UDS Bad smoke flavor- SOS

[FretBender]

Incomplete combustion is your culprit, not fat hitting the coals. Sounds like to tried to keep the fire los due to ambient temps and it smoldered rather than smoked. You need enough airflow to get a good burn, and if that's via a small fire for low temps on a hot day or a larger fire for higher temps on a cold day, even a UDS can't do it all with the same fire, the same size, for every cook.That's the same reason you don't want to shut off the exhaust to slow down a fire unless it's really out of control, it traps the ineffcient burned smoke inside to taint the food. Closing down the intake let's the fire burn to it's max with the incoming amount of O2, which will not be efficient, but won't trap things inside for very long until the fire stabilizes.

 

[LT72884]

did your other two cooks taste good? How bout once you got your clean fire?

 

[BBQBobofA2]

great info in these posts, thanks - I am two cooks into my new UDS and I have been noticing the heavier smoke / bitter flavor. I use briquets with apple wood chunks. My thinking before reading this post was to reduce the amount of apple wood. I used 2, each 3 in dia., about 1 in in width. I will try less, and also get the fire hotter to start. (I have white smoke from the beginning and it didn't improve). The smoke doesn't stay consistent, sometimes heavy white, sometimes less quantity and less white (I tried to convince myself it was blue).

For exhaust I just use the 2 in hole in the lid. There is a smaller hole as well (about 3/4in), I will keep that open next time. I have 1 to 1.5 of my 3 inlet holes (3/4 in nipple) open to keep temp at around 225-250.

The info on fat hitting the fire makes sense. In a post mortem look at the coals, several seemed half burnt and smothered by drippings, no doubt a big contributor to the white smoke. If I get the fire right, and still am not happy with the results I will go the drip pan route.

 

[Norcoredneck]

Might have been the initial temp threw you a curve. Although the drum hit temp it was not burning clean. Check your thermometer for CAL and let temps stabilize and hold for 1/2 hour before meat on.

 

[keale]

This was my 3rd cook on the uds, and the first real smoke.
My barrel sits in the direct sun and the internal temp was 135f before any fire. Lit 12-15 briquettes in the chimney, and placed in basket. Threw in one chunk of hickory from a bag purchased at w-mart.

In my humble opinion, 12-15 briquettes is not enough, (unless you wait a looonnnggg time for it to come to temps) thus as fretbender said, it smoldered, rather than burn... In my UDS, I use at least 3/4 of a chimney, minion style, I use an old coffee can to get it in the center...wait for it to come to temps...1/2 hr. or so...

 

[BlkJeep]

I think every UDS is different. I only lite 10-12 briquettes. dump right on top of a 15# basket of un-lit briquettes. 30 mins and I'm stable and ready to cook. I agree with BBS, fat dripping on hot coals will mess with taste.

 

[CajunSmoker]

I don't know how your thermometers are set up, but I had a similar problem once with my BSKD.

I was going to make some jerky and my door thermo said it was over 100* in the smoker before I started any fire. I felt the grate with my hand and it was cool to the touch. I put a remote probe in the smoker with no fire and found the actual grate temp to be 70*. After a lot of checking and trying to figure out what was up, I found that the door of the smoker was getting heated by the direct sunlight and the heat was transferring through the base of the thermometer and traveling down the metal to the tip and actually reading the door temp instead of the inside temps. I moved it out of the sunlight and never had a problem again.

If this was happening to you then you probably choked your fire down way to far and caused the smoldering fire.

 

[42BBQ]

I used three chunks of cured apple wood from a local orchard on my last Que. For the first 30 minutes or so after I added the apple wood to the top of my charcoal basket I had the same white smoke issue. I put my 14# of pork shoulder (both the butt and picnic) on right away. I worried about the white smoke initially, however, it abated and turned to thin blue smoke in about 30 to 45 minutes. The Que turned out great, got a lot of compliments at the party. I plan next time on adding the apple wood chunks to the basket before I light her up with a half chimney. That way by the time I get up to temp the white smoke should be just about cleared up. Smoke on Brothers!

 

[42BBQ]

Personally, I enjoy the "fat dripping on hot coals" flavor from smoking on my UDS. I have a smaller smoker with a water pan and I like the flavor of the UDS a lot more. On my first smoke I had no wood chunks on the charcoal had only a very small amount of thin smoke coming out of the exhaust. I did butts both times fat side down. I don't think drippings create much smoke at all. The extra smoke on the next cook was purely from the apple wood chunks and only early on in the smoke. Fat drippings rule!