New egger here, need help with BBQ Guru

tcounty

Just got my Lg BGE last week and built the table for it this weekend. Cooked steaks, chicken and chops this weekend. All of it was great. I decided to get a BBQ Guru Digi II, should be in tomorrow. I plan to cook a butt Thursday night. I want to pull it off Friday After noon between 3 & 4 pm. The butt I got is 9 #s. I've already rubbed it down and vac packed it. I'm planning on cooking with a pit temp of 225. What time should I put the butt on Thursday night? How do I go about setting the daisy wheel? Do I need to close off some of the flow from the fan once the 225 temp is reached? Thanks for the info.

Morro Bay Rich

In my opinion 225 is too low. Go for 250. Daisy wheel just has to be open enough to allow for air outflow (petals just cracked open). I use the BBQ Guru and have the 10 cfm fan chocked down to 1/4 open.

tcounty

250* at the grate or dome? 2 hours per pound?

Morro Bay Rich

I put the Guru probe on the BGE thermometer stem so I guess it is dome temp.

Celtic Wolf

The DigiQ II comes with some very good instructions. Just follow them and you will be fine.

All temps mentioned here are assumed to be dome unless otherwise stated. Temps mentioned on other forums are assumed to be grate temps.

If you have the pit probe attached to the dome thermometer then you want 250. If you clip the pit probe to the grate then you want 220.

Pulled Pork

.o0(I really need more coffee)

Grandpas Grub

tcountry,

Congratulations on your newest toy. You will love the q2. I am seeing a lot of eggers cliping the pit probe to the dome thermometer.

The heat up at the dome thermometer is hotter than at grid level (fool level). If clipping to the dome therm I think 225° is too low. I usually go 230° at meat level.

I usually make sure I am at the egg towards the end of the cook and very seldom use the ramp option.

There are a lot of very exptienced eggers on this forum and some of them have sites to help the newer folk out.

Celtic Wolf is one of those folks. Below is a link to his site for cooking but. He competes and caters. Very good site for advice.

Celtic Wolf Pork cook

You can also look at other eggers as they will have sites too.

A butt is a good choice for your first q2 test.

Make sure you load your large correctly and if it were me I would light in 3 places. 3, 6 & 9 o'clock. about 1" from the outer edge of the egg.

If you got a 10cmf fan throttle it back to 1/4 to 1/3 open your top vent - slider shut pettles apx 1/2. Let you q2 do it's job.

Good cookin
GG

egret

What!!! :woohoo:

Celtic Wolf

I will be teaching a typo class during the Florida Eggfest grape boy...

Beanie-Bean

Congrats on the new gear. The DigiQ is pretty easy to use. I just followed the instructions and only used the pit probe clipped to the dome thermo. Didn't use the meat probe, because the "experiment" was ribs. If I were going to cook a shoulder, I'd definitely use the meat probe and also enable ramp mode just to make sure that the roast doesn't get overcooked.

N'awlins

tcounty - One of the MAIN things I learned on this forum is how to start the lump - a MAPP gas torch is an excellent way to start the lump for a low and slow cook as it will let you ramp up to temp versus trying to lower the temp - good luck!

Little Steven

Butts can take different times, you can only really go by temperature, allow 1 1/2 to two hours per pound but it could be either side of that. The butt will hit a plateau somewhere around 160 degrees and sit there for a long time. Don't worry about it, it's just what happens. Sometimes it can take several hours to break the plateau and temperature will rise steadily again. You can pull it anywhere from 190 to 210, my preference is about 210.

Steve

JLOCKHART29

Like the others have said the instructions are good with the "Q". There is a very detailed set at the BBQ Guru web site. I'm middle age, I like air cooled push rod engines, I still can't record with my vcr/cd player after 6 months. Gave up trying. I CAN work the "Q" RIGHT FROM THE START. I suggest you start a little hotter cook temp as others said. I just checked my notes and I did a 8.4 lb bone in butt with a dome temp (clipped to the thermometer) of 260 degrees set on the "Q" and a meat temp on "Q" set at 195 degrees. Ramp mode on. It took 12 hrs. Started it at midnight and when I got up at 9am to check on it it had ramped the temp down to about 230 degrees at which point I took it off ramp and set back at 260 for the rest of cook. Indirect platsetter with drip pan. Good luck with it! Be sure to load her up with lump

Unknown

The DigiQ comes with instructions and is very easy to use, Fred suggests clipping pit temp sensor to the meat probe about an 1" or so from the meat. I agree with raising your cook temp to at least 235 near the meat that's what's important and the dome temp will most likely be near 250!!!! I've started cooking with my meat on an inverted V-rack in a drip pan vs a drip pan under the grid and find this requires a higher dome temp. I think the key is to get the meat hot enough for the grease to sizzle as it's filling up your drip pan. Are you using an inverted platesetter and understand about indirect cooking? As mentioned, Celtic Wolf, thenakedwhiz and wessb have sites with great info on BGE cooking.

tcounty

I'll be using a place setter and a v-rack set in a drip pan. Will it hurt for it to sit on the egg for a few hours after it has ramped down to done?

N'awlins

No it won't - I let mine cool down also and then soak them and clean them up!