brinkmann charcoal smoker

[jacobgiles]

i got a pair of brinkmann gourmet charcoal smokers. im going to do a shoulder and ribs this weekend. i have never used a smoker before :redface: i picked up a bag of kingsford and a bag of hickory wood. does anyone have any tips or suggestions using this style smoker? thanks.

[82muchhomework]

Deathamphetamine just dialed his in right. He would be one to ask as I tossed my ecb (open bottom style, not gourmet) after getting too frustrated with constantly tinkering and inconsistent results.

Here is the thread. He modded his. ECBs need modding but can turn out great que. I'm sure Death will chime in for you.

http://www.bbq-brethren.com/forum/showthread.php?t=70025

[polishdon]

This is the king of Brinkmann mods.

http://home.comcast.net/~day_trippr/smoker_mods.htm

I assume you're just looking to use the Brinkmann without mods? Fill your charcoal basket and use the minion method (http://www.virtualweberbullet.com/fireup2.html). Get it up to temp and put your meat on. Make sure you keep water in the water pan.

The Brinkmann works alright, but you have to keep your eye on the temp as it's hard to hold steady for long cooks.

[beerguy]

Also DO NOT SOAK your wood chunks as the directions say. Leave them dry and dont over do it. 3 or 4 fist sizes pieces will be plenty of flavor without making it bitter( thats what the wet wood will do). If you have a temp probe, stick it in a half cut pototo and feed the wire out thru the charcoal access door. The top therometer wont tell you grate temp, only, low, smoke, high. My old gourmet smoker was running about 230 degrees just left of smoke on the dial. Best to use a probe and shoot for 225-240 over the whole cooking time. Do the shoulder on the lower shelf and ribs on the top shelf because its easier to tend to them. the shoulder will do fine for the first 4 hrs unattended. Read thru the stickys above this thread, and remember, have fun, take notes and butts and shoulders are very forgiving. happy queing!

[jacobgiles]

thanks for the help. i dont plan on modifying the smokers right now. i will be sure to post some results.

[mbshop]

at minimum get the coals off the bottom. try and get a grate and get it up off the bottom several inches.

[Captain Dave]

I checked out those mods, why didn't he just build a UDS? Bigger, better, etc, etc, and etc.

[JiveTurkey]

If you don't do any mods then you're in for a headache of a time to say the least. Since the coals will be sitting on the bottom on the pan there won't be anywhere for ash to fall and it will smother your coals bringing your temps down then eventually out. You will also not have any way to regulate temperature which is not a good thing when it comes to smoking meat. Do some searches here on this site for "ECB mods" and there will be a lot of info for you. I'm not trying to discourage you just trying to keep you from having a hard time this weekend.

With mods these ECBs can rock out some good que but stock they can make life difficult.

[deathamphetamine]

Ribs you should be able to do without mods.... Shoulder, make sure your putting coal in every 3 to 3-1/2 hours and you will get by.

[BBQ Bandit]

Good luck... just a fyi: no matchlight or lighterfluid... yuk!!!!

[ComputerMike]

I started out with two similar smokers. Here's what I ended up doing to them. The extra lid became the bottom and the thermometer in the lid now bottom pops out as an intake. I bent some flat bar aluminum for the legs. Mod was free with the exception on the flat bar as I reused all the hardware in the reconfiguration.

http://www.majhost.com/gallery/MK-Ultra71/BBQ/bulletmod.jpg

After the mods it ran much better but still had(has) quite a few air leaks. It turned out quite a bit of Q before getting robbed for parts for my UDS charcoal basket.

http://www.majhost.com/gallery/MK-Ultra71/BBQ/UDS/drumdone3.jpg

[weazel]

I started out with two similar smokers. Here's what I ended up doing to them. The extra lid became the bottom and the thermometer in the lid now bottom pops out as an intake. I bent some flat bar aluminum for the legs. Mod was free with the exception on the flat bar as I reused all the hardware in the reconfiguration.

http://www.majhost.com/gallery/MK-Ultra71/BBQ/bulletmod.jpg

After the mods it ran much better but still had(has) quite a few air leaks. It turned out quite a bit of Q before getting robbed for parts for my UDS charcoal basket.

http://www.majhost.com/gallery/MK-Ultra71/BBQ/UDS/drumdone3.jpg

heh, the leaning tower of brinkman! thats sweet...