need advice for the weekend

mad max beyond eggdome

i know with this subject heading i'll get plenty of responses. . .one thing i'm noticing with my new lbge is that i am burning out my lump pretty quickly (i'm using bge lump). .. when cooking in the 300 degree range, i find that i need to add lump after a few hours. . .am i not putting in enough at the get-go (i start with about 4 - 5 good handfuls). . .i want to try to do an overnight smoke with a brisket this weekend and i want to be able to "set it and forget it" for 6 - 7 hours (if thats even possible). . .
any help is appreciated. .

WooDoggies

mad max beyond eggdome,[p]Mornin' dude. For long cooks you can fill with lump well into the fire ring.... some even fill to the top of the fire ring for the slow cooks.
You will easily get 20+ hours cook time with a full load and you can initially save a good bit of your lump by building up to your target temp and stablizing there instead of overshooting and then trying to cool down the egg.[p]That is a feature I really like about this cooker.... long, unattended cook times and easy temp control.[p]How big is your brisket and how are you going to season it?[p]French Roast,
John[p]

TRex

mad max beyond eggdome,[p]Others will chime in on this one, but here are my suggestions:[p]First of all, for EVERY cook I do, regardless of desired dome temperature, I fill my firebox (I have a Medium) with enough lump to cover the air holes, and I often fill to the top of the firebox if I will be searing steaks or something like that. It has been stated several times and I have found that it is easier to start with a large input (bunch of lump) and regulate the dampers to reach your desired output (dome temp). When I first started using my Egg, I too would put just about five handfuls or so, well below the air holes in the firebox, and I had difficulty achieving higher temps and/or my lump would burn away quickly.[p]I have not done many overnighters, but many of those in this forum that do have said that they will add enough lump to reach the fire ring (or maybe even half-way up the fire ring) if they are doing something long like a brisket.[p]Remember, you can always reuse lump, so don't be afraid to fill the firebox.[p]I've also found that lump tends to last longer if I close the bottom vent as much as possible while regulating the dome temp primarily with the daisy wheel.[p]TRex[p]

WooDoggies

TRex,[p]That's a good point about saving your lump by closing the bottom vent as much as possible.[p]As Nature Boy put it so well.... find your target temp with the bottom vent and fine tune with the daisy wheel.
So for a long cook of say, 240 F dome, my bottom vent should be open about a credit card width and the daisy openings about 3/4 open. Generally speaking, that setting will maintain the same temp for hours before having to retweak.[p]John

Tim M

mad max beyond eggdome,[p]TRex is correct. Fill the firebox each time with enough lump to "atleast" fill past the side air holes. That should be enough to do a lo&slo cook for 6-10 hrs or for a few hours of grilling with the higher temps or to do steaks at 700°. Don't worry about how much you have, you will never have too much but you can easily have too little and adding more is not fun. Use the rain cap, at the end, to snuff out the fire (the slide daisy tops leak air) and you will have some lump left over for the next cook. Always add some fresh lump to your left over lump because the left over stuff won't last as long as the fresh stuff.[p]Tim

Julie

mad max beyond eggdome,
I am a self-described lazy BBQer. I use the fire starters so I don't have to use the electric starter and I hate playing with fire so I don't have a MAPP (kind of ironic that I like playing with the BGE, though). I also don't use rubs or brine things - if I can't throw it on the BGE and cook it, I don't want to mess with it (I know I'm missing out on different flavors, but believe me I still enjoy my food!) Now going back to your original question about lump, I use the top of the fire box as a fill line for putting in lump charcoal. That should be enough lump for 4-5 short cooks.
Julie

The Naked Whiz

<p />mad max beyond eggdome,
If you fill your egg up to halfway up the fire ring, then you should be able to cook for at least 24 hours without having to refill for a low and slow cook. Here is a photo of how much lump was left after a 20 hour cook at 230 degrees. [p]TNW

CR

mad max beyond eggdome, I would agree with most of the previous responses. I normally add enough lump to get to thethe top of the firebox for every cook. I will fill to close to the top(within 1 inch) of the fire ring for low & slow extended time cooks.[p]I would also recommend that you use all new lump for a overnight cook Used lump seem to have a tendency to burn in a somewhat inconsistent manner at low temperatures.