Fire went out

I highly doubt the size of the brisket had anything to do with it.  I have had my three BGE's stuffed so full the lids would hardly close.  If it burned for 5 hrs, the meat was not the issue.

The outside air temp is only an issue with charcoal consumption.  The colder it is, the more charcoal it's going to use to maintain internal temp.  Heat is lost by radiating into the colder air through the shell, and the into the bypass around the firebox (minimal loss for low & slow.)

What most likely happened is the charcoal settled and snuffed out the fire.  After 12-18 hrs some of the charcoal had run its course and turned to ash.  That ash is sitting on top of your fire grate.  The rest of the lump settled, and since the firebox is shaped like a funnel, it pushed it all together.  No airflow = no fire.

Take coat hangar, pull it down, then put a 90 degree angle in the hook.  Stick that up into the hole of the fire grate and watch how much ash falls out once you agitate it.

As the temp dropped outside, it may have lowered the internal temp enough to kill the fire, but I bet it's a lack of O2.  A temp controller may have helped force feed air if a little passage remained, but they cannot do their job if the grate is clogged.

Scottborasjr said:

I have a High-q grate so I doubt that it plugged up but I haven't checked it. Really think between the snow plugging the daisy wheel and lack of air after that, it just went out.  We are fired back up and cooking away.  Here's a peek.

Ok, it was definitely the daisy wheel then.  It doesn't take much blockage to disrupt the flow on a low & slow cook.  A temp controller may have blown the snow out of the holes and kept the temp up to melt it, but it's tough to keep the temp up when water it hitting the shell.

But, there is no way that piece of meat was "too big" for the medium.  You have plenty of space around it.  Besides, it was on there for 5 hrs without a problem.  Unless it released a ton of moisture all the sudden, it doesn't make a difference that far into the cook.

To combat that problem with snow and rain on the daisy wheel, you can use a coffee can with the side cut out of it.  Keep the opening on the downwind side.  Or I saw a new product that looked like a wood stove or furnace chimney cap with a regulator built into it.  Sharp product, I'll probably get one or make my own.

Get yourself a temp controller.  I have the fittings on all three of my Eggs, then just use it on whichever one I'm doing low & slow on.  Sometimes I have upwards of $50 of meat stuffed in the XL, it was nothing to drop $110 on a controller to be able to "set it, and forget it!"

BigGreenBBQ said:

I agree with getting a PID. I cook over night and never worry about the egg getting too hot or too cold. When I do it the daisy wheel is shut too so in your case the snow would not have been an issue. As you know there are tons of PIDs to choose from. That's another topic in itself. I got mine from Auber Instruments. Pretty happy with it so far.

BigGreenBBQ said:

I agree with getting a PID. I cook over night and never worry about the egg getting too hot or too cold. When I do it the daisy wheel is shut too so in your case the snow would not have been an issue. As you know there are tons of PIDs to choose from. That's another topic in itself. I got mine from Auber Instruments. Pretty happy with it so far.

 

 

I agree with BigGreen about the snow issue, I have never seen snow build up on an egg that was cooking. Your fire was out before the snow built up on the DMFT. Now maybe it was coming down inches an hour for hours on end but I still think if your fire was going the snow would have melted.

I should have quoted stlcharcoal. I-)