22" Kettle Pizza oven questions

[G19]

So at the moment we cook our pizza in our Performer on a stone but without the raised tilted lid add on's.  Takes a little longer to cook but results are good.  I have some questions from those with more experience than I do with kettle pizza cooking. 

What is the benefit to having the lid raised and tilted and being open, does the temp get hotter?  I figure this is the case when I hear comments about the lid rollers melting. 

Do you want no coals under the stone and 360º around the stone or concentrate the coals and wood to the aft making a draft out the open area?

Any benefit to raising the stone above the grate level?

Thanks in advance.

[MikeRocksTheRed]

You have a lot of great questions @G19!  Let me see if I can answer some of them.

What is the benefit to having the lid raised and tilted and being open, does the temp get hotter?  I figure this is the case when I hear comments about the lid rollers melting. 
The raised lid and mouth in the front of these attachments allows the airflow needed to keep the coals as hot as possible and the wood in a flaming state.  This allows the grills to get to 600-800 degrees without a lot of effort once you know how to setup your coals and wood.  Without the airflow the wood would smoke instead of burn which would put way too much smoke into the crust and toppings.  At 600-800 degrees, lid rollers can definitely melt.  The rollers on my performer were melted long before I got my Kettle Pizza, so I am not sure if it is a matter of one really hot cook doing them in, or if it repeated hot cooks slowly breaking down the rollers until they finally are deteriorated chemically and finally melt.


Do you want no coals under the stone and 360º around the stone or concentrate the coals and wood to the aft making a draft out the open area?
I setup mine with a handful of coals under the stone the the rest of them in the back.  If you have ever used too many coals in a Smokey Joe to where it couldn't get enough airflow to supply all of the coals, I think the same theory applies here, plus the need for heat to rise up the back and into the lid to get temps high enough to cook the top of a pizza quickly.  If I setup my grill with coals in the front and back I think the draft of air from the mouth in the front to the bottom of the kettle and through the coals would not work properly.  The front coals would probably take most of the oxygen out of the air resulting in the back coals and wood chunks not getting hot enough to cause the wood to smoke instead of burn with hot flames.  The flames up the back of the grill and into the lid are the key.  As soon as you don't have enough flame, while your stone is still going to be hot, the lid temp is going to be too low and you are going to burn the bottom of the pizza before the top finishes cooking.

Any benefit to raising the stone above the grate level?
Using these pizza attachments probably raises the grate level by 2-3 inches, maybe 4.  I think this does make a difference because as previously mentioned you need to be in that hot zone in the lid for the top to cook properly.  If you have everything setup properly the top and bottom pizza will cook at the same rate.  I am sure both of these attachments went through a lot of trial and error to find the sweet spot as far as grate height where getting your fire, stone and dome temps correct are easier than at other heights.

As far as why you would need one of these accessories.....that depends on how often you make pizzas, how many you want to make when you do make pizza(s), and what your taste in pizza is.  If you just want to grill up a tombstone pizza once every month or two, there is no reason to get anything other than what you have now.  If you make your own dough, want to churn out 3-6 pizzas in the course of 30-45 minutes then one of these accessories is a must.  I used to do frozen pizzas on my grill with just a stone and was always happy with them.  Now I make my own dough, sauce, and love making a ton of pizzas for friends, family, and neighbors when I get my grill and Kettle Pizza fired up.  If you just make one pizza every once in a while, it sounds like you have it figured out.  If you find you need a little tweaking with lid on pizza cooking, the two things you will probably encounter is the top of the pizza cooking too fast which means you need to toss a few more coals under the stone so the bottom cooks quicker, or if you find the bottom is done before the top, try raising your stone a few inches and see if that helps the top cook a little quicker.

Also, check out this post where I kind of explain some if it is worth getting one of these accessories or not.
http://weberkettleclub.com/forums/pizza-forum/pizzaque-vs-kettlepizza/msg241864/#msg241864


Here is a sketch of how I setup my coals:

The sketch is from this thread which might give you some more good information as well.


PS:  I typed this up in a hurry and have to get back to work, so please excuse any typos other crazy things I didn't have time to proof read for!

[G19]

Mike you do Rock.  Thanks for the very informative reply.  We are closing on our house in two weeks so this will be the first thing I order in the new one.  The coal sketch is awesome, thanks again

[MikeRocksTheRed]

Mike you do Rock.  Thanks for the very informative reply.  We are closing on our house in two weeks so this will be the first thing I order in the new one.  The coal sketch is awesome, thanks again

If you look at the last 2-3 pages of this pizza section, that is when a the section was first created and a bunch of had just gotten our Pizza gear for xmas.  That first month or so of posts have a lot of great information in them!

[haeffb]

Another benefit of raising the stone: I don't have a KP or other attachment, just a OTG. I set a couple of fire bricks on the grate, then the stone on top of that. It puts the stone just above the lip of the bowl, which makes sliding the pizzas on and off much easier/less risky.

[G19]

Another benefit of raising the stone: I don't have a KP or other attachment, just a OTG. I set a couple of fire bricks on the grate, then the stone on top of that. It puts the stone just above the lip of the bowl, which makes sliding the pizzas on and off much easier/less risky.

  Good point