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Help! Temp to high.

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willrev
willrev Posts: 80
in EggHead Forum
Done lost my touch. Havent egged in a while. Trying to smoke a 15 lb. brisket. Using weekend warrior lump and cleaned out baskets of all ash and old coal. Started back with new lump. I goofed. Started fire at bottom and kept layering on lump and oak chunks. Cannot get my dome temp down to 250 deg. Wants to stop at 350. Yes, I did this to myself. Have had fire go out more times that I can count doing low and slow unless I sit a fan on the ground and let it blow at bottom vent. I have daisy just cracked open and bottom vent at 1/4 inch. Any ideas? Took meat off and plate setter and packed some more lump on top to try to smother a little.
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  • fairchase
    fairchase Posts: 312
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    Close the bottom down to a credit card width , daisy petals 1/3 open .
    Temps will come down eventually ,but if you have a rip roaring fire going its going to take awhile .
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  • Chris_Wang
    Chris_Wang Posts: 1,254
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    The more you open the lid to put more lump/chunks in, the more oxygen gets to your fire, thus raising the temp. If you are going to light from the bottom and add lump continually, it will be hard to get the temp low.

    What is the advantage to lighting the egg the way you are doing it?

    Ball Ground, GA

    ATL Sports Homer

     

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  • willrev
    willrev Posts: 80
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    Yeah, I understand the air thing, but sometimes you have to do what you have to do. I might also soak some wood in hot water and throw on. But the fire is not rip roaring. Thanks for the help.
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  • Chris_Wang
    Chris_Wang Posts: 1,254
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    What is the advantage to lighting the egg that way?

    Ball Ground, GA

    ATL Sports Homer

     

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  • Mattman3969
    Mattman3969 Posts: 10,457
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    If your fire isn't ripping you might try a big tray of ice. That might help.

    -----------------------------------------

    analyze adapt overcome

    2008 -Large BGE. 2013- Small BGE and 2015 - Mini. Henderson, Ky.
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  • lousubcap
    lousubcap Posts: 32,337
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    Along with other suggestions, make sure your dome thermo is calibrated-nothing like chasing a non-event.  FWIW-
    Louisville; Rolling smoke in the neighbourhood. # 38 for the win.  Life is too short for light/lite beer!  Seems I'm livin in a transitional period.
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  • willrev
    willrev Posts: 80
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    Have one of the tru-tel better grade dome thermometers but it seems a lot more sensitive than the original BGE. Maybe too much. I will check it with the digital. The advantage from my point of view was to make sure the fire did not go out. I have had it go out way too many times in the past doing low and slow. Unless I sat a fan in front of the bge on the ground blowing up into the bottom vent slowly. I hate coming out in the middle of the night and finding the fire out. It stinks. 15 lb brisket will take about 12 hours. So keeping the fire going is a must. I just wanted a good burn.
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  • lousubcap
    lousubcap Posts: 32,337
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    @willrev-there are many ways to get the BGE fired up and running-but for low&slows I have found that with the bottom vent wide open and the dome open as well, I use a small piece of a fire-starter and get around a grapefruit sized amount of lump burning.  Then load platesetter, drip pan, cooking grid and shut the dome, leave DFMT off and vent wide open til temp passes around 200-220*F-then throttle the bottom vent to about 1/2 inch and DFMT to petals wide open and dial it in.  I aim for 240-280 for low&slow (wherever the LBGE wants to settle) and wait for good smoke then start the cook.  FWIW-BTW never lost a fire and have had them run in the 16-22 hour duration. YMMV-
    Louisville; Rolling smoke in the neighbourhood. # 38 for the win.  Life is too short for light/lite beer!  Seems I'm livin in a transitional period.
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  • willrev
    willrev Posts: 80
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    Well, well well. That Tru-Tel is 200 degrees off. It is right if you look at Celsius. I fogot I had a remote BGE digital with dual probes for meat and smoker. The Dome thermo reads 430 deg. The digital reads 240 and meat is currently 150 deg.
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  • willrev
    willrev Posts: 80
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    Just pulled the brisket at 11pm. Meat was at 198 degrees. wrapped in several swimming pool towels and into the cooler for the rest. Smells awesome.
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