Rednecked Ugly Drum Smoker

[N8man]

Originally Posted by Norcoredneck

Good tools make great "G Jobs", or so I hear.

Norco, thank you so much for the posts of your UDS build. Many a GOOD IDEA from you, Brother....how's that Spicewine, by the way?

[Scrooge Fan]

Fired her up this morning at 7:00 am and as of right now, 8:22 pm, still going strong at 250 degrees[/quote]

Sorry to be a pest, but I have yet another question. How do you build your fire to get a burn that long? Do you fill the fire box and only light a few coals on top and let it burn from the top down? How much charcoal do you light, 1/3 of a chimney? I assume the trick is to make sure you don't get too much charcoal going to early. Hard to tame down a hot fire.

[N8man]

Originally Posted by Scrooge Fan

Fired her up this morning at 7:00 am and as of right now, 8:22 pm, still going strong at 250 degrees

Sorry to be a pest, but I have yet another question. How do you build your fire to get a burn that long? Do you fill the fire box and only light a few coals on top and let it burn from the top down? How much charcoal do you light, 1/3 of a chimney? I assume the trick is to make sure you don't get too much charcoal going to early. Hard to tame down a hot fire.[/quote]

I pour about thirteen inches deep of charcoal into my basket,then place in four or five fist sized chunks of smoking wood, mixing it in so as to lite at different times during the burn. I then take from the center top of the filled basket about eight or nine pieces of charcoal, being careful to leave the voided space intact,and place that into my charcoal chimney to lite. Light it and let it ash over well, then carefully, I use long tongs, place the lit charcoal back into the void left earlier in the charcoal basket. I then, carefully, I wear good heavy silicone gloves, place the charcoal basket into the bottom center of the drum. About fifteen minutes later temps are up to 225-250 degrees and it's party time in the drum!!!

[smooookin]

Originally Posted by N8man

Sorry to be a pest, but I have yet another question. How do you build your fire to get a burn that long? Do you fill the fire box and only light a few coals on top and let it burn from the top down? How much charcoal do you light, 1/3 of a chimney? I assume the trick is to make sure you don't get too much charcoal going to early. Hard to tame down a hot fire.

I pour about thirteen inches deep of charcoal into my basket,then place in four or five fist sized chunks of smoking wood, mixing it in so as to lite at different times during the burn. I then take from the center top of the filled basket about eight or nine pieces of charcoal, being careful to leave the voided space intact,and place that into my charcoal chimney to lite. Light it and let it ash over well, then carefully, I use long tongs, place the lit charcoal back into the void left earlier in the charcoal basket. I then, carefully, I wear good heavy silicone gloves, place the charcoal basket into the bottom center of the drum. About fifteen minutes later temps are up to 225-250 degrees and it's party time in the drum!!![/quote]


yeah what he said... got a drum part goin on at the house as we speak.

[Scrooge Fan]

Originally Posted by N8man

Sorry to be a pest, but I have yet another question. How do you build your fire to get a burn that long? Do you fill the fire box and only light a few coals on top and let it burn from the top down? How much charcoal do you light, 1/3 of a chimney? I assume the trick is to make sure you don't get too much charcoal going to early. Hard to tame down a hot fire.

I pour about thirteen inches deep of charcoal into my basket,then place in four or five fist sized chunks of smoking wood, mixing it in so as to lite at different times during the burn. I then take from the center top of the filled basket about eight or nine pieces of charcoal, being careful to leave the voided space intact,and place that into my charcoal chimney to lite. Light it and let it ash over well, then carefully, I use long tongs, place the lit charcoal back into the void left earlier in the charcoal basket. I then, carefully, I wear good heavy silicone gloves, place the charcoal basket into the bottom center of the drum. About fifteen minutes later temps are up to 225-250 degrees and it's party time in the drum!!![/quote]

Excellent. That's the way it works in my Green Egg. Seems strange that the fire burns down rather than up, but it has to go where the fuel is. Thanks.

[beermonky]

How often do you have to flip your meat?

[N8man]

Originally Posted by beermonky

How often do you have to flip your meat?

I think flipping is a personal choice, not really a requirement
when cooking in a UDS. But I tend to turn my meats every couple of hours
when I spritz with applejuice/bourbon.

[N8man]

I thought something was lacking in my drumpit. But not anymore!!
1.jpg2.jpg
Now, that's much, much better!!!
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I think the value of my drum has just increased!!!!
Big Thanks to Spicewine Ironworks...

[Keri C]

I love it! I've been intrigued with the barrel smokers since I first saw the LDS, but yours looks absolutely great! Excellent job.

Keri C

[Norcoredneck]

Little trick on charcoal, take a 5 gallon bucket and put it on scale, add 12# charcoal. Mark inside bucket. Pour into basket, use weed burner (fire good....) to light center. Let burn close lid. When happy with temp (slight overshoot) open up add smoking wood, grate , meat and sit back and have a few. Adjust line on bucket next time as to not waste charcoal.

[N8man]

Originally Posted by Keri C

I love it! I've been intrigued with the barrel smokers since I first saw the LDS, but yours looks absolutely great! Excellent job.

Keri C

Thank you for the kind words, and thank you for that wonderful Bean Recipe...outta this world good!!!

[N8man]

Originally Posted by Norcoredneck

Little trick on charcoal

Thank you for the tip. I will put that to work on my next smoke session!!!

[Norcoredneck]

Got the fat daddy of drum smokers in the works. Grillman 40 hooked me up. 85 gallons 26" around. Wife is just Thrilled . Started bitching so I stacked a few pair of her shoes on top and asked her to come give me a hand. Went over real well, told me I was number one (finger mod). Told her don't go away mad, just go away. Good thing I am working tonight. Air is a little heavy here. Tomorrow is another day.

[N8man]

Originally Posted by Norcoredneck

Got the fat daddy of drum smokers in the works. Grillman 40 hooked me up. 85 gallons 26" around.

As I told Grillman 40 that must be a hoss of a drum!!! Please post pix
of your build. Can't wait to see it!!! Wimmen!!! Yeah, it's been my experience that even when they also benefit from, and that we derive pleasure in doing, if it's not something that they hold the passion for, it tends to be downridden.
Hey, look...I'm on the road to being a Farker

[Barbarian]

Hope this is not to long, but I have some questions.

Never seen a drum smoker in person and I just went through all 7 pages of this thread and have a question. The template you did was for the bottom of the drum, but what holes did you need in the bottom of the drum.

I like the intake and exhaust pipes, I smoke mainly in the winter rains of Northern California on a covered deck so I need to be able to vent the smoke outside. I use a BBChef smoker at the moment and have a flexible dryer vent pipe attached to the smoke stack and run it outside.

Also how hot does the bottom of these drum smokers get? I have to smoke on a wood deck so I need to make sure I do not catch it on fire. Probably should set the drum on cinder blocks with fireproof mats under that.

Would love to see some pics of the different Charcoal baskets that guys have come up with. I liked Mista's on one of his archived sites. Am curious about doing one that catches most if not all of the drippings which would make the cleanup easier. There has gotta be a way!