Aaron Franklin - anti-Webber?

[MINIgrillin]

I'm gonna get flamed but here it is.

I've had some bbq here in Texas that made me have what could only be described as a God moment. After reading AFs book I know what my cooks have been missing. I really want a gator pit. I'd be willing to get rid of most of my webers to get one. Not all...

[GregS]

as long as she's not anti weber. 

[Saugust]

as long as she's not anti weber.

Exactly. Frankly, I'm anti-Webber too. Except when it turns up CL scores. Then I'm all for it.

[AZRaptor]

I have seen some trailer mounted stick burner offsets that I would love to have, but alas it is not to be.

I have a custom built offset smoker on order with Shirley Fabrication in Tuscaloosa, AL at the moment and I've been going back and forth about whether or not it should be a trailer mounted one or a cart mounted one. Check out their Facebook page for some pics and vids of their smokers. Awesome looking cookers. If you talk to them about pricing you might be pleasantly surprised. This isn't costing anywhere near the cost of something like a Lang. They are booking builds into January 2016 now, but mine is slated for October. Really looking forward to having another type of smoker if for no other reason than 'just cuz'.

[pbe gummi bear]

Dang, Shirley Fab has amazing cookers. I'd really love to test drive a 48-60" ft model rf made out of a tank. I'm excited for you! What are the specs on yours?

[jcnaz]

I was reading AF's Meat Smoking Manifesto this weekend.  In one part of the "Smoker" section, he referred to Webers as "flimsy," and recommended the Big Green Egg instead.

Blashphemer!

BGE?
This article says he is a PK guy.

http://www.pkgrills.com/TheGrillBlog/pitmaster-aaron-franklin-of-franklin-barbecue-uses-pk-as-his-goto-grill/

C'mon, Aaron. Which is it?

[AZRaptor]

Dang, Shirley Fab has amazing cookers. I'd really love to test drive a 48-60" ft model rf made out of a tank. I'm excited for you! What are the specs on yours?

24x60" Straightback cabinet model with a three shelf warmer. Sausage hangers, optional damper from firebox to warmer.

I'm still trying to decide if I want to put this on a trailer or build it on a cart. I don't necessarily plan to travel with the smoker alot, but the trailer units just look so cool and it would be nice to have the option to haul it somewhere, which of course I could do with a cart model on a trailer.

[Uncle JJ]

I've owned a Shirley for about 2 years now.  Paul and Tyler are incredibly talented, and their service is second to none. 

@AZRaptor - Get your smoker on a trailer.  I didn't, and I regret it.  You'll be surprised how many times you'll want to take it to another location to cook for friends.  Plus, you may want to do a competition!  I'm taking mine back to Paul to have it mounted - would've been cheaper to have done it up front (and I'll have to be without my smoker for a while, which sucks).

[Metal Mike]

Build out a quickie UDS so you won't miss it too bad

[Metal Mike]

& while the PK has a "vintage" look it is nowhere close to the beauty that is a colorful kettle (or set of for the cost)

[Troy]

I'm gonna get flamed but here it is.

I've had some bbq here in Texas that made me have what could only be described as a God moment. After reading AFs book I know what my cooks have been missing. I really want a gator pit. I'd be willing to get rid of most of my webers to get one. Not all...

equipment is a very very small small element of the final product, if its an element at all.

I bet franklin produced shitty Q on a weber and now he's holding a grudge.

[AZRaptor]

I'm gonna get flamed but here it is.

I've had some bbq here in Texas that made me have what could only be described as a God moment. After reading AFs book I know what my cooks have been missing. I really want a gator pit. I'd be willing to get rid of most of my webers to get one. Not all...

equipment is a very very small small element of the final product, if its an element at all.

I bet franklin produced shitty Q on a weber and now he's holding a grudge.

I don't know. I the book he details multiple occasions when starting out where he made lousy Q on an offset, and he still uses them. His back story never really mentioned him cooking on anything other than offsets if I remember correctly.

[CakeByte]

I don't know. I the book he details multiple occasions when starting out where he made lousy Q on an offset, and he still uses them. His back story never really mentioned him cooking on anything other than offsets if I remember correctly.

He does mention somewhere in there that he's cooked on several different types of pits across the country, but I still think he really just doesn't have much if any experience with Webers.

For example, in the wood chapter he mentions how you just can't get enough smoke from only charcoal, without even bringing up the fact that you can use wood chunks (or chips) in smokers that cook with charcoal. To me, that seems to indicate that he really hasn't used any charcoal smoker very much.

Either way, he obviously knows a great deal about the tools that he does use, and still wrote a great book

[Jammato]

I chased competition bbq for a while, had a really nice stick burner on a trailer with all the bells and whistles. And it cooked nice.

it had major drawbacks, boy did it use fuel and you had to cook a lot or it was not worth it
so I downsized to a non trailer unit and it cooked great, used less fuel and I had better temp control overall
My success in comp cooking was kinda medium, in smaller cookoffs I did real great, in the larger ones there seems to be a huge tendency for the big teams to win. Not that I feel they did any better. Maybe I am biased there.

Anyway, no matter what was going on, we always had a few weber's going on cooking to give stuff away to fans and for our food, we had a blast showing off what we could cook on the kettles, many times I think the stuff was better than the stuff off the stick burners.

things have changed a bit in the comp circuit, it seems that computerized pellet burners and self feeding coal burners are becoming a rage and they remove the temp control problems from the pitmaster and put it into a computer that is sampling constantly and adjusting to keep things to a tight controlled computer program. Hard to compete against doing it freestyle

I also got told I had diabetes and some of the food I was cooking is really bad for me. So I sold out.

I took me about a month to figure out that grilling is great for diabetics, the method drains the fats from the meat. and you know, all those vegis you eat are great grilled, not only that but a lot of the sides I cook for my guest I do not have to eat, I just make a bunch of baked beans and I make some regular beans for myself.

And so it goes, I love to grill, I do it all the time, probably 3 times a week or more, and I have never in my 57 years on this planet found a grilling platform as versatile as the Weber. I can BBQ and it is easy to control the heat, I grill, I do a lot of beer can chicken with the best success of any form of grill I have ever used. My 3/2/1 ribs are the talk of the town, my briskets are great ( if I had a 26 incher I think they would be perfect)
I only own one other grill, a 36 inch ranch kettle by another manufacturer that is used for big get togethers and it is used to grill burgers, dogs, steaks, and the perfect santa maria style tritip. besides that I use my smokey joe silver, my maters touch kettle and my recently found green metal bowl handle 3 vent mid 70s 22 inch which cooks great. (40 years and still cooking is not flimsy)

So go tell those guys who think you can only bbq or grill on some super expensive stick burner to go pound sand, a good Grillfella knows you can cook great BBq on just about anything if you just apply the right methods to the equipment, and the Weber is the most successfully selling back yard grill for a reason, it has proven over a half century of being one of the best grills out there. It is rugged enough that many of us have 40 and 50 year old grills we use on a regular basis.

Being good is all about method and keeping records till you get it right, not about the most expensive cooking unit out there. Sure a big thick unit will work best in comercial places and last a long time, but do you need a unit in the back yard that can cook for 100 people everynight.

[1buckie]

@Jammato
What a GREAT statement !!!!

Esp. this:

"(40 years and still cooking is not flimsy)"