Dr. Endo
Well-known member
Hi guys, I'm new to the smoking world, but very motivated. I just finished making a UDS. I think it looks pretty good. I'm using a Weber lid because I couldn't find a barrel with a lid. It was a half inch small so I bent the flange out so that I could fit it to the barrel better. It still leaks a little but since I can control the flow with the vent control on the lid I didn't think that it would be much of a problem. I have smoked a couple of items so far with reasonable success. My problem lies in temperature control and more specifically initial temperature rise. I have only been smoking things for about 4-5 hours. To do this I put aprox. 5 lbs lump charcoal in with 3 fist sized pieces of hickory. It takes an hour just to get to 220 with three 3/4 inch vents open and my ball valve completely open. Then to maintain the temperature I leave the three vents completely open. I'm going to try and smoke a butt for 12-14 hours this weekend using 8.5-9 lbs lump charcoal. I don't think that it's going to make it. On other peoples blogs I read that they get the temp up pretty fast and then close off most of the air vents to bring it down and slowly cook that way. What am I doing differently? Any advice or mods that you all could suggest?