Lang or other offset vs KBQ question

Dawgtired

I’ve started to seriously consider a stick burner to compliment my BGEs. I’d love to hear from y’all regarding recommendations. Also, feeding a fire every thirty minutes isn’t a deal breaker for me, but..... when I smoking a butt, I hook up my BBQ Guru and I’m off to bed. I don’t want to stay up all night to cook so that might sway my opinion. I’m wondering if the cook times are a lot shorter with a KBQ since it’s convection. I’ve looked for recipes and cook times, but I don’t see any information on that. Thoughts?

Thank you all!

Foghorn

@The Cen-Tex Smoker

lousubcap

There are a number of KBQ (aka dishwasher) owners here.  In addition to @The Cen-Tex Smoker there's @Focker and @HeavyG that I know of.  Hopefully they will be along.  It is different than a traditional stick burner as you note.  Just blend it all in with the info from your recent stick burner post and go forth and enjoy.    

SSQUAL612

I'm going to follow this post cause I'm wanting to give this a shot someday.  I've been looking at some Yoder models that seem to be built well and I've heard really good things regarding their customer support. 

Here's the model I have my eyes on...anyone have any experience with Yoder Smokers?  My buddy has a pellet grill and has nothing but good things to say about the company.

https://www.yodersmokers.com/durango20.html

Foghorn

@SSQUAL612, the vertical component is not as helpful as you might think.  I know several people that have a design similar to that one that wish they simply had a larger - particularly wider - horizontal chamber.

I don't know anything about the Yoder product, per se.  Just commenting on the design.

With that said, I am not one of them.  My Klose is designed like that.  I sometimes use the vertical chamber as a warming cabinet.  If I need more space for a hotter cook, I have multiple other grills.  So, I think this is more of an issue for those who only have one grill/smoker.

Dawgtired

That’s an impressive rig but I’m looking more for a smaller backyard unit. My wife and I are empty nesters and I’d be divorced if I showed up with this

SSQUAL612

@Foghorn Thanks for the input...I was thinking of the vertical chamber for hanging sausage or multiple racks of Jerky?  

Foghorn

@SSQUAL612, you can definitely do that.  The vertical chamber will run 50-150 degrees cooler than the horizontal.  So, on my Klose, with a small fire it can be as low as 175 in the horizontal and 125 in the vertical.  At the other extreme (I have a large 20 X 20 X 20 square firebox) I can hold the horizontal around 450 with the vertical at 300 or so.  At that end of the spectrum it is easy to have it get away from you.  One time as I was preparing the fire for adding meat the horizontal chamber got up to 700+ and the vertical was over 400.  

What I would caution you is that if you are hanging sausage of jerky in the vertical then don't have anything important in the horizontal portion - so you can focus on one endpoint.   When I focus on the temp in the vertical, the temp in the horizontal fluctuates pretty widely.  

SSQUAL612

Foghorn said:

@SSQUAL612, you can definitely do that.  The vertical chamber will run 50-150 degrees cooler than the horizontal.  So, on my Klose, with a small fire it can be as low as 175 in the horizontal and 125 in the vertical.  At the other extreme (I have a large 20 X 20 X 20 square firebox) I can hold the horizontal around 450 with the vertical at 300 or so.  At that end of the spectrum it is easy to have it get away from you.  One time as I was preparing the fire for adding meat the horizontal chamber got up to 700+ and the vertical was over 400.  

What I would caution you is that if you are hanging sausage of jerky in the vertical then don't have anything important in the horizontal portion - so you can focus on one endpoint.   When I focus on the temp in the vertical, the temp in the horizontal fluctuates pretty widely.  

Thank you...great info and greatly appreciated.  This will be something that will have to wait till Texas, but would like to give sausage making a shot.

HeavyG

The convection fan (which runs full time) definitely does speed things up. Baby backs usually finish in 4 hours-ish. Most of the pork butts I cook are in the 8-9 pound range (bone removed) and they generally finish in 6-7 hours. Those items I always cook in the 275°F-ish range regardless of the grill used. I've never done those at 225°F on any grill so I can't speak to the relative time differences at that temp.

I don't wrap ribs and normally don't wrap butts but I will occasionally put a butt that is about halfway done in a pan (stainless steel pet food bowl) and cover with foil in order to collect some of the drippings. Once it is in the pan/wrapped I usually just put it in the oven in my kitchen till it is finished. Once it is in foil it's not going to collect any more smoke anyway so I figure why bother with burning wood.

If you haven't already done so I suggest you read the review of the KBQ on AmazingRibs - https://amazingribs.com/smoker/karubecue-c-60-pit-review

The AmazingRibs has a forum called the Pitmaster Club that you may want to check out. There is an annual fee ($25/year?) but they offer a no risk money back guarantee if you decide it's not for you. The reason I mention that is there are a couple epic threads there regarding the KBQ. There are a bit over 30 of us KBQ users over there and those threads are pretty active. Lots of good info in those threads.

Focker

In my findings, the convection does move things along faster, which isn't a bad thing when your feeding a live fire every 30 min or so.  The milder, sweeter, smoke profile is lovely.

The KBQ is almost perfection. 
SS vs rusting painted steel, small footprint, large capacity, lightweight, portable.
It settled my stickburner lust wonderfully, a great tool.  I truly enjoy working for my food and playing with fire.  With that said, it's not for everybody.  You need to break down wood, and you need a power source, and most importantly, a safe place away from your home to run it.