Smokin on the Kettle, but didn't have bricks so....

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!

watertowerbbq said:

great idea! however, i have recently discovered that the single fattie only leads to fattie envy. :icon_blush:

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Yea, I cooked 2 other fatties with the chicken in the Brinkmann Vertical. This one was just a test for my drunken experiment, and it tasted the best!

BobBrisket said:

Double what he said.

Simply amazing. Did the water boil over outta the cans?

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Nope no sign of boiling over on the grate below. Just simmered as needed to keep the temp right.