HELP! Pizza on a Weber 22.5

[CarolinaQue]

Thanks guys! That is in fact a home made offshoot of the Weber one. I couldn't bring myself to pay the price they wanted for one considering I'm a fabricator by trade and read that the open top caused some uneven cooking of the pizza, so I had to improve it to my specs!!!

The top is actually a piece of 1/4" aluminum plate. Theory being that aluminum is a great reflector of heat and also a quick retainer of heat. I can get the whole thing heated to around 800* reflecting off of the top and at the deck in about 30 minutes and hold that heat for close to an hour with the fuel set up the right way.

I actally cracked that stone just after these pics the very next time I used it. It happened because I tried putting more charcoal just under the stone, and it cracked before I even got the first pizza on it.

Now, I use a Red Sky stone that's rated to 2500* so hopefully it won't happend again. Now, I have a pile of unlit lump banked to the back side and put about 1/2 chimney of lit right under where the stone sits and the rest on top of the unlit for the preheat phase. Once the stone is preheated, it will draw heat from the charcoal off of the side and maintain it's deck temp. That, coupled with the heat that's rolling over the top and off of the aluminum plate makes a really good pizza.

As far as fire brick above, I haven't done that yet. But you can bake bread on the upper deck. It get's to around 375* and holds pretty steady.

Oh, and I put a couple of wood chunks over the lit charcoal for the wood smoke aspect.

[dwfisk]

Thanks everyone - success! I used the fire bricks and direct heat w/lump. After it came up to temp, the cook chamber held at about 450*, stone at 600*. Worked great. Now, a little more practice on pizza making and experimenting w/ingredients.
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[Thermal Mass]

Bravo!
A couple quick tips:
As your pizzas get bigger, keep the sauce and toppings in the center lighter than outside and middle of the pie. They will cook more evenly and you won't get that near raw center dough.
Keep the fire bricks dry when not in use-they will heat up much more quickly.
(I hope those are fire bricks, look kind of liker pavers)
Heat your stone (ceramic coated) slowly, these are designed for conventional ovens that heat more slowly than putting on a hot grill.
Since it is ceramic coated, try other tings like fajitas on them!!
Congrats and ENJOY!

[dwfisk]

Originally Posted by Thermal Mass

Bravo!
A couple quick tips:
As your pizzas get bigger, keep the sauce and toppings in the center lighter than outside and middle of the pie. They will cook more evenly and you won't get that near raw center dough.
Keep the fire bricks dry when not in use-they will heat up much more quickly.
(I hope those are fire bricks, look kind of liker pavers)
Heat your stone (ceramic coated) slowly, these are designed for conventional ovens that heat more slowly than putting on a hot grill.
Since it is ceramic coated, try other tings like fajitas on them!!
Congrats and ENJOY!

Thanks for the tips & help. Yes, they are firebricks. I think they are called splits - 1/2 the thickness of a regular brick. I bought a bunch when I built my stick burner to line the firebox, had 1/2 a box leftover. Got them from Northern Tool - they are made to line the inside of cast iron wood stoves.

[Thermal Mass]

Great, bring on the Pr0n!!