Controlling Smoke Intensity with a Stick Burner?

I keep the fire clean, no such thing as to much smoke flavor on my BBQ.

Wood burns clean if your running the pit right. Welcome to true bbq, nothing else compares

Smallest clean burning fire that will hold your temp range is the key. Smoldering fire will put creosote on your meat.

How do u have a clean burning fire?

What makes a pit a stick burner than lump and splits on top?

bjarolim said:

How do u have a clean burning fire?

What makes a pit a stick burner than lump and splits on top?

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Start with small splits and intake and exhaust wide open. Lit lump is what I use to establish a coal bed and then start adding splits. Add bigger or more sticks if your temp is too low. You will learn what size and quantity of splits it takes to maintain your temp zone (+ - 25°).

pjtexas1 said:

Start with small splits and intake and exhaust wide open. Lit lump is what I use to establish a coal bed and then start adding splits. Add bigger or more sticks if your temp is too low. You will learn what size and quantity of splits it takes to maintain your temp zone (+ - 25°).

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Thanks pj...just read bunch of the roadmaps....useful info there.

What kinds of pits are and are not for stick burning is what I'm wondering now...I would assume most kettles and pbc's wouldn't be ideal for it but that's a total guess.

There is a reason for the term "pitmaster". All of the advise above is true. You will have to find out what works for your pit...where hot spots are, how much wood to use and the size of the splits, etc. To me it's all part of the fun. The more cooks you do, the closer you get to becoming a "master of the that pit".

In the mean time, just have fun....

You change the flavor profile with your selection of wood and time exposed to smoke. Changing your cooking temperature helps adjust the timing. Cutting back the air flow will reduce the total amount of wood burned and smoke that passes the meat. BUT Keep the fire clean. That means not using the air vents to choke back a too big fire. You can cut back on airflow, but not so much that it smolders. If you want lower temps, put it less wood.

m-fine said:

You change the flavor profile with your selection of wood and time exposed to smoke. Changing your cooking temperature helps adjust the timing. Cutting back the air flow will reduce the total amount of wood burned and smoke that passes the meat. BUT Keep the fire clean. That means not using the air vents to choke back a too big fire. You can cut back on airflow, but not so much that it smolders. If you want lower temps, put it less wood.

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What he said!

Not much I can add to what the masters have already told ya...

More air flow equals flames...Less airflow equals smoldering...Flames are better...

All good info here...before I did a bunch of youtubing and reading ALOT of the posts on here I thought smoking was all stick burning no matter what. Didn't have a clue about using lump and briquets and then using splits on top of that was an option...I'm just going by what I have observed from my dad and uncles doing it while growing up when I was little.

I have learned alot from you guys and thank everyone for being so responsive and helpful.

Now that I'm trying to rebirth childhood traditions and build my own amoker(as can be seen here http://www.bbq-brethren.com/forum/showthread.php?p=3561387 ) my dad is like, why didn't you get 2 prices of pipe, cap them and cut a hole in and go? Hahaha, I told him things have changed alot in 20-25 years.

Now I'm wondering if my vertical offset will be suitable for all stick burning one day?

azkeith said:

I just bought a stick burner and I'm excited to get going, but it occurs to me that if I'm burning splits I don't know how to vary the smoke intensity for different meats. I guess I could do so by wrapping sooner for chicken or fish and leaving unwrapped longer for pork or beef but I'm sure you guys have this dialed in.

Any hints?

Thanks!

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I have been using oak splits for my cooks on my direct flow horizontal offset. Like others have said, it's good to make sure that those sticks are burning clean and hot. Start off with a small fire and add more sticks to increase temps if necessary. A well burning fire is easier to maintain, and you avoid the danger of over smoking.

However for my tastes, I've been finding out that a clean/hot fire making thin blue smoke can be too clean. A few cooks ago when burning oak, I made a 12 hour brisket (cooked unwrapped) and was a bit disappointed in the minimal bark with mild/weak smoke flavor (not enough for me).

I'm still learning my pit, but I've experimented with two approaches to get the right amount of smoke flavor when stick burning:

1. Consider the oak as being burned to provide "heat" only, and not expecting any or much smoke flavor from it by itself. Instead, add hickory (or preferred smoke wood) on the edge of the fire, for the purpose of producing smoke. If the smoking wood gets too hot and starts burning, move it away from the fire until is starts smoking again. This seems to be working well for me. The advantage of this approach is that you can pick the wood to match your meat or flavor preference, and save on fuel by using cheap hardwoods for heat (instead of buying a cord of hickory for both heat and smoke. Hickory is twice the price of oak around my parts).
Or
2. Once the fire is clean and hot, start choking back the intake until there is the "right" amount of smoke. I tried this for half of a cook once, and got tired of chasing the intake around to get what I thought was good smoke. Also it was harder to make sure the next round of sticks caught well without smoldering too much.

All this being said, my offset has an insulated firebox and the fire I need is pretty small to keep temperatures right. I'm thinking that bigger pits with bigger fires may act different, they might do fine with thin blue smoke. In other words, not every pit may need separate "smoking wood".

I definitely don't need seperate smoking wood, but I also find pure oak does not give me the smoke flavor I want. These days I mostly run the stick burner with pure hickory, hickory and apple, or sometimes a little mesquite. If I do use oak, it is an oak and mesquite mix.

Dammit I got oak and pecan(alot more oak) now I gotta hunt for some other wood now to get some desired smokiness

smoke ninja said:

Wood burns clean if your running the pit right. Welcome to true bbq, nothing else compares

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Agreed!

McSpazatron said:

However for my tastes, I've been finding out that a clean/hot fire making thin blue smoke can be too clean. A few cooks ago when burning oak, I made a 12 hour brisket (cooked unwrapped) and was a bit disappointed in the minimal bark with mild/weak smoke flavor (not enough for me).".

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I have real good luck with a nice bark on my brisket when I use cherry and hickory as my wood for "smoking" and usually use lump/oak splits for heat.the cherry really puts on the color. A healthy rub of black pepper helps too.

Franklin

All Here is a line from Aaron Franklin's book hits the nail right on the head.

"We pitmasters are more thermal engineers that we are cooks. Igniting,coaxing,cajoling,molding,suppressing and enabling fire is the essence of our work"
DanB

bjarolim said:

Dammit I got oak and pecan(alot more oak) now I gotta hunt for some other wood now to get some desired smokiness

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Nothing wrong with using Oak, I use it almost all the time because it's easier to get. I use hickory with it or apple wood chunks also. Don't try to force the wood to burn the way you want it to, instead let the wood do it's thing. Took me awhile to learn to do that.