Hello,
Recently bought a Weber MasterTouch.
Bought some Maple Leaf Briquittes, Weber chimney, weber starter cubes.
I opened up the bottom air vents, put two cubes on the grill, filled the weber chimney to the top with briquettes. Lit the 2 starter cubes and put the chimney on top.
After 25 mins, I could see that the briquettes were hot and grey in the bottom and middle of the chimney, but the ones on top were still black.
I then dumped the briquettes into onto the grate, put on the top lid on (with the vents closed) and waited. The BBQ got to 370*C so I put on some chicken breasts. After that, the BBQ was struggling to get past 280* C. Unsure of what to do, I put more charcoal on the grill, closed the lid and it was still struggling. I ended up taking off the chicken and cooked it on my Weber Genesis gas grill.
Any thoughts on what I did wrong? not enough charcoal? Should I have the vents on the lid open? Can I put new charcoal on top of already hot charcoal or should I fire them up in the chimney again?
Also, what's the best way to extinguish the bbq? I closed the bottom vent, top vent and put the lid on. After 1.5 hours it seemed like it was out. Do you guys put water in the ash catch pan? The pan was almost full to the top, so I dumped it into a plastic bag and broke down the big chunks into powder to see if any were still hot. I then just dumped it in the garage bin in the garage. Not sure if that is the correct way to do it of if there is a chance of combustion.
Can I re-use the charcoal that was still in big chunks and black?
Lots of questions. Glad I had the Genesis as a back up or our family gathering would have been a disaster.
james