Pit barrel cooker temp issue.

[Brahern02]

Not sure if I’m overthinking or not, but I’m having a weird issue I haven’t had before. Got a 10 pound pork butt on the PBC this morning. Totally normal cook. I’m also doing ribs. So basically, I figured I would need charcoal since the pork u butt would finish a good bit before the ribs and the entire cook was going to be 9 or 10 hours.

When I wrapped the butt, I added a PBC chimney full of unlit charcoal to the PBC. It was running around 300 before I added, and down to about 260 after. No problem. At 1pm, I put 3 racks of baby backs on with the butt. I added a couple extra wood chunks and put the lid on. Temp crashed to 210. I added a bit more charcoal since it looked like it was burning a little unevenly. I have to keep the lid cracked to keep the temp at 230 to 250. It went as high as 265 and then came back down. It’s settled out to about 250. But if put the lid fully on, it comes back down.

I have never had a problem like this, but I’ve also never added charcoal before. Not sure what happened, but would like to make it not happen again. Any ideas?
I’ve had my PBC for about a year and have had no issues. The thing is awesome!

I’m almost tempted to do a pork butt on my Weber with slow n sear and so ribs on the PBC next time if I ever do ribs and something that takes a long time like a shoulder or a brisket.

 

[Bacchus2b]

Check your charcoal basket when everything cools down. With time and lots of burns the bottom of my PBC basket was sagging and I didn't really notice how bad it was until I couldn't hold temperature much like you describe. The sagging meant reduced air flow between basket and ash pan which screwed with my temps. I was able to bend it back without breaking and it worked normally again.

I would also add lit charcoal next time vs. unlit the next time you need to reload, unless you like a strong charcoal flavor!

 

[Greygoose]

I have had ash build up under the basket that choked down my fire later in the cook.

 

[Ron_L]

a 10 pound butt and three racks of ribs? You may be limiting the airflow with that much meat.

 

[AClarke44]

Sometimes it’s hard to tell without being there get exactly happened but I’d venture to say it was either ash buildup or the unlit coals you dumped in. I agree that if adding coals they should probably be lit, however, I did brisket and butts in my PBC and never had to add coal. Don’t be afraid to pack that basket and even mound it some if need be. Also, don’t be afraid to crack that lid as much as necessary to get temps up (especially when loading up the PBC like you had). I’ve had mine lid open a couple inches before. Just keep an eye on the temp because it can run away from you quick!

Hopefully your next cook with run a little smoother!

 

[Brahern02]

For the couple hours I had both the shoulder and the ribs on, I had to keep the lid cracked an inch or so just to keep temps above 200. I think ash is part of it, possibly the unlit coals. But I also think I overloaded it. I added the coals an hour before the ribs went on. The shoulder was wrapped so I wasn’t worried about the added smoke. When the ribs went on, that’s when things started not going good. When I pulled the shoulder, temps went up to 300 and eventually came down to around 270. So I’m guessing airflow was an issue. In the future, I’ll either finish the shoulder in the oven, or do it on another cooker if I have a lot of meat to cook. It all worked out and we ate well. This is all a learning experience and I’ll chalk it up to operator error.