pizzaque fail

[CharliefromLI]

got a cheap pizzaque on ebay and tried for the first time last night and it was a major fail due to operator error.

By the time my stone was heated and first pie was done, the fuel was spent and the following pies never properly cooked.

How do you guy arrange and manage your fuel? Do you reload as you cook?

Also my stone broke (not uncommon as i use cheap stones) but when it breaks on a grate its not a major issue, when it breaks on those tabs that the PQ uses its fatal as the stone became uneven.

May consider some mods to bring close to my prior pizza set up that worked better which was upper and lower stones:

Anyone with any mods or advise for pizzaque success , please message me. i am all ears



of prior

[HoosierKettle]

This is my coal set up. I wasn't using the pq for this cook but I set it up the same. 2 full chimneys last over an hour. The pq therm was reading 900 most of the time. That sucks the stone broke. Mine hasn't broken yet.






Sent from my iPhone using Weber Kettle Club mobile app

[CharliefromLI]

So you use two full lit chimneys in a ring?  How long do you let stone pre heat for?


Sent from my iPhone using Weber Kettle Club mobile app

[HoosierKettle]

I have only done pizza a handful of times so I'm no expert but I have been dialing in how I like the coal set up.

I use 1 unlit and dump 1 lit over it all. I install the pq and let it come up to temp. Probably 20 minutes but it varies. I just watch the therm on the pq and when it looks like it's hitting the 750 range, I start to cook. I just used kbb and a couple pieces of wood the last time. It held "burn your face off" temps for quite awhile.


Sent from my iPhone using Weber Kettle Club mobile app

[MikeRocksTheRed]

@CharliefromLI -  I use a chimney of fully lit KBB, then once I dump it into the grill (in a pac man formation) I add 3/4 to a full chimney of unlit on top of it.  At that point I assemble the grill and put the stone on so it can start getting hot while I am waiting for the unlit coals to become fully lit.  This give you a good 15 -20 minutes of preheating time.  Then I add my wood chunks about 5 minutes before my first pizza goes in, adding a few more if there aren't flames licking up the back back of the grill into the lid when I am ready to put the first pizza on.  Usually add a couple of chunks right before each subsequent pizza.

[MrHoss]

Try using briquettes and 3 splits of wood. One large Weber chimney full and three 12-15 inch chunks of wood twice as thick as your wrist or so. Arrange the charcoal in a U pattern where your pizza stone is not and put the wood on top of the charcoal in the same U fashion. When the smoke cleans up and the flames are high....get cooking. The real heat is coming from the wood. Use too much charcoal and it will restrict your air flow and the wood will not burn properly.

Use your same setup for now.