achieving 215-230 degrees and blue smoke

[S!LVER]

First I have tried searching for this topic and while I did find a few posts I didn't find anything that really helped. 

Okay so I am fairly new to cooking on the Weber kettle.  I bought my first kettle at the beginning of march and have been learning how to achieve the right temps for different cooks.  I have read alot of information on amazing ribs.com which has been a big help. 

So my question is this.  How do you guys get the kettle to hold temps in the range of 215-230 while still getting blue smoke?

I have been having some problems with this.

First I am using indirect setup described on the amazing ribs website.   

My first few cooks with the kettle I lit up a half chimney of blue bag and duped it to one side.  With the lid on I then throttle back on the lower vent keeping the top full open.  I find that in order to get the temps down low I that to almost close the vent entirely.  This is something described on this website alot and on amazing ribs.  The problem is when you start starving the fire the smoke go from blue to white and grey.  This has made the food not the best. 

So I started to think I must be starting with too much lit charcoal. So I started to use less lit briquettes.  Lit just a handful and then put some fresh ones next to it.  This even made the problem worse.  I have read that the briquettes put off a lot of heat and smoke when they are first lit.  So I had to throttle back even more and this in combination with new briquettes lighting up caused even more white smoke.

I have yet to try the snake method or something like the slow n sear.  The snake method seems like the best option is this what you guys use. 

Most of my cooks are around 1 - 3 hrs for either a beef roast or ribs. 

With the slow n sear does the water pan actually connected to the basket help keep the temps down while allowing properly burning briquettes, keeping the smoke blue.     

[S!LVER]

Funny the best cook I have done is when it was windy and -5.  The wind and air temp meant I had to keep the vents wide open just to achieve 230.  this produced a real nice clean smoke that made the food taste great.  Now that spring is coming to canada I am wondering how I should change my technique bc I don't think it is very practical to try and mount my kettle inside of my freezer.   

[addicted-to-smoke]

It's true that you need airflow for a clean burn (or smoke.) I don't know what the answer is but I've had some blue smoke mostly when I add smoke wood, let it catch and then wait a little while as it settles down before putting meat on. By that time it's either blue or barely there and definitely not white any more.

On the other hand, by then it's nearly spent and won't add as much flavor.


So I started to use less lit briquettes.  Lit just a handful and then put some fresh ones next to it.  This even made the problem worse.

OK but doesn't that basically describe a snake? You'd still have to have fresh coals getting lit there, too. Using something better than K Blue is a really good idea here, so minimize the startup stench.

[pbe gummi bear]

Use the snake method and put your kettle in the shade. The direct sun can really heat up a kettle. Also using lump or higher quality charcoal helps. KBB has a lot of Borax that makes maintaining a clean fire at lower temps more difficult

[S!LVER]

I like the idea of changing the charcoal.  I will try something else this weekend. 

One other method I have been thinking about is putting a full load of lit briquettes on and letting them burn down.  Then every so often put a few more already lit coals on.  the only issue with this is all the extra labor. 

[addicted-to-smoke]

And time and money wasted, waiting for temps to die down.

[S!LVER]

true. 

[MikeRocksTheRed]

I almost always use KBB.  It sounds like you are starting with way to much lit charcoal.  I usually setup a 2x2 snake (2coals wide, 2 coals high) and start with 10-15 lit coals.  I  also use a water pan in on the charcoal grate and use hot water in it.  Starting with 10-15 coals might take you a little bit to let the grill settle in and get up to temp, but its way easier than trying to cool down the grill if you start off too hot.  With the snake method, I think the coals get baked enough before its their turn to light up which reduces the amount of dirty smoke you get.  Usually on my 22's I run my snake with the top vent wide open and the bottom one barely cracked open.  Also, if you are putting wood on your coals, make sure the wood chunks are not touching each other.  The wood tends to burn faster than the coals and will cause you snake to advance too quickly.  If you are using wood chips, the same thing applies, put your small piles of chips so that there is space between each pile.

[Travis]

Question. How much wood are you using and what? Chunks. Chips? Do you have to much on there?

I use the indirect method also. I  light 12 briquettes. Once they're going, I'll put them in the corner of the kettle just touching the unlit. At that point I'll add one chunk of wood, place on the lighted coals and put another chunk a few inches away on the unlit. I dont use fist size chunks on the kettles, but that might just be a preference.

Also, dont smoke the entire time. You can over smoke your food. I general smoke around half the cook, but also thats my preference. It has worked for me, maybe not you.

I run the bottom damper 1/8 to a 1/4 open and TRY to keep the lid open. Just a peek and you can spike a kettle temp 20 or more degrees. Keep that in mind.

Lastly, do yourself a favor if you haven't already and get a decent digital thermometer with a probe wire for your meat and kettle temps. Dont listen to the lid thermo. They lie. You might be chocking back a fire that in reality doesn't need to be because of an inaccurate temp. reading

Hope it helps somewhat. Alot of great advice here bud.

[MikeRocksTheRed]

Question. How much wood are you using and what? Chunks. Chips? Do you have to much on there?

I use the indirect method also. I  light 12 briquettes. Once they're going, I'll put them in the corner of the kettle just touching the unlit. At that point I'll add one chunk of wood, place on the lighted coals and put another chunk a few inches away on the unlit. I dont use fist size chunks on the kettles, but that might just be a preference.

Also, dont smoke the entire time. You can over smoke your food. I general smoke around half the cook, but also thats my preference. It has worked for me, maybe not you.

I run the bottom damper 1/8 to a 1/4 open and TRY to keep the lid open. Just a peek and you can spike a kettle temp 20 or more degrees. Keep that in mind.

Lastly, do yourself a favor if you haven't already and get a decent digital thermometer with a probe wire for your meat and kettle temps. Dont listen to the lid thermo. They lie. You might be chocking back a fire that in reality doesn't need to be because of an inaccurate temp. reading

Hope it helps somewhat. Alot of great advice here bud.

Holy crap, your lid thermo talks to you too?!!!  I thought I was the only one with the talking lid thermo!!!

[S!LVER]

Thank you all for all of the advice.

I am using a digital thermometer next to my food.  I also use about golf ball size chunks of apple wood.  I think one of the issues I have been having is lighting too many briquettes at the beginning and also maybe the brand.  One person on here recommended switching to another type of briquette and I have had the same advice from a good grilling friend of mine.  He had the same issues when he started out and he found that the KBB gave off more white smoke which made the food taste not as good.  He recommended that I use something more pure for low and slow and KBB for cooking hot.   

[addicted-to-smoke]

Yes, but my earlier admonition to not use cheap charcoal could also have been exaggerated. It's so hard not to talk in terms of absolutes online.

I'm sure plenty of people have done great smokes with K Blue. As Travis astutely notes it may be that hot charcoal doesn't reek as much as cold charcoal when finally lit. Try it again, with or without food present, as he says with just a few lit and just touching the unlit so as to hopefully not start a pile of vile smoke.

[VAis4BBQers]

I've done plenty of slow cooks for ribs and butts using the snake method keeping temps between 220-275 using KBB.

Setting it up something like this:

[Travis]

@MikeRocksTheRed. Man, I'm so glad someone else hears it! Freaky, right!?

[varekai]

@S!LVER,  "kettle in my freezer" ..You could be onto the next kickstarter cold smoker idea.