So a few weeks ago I did my first overnight pulled pork using the snake method on my 22" kettle. The smoke went so smoothly - I got around 8 or 9 hours of burn time with one snake, and when opening in the morning, there was still a decent amount of coal left.
Then last weekend, I did a 10.5 lb brisket and was pretty cocky. Got the thing steady 250 around 9:15pm and was ready for a good night sleep - figured I could go until at least 5am or 6am without messing with it.
First problem started around 1:30, the temps were climbing so I closed the damper a bit and went back to sleep. Temp alarm went off again at around 3am. I go out to check it and the charcoal is totally gone.
So I had to basically re-light the whole setup at 3am which is not fun at all. While I was doing that I moved the brisket to my gas grill so the temp wouldn't start dropping. It took about an hour to get the temp steady again and I moved the meat back to the kettle again.
Anyway, the rest of the smoke didn't go so smoothly. The thing just didn't want to level out.
I can't understand why I would have such inconsistencies with the snake method. The only difference I can think of is that the outside temp was about 15-20 deg colder than the first time. Could that cause this?
I'm still trying to figure out the best way to do an overnight smoke on the kettle with minimal disruptions. I have a smokenator - which keeps steady temps, but I need to consonantly replenish the coal and poke it around, etc.
For the next time, I'm thinking about smoking for about 3 or 4 hours before I go to bed, and then moving it to the gas grill or over for the rest of the time. Anyone do this with good results?
Then last weekend, I did a 10.5 lb brisket and was pretty cocky. Got the thing steady 250 around 9:15pm and was ready for a good night sleep - figured I could go until at least 5am or 6am without messing with it.
First problem started around 1:30, the temps were climbing so I closed the damper a bit and went back to sleep. Temp alarm went off again at around 3am. I go out to check it and the charcoal is totally gone.
So I had to basically re-light the whole setup at 3am which is not fun at all. While I was doing that I moved the brisket to my gas grill so the temp wouldn't start dropping. It took about an hour to get the temp steady again and I moved the meat back to the kettle again.
Anyway, the rest of the smoke didn't go so smoothly. The thing just didn't want to level out.
I can't understand why I would have such inconsistencies with the snake method. The only difference I can think of is that the outside temp was about 15-20 deg colder than the first time. Could that cause this?
I'm still trying to figure out the best way to do an overnight smoke on the kettle with minimal disruptions. I have a smokenator - which keeps steady temps, but I need to consonantly replenish the coal and poke it around, etc.
For the next time, I'm thinking about smoking for about 3 or 4 hours before I go to bed, and then moving it to the gas grill or over for the rest of the time. Anyone do this with good results?