Frustrated after wasting $45 on beef brisket on a OKJ Highland... Trade it in for a WSM 18?

[Rusty Kettle]

I keep hearing about UDS in this thread and all over the forum. Isn't a UDS basically a homemade version of a WSM or a WSM is a 'mass-produced' UDS?



Do you find it harder to maintain a steady temp on the 14 vs the 18 WSM?

For Radio:
When I get home from work tonight I'll look for all those holes you just showed me. Hopefully mine is nowhere near as bad as yours...

I only own a 14.5" and a 22.5". In the class I took wih DivaQ she said get an 18.5" not the 22.5" she doesn't like the 22.5" keep in mind though many people are successful with the 22.5" but I can say it is a fuel hog and a bit more work than my 14.5" WSM.

The 18.5" is a bit larger than the 14.5" and a bit smaller than the 22.5" so I would think that is it enough room for half pans on the 18.5" where the 14.5" is just to small to fit half pans. This is important for collecting the juices from the pork butt. If you have a grease seperator then use it to strain the juices to make Au jus. It is delicious to pour it back on the pork slices and pulled pork.

I just messed with that for the first time this past weekend and it brought my pork to another level of amazing. It made my old stuff taste like chit in comparison.

 

[Swine Spectator]

Cook with anything for a long time, and you make it yours. I can control the temp like a champ on that POS using charcoal with some wood chunks...
...I say suffer through learning the offset for a while until you get it down. It will make you that much more comfortable controlling heat in the long run. Just my 2 cents.

+1 - The pit doesn't make the master. I have made better Q on a grate suspended over a pile of cinderblocks than on a borrowed $15K trailer -mounted stainless rotisserie smoker.

Master YOUR pit. Save your $$$ for the meat (and beer!), and PRACTICE.

 

[mike-cleveland]

Yep, I cooked an eye of the round two weeks ago camping over an open fire. know your tools

 

[magbarn]

Thanks everyone for the words of encouragement. Since I didn't have much experience with charcoal cooking, I ended up dumping so much KBB in the FB that it was actually suffocating the lower coals which were not even burning at all.

Thanks to all the advice here, instead of blowing >$200 in mods, I did a couple of things first: 1. Moved one of the charcoal grates from the cooking chamber and put it side to side with the FB grate. This allowed it to be an inch higher than the opening at the bottom, giving much more room for ashes for better airflow.
2. Minion method, loaded up the FB with as much KBB without touching the sides, kept a whole in the middle and used the 'mini-weber' chimney to light it. Once the fire got to 250, I then closed the intake to almost closed, this kept it steady. I didn't have to add charcoal until about 2 hours into it. I smoked the tri-tip and the fattie below.

I did overcook the tri-tip, but it was still juicy!

I'm keeping the OK Joe and probably adding a WSM 14 for the smaller cooks as there's only 3 in my household. Wife has a typically large hispanic family which will be the time I use the bigger cooker.

 

[mike-cleveland]

Good for you. Keep an eye out for some hardwood.

 

[Rusty Kettle]

Awesome. You are going to love the 14.5" WSM. Lump charcoal is what you need to run in it. Briquettes are way to ashy. For 8 hours and under briquettes are fine but longer than that and lump is the ticket.

Remember lump burns very hot so those lower dampers close them way down to achieve low and slow temps. Top vent wide open.

If you have any questions about how to control the temps shoot me a pm and I will explain my whole process. Make sure you pick up an oven thermometer to set on the bottom grate so you have a more accurate reading of temp.

Bbq takes time to learn how to make it. I am still learning myself.

 

[revkab]

I'm a newb to BBQ, been 'fake grilling' on a weber genesis for the last 10 years and as most ignorant Californians thought that grilling was barbecuing! I then visited my wife's family in San Antonio and ended up trying some Brisket that was to do for!

I wish I found this forum sooner before blowing $299 on a OK Joe Highland offset... I bought $40 worth of KBB (big mistake it seems...) for fuel, a chimney starter and several bags of mesquite. I then went to Costco and picked out a 14 lbs Prime 'packer' with the 'ends' according to the butcher.

I let it get to room temp, trimmed some of the fat off,and covered with just salt and lemon pepper after using olive oil on it to make it stick

Started up a full chimney and dumped it in the FB. I then through a bit of the mesquite chunks directly on top of the charcoal and this made tons of smoke. The stock thermometer was showing 300 or so was when I placed the brisket. The temps then rapidly dropped into the 200's range. Over the next 10 hours I grew extremely frustrated as I continued to throw pound over pound of KBB into the firebox which only seemed to just bump up the temp to 225F or so and then quickly back down. The only time the temp went higher was when I threw more fresh mesquite into the FB, which by the time I was almost out. I basically went through almost 40 lbs of KBB for the 10 hours and my Brisket came out tough despite reaching 195F at the thicket when checked with a temp probe.

The brisket had some good smoke flavor but was tough and chewy... :doh:

I've now spent over 10 hours going through this forum and others and I'm about ready to haul this 200 lbs waste of metal back to Lowes.
According to posts here, I'll have to spend $75 on a coal basket, $85 on a custom made baffle to distribute heat more evenly, seals & latches for the doors, or just spend >$1000 for a better made offset smoker.

After the 'mods' detailed above, the $300 smoker is now over $500. Are all those mods really necessary or can I do things on the 'cheap' I don't have access to a welder for 'hook-ups' or should I just get a WSM (as this seems to be pretty good without mods and uses much less fuel than 40 lbs of KBB!), or just eat at 'Lucille's' (unlike Texas, BBQ places are rare in CA)

Thanks in advance!

Don't give up yet. It took me a full summer to learn how to do ribs on a very similar offset (the little Brinkman listed to the left <--) I didn't have the smarts to discover this forum, else the learning curve would have been quicker.

Bottom line, I've done several excellent briskies on my little offset, as well as lots and lots of ribs.

Don't give up!!!:mmph:

 

[bbqwizard]

I'm glad it worked out for you! Seeing that picture brings back memories from when I first cooked on one. Just before I read your last post, I was going to say; load it up and drive to Las Vegas and I would take it off your hands. It's a fine little cooker, you just have to get use to how it works.

 

[Richard1233]

Glad to see ur getting the hang of it now. It seems like a good cooker when I've checked them out.

 

[Richard1233]

Oh and u won't regret buying a wsm if u decide to. Guaranteed u will be happy with it when u wanna smoke something and u have stuff to do around the house. It holds temp like a boss!

 

[Doog]

Good going! You learned a lot from your first cook!
Agree with others you just need to find some wood for the smoker in the future.

 

[BB-Kuhn]

Cooking a brisket the first time out on a new cooker is a recipe for disaster.

You wouldn't want to play the Super Bowl at the beginning of the season, right? That's what you tried to do. Keep the offset - just learn on it with cheaper cuts.

If your brisket tasted good but had bad texture, you probably just pulled it too early before it was done. Invest in a good meat thermometer and don't think about removing it from the cooker until it clears 200 for starters.

It was a year or two until I pulled off a really good brisket, but in the meantime I got really good at pork shoulder, chicken, ribs, sausage, etc - just keep going and you'll get there!

 

[Bludawg]

Ok Hoss here's the deal, as to why your brisket was under cooked. I can tell this from the pics you posted. You have ole Joe dialed in at 250 on the door the problem is your grate temps are probably 50-75 deg cooler. Grate temp is what you need to be concerned with Put a plug in that hole and lower your thermo to 1" above the grate.

As for the brisket the Grain is still tight as uncle Dicks hat band which is understandable since it was cooking at 200 or less it aint even close to done.

 

[magbarn]

Ok Hoss here's the deal, as to why your brisket was under cooked. I can tell this from the pics you posted. You have ole Joe dialed in at 250 on the door the problem is your grate temps are probably 50-75 deg cooler. Grate temp is what you need to be concerned with Put a plug in that hole and lower your thermo to 1" above the grate.

As for the brisket the Grain is still tight as uncle Dicks hat band which is understandable since it was cooking at 200 or less it aint even close to done.

Using 2 oven thermometers I checked the grate temps...
I thought the same thing but surprisingly the grate temp near the FB was about the same as the stock thermometer. The grate temp near exhaust was only 10 degrees color. I also used a maverick probe which confirmed the temps too.

 

[magbarn]

Just an update, after smoking fatties, trip tip, a whole bunch of chicken, I finally mustered up the courage to try a brisket again on a 'little' 12 pounder prime from Costco.

This time, instead of 200-225, I kept the heat at 275 majority of the time. I also kept it going past 195 and went all the way to 205. I didn't really rely on the temp, more on the feel of the probe. The point became buttery tender at around 198 or so, but it took 205 till the flat become buttery too. Total cook time of 10 hours. Some pics below.

Now that I'm a little more knowledgeable about fire (I used gas grills exclusively previously) I only used about 12 lbs of KBB instead of the 22 lbs like the last time. (I'm still trying to find a good source of wood that's not softwood or eucalyptus)

I need to use more rub next time though!

Thanks for all the help brethren!

 

[rdstoll]

I'm sorry but I laughed when I read your post. Not laughing at you just that I've been through every single one of those frustrations myself.

Get a UDS - drum smoker. Easy to use and you will turn out some fantastic BBQ. Then haul that pit out you have and start playing with fire.