Burning through lump quickly?

chadpsualum

Punchline first...I managed to execute my 3 Pork Butt cook over the weekend starting at 2am on Saturday.  However, early Saturday morning (around 9am) I noticed my temps starting to drop.  I thought it may have been because air flow was restricted so I took a coat hanger and poked up through the bottom and everything seemed fine.  After about 30 minutes of fighting it, I decided to pull the meat, racks and PS off and saw that I had burned through most of my lump.  Needless to say I added more and got things back up to speed.  The cook finished around 11:45am and I FTC's for about 6 hours (meat still was 178F when I finally got to pulling).

I filled above the fire ring (maybe not densely packed enough?) with lump and wood.  My temps never got above 275F (when I woke up the first time at 6am they were at 250F).  I just feel that 7hrs is pretty quick to go through a charge of lump.  

Does anyone have any thoughts?  I'm still relatively new to this and maybe I overlooked something.  Do I need to fill a lot more above the fire ring (almost to PS bottom?).

I have a Large BGE and a cast iron PS.  Appreciate any info.

theyolksonyou

As long as you can get the PS in, you aren't overfilling. 

I cooked 2 butts Saturday night, 16 hrs cook time plus start up, shut down. Used the same left over lump last night to cook a chicken breast, some pineapple gems and 2 pizzas for a total cook time of 3 hrs at 350-450. Haven't looked to see what's left. 

Grillin_beers

What kind of lump did you use?  7 hours is pretty quick.  It could have been a freak thing with that bag of lump or just a bad brand. 

gdenby

Only a guess, but perhaps the large quantity of cold meat required a rather large mass of lump to be burning just to get the dome to 275. For dome 250, I rarely have either the bottom or top vents open more than a crack. 275, not much bigger.

chadpsualum

I used the BGE brand lump.  Maybe it was a 'bad' batch.  You are right about the meat...it went from the fridge to the grill so it probably took a lot of heat to warm it up.

theyolksonyou

Did you open the vents up when you put the meat on, or let it come to temp on its own?

if you didn't open vents, you still only had oxygen available to achieve previous settings. Should burn any faster without more fuel. The lump doesn't know the dome temp. 

saluki2007

I would suggest checking your thermo and make sure you are not burning hotter than it says.

chadpsualum

Thanks all.  The dome thermo was recently calibrated and the agreed w/ the usual delta from the Maverick Grate Temp.

Jason...I did not open the vents after I put the meat on.  I left them where they were after the empty egg stabilized.  Are you saying that I should reopen the vents to bring in more air after I put meat on?  Thanks for the clarification.

Ozzie_Isaac

I get temps stable, burn off VOCs, and then put meat on.  I do not adjust vents after I add meat.

I did 6 butts on my XL a little bit ago and did not have any more lump burn than usual.

theyolksonyou

No. It should come back to temp on its own. If you had opened the vents, it would accelerate lump usage(more oxygen). 

My point was if you didn't change the vents, lump consumption shouldn't have anything to do with meat temp. Lump can only burn as fast as available fuel conditions allow. 

jimithing

What were you using for wood?  In the past with my WSM I've tried using some long, thin sticks from tree trimmings in my yard.  I found that the fire burns down the length of the sticks and prematurely ignites the lump around it.  Consequently I get a lot more smoke than I want while that stick is burning and the load doesn't last as long.

Really small chunks are probably your best balance between burn time and smoke produced.  Chips are alright I guess.  They definitely allow you to spread the wood out evenly. 

jtcBoynton

@chadpsualum   By your description, it seems like you did not put in enough lump.  A full load is more than enough to cook a pork butt. Fill it up to the top of the fire ring. 

THEBuckeye

Some here say when cooking a low and slow, remove any used lump and fill up to fire ring with fresh lump, including larger coals in the middle/bottom.