smokeandbeer
Take a breath!
I haven't been able to be online for awhile, and got a message from a member who asked if I could repost the photos from my 2008 thread on making a smoker baffle out of beer cans for my Weber Kettle. I can't update the original thread, so here is a repost of the original located HERE and the photos that were with it.
I have read about many on this forum who have smoked on their Weber Kettle, so being the recent new owner of one, I wanted to give it a try. Only problem was I didn't have any bricks the right size, or coal rails or baskets. So being a crummy snow and ice day, I had to improvise. I knew from the advice of others on this forum I would probably need a water source as well, so I found something that would block the heat, provide a water source to keep temps even, and didn't make me have to go out to acquire supplies at the same time. Pron follows:
Empty Kettle...
I had a cooking grate from a $5 disposable charcoal grill, that I bent to form a charcoal rail...
Fished these little friends out of the recycling bag under the workbench...
Got out some wire and strapped 'em to the front of the homemade charcoal rail....
Finished baffle....
Placed in the kettle...
Filled each can with water...
Prepped coals for a Minion Method type of burn....
Hickory chips in the smoker box...
Brown sugar and cheddar Fattie ready to smoke....
Adding heat...
Smoker box on top...
Grate on top...
Preheating...
Fattie goes on...
Perfect temp for 3 hours...
Perfect Fattie ready for the family...
So because I was stuck in the house all day, and had emptied a few of these little buddies first, necessity became the mother of invention. The beauty of it was that it was a perfect fit from side to side, and top to bottom, and the sucker held a perfect temp the whole time (probably a testament to the quality of the Weber Kettle design more than my homebrew baffle). Not only that, it hardly burned any charcoal and probably could have gone another 3-4 hours on the load I had in there. Lastly, it didn't burn much water off either, so I think I could have gone 6 hours without touching it.
As stupid and generic as this "device" was, it gave me a reason to be in the garage (emptying more cans for the next revision of this design), and it worked well enough that I actually rinsed it off and kept it for future use.
Maybe I should get a patent on this before some starts mass producing these!
I have read about many on this forum who have smoked on their Weber Kettle, so being the recent new owner of one, I wanted to give it a try. Only problem was I didn't have any bricks the right size, or coal rails or baskets. So being a crummy snow and ice day, I had to improvise. I knew from the advice of others on this forum I would probably need a water source as well, so I found something that would block the heat, provide a water source to keep temps even, and didn't make me have to go out to acquire supplies at the same time. Pron follows:
Empty Kettle...
I had a cooking grate from a $5 disposable charcoal grill, that I bent to form a charcoal rail...
Fished these little friends out of the recycling bag under the workbench...
Got out some wire and strapped 'em to the front of the homemade charcoal rail....
Finished baffle....
Placed in the kettle...
Filled each can with water...
Prepped coals for a Minion Method type of burn....
Hickory chips in the smoker box...
Brown sugar and cheddar Fattie ready to smoke....
Adding heat...
Smoker box on top...
Grate on top...
Preheating...
Fattie goes on...
Perfect temp for 3 hours...
Perfect Fattie ready for the family...
So because I was stuck in the house all day, and had emptied a few of these little buddies first, necessity became the mother of invention. The beauty of it was that it was a perfect fit from side to side, and top to bottom, and the sucker held a perfect temp the whole time (probably a testament to the quality of the Weber Kettle design more than my homebrew baffle). Not only that, it hardly burned any charcoal and probably could have gone another 3-4 hours on the load I had in there. Lastly, it didn't burn much water off either, so I think I could have gone 6 hours without touching it.
As stupid and generic as this "device" was, it gave me a reason to be in the garage (emptying more cans for the next revision of this design), and it worked well enough that I actually rinsed it off and kept it for future use.
Maybe I should get a patent on this before some starts mass producing these!
