8 briskets and 30 racks boss's house - for worldwide colleagues. What could possibly go wrong?

@SciAggie, in addition to sampling the beers and wines mentioned above, the cooking team shared shots of Eagle Rare to celebrate the last item off the grills and the completion of a task well done.  I'm not much of a whiskey drinker, but it was very good stuff.  

@caliking, I'll work on being more beery and less sentimental.  It shouldn't be hard.

A few notes and thanks.

Thanks @blasting, @XC242, @tml1230, @SciAggie, @caliking, @20stone, @The Cen-Tex Smoker, @blind99, @YukonRon, @JohnInCarolina, @GrillSgt, @Hotch, @pgprescott, @GoooDawgs, @THEBuckeye, @SaltySam, @lousubcap, @Killit_and_Grillit, @Ozzie_Isaac, @bgebrent, @johnnyp, @JohnnyTarheel, @DMW, @Legume, @thetrim, @SandyHookEgger, @westernbbq, @texaswig, @StillH2OEgger, and @Ozzie_Isaac for your kind comments.

@pgprescott, I do suspect that many of them are now spoiled when it comes to BBQ.  I bet you do the same when you do demos at your shop.

@YukonRon, thank you for raising a glass.  I suspect it was a glass of a very good vintage.  

@THEBuckeye, it seems that SGH is AWOL these days.  But it's all good.  This cook was its own reward.

@GoooDawgs and @thetrim, without going into personal detail, this was really a case of showing my boss how much I appreciate his support because while, on one level he's my boss, on other (national) levels, because of his support, he's my peer and/or I outrank him.  But it wouldn't have happened without his support.  I've worked for him my entire professional career (22 years so far) and I can't imagine a better situation/boss/peer/mentor/friend. (sorry for getting sentimental @caliking). 

@Killit_and_Grillit, this definitely made me tired.  I was worthless yesterday.

Thanks again to all for the kind comments.

@lousubcap, with regard to the offset and the airflow issues, I think I've figured out a few things over the past week about offsets.  I spent one evening last week talking to a pitmaster at a local restaurant (B-Daddy's for anyone visiting San Antonio) while touring their pits.  I also spent some time yesterday at a craft fair with my wife and mother-in-law so I gravitated to guys with the smoker on their food truck to ask them about their smoker design.

And this was my 3rd time cooking on this particular smoker with my friend who owns it.  My friend is a great cook and the smoker was crucial to our success so I don't want to sound disparaging, but this smoker is not ideal for big cooks like this one.  It is great for 2-3 briskets (or equivalent) plus some stuff in the warming cabinet.  However, once we had 4 briskets in the horizontal chamber, the temperature drop from near the firebox to the vertical cabinet was severe.  It was challenging to get above 150 degrees in the vertical chamber.  We were hoping for 275-290 in the horizontal and 225 or so in the vertical, but that never materialized.  

Even if we didn't overload the horizontal segment by putting briskets two deep across it I think there are 2 basic issues that could be improved significantly.  1) The horizontal segment is too long relative to the width of the pipe that was used.  Even with tuning plates, once there is any cold meat in the smoker, there is a significant temperature gradient across the chamber.  2) I think that 2 small exhaust pipes (4" each) probably don't create enough draft to pull the hot air down to the vertical cabinet.   

I now realize that when looking at an offset, one can't just ask the question "how much meat can I cram into the cooking space?".  It is too dependent on airflow.  That can work in a kamado.  Some of the pics above show how full some of the kamados were with 5 racks of ribs.  But it is a totally different system that holds heat well and requires only a little heat to be added over time.  But in an offset, there needs to be room for a significant portion of the hot air to move across the meat without losing too much heat and be able to keep moving to the next hunk of meat.  As a result, the width of the pipe and the diameter and height of the exhaust stack are critical.  Prior to this, I naively took them for granted.  My buddy who owns this smoker is thinking about these issues as he considers a possible upgrade.  On his next one, he probably won't get a vertical cabinet.  Although I'm going to suggest that he consider getting one with the vertical cabinet over the firebox...

I welcome thoughts from other owners of offsets to see if my thinking on this is correct.

Also, I have to say that while the briskets didn't take on a lot of heat during their 10 hours on the offset (they were all between 135 and 150 after 10 hours), they did take on smoke - which was the goal - and the end result was fantastic.   

But as we were moving meat around to get it to others grills for finishing, I was thinking "it sure would be nice if I had one of Aaron Franklin's (or B-Daddy's) giant offsets where I could just leave the brisket in one place and not have them stacked on each other - and not have to worry about moving a brisket wrapped in butcher paper that has a bunch of flammable "brisket juice" in the bottom of it that spills onto the fire while I'm trying to get access to the brisket below it..."  

@lousubcap, yes. Here’s a pic of the smoker.  And yes I realize how fortunate I am in my work situation.  

Thanks @Canugghead!