Having a crappy smoke tonight

[Yakfishingfool]

Can;t seem to keep the temps up. Got a full load in the byc with about 7 butts and the damn thing si struggling to keep 220's. Very frustrating. all meat is over 140's, what about a finish in th eoven? Scott

 

[Rookie'48]

Scott, I don't know anything about the Klose, but on a couple of other smokers I've had that same thing happen when one shelf is over loaded & is stopping the proper draft (air flow). Sometimes just rearranging the meat does the trick, sometimes ya gotta take a chunk off the smoker.
Dave

 

[Yakfishingfool]

Went through that, good airflow all around I believe. Have tried shifting stuff around. Just weird. Got it to 250 right now, but it spikes and heads down quickly. The cherry would burns damn fast. It was felled last november. Should be perfectly aged. Sweet smell to it...but darn the temps are annoying. Scott

 

[big brother smoke]

Cherry ain't got a lot of BTUs, it will peter out quickly, but damn it works wonders! What other wood are you using, if any?

 

[Yakfishingfool]

was sticking to cherry, that's really good info. Will get some apple before I do another cook. It worked well in the past. Maybe use a bit of each. Scott

 

[Rookie'48]

BBS, thanx for the info. Sometimes I learn something new no matter how hard I try not too.
Dave

 

[CajunSmoker]

this site ranks the BTU's in different woods.

http://www.hearth.com/econtent/index.php/articles/heating_value_wood

Looks like BBS is right again, cherry ranks way down the list.

 

[LMAJ]

Thanks for the link Roger! Interesting stuff.

 

[backyardchef]

I had that same problem switching to all cherry after using primarily a hickory/oak blend in the past. Made me scratch my head, too, Yak.

Throw in some oak or something with some good btus or some more lump to balance you out......

 

[jacob]

What Matt said. A piece of oak makes good btu's. Lots of folk around here use it to get temps up and holding.

 

[ipls3355]

Just remember, a crappy night smoking is better then a good day working:-D :lol:
Very interesting on the btu's of wood

 

[keale]

Well Yak, how'd it come out? any pics? I know it came out good!
Intersting post, good info!

 

[Yakfishingfool]

Phil gave me some different points to consider in pulling the pork off the smoker. So I'm done, no photo's too late, too tired, too frustrated with the heat output. I cooked all butts until temp broke(160-70's), then used the probe technique to look for warm knife through cold butter. Foiled and put in cooler. this am around 10:30 pulled them all. Interesting as some were just flat out tough, some almost too soft. But on average I had a pull that took a bit of strength to pull, but was tender to the bite. Does that make sense. Flavor with the cherry was phenomenal. Will mix cherry and apple next cook. I think overall I valued the comments phil gave me and I think the slightly firmer pork is more desirable to me. vacuum bagged it all and froze it this am. Will reconstitute next tuesday, into pans with some apple juice, reheat, off to picnic with various sauce choices. Scott

 

[tony76248]

Most folks in these parts will blend the cherry with oak.

 

[jbrink01]

In our offset

we either get the heat from lump or oak. The apple and or cherry is almost an afterthought. Sorta like a smoke glaze if you will.

 

[CarbonToe]

Just remember, a crappy night smoking is better then a good day working:-D :lol:

Never a truer word spoken!

 

[Chris Nickelson]

definately need another heat source with cherry.
lump, briquets, oak, etc.

I agree, cherry adds great sweet smoke to the flavor.