Pr0n from my rain-day smoke... be gentle.

[Piginapoke]

So this was my first butt. 7 pounder, butt rub, Brinkman, kingsford coals, cherrywood, 9 hours.

I had some trouble maintaining a consistent temperature on the Brinkman. Tried the minion method and after about a half hour, all the coals lit and the temp spiked. I was able to get it under control and was happy with the results.

It wasn't perfect but I had fun, learned a lot, and the eatin' was good!

[Neil]

You learned a lot, the eating was good, what more can you ask for? Nice job.

[aquablue22]

Nice job, looks good!

[IamMadMan]

Very nice pulled pork, great job.

[tjus77]

looks good... loved the umbrella for the smoker too

[Bluesman]

I don't know of another hobby were you get to eat the Fark Up. All looks good to me, nice sammie :clap2:

[Homebrewed Q]

I wouldn't turn that sammich away! Good lookin' grub!

[SteveLig]

Nice job!

How did you get the temp under control? My Brinkmann usually goes the other way and only half of the charcoal lights.

[porkingINpublic]

As long as u eat good that's all that matters

[Piginapoke]

I drilled holes in the charcoal pan to get some more airflow b/c I couldn't get the temp up over 225*. This was my first smoke since that mod (I had previously inverted the legs and use a brick pedestal to sit the charcoal pan on for easy access) and I wasn't quite sure what to expect.

I tried the minion method for the coals, and I think I just put too many hot coals in the middle and it spread too fast. I ended up just lifting the smoker up to access the pan and removed some of the hot coals and put them off to the side. I made haste and put the smoker back on top of the coal pan and continued.

I think Ill be fine in the future by arranging my coals better and adding a smaller amount of lit ones. As you know with a Brink, there is not a whole lot you can do to adjust temps mid cook without vents so its a lot of trial and error, mostly error.

[pigdog]

Better success than my first smoke... Good job

[Swamp Donkeyz BBQ]

Looks great!

[Shadowdog500]

That looks like it came out great!:clap2:

I own several of that style of brinkmanship smokers that I used for years before I bit the bullet on a WSM. I still use them for big cooks when i need every smoker i can get my hands on.

IMHO regulating the temperatures on that type of smoker can be done but it takes a lot of work. I had to monkey with the smoker every half hour to keep the temps somewhere near right. Since there is absolutely no air regulation, I found the best way to control it was to manually regulate the fuel, by giving it as much charcoal as it needs to hit temp. I even drilled the pan on one in a similar attemp as yours, but saw no gain since the holes clog with ash quickly.

I would light a pan worth of coals in another kettle, then would dump them in to the bottom bowl. Then I would feed the fire every half hour with a handful or two of unlit coals and a piece of smokewood when needed. if the temp was just a little low and there was plenty of fuel, I would just stir the coals with a piece of rebar. One way to bring the temp up was to turn the door into the wind and open it for a short wile, this would feed more air to the fire and would help bring up the temp. I never had a problem with run away temps with this method, and spent most of my time trying to Just keep the temps from going too low.

I know people on WSM's and other smokers try to hit an exact target temp. On my brinkmans, I target a range, if I keep it anywhere in the "Smoking range" I'm happy. Anywhere in that range the food will turnout great for a back yard guy like you and I.

Enjoy your brinkman smoker! I see a lot of great smoked food coming off that smoker in the future!

Chris

[Piginapoke]

Thanks Chris! I think thats the key, finding that "range", I look forward to the day when I can get a WSM, but we just bought a house and I had to get both a gasser and a smoker, so I went cheap on both. Char-broil Infrared gasser and the Brinkman El Cheapo. Im happy with both, but I know Ill be replacing eacg in 2-3 years. Hopefully I can go Weber across the board by then! But for now, this'll do.

[swinn]

Looks good to me. Sometimes tinkering with the fire is half the fun when you have time.

Sent from my Nexus S using Tapatalk 2

[Bro-be-que]

i do love me some pig! looks a WHOLE lot better than my first attempt at a large cut.

[NorCalQue]

Congrats Pig! I'd take that sandwich in a heartbeat.