[OklaDustDevil]

Apart from a Mak pellet smoker I bought last Thanksgiving, most of my smoking the past 25 years has been on a horizontal offset or a vertical stickburner, both of which have single-layer grill racks for the meat. I know many folks here use smokers with vertical cabinets having multiple grill racks one above the other.

My question is, unless you're cooking multiple pieces of the same cut -- like multiple briskets or butts -- all marinated, injected, and rubbed the same way, with the same spice mixtures, how do you deal with fat, grease, spices, marinade, etc., dripping from a cut higher in the smoker onto a cut lower in the smoker? Do the spices from the higher cuts affect the flavour of the lower? Does it ever "wash off" rubs and spices from the lower cuts? Do you just not worry about it, or do you position things higher or lower based on flavour profile of your spices? (I would think pit temp gradient more likely would determine higher or lower placement in the pit.)

I often use very differently flavored marinades, injections, and rubs on different cuts of meat, but because mine have always been positioned horizontally, one can't drip on another. I'm thinking about buying a vertical pit and want to figure out how to address this issue before I purchase. Thanks for any perspectives you can give me!!