Hi all, thanks to everyone who gave their advice on my post yesterday. I decided to try it again today with everyone’s advice. Forgot to mention in my last post, this is a 22” kettle.
Instead of using a full line for the top row of coals, I laid them completely flat and centered to the bottom row.
Where I put wood chunks, I also removed a flat coal. I also chose smaller pieces, this is probably half the size as the ones last time.
I plan to keep the bottom vents wide open and the top vents a quarter open.
There will be a water pan
The coals on the bottom pile are just remnants of last cook, I plan to use that as my starter. What do we think? Any adjustments needed? I really don’t want another $20 to go to waste so I’d like it to be as fail proof as possible (without using the oven halfway through).
by terduhl
5 Comments
[link to pt.1 if you are not up to speed](https://www.reddit.com/r/webergrills/s/LxAG22uAMD)
I would go bottom cracked barely and top open. Then minor adjustments as needed, but find what works for you.
Looks great. Fire it up
I always crack the bottom and adjust using the top vent. I do this in my 22” kettle and WSK once I get it adjusted it is usually minor tweaks to keep it at 225-250 depending on what I am doing.
Smaller pieces of wood, soaked if they’re spiking to hard.
Last time I smoked a butt I did 2×2 (Kingsford) and after it got started ran the bottom vent about 1/3 open and top at 1/4-1/8 open.
One thing I’ve learned is to not over adjust the vents. I try to wait 15 min after seeing a spike and then only make adjustments of no more than 1/2 in response to hi temps. Usually it will level out.