My first BBQ failure

[John Bowen]

I have a neighbor who pulls his Lang offset out of his garage every three weeks and fires it up. He does this whether he is cooking something or not. I asked him why and he says that moisture builds up in the smoker and he wants to keep it burned out. He said that he started doing this after his smoker sat up for about three months and he went through the same thing you describe above. He said that it not only affected his smoke but that the entire smoker smelled like it.

[IbrahimSS]

Originally Posted by hamiltont

Just by chance is it possible your charcoal picked up some moisture?

could have... it lives in the garage by order of the matriarch of the house but it's not exposed to direct moisture outside of what's in the air

[IbrahimSS]

Originally Posted by John Bowen

I have a neighbor who pulls his Lang offset out of his garage every three weeks and fires it up. He does this whether he is cooking something or not. I asked him why and he says that moisture builds up in the smoker and he wants to keep it burned out. He said that he started doing this after his smoker sat up for about three months and he went through the same thing you describe above. He said that it not only affected his smoke but that the entire smoker smelled like it.

Now that is interesing because that sounds exactly like what happened to me. I hadn't broken the smoker out in some time and now it carries a slight funk from that cook.

[JS-TX]

You never said what type of green wood you used. I've hard green fruitwood is ok, but not mesquite or oak. By chance did you have a lot of gunk from your last cook in the fuel pile?

[Gig'em99]

Originally Posted by JS-TX

You never said what type of green wood you used. I've hard green fruitwood is ok, but not mesquite or oak. By chance did you have a lot of gunk from your last cook in the fuel pile?

Bingo. This is exactly where I was going. Although, I'm less concerned about the type of wood. Yes, Myron uses fruit wood, and you can argue that fresh fruit woods including pecan can be utilized with minimal risk. I've done it a lot, but I also have a big off set stick burner (so hotter fires, even with low chamber temps). What I notice regularly is that failure to clean a pit of certain drippings can cause tons of white smoke. Butter is big culprit, for example. Meat drippings, haven't really caused a problem for me though.

I generally let my pit burn for a while prior to putting food on as well. Both to help sanitize (I don't cook everything in pans) and to burn off any remaining old drippings. When the smoke is thin and blue, it's time to start cooking.

[Beef]

Originally Posted by hamiltont

Just by chance is it possible your charcoal picked up some moisture?

+1 in my experience