First smoke on wsm 22.5 a little "fowl play"

[iceman72475]

Well this is my first smoke and I dont know why I was thinking I would have it mastered wright out of the gate, but I did. I started the smoker around 9 and it just never did get up to the temp I wanted. So I closed the top vent 70% or so and that got me up to 260 to 265. That is a little lower then I wanted to cook the turkey and chicken at but it should be fine. I am using the iq110 with the other 2 bottom vents closed and no water in the water pan just foil. If anyone has any other suggestions on how to get the temp up let me know. Or if you think 260 is fine for my "fowl play" get it "fowl". Let me know. I guess I should mention I am using kbb and apple wood chunks and the temp outside is around 35. Thanks[ATTACH]CAM00113.jpg[/ATTACH]

[Smoking Westy]

I always run my WSM with the top vent wide open and control the heat with the bottom vents. Sounds like you just need a few more lit coals and/or more bottom vent open to get your temps up.

For chicken I like to run 300-350 if doing it on my WSM.

I haven't seen much impact with lower temps, I've done a bunch of cooking this winter with temps near single digits, it's the wind that will rob the heat from your Weber.

[iceman72475]

Thank you Smoking Westy I will give that a try and see what happens.

[Smoking Westy]

Iceman - checked my smoker log and it looks like rather than using the minion method for chicken I used 1 1/2 chimney's of unlit coal and then added to that 1 chimney of lit coal. I did add a couple of chunk of smoke wood to the pile of unlit.

Nice thing with birds is they don't take a long time to cook so you can get by with less fuel. Higher temps will give you a crisper skin as well.

[iceman72475]

Ok thanks. I think I am going to start keeping a log too. It is a windy day here today. So that isn't helping things. I just made a make shift wind block.

[Smoking Westy]

I found the log to be real helpful.

[HankB]

Temp wise I think you're fine. I have no experience with controllers so I cannot comment on that. I always keep the lid vent wide open and control using the bottom vents.

Starting with more lt coal will help boost temps.

Wind can be a real wild card. It can result in more air infiltration that could cause higher temps. Or it could result in excess cooling and pull temps down. Or both results could counteract each other and just burn up your charcoal faster. Again, I have no idea how it would interact with the controller.

Edit: For sure keep a log about what you did, how you like the results and what you would do differently next time!

[iceman72475]

Thanks Hank. I know for sure i didn't start with enough lit coals. I used Smokey Westly advise and added more coals and opened up the vents. It really took off then. Now the iq has the temp holding at 275. All is good.@@@

[El Ropo]

If you want to get higher temps the easiest way, don't use water in the pan and buy some decent lump charcoal. It burns a lot hotter than briqs.

If you are tossing the skin, then 275 is fine, but if you enjoy eating nice crispy skin, you'll need to get the cooking temps up around 325-350. Makes for a much shorter cook too.