uds today
 

My birthday party today, doing 8 racks of spare ribs/baby back and some chicken breasts, will see how it does.

so far still struggling to get temp early on, now after 2 hrs its holding good at 250-275, first hr was though to get 250 without keeping door open.

Door on UDS?

What intake vent system do you have on it?

Door? Doesn't sound like a UDS from here. How about a picture?
My UDS I can get to temp usually in 20 minutes or so.

That is a lotta meat for one load on any UDS I ever saw.? I would love to see the setup to get some ideas.

I suppose with the right setup you can easily hang 8 slabs with some room to spare.

Well, he posted the question yesterday so I guess he figured it out.

Over all it was pretty good, had a rib rack for the bottom shelf and put all the spares down there, the baby backs on top, then 2 hrs in put the chicken on top rack also.

Temp at first took a while to get up then with the door cracked 1/4 inch it held at 260 for the whole time.

Used Kingsford blue bag and some blocks of hickory, smoke flavor was odd, kinda chemically tasting. I think Ill stop using charcoal and go to stick or lump.

I have had great luck using the weber kettle to do all my cooking before with no issue.

Here is the build. Maybe its because of the firebox built in. I may have to build a new one with just the basket and see.

http://www.bbq-brethren.com/forum/sh...d.php?t=153204

I have never built or used a UDS but by the looks of your build you might want to add an adjustable air intake somewhere on the bottom of the drum that you can open while it is getting up to temp. I think why you had to leave the door open for so long is that the vents on the door were not letting enough air in. Maybe someone who has a UDS might chime in and disagree which will by fine by me but that is the way I see it by looking at the link with your build.

I now have 4- 5/8 inch holes down there, need to enlarge them. My main issue now is the weird smoke flavor, I assume is from charcoal.

All in all, it sounds like you are not running a clean burning fire before you put the meat on. What is your top vent?

Top vent is standard weber lid 3/4 holes . I even cracked the lid to get the heat up.

I think after some research that it is creosote from poor burn, going to increase vent sizes in lid and firebox.