Newbie first over night Butt smoke

First, where were your temps without water? Any where up to 300* is fine. Mine normally runs about 270* - 280* with the pan foiled, top vent wide open, 2 bottom closed, and the third around 50% open. That takes me about 9 hours to do a butt the size of yours with foiling.

Third cook, so it can still run a little hot. How long has it been at 250* with your current configuration?

Nothing wrong w/ 226 temp...... Low and slow. However without knowing how much fuel you started out w/ and how much water is in the pan now, it's hard to guess. But you should get at least 5-7 hours or more on your initial load of fuel and will probably need to check or reload when you wrap the butt in foil. Once you wrap in the foil, you can continue to cook the butt in the WSM or you can finish it off in your oven set to 250-275 (bake not broil). Presuming you are not using a draft assist unit (Stoker, Guru, IQ etc) In order to incrase your temp, crack open both of your closed vents to 50% open and dial down the vent that is 100% open to 75% open. Leave your top exhaust vent @ 100% open. Your temps should slowly start creeping up. When you get to the 240-245ish mark, close down the 75% vent to 50%. Monitor your temps and make SMALL adjustments as needed. You will need to allow the cooker time to settle in approx 15-30 minutes between adjustments. Once the temp settles in where you want it, you should be good to go. Opening your vents equally (or as close to equal as possible) will give you a more even burn on your fuel. There's my $0.02 of info. There are many, many, many others on this site that will hopefully chime in and give you more info. Hope your cook goes well and don't forget to post some pics

Gracias,
JT

Good info JT...

As far a getting some sleep...a Maverick ET-733 or similar is great for overnight cooks. You can set the temp you want to wrap the meat at on one probe and pit high / low temp limits on the other probe. Put the remote monitor on the night stand and get some sleep! I usually set my temp range bottom at 200 degrees to let me know when the fuel is getting low and needs changed. I love running my butts at 225 for 17 hours and never foiling! Good luck...

Since this cook is supposedly already going on, might be too late for that Tiny...

Hey guys. Started a 10 lb butt on my weber at 3:45 this morning. Using pecan and peach wood from fruita. Got the 22.5 we've kettle at 235*. Meat is showing 109* per my maverick.
Any chance this gets done <12 hours. I hope not but that meat temp seems awfully high after just 3 hours

Thanks
Mark

Crotonmark said:

Hey guys. Started a 10 lb butt on my weber at 3:45 this morning. Using pecan and peach wood from fruita. Got the 22.5 we've kettle at 235*. Meat is showing 109* per my maverick.
Any chance this gets done <12 hours. I hope not but that meat temp seems awfully high after just 3 hours

Thanks
Mark

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You'll reach the stall about 150-160 and it will seem like it takes forever to move forward.

MadMan. I know and thanks. I always get nervous thinking it will fly they and be done in 5 hours. Meat up to 124 now. Fire still at 230
It a HUGE piece of meat. It should take 12 hours at least.

If you really want to run the pan dry, and I don't blame you, work on trying to get temps up instead of down. Try the minion again and put 10 lit coals on it with all bottom vents at 50%. If I was targeting 250, I would shut one down around 225 and another as I got closer. Once a temp, two would be shut and the third about 1/8" open.

The trick is to always be in control of the fire and not let it get away from you.

IamMadMan said:

You'll reach the stall about 150-160 and it will seem like it takes forever to move forward.

Click to expand...

The stall on my first one drove me nuts untill I figured out what a stall was!

BBQ-Stew said:

Big Snip... cursing at 250 to finish my butt, Little snip.

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Believe me this technique does not make it cook faster...have tried it several times:roll:

FYI...When your Butt hits 150+ you can foil to power through the stall and shorten the time considerably! Also I know you have heard it before...but if your lookin you ain't cookin...minimize the amount you open up the smoker.

Well hopefully you are done by now with a nice looking Butt and a great rack...man that doesn't sound like something I should be saying in public...to a guy:icon_shock1:

Well? How'd they turn out?