Getting Temps down to 225-250?

JT$

I am going to attempt my first brisket. I have know trouble getting my egg hot, I can't seem to get it below 300 to smoke it. I have been attempting to get all the lump lit and then bringing the temp down by closing the dampers. It seems to get as low as 300 and stops. Should I just keep waiting for it to go down? If so when I open the dampers a little to give it air; making sure it does not go out will it heat back up to 300. 

Any suggestions? 

BBQMaven

JT

When you lite your Egg, you want to stop the rising of the temp before it get to your desired temp. For example- when the lump has red edges, put the plate setter in, and close the lid. Leave the top daisy wheel off and the bottom vent wide open. When the temp gets to 190-200 close the bottom vent 1/2 way and put the daisy wheel on. When it gets to 225 close the bottom vent to only 1/4 of the opening and close top vent so only the little holes are venting. When it gets to 250 - close the bottom vent till it is only 1/8-1/4"

You should let the Egg stabilize for 30 minutes without having to adjust the vents. Put the meat in and don't touch the upper or lower settings- temp will drop but recover in an hour or so. 

Misippi Egger

Good suggestions, BBQ Maven. 

@JT$:  It is not necessary to get all your lump lit.  For a low and slow cook, I fill to half-way up the fire ring, then I only light three small areas on top of my lump (10-2-6 o'clock positions). Once they have red edges, in goes the platesetter, a drip pan, if using, and the grid. I try NOT to have a big fire (use BBQ Maven's instructions about vent settings). Your fire will slowly burn down into the rest of the lump during the long cook.

jwh70

I fill the firebox full for a long cook and then light the middle with an electric charcoal starter. In about 10 min. the center is lit and then I open the bottom vent all the way with the top wide open and llet it get to 300deg then I put the adjustable vent on at the top put the platesetter  drip pan and cooking grate on. Iclose the bottom vent to about 2inches and close the top all the way with the daisy wheel almost wide open until the temp stabilizes at 240-250. It usually takes about 45min to get the temp just right before I throw the food on

YetiBob

For low and slow I light one area in the middle with my torch. By lighting everything you are getting way too much burn going at once.

4Runner

Plus 1 on YetiBob

The Naked Whiz

Actually, I found the best was for me to do low and slow without some sort of BBQ Guru device was to prepare a bed of charcoal leaving enough room for one chimneyfull of lit charcoal.  I get a chimeyfull going red hot, dump it in on top of the prepared charcoal, spread it around, add the plate setter, drip pan, grid and meat, and close the lid.  The temp started rising and I stopped it at 230 where it stayed for about 20 hours.    The secret of course is getting everything into the cooker immediately and closing the lid before the ceramic begins to heat up. 

strngr12

I know this is old, but in case someone else has this problem, if you overshoot your temp and get the egg too hot and find it difficult to cool down, grab your hose and water it. You're fighting the temperature of the ceramic, not the fire. You're only cooling down the outside surface, but that will draw heat from the inside surface. It will take some time, but it will work. I was stuck at 300 - 325 and got it down to 225 in about 15 minutes.

Mark_B_Good

BBQMaven said:

JT

When you lite your Egg, you want to stop the rising of the temp before it get to your desired temp. For example- when the lump has red edges, put the plate setter in, and close the lid. Leave the top daisy wheel off and the bottom vent wide open. When the temp gets to 190-200 close the bottom vent 1/2 way and put the daisy wheel on. When it gets to 225 close the bottom vent to only 1/4 of the opening and close top vent so only the little holes are venting. When it gets to 250 - close the bottom vent till it is only 1/8-1/4"

You should let the Egg stabilize for 30 minutes without having to adjust the vents. Put the meat in and don't touch the upper or lower settings- temp will drop but recover in an hour or so. 

This. DO NOT EVER let it overshoot temperature, and then cool .... it takes forever!  Too much ceramic in that egg to have it cool down ... that's the whole point of the egg ... it is a huge heat sync!  Go slowly up ... light your fire in only one spot ... you need a good 45 minutes to complete a warm up. Go fast, and you'll waste a lot of time trying to get things under control again.

Mark_B_Good

strngr12 said:

I know this is old, but in case someone else has this problem, if you overshoot your temp and get the egg too hot and find it difficult to cool down, grab your hose and water it. You're fighting the temperature of the ceramic, not the fire. You're only cooling down the outside surface, but that will draw heat from the inside surface. It will take some time, but it will work. I was stuck at 300 - 325 and got it down to 225 in about 15 minutes.

I'd be worried about cracking my ceramic by heat quenching too much ... I think that's a dangerous game.

DieselkW

I intentionally go to 300º on the stack to clear the off-gassing of new lump, when the blue smoke clears, I set the bottom vent and top vent to my "smoke" clearances, and then put in cold smoke wood, a cold plate setter, cold iron grill, and cold brisket.

That gets the stack temp down pretty fast as 20 lbs. of relatively cold hardware and protein start blocking that thermometer.

I let my experience with setting those air vents do the rest... in an hour or so the temp is rock solid at 225º and it remains there until the brisket comes to about 195º and the temp starts creeping up towards 250º - by then I'm just waiting for the "buttah" poke, usually around 205º on the meat probe.