Newbie with questions

Basselope

Santa was very good to me and brought me a large egg. [Obviously he overlooked the naughty stuff]
Anyway I used it today for the first time and had some things that meet my egg-spections and other things that strike me as well weird.
This morning I went to road test the egg and filled it with lump. I lit it off and watched the temp rise. Got to 700*+ in under 20 minutes. I consider this to be way cool.
So tonight I went to cook a rib roast. I wanted to do it in a maner similar to Alton Brown. I laid 5 fire brick spilts [___] and put the drip pan in the center. the roast went on a v-rack and dome temp set for 230* I did not cover the roast. I was able to hold between 220-230 for most of the time the roast was in. The probe was set for 118*.[p]When the roast got to 118 I pulled it off and opened everything wide open get to 550*. I could not get the egg to go past 420* I put the roast back in but it would not pass 420*. This was with the daisy off, when I placed it on, the temp dropped by about 10 degrees. Finally got tired of waiting (20 minutes) and fired up the oven to 550* and finished this sucker.[p]So my questions for the egg-sperts are
1. Did the presence of the fire brick disrupt the air flow, and prevent the temp from going over 420*? If this isn't the reason for the lack of temp then what was it? [Plenty of lump left.][p]2. Was the fire brick necessary or did I make newbie boo-boo #42?[p]3. In screwing around with the vent on the daisy it seems like the more open it is, the higher the dome temp. Was this a correct observation?
Thanks for the help guys, I hope to hang here a lot.

KennyG

Basselope,[p]In the arrangement you described, those 5 firebrick splits represented a considerable ceramic mass for your firebox to overcome. Your mass also took up a lot of real estate on the cooking grid and blocked the upward flow of air to restrict the max temps, just as you suspected. Indirect cooking requires a mass no larger than the footprint on the grill of what you are cooking. Just 2-3 bricks would have sufficed as a pizza stone would have also. I've been using "Flame Tamers" (available in gas grill specialty stores as a replacement for lava rocks), they are the same size as the splits but only 3/8 inch thick. They do the same job with less overall heat absorbing mass.[p]The daisy wheel top was designed for fine tuning low and slow temps. Even wide open, it will artificially restrict temps to 400* or less. [p]Still sounds like you did a great job on your first cook and they will only get better from here on out.[p]K~G