Semi-Turbo Butt today - strange experience

reh111

Cleaned out the egg - all ashes gone so I'm starting clean.  Rubbed the butt and refrigerated last night.  Filled the firebox to the brim with Royal Oak Lump plus a few large cherry chunks.  Got things at about 300 and put butt on at 9:00 AM the idea being that I was going to cook between 250 - 300 all day, maybe 7 - 10 hours and have the butt for supper.  Things were going well until about 2:30 when I noticed the internal temp, which had gotten to 178, started dropping.  Went to check and, no more fire - all lump burned up.  I had left the lower vent wide open, adjusting the temp with the daisy wheel which was never more closed than the vents open all the way.  I'm guessing the open lower vent caused the early burn out but the temp never got above 300.

Anyway, had to take the butt, woo, drip pan, etc all off and refill the firebox and start the fire again.  Butt internal dropped to 169 in the process and now, at 4:30 is just back up to 180.  Got the fire cranked up to 350 and hoping for 195-200 by 6:00.

Never had the fire go out so quickly at temps below 300 - any thoughts??

henapple

Ozark Oak or Rockwood

reh111

henapple said:

Ozark Oak or Rockwood

So, you think it's the quality of the lump?

lousubcap

Indirect at temps around 300*F or higher can really consume the lump.  Next time load up into the fire ring and make sure your dome thermo is calibrated.  You should have run longer regardless of lump brand. FWIW-

reh111

Oh, well - all's well that ends well.................

reh111

lousubcap said:

Indirect at temps around 300*F or higher can really consume the lump.  Next time load up into the fire ring and make sure your dome thermo is calibrated.  You should have run longer regardless of lump brand. FWIW-

That's what I would think - I had loaded it to the top of the fire ring - I have a Woo and put a pizza stone on the bars to have an indirect cook - couldn't believe that all that lump was gone in just 5 hours at those temps?????

I always thought that Royal Oak was one of the best lumps - maybe not???

Mattman3969

I don't know if it's coincidence or not but this is like the 3rd similar post in a couple of weeks where RO has fizzled early. I gotta go with @henapple on this one. RW or OO have never made me make a "my fire went out" post.

reh111

Mattman3969 said:

I don't know if it's coincidence or not but this is like the 3rd similar post in a couple of weeks where RO has fizzled early. I gotta go with @henapple on this one. RW or OO have never made me make a "my fire went out" post.

Interesting - didn't see the other posts - wonder what's going on with RO?

Ragtop99

I've noticed that my bag of RO has burned down quickly, but not had it run out when fully loaded.  I have been using Rockwood, but ran out.  This RO bag had been in my basement for a while, at least 6 months and maybe more.

DMW

I hope RO didn't drop quality for their Walmart production run, I have 15 bags.

ShadowNick

Also, with the bottom vent all the way open, you may have been radiating out more heat than normal, causing the fire to have to burn a bit hotter to maintain temp.   Not sure if it would be enough to really affect it though, but its a thought.  Could be an interesting experiment for someone to run that has 2 of the same size eggs.