Red Sky Grilling Pizza Stone

I grill pizzas now on firebrick splits, but to answer your question, I think that stone looks good. I like the shape - it should allow heat to come up from behind it and over the pizza (I would think that putting the lid vent opposite the cut-away portion of the stone is the idea), and the price seems reasonable. I say try it and let us know how it works!

I originally purchased the Red Sky Grilling stone for using as it was intended. Given that it can withstand temps of up to 2300 degrees, you're not apt to find a better stone for the Weber. However, I now use it on my FrankenWeber Pizza kettle and it works GREAT, especially at the high temps I crank my machine up to. The "D" shape creates the prefect rear vent for the hot air generated by the turkey fryer to force hot air over the top of my pies, not unlike a wood fired pizza oven. For this reason alone, I would highly recommend it.

One thing though - if you plan on using this for traditional grilling, you will be faced with the frustrating problem of having the bottom of your pies being done before the top, meaning cheese and toppings that are not quite cooked. This has everything to do with the Weber, not the stone, BTW. One solution is to get an extra donor lid and mount a 18 inch pizza pan under the donor lid, which will effectively lower the "ceiling" of the lid and help cook the top of the pizza faster.

So to answer your question, no, there is not a better stone on the market at this time for a 22 inch Weber kettle. I highly recommend this product.

Moose......great info. I've been in the market for one of these for a while, and on your recomendation I'll pull the trigger on this. Thanks!

Good post & info, Moose!

Here's a pic of the pizza pan mounted to my Weber donor lid. I've since straightened the pizza pan so it's evenly balanced with the lid. The cutout definitely helps airflow when positioned opposite the "D" vent on the grilling stone. While I use this for my FrankenWeber pizza kettle, the cutout should work equally as well when using the stone with charcoal as instructed by the manufacturer:



If you find a donor lid and make these two mods, I think you'll be cranking out some fine pizzas!

I got one of these stones and I also have the problem of done pizza on bottom before the top so I use coals stacked around the outside of the kettle and use as directed otherwise. Something else to note is when the ambient temp falls the stone gets put away because the kettle can't hold the heat to cook the top evenly in that case.

Goodluck!

This is mine in use last year.

Moose said:

you will be faced with the frustrating problem of having the bottom of your pies being done before the top

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I would tend to disagree to a certain extent with that statement.

I have used mine a few times and still trying to get a handle on how much charcoal to start to get the perfect pie. The last time I used it the first 2 pies were perfectly cooked crust and toppings ratio. The next 2 were burned on the bottom and not cooked on the top as mentioned above. I equate this to the fire getting hotter as the first 2 came off and I left the lid off when I went into the house.

I think if you can get the right balance of charcoal and heat it will make a perfect pie. Still practicing here though.

That being said, I am in the process of location a donor lid to cut a slot in the side to bring the heat down on the top.

Other than that I am very pleased with the product.

Cheers

I'd buy it just for the chunk of pecan wood they are throwing in for Free!!

Smokin Turkey said:

I got one of these stones and I also have the problem of done pizza on bottom before the top so I use coals stacked around the outside of the kettle and use as directed otherwise. Something else to note is when the ambient temp falls the stone gets put away because the kettle can't hold the heat to cook the top evenly in that case.

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This is EXACTLY why I built a FrankenWeber. Too much hassle using charcoal and I get my temps dialed in perfectly with the propane. Depending on what kind of flour/dough I'm using, I get stone temps from 650-800 degrees, plus the pizzas cook in 2-4 minutes and top and bottom are both evenly cooked. Here's a pic of my most recent pie:

Have had my pizza stone for a couple of years and like it:thumb:. I have tried raising the stone on some firebricks to get around the top of the pie cooking slower than the bottom of the crust.

That stone looks like a great idea and much cheaper and easier than building a pizza oven. I will be buying one of those. Thanks so much for the post!:thumb:

would there be a way of mounting a second pizza stone above the first so that the pizza is surrounded by heat? Sort of the radiant effect that a cob oven gives.

h20loo said:

would there be a way of mounting a second pizza stone above the first so that the pizza is surrounded by heat? Sort of the radiant effect that a cob oven gives.

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In theory, a good idea - you could use two firebricks to support the smaller stone. But practically speaking, not sure that would be worth it. If one were to do it, you'd have to use a smaller stone on top because of the shape of the Weber lid. In addition, the extra stone and 2 firebricks would require 3x more energy to heat up, so you'd burn through coals a LOT faster. As it is, that stone requires a LOT of heat to get it to temp, which means you need a LOT of coals, and they burn down very quickly. So imagine what would happen by adding two bricks and another stone. Then you have the resulting heat loss from opening the lid several times during the cook, which also is just one more factor contributing to your coals dying out VERY quickly.

This is why I abandoned using it as intended and built a FrankenWeber kettle. Way less hassle, time, money, and it's always 100% consistent. Plus, I can get stone temps up to 800 degrees, no problem.

So for using this stone for charcoal, the two mods I suggested using a donor lid will be the easiest solutions to get top/bottom evenly cooked. Also, the open vent on the lid also has an added benefit - if you make it big enough, you don't have to keep opening the lid to see how the pizza is cooking and you can also rotate the pie while it's cooking so there's no loss of heat.

I also highly recommend buying an infrared heat thermo for this or any stone one would use on the grill so you know you're in the right ballpark. You want a stone temp of at LEAST 550 degrees to get good crust.

Big slick said:

Wow! Thanks to everyone for contributing!!

Moose,

Do you have any threads that show more of your frankenweber grill?

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Sure thing. I made some mods to what I originally had planned to use which were:

1. Red Sky Grilling Stone
2. Removed foil from inside of lid. This doesn't really help that much and the pizza pan in the lid works really well as a heat reflector
3. Added a steel bowl filled with sand as a heat deflector (very important!)

www.bbq-brethren.com/forum/showthread.php?t=92652

www.bbq-brethren.com/forum/showthread.php?t=94116

www.bbq-brethren.com/forum/showthread.php?t=94358

I spent months of research on other boards studying what worked and what didn't for others, and believe I arrived at a pretty near perfect performing pizza oven with the least fuss. Some guys use firebrick as their cooking surface, but if you do this, you will use a LOT of propane. This is why the red sky grilling stone is perfect for this oven, not to mention the great "D" shape that allows the hot air to move over top of the pie and out the vent opening. This has been a fantastically fun project, and since I've built it, haven't bought another pizza since! I believe I put about $150 total into this, including infrared thermo, and it was money well spent.
PM me if you need more details...happy to help.