Snake Method in Weber 22.5 Not Working For Me. Help?

AKMIMNAK

AKMIMNAK

is one Smokin' Farker
Joined
Aug 2, 2017
Location
Alaska
Name or Nickame
Jonathan
I should have taken a picture. I didn't. So here's the lowdown.....

I made a ring alternating RO briquettes 2 wide with 1 extra row of briqs on top of that. Snake went around about 80% of the fire grate. I lit both ends with a Weber wax cube at each end. Let it burn for about ten minutes til I had a nice flame going on each end. Put the lid on to bring it up to temp.

Came back after rubbing ribs and butt, barely 200 degrees and briqs are not going anymore. Added a handful of lump to each end of the tail, lit that. That helped a little, but still not enough heat to start smoking.

Very frustratedly, lit a half chimney of lump and dumped that in the 20% section that used to be open, connecting the two tails of the snake. Obviously, that got me up over 300 where I wanted to be to start.

What am I doing wrong? Snake seems to work great for others without so much assistance.

I was using a foil water pan, but I wouldn't think that would prevent me from cresting 200 with the snake method.
 
Start only one end. Snakes take practice to learn how many coals to start, and how much to open the lower vents. Upper vents should be wide open. Think of it as lighting a fuse, the unlit coals are just there to maintain the temp established by the original lit coals.
Check out this link.
https://www.perthbbqschool.com/blog/snake-method

Water pans suck up heat and use up fuel. It could definitely cause a low temp problem. I just use an empty drip pan to keep things clean.

I rarely use a snake. My setup for ribs is this.
picture.php


I fill the empty area behind the bricks with unlit charcoal, leaving room to dump some lit coals where I want them. Start with the top vents wide open and the bottom vents cracked, once the temp stabilizes, you can always open the bottom vent more to raise the temp. It's a learning process, each setup is different.
 
I never used the snake, but Dads is on it.
I like the Minion where you dump 12 burning coals
onto a mix of unlit Kingsford Competition Royal Oak lump, and cherry or oak wood chunks.
I have found Kingsford Blue Bag does not work nearly as well on a slow burn, only when grilling.
I separate the coals/ meat by cutting a notch in a cheap sheetpan and sliding it between the coals and the meat, like a deflector.
Pics kidnapped on Photobucket.
 
I’d do 2 rows of two and 1 in between the top row. Half moon over the the leg with out a wheel and aim it toward the wind. Crack bottom vent open only the with of a 16 penny nail. Top vent open all way. Tin foil over the exposed half of bottom grate to force air to coal. Mine held constant 250-270 that way. For 4-5 hours. Only did it once. I did place a cast iron pot with water over the tin foil.
 
Problem was with how you lit it. You have to put a head on the snake, so to speak. Light 12 to 15 coals or so Ina chimney and once they are ready, dump them at the start of the snake. Those 12 to 15 are what will bring your temp up initially. If you want to run both ends towards the middle, you can, just split the lit coals up (and maybe use a few extra to start. That said, it's better if you build a bigger snake (2x2 or even 3x2) and burn from one end.

Sent from my Nexus 6 using Tapatalk
 
Why snake in the 22.5,? it takes up to much space. Minion is the best way to run that thing. However it does all depend on what your cooking. Get a medium size metal coffee can cut both ends off, put it in the middle of grate pour in charcoal around the can then in chimney light 15-20 coals get em good and hot then pour in the coffee can then with pliers pull out the can. if your fire is to high then lite less coals. Assemble and waite an hour for dirty smoke to subside, use that time to prep, that method will never fail you even in dead of winter,
 
If you want 300° F you probably don't want to use the snake. If you do you may not reach the desired temperature.

As others have suggested, a 'jump start' may help. I would also add another row of briquettes. I usually use a quadruple row snake. More often I use two firebrick (corners trimmed to sort of fit the curve of the bowl) to provide a section for charcoal for indirect cooks. It blocks radiant heat transfer from the coals and provides a very good indirect cook, Depending on how hot I want it to go, I load it with briquettes of lump. When using briquettes I light some in the little Weber chimney and dump them on top of the rest of the briquettes.

I also wonder if your briquettes were a little damp, causing them to burn more slowly.

Did you have all vents wide open?
 
Wolverine said:
Why snake in the 22.5,? it takes up to much space. Minion is the best way to run that thing. However it does all depend on what your cooking. Get a medium size metal coffee can cut both ends off, put it in the middle of grate pour in charcoal around the can then in chimney light 15-20 coals get em good and hot then pour in the coffee can then with pliers pull out the can. if your fire is to high then lite less coals. Assemble and waite an hour for dirty smoke to subside, use that time to prep, that method will never fail you even in dead of winter,
Click to expand...

I'm confused. I chose the snake precisely because of space. The 22.5 Kettle is tiny for smoking. I needed space for two racks of ribs, a very small pork butt (5 lb) and a foil pan of beans. I did not want fire directly underneath any of the meat if I could help it. That's why I put the coals in the snake around the outer ring, so I had the entire middle to cook over. With a second grill grate set up, it was just enough space. With the minion, you'd have fire under your meat all over the place, wouldn't you? Perhaps I misunderstand your description.
 
AKMIMNAK said:
I'm confused. I chose the snake precisely because of space. The 22.5 Kettle is tiny for smoking. I needed space for two racks of ribs, a very small pork butt (5 lb) and a foil pan of beans. I did not want fire directly underneath any of the meat if I could help it. That's why I put the coals in the snake around the outer ring, so I had the entire middle to cook over. With a second grill grate set up, it was just enough space. With the minion, you'd have fire under your meat all over the place, wouldn't you? Perhaps I misunderstand your description.
Click to expand...
With the snake, you have the space inside the charcoal on the coal grate.
snakemethod3.jpg

With the Minion method, you have the space outside of the coals and over the bricks, and where the drip pans are.
picture.php

I only use a snake when the meat fits over the drip pan in the first photo. Even then, I only use it when I have the time to fuss with the setting up of the pieces of charcoal. Maybe once a year or so.
 
dadsr4 said:
With the snake, you have the space inside the charcoal on the coal grate.
snakemethod3.jpg

With the Minion method, you have the space outside of the coals and over the bricks, and where the drip pans are.
picture.php

I only use a snake when the meat fits over the drip pan in the first photo. Even then, I only use it when I have the time to fuss with the setting up of the pieces of charcoal. Maybe once a year or so.
Click to expand...

I understand the snake method, it's the minion method I'm having trouble understanding the benefit of. Because it seems to me it would be bad to have the middle of your grill unusable. You're working with a round grill, so if the middle is unusable, you'd have to somehow curve your ribs around the outside of the grill to keep them away from the hot coals in the middle. But as the coals light more charcoal and spread outward, they are chasing your meat the whole day. With the snake, you can use the entire center rectangle of the grill as in your picture and lay everything out nice and flat. And the coals are never chasing your meat. They are always outside your meat line.

What am I missing?
 
In this picture,
picture.php

everything to the left of the right-hand side of the bricks is an indirect cooking area.

Here is a recent cook with two slabs of untrimmed spareribs using the above setup. I control the temp using the bottom vents, the upper vents are wide open.
picture.php
 
AKMIMNAK said:
I understand the snake method, it's the minion method I'm having trouble understanding the benefit of. Because it seems to me it would be bad to have the middle of your grill unusable. You're working with a round grill, so if the middle is unusable, you'd have to somehow curve your ribs around the outside of the grill to keep them away from the hot coals in the middle. But as the coals light more charcoal and spread outward, they are chasing your meat the whole day. With the snake, you can use the entire center rectangle of the grill as in your picture and lay everything out nice and flat. And the coals are never chasing your meat. They are always outside your meat line.

What am I missing?
Click to expand...
He's banking the coals between the right side of the grill and the brick. Brick acts as a heat shield.



Sent from my Nexus 6 using Tapatalk
 
Demosthenes9 said:
He's banking the coals between the right side of the grill and the brick. Brick acts as a heat shield.



Sent from my Nexus 6 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Kettles are easy.
picture.php

A couple of bricks to customize the setup to allow one to pile coals higher to prolong the cook.
 
I fill basket...light one side with a propane torch thru one of the lower vents...works like a charm...not sure the wsm is designed or need to use the snake method.
 
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