[boltsfan]

My first smoke went better than expected thanks to the help from all of you guys. So… thank you.

Bought the meat at Costco. Ribs came in a 3 pack and had silver skin already removed so that was nice.


I am very impressed with the WSM and it maintained temps between 225-275* for the most part with some spikes to 300*. It was in the 50s that day with a slight cold wind. My neighbors b’yard was covered in smoke but at least it smelled good. I could smell sweet smoke way out in the front yard… it was glorious.

I filled the ring with RO lump using the Minion Method and added 4 good size apple chunks. Filled a starter about ¾ full and let it get nice and white (approx. 15 minutes) and added to charcoal. Added about a gallon of warm water to the bowl. Got up to 225* very quick.

I added 3 racks of ribs to top rack and let smoke for about 2 hours. Removed and foiled with apple juice. Added a few hickory chunks to the fire and placed 3 trip-tips on bottom rack and ribs on top. Set Maverick therm and tri-tips were at 125* in about 45 minutes which was faster than the 2 hours I planned for. I assume it had to with adding more fuel with hickory and temp did spike to about 300*. Plus being on the bottom rack. So… I removed tri-tips and foiled while the ribs finished. Removed foil from ribs and let go another hour (about 4 hours total). I fired up my Lynx grill to about 500* and reverse seared the trip-tip and then let rest again. Probe therm showed max temp of 145* and they were pink all the way through.

Everyone raved about the food. The ribs had a nice smoke ring and were tender, meaty and fell off the bone. The tri-tip was great too, although I thought it was bit over smoked but everyone disagreed. Maybe next time I will only add one piece of hickory and place tri-tip on top rack. It was difficult to get all of this food onto both racks. Ribs were long and I did not use a rib rack. I was afraid that if I placed the tri-tips on the top rack that they would drip blood all over the ribs. I almost put the ribs in a warm grill to finish but decided that I got the WSM for a reason and I would cram it all on there and see what happened. All in all... a very good day…

Some lessons learned:
-Small adjustments to vents make a big difference (be patient)
-Don’t adjust vents w\o wearing a glove (ouch!)
-I need to install a grommet for probe therm
-I need to place a table next to the smoker to hold lid, grills, etc…
-Clay saucer not thick enough for starter… I now have nice black circle on my grass

Pic of the ribs is a little fuzzy but you can see the smoke ring. I swear it was a good pic when I took it but maybe it had something to do with too many IPAs. Pic of the tri-tips was from next morning.


Thanks!