Society). GOBS is about all things BBQ and competitive BBQ is a big part of that. Look us up, come to a dinner meeting or two, and get to know some judges and competitors.

WSM's are fine cookers, but you might also want to look into pellet grills. With the pellet grill you can worry about cooking everything properly and not about fire management. It would be the closest thing you can find to your electric smoker and will probably make you more competitive quicker because of the shorter learning curve. I think HUB will be at competing at Council Bluffs, stop and talk to Ron about competition cooking, classes, cookers, etc.

PM me if you have something you don't want to ask on an open forum. I am in Gretna and got hooked after a backyard contest about 3 years ago. There is no easy way out and support groups are limited.

Dan - 3eyzbbq said:

Congrats. A WSM will treat you right. Get a BBQ Guru as well and you'll be just fine in regard to fire management.

Click to expand...

I would take Dan's advise. Congrats Dan gc in va.

This past weekend we finished 4th overal running a 22 and a 18 wsm. The top 4 overall in order of cookers
1st-high end pellet
2nd-wsm's
3rd-high end pellet cooker
4th-wsm's

We had a guru onsite but never hooked it up and the cookers ran real well all night, they needed some love in the mornin and put one chimney of lit on just before chicken went on.