4th of July cookout and final sanity check

[Sigurd]

I got up this morning, had coals by 4:15am and the meat was on at 5. It's 8:45 and the meat is at 149F.

It's varied between 220 and 325 due to an ash-blocked ball valve. Wide open valve was 220. Hmm. I should open a pipe nipple. Hmm. Now it's 325. I should go back to the ball valve. Hmm. Now it's 220 again. Oh, the valve is caked full of ash from when I dumped it this morning. You big doofus. Now, valve is half-open and it's cruising at around 265F.

The fire has cleaned up quite a bit since this...


I had been using a single 2 1/8" hole with a magnet. The magnets disintegrate if I try to bring it to 450F for carmelizing lemons or something. I had to weld the big hole shut and then knock three smaller holes for 1" pipe nipples and ball valve, which is STILL way overkill. Overall, the valve is nice. I should have just done it this way the first time.

 

[Sigurd]

It's been at the dreaded 160F for about 45 minutes. :mmph: Go baby, go!

 

[savageford]

Crank her up to 300 that will blow you through the stall. I like the drum as the center of your patio, every patio should have one!

 

[Sigurd]

Crank her up to 300 that will blow you through the stall. I like the drum as the center of your patio, every patio should have one!

Just over 2 hours into the stall. The drum is at 310F and I just opened the throttle a bit more. I've only lost 7 degrees. The last cook stalled for about two and a half hours, so I haven't lost hope yet.

I like having the UDS on concrete with no need to raise it up or build legs or something. Also, the sun rises over it and there was that mist this morning. It was beautiful.