Searwood 600 – Post First Smoke Questions

Hey all,

Just finished my first low and slow smoke on my new Weber Searwood 600! Pork shoulder came out great but have some questions… here’s a timeline of the first smoke and some details of how I smoked it.

• Meat: Pork Shoulder Bone In
• Weight: 7.7 lbs
• Pellets: Bear Mountain Hickory
• Seasoning: Strawberry’s Grand Champion

Below timestamps of when lid was opened

1. Start:

Grill Temp – 225

Meat temp – room temp

Shoulder placed on top rack middle

Drip pan placed on lower rack

Time: 12AM

2. Wrap (butcher paper):

Temp – 225

Meat temp – 162

Shoulder placed back on top rack middle

Drip pan removed

Time: 1:40PM (13.5 hours)

3. Hand thermometer check due to low meat temp on wired thermometer:

Temp – Bumped to 250

Meat temp – 160

Shoulder moved to bottom rack middle

Time: 2:41 PM (14.5 hours)

4. Temp Increase:

Temp – bumped to 270

Meat temp – 192

Shoulder moved right on bottom rack (hottest spot typically)

Time 10:00PM

5. Removed the Shoulder:

Temp – 270

Meat temp – 203

Time 12:00AM (on the money)

Rested for 1 hour 15 minutes and it was very good, however, some of my buddy’s said it should have not taken 24 hours to smoke it. So couple questions:

1. Do you guys think a combination of the drip pan and leaving it on the top rack explains why it took 24 hours to smoke a 7.7 lb pork shoulder?
2. Have you guys had more tender meat having a drip pan below the meat? I did fill mine up with some water too.
3. For other Searwood folks, do you all have some major temp swings? Maybe it’s because it’s my first time doing a low and slow smoke. Take a look of the graph (3rd pic) for some of the fluxes in temp. I understand the smoker needs to cycle but mine seemed to have drastic changes. I also got alerts on my phone telling me to make sure the lid is closed… as mentioned above those timestamps were the only time it was open.

Overall I do love this smoker and all my friends said they really enjoyed it! Next time I just hope it doesn’t take 24 hours 😁

FYI very easy to clean! Did it in 25 minutes the next day.

Keep posting all your gorgeous smokes on here and lessons learned 🫡