First on the old country brazos and keeping a good bed of coals

[Hinds15]

Did my first cook on the brazos yesterday which was a brisket. Lit a full chimney of lump for initial start up and put a split on top of that. Everything was going great for about the 1st 3 or 4 hours thin blue smoke that entire time but then I looked out the window and saw thick white smoke. Opened the firebox door and the wood split I put on was smoldering and not flaming up like the others that were on. So I figure leaving the door open for a few it would reignite but that didn't work so I lit another chimney of lump about 3/4 full and that got me back rolling good smoke. 2 to 3 hours later same issue.

I'm thinking it's 1 or 2 things. The charcoal grate that the brazos comes with doesn't seem to let ash fall freely plus I was using a oklahoma joe fire basket. I'm thinking the coals may have been sitting in to much ash and was snuffing them out. Any tips or tricks I'm all ears for on how you guys keep a good bed of coals? Also I used the open door technique to control the temps (still have to play with this because it can dictate where your hotpot is or how even the chamber is it seems).

[Mooner]

Your split could be too big and it could also be a little green. If there’s room, move your charcoal basket all the way to one wall and put the split next to it for an hour to dry out then try putting it on. Then you can keep rotating like that. Always having a pre warmed and dry split


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[mike243]

Looks like you let the coal bed get to low before you added the wood, use smaller splits and add more often, also put the bark up and the split wood down.

[Sopchoppy]

I use a LSG basket in my OC Wrangler which is similar to yours. I replaced the stock grate
with 6 pieces of rebar so the basket would have better air flow and drop ashes. Works great for me.

[Hinds15]

I use a LSG basket in my OC Wrangler which is similar to yours. I replaced the stock grate
with 6 pieces of rebar so the basket would have better air flow and drop ashes. Works great for me.

I wanted to order 1 Friday but they're currently sold out.

[Lynn Dollar]

You could just take out the factory grate and set the OK Joe basket in the bottom of the FB.


I've never used the FB grate that came with my Brazos.



I first made a new grate from 1/2 " expanded metal. I bought a charcoal grate roughly the same size, cut it to fit, then wired the expanded metal on it. This allowed better air flow under the grate and still retained the larger coals.



Then I tried no grate, just building the fire in the bottom of the FB. The round FB helps keep the coal bed centered, same concept as LSG basket. I liked this method, but had some trouble getting new splits to ignite.



I then added firebricks to the bottom of the FB.


I then added the LSG basket on top of the firebrick, leaving a space in the middle for air flow to get under the basket. I like this a lot and can't see changing it, other than removing the firebrick completely.


https://i.imgur.com/LIIJLkt.jpg?1

[Jarrizle]

I've had the same issues you have with my offset (Texas Smokemaster). The easiest way I've been able to fix it I use two half size splits instead of the 1 thicker split. The pieces I'm putting on are very small, but they work so much better. I did have a weird mental hump I had to get over with using small splits for the entire cook. If I put a split on that's the size of yours later in the cook it will just smolder.

[SmoothBoarBBQ]

You'll likely want to split that piece of wood long ways into 2 pieces (or more). MOST of the wood that I bought was advertised as "cured for at least a year" but that's a load of garbage. Almost all of it had only been cured for about 6 weeks or less and still had a super high moisture content (so it was still green). So I got pretty used to chopping down my splits to very thin pieces so they would ignite and burn properly. You've got a huge hunk of wood in a relatively small firebox...split that thing down and do some cross -stacking (kind of like lincoln logs) and you'll have better results.

This will require you to add wood more often, but you'll have a much better smoke flavor and that's what really matters.

[Lynn Dollar]

This will require you to add wood more often, but you'll have a much better smoke flavor and that's what really matters.


Or could just cook at lower temps and cut the air flow down a notch.


I smoked ribs Saturday on my Brazos. I was shooting for 225 to 250. I normally try to cook around 275 and I keep the FB door closed with the damper at wide open.



Saturday, I ran the damper on the FB door at 50% open , kept my temps right around 250, kept my smoke clean, used less splits than I had been doing, and did not have to add as often.

[DBRW]

So how small or big should the logs be? I bought a couple of bags and they vary a lot.

[mcyork28]

As others have said, smaller splits will burn better and help maintain the coal bed.

I use a kindling cracker from Northern Tool. They have them on Amazon as well.

https://www.northerntool.com/shop/tools/NTESearch?storeId=6970&ipp=48&Ntt=kindling+cracker

[Lynn Dollar]

Saturday, I smoked with apple wood which is on the right in this pic. That's hickory on the left. I like splits 7" to 10" long , but the diameter can vary.


https://i.imgur.com/N3ZCbPz.jpg?3

[1MoreFord]

Don't put a big stick flat on top of your coal bed. It smothers the coal bed and doesn't light well.

Feed the new stick from the side of the coal bed. Feed the thin split part of the wood first.

[marvda1]

I second the kindling cracker, cut those splits you have in half lengthwise.
you let the coal bed get too low, add wood when the temp starts to drop 5 to 10 degrees.

[SmoothBoarBBQ]

Or could just cook at lower temps and cut the air flow down a notch.


I smoked ribs Saturday on my Brazos. I was shooting for 225 to 250. I normally try to cook around 275 and I keep the FB door closed with the damper at wide open.



Saturday, I ran the damper on the FB door at 50% open , kept my temps right around 250, kept my smoke clean, used less splits than I had been doing, and did not have to add as often.

When the wood is already not catching on fire the absolute last thing you want to do is choke down the airflow. It sounds like the wood you have is well cured so it allows you to do what you're describing. If you look at OP's picture there's a pretty reasonable coal bed and the wood (which is rather large for such a small firebox) isn't catching on fire. Odds are that wood is still very green, so to still use that wood you'd need to split the wood down. In doing this you'll get the wood to ignite, but there's more surface area, so it will tend to burn faster, hence the need for adding wood more often.

With well cured wood you can keep a nice low/slow fire all night long with very little issues, but with not so well cured wood you're in for a lot more work.

[SmittyJonz]

I don't like the firegrate it comes with. Many use the grilling grate from top of firebox for fire grate and put firegrate in cook chamber as convection plate. sometimes a split doesn't want to catch but you flip it over and it will. Leave firebox lid open till it catches.

if wood is too dry it'll burn to ash and not give good coals. I'll fire up 1/2- 3/4 chimney of charcoal and add as needed during a cook.

[Lynn Dollar]

Here's the fire grate I made, that I no longer use. But it worked better than factory grate



https://i.imgur.com/ygEbYFc.jpg?2

[ASAT]

I was showing my hot rodder neighbor my refurbished Brazos Saturday and I was talking about how Lynn uses the Lone Star fire basket but they are out of stock, and Sunday he brought me over this to try out - I was surprised and blessed to say the least....

[Lynn Dollar]

Hey now, that'll work !!