I have done BCC on a 22 with two sides of banked charcoal. Works great.
It's almost too much charcoal.
I wanted to try it on my 18.
I also wanted to use a homemade charcoal basket. It holds about 25-30 briquettes.
I went with 15 un-lit briqs in the basket, to that I added 15 lit briquettes. Some apple wood for smoke.
Decent sized birds ... 3.75 lbs per. Very hot water was in the beer cans.
I went with the intakes at half open for the first 45 minutes, then fully open after that.
This pic was taken after 1 hour 15 minutes.
It started to lose heat. I added more charcoal.
I checked the IT of the birds with a thermapen and was averaging 155° - not quite there.
But ... we got impatient ..... and finished them in the oven.
The ambient temperature was a degree or two below freezing. Some wind, with the odd gust, but nothing extreme.
I don't believe these were factors.
Questions:
Did I not use enough charcoal in the beginning?
Maybe go with 30 lit from the start?
Was this a lot of meat .... or maybe go with 1 chicken?