Butt is 14 hrs and still 175 degrees. Do I worry?

BHFG

I have done several single Butts before, this is the first time I have done two at once. I put 2 of them on last night at about 10:15 in my large BGE. One butt was 6lbs 5oz and the other was 7lb 6oz. Using my BBQ Guru, I set the pit temp at ~230 and the meat for 200, with the meat probe in the smaller butt. Separation between the two butts was about 1 - 1 1/2 inches. It took the pit about an hour after that to get fully up to temp. I assumed these would cook about the same time as s single 6-7 lb butt, and estimated 9 1/2 - 13 hours for the smaller butt to fully cook to 200.

At 7:00 this morning, the meat temp was about 150, dome still around 230. At 12:15, about 14 hours in, the meat temp is only about ~175. The dome temp says still about 230 on the BBQ Guru (about 275 on the dome thermometer).

I usually like to wait until around 190 before throwing the temp wide open to finish the cook. But with one butt smaller than the other, I was thinking of just waiting to let the smaller finish at the low temp, and then moving the probe to the larger one and wait to throw it open to finish the larger one. I just upped the pit temp target to 250 on the Guru to help move it along a little, but should I be concerned yet? I am ok to wait, but don't want the meat to start to dry out.

Should I just be patient and wait it out? Should I maybe have used more space between the two? Or did I just under estimate the cook time?

Thanks for any advice,
Rick

NC-CDN

Personally I don't open it up to finish mine off unless I am in a rush to get it to temp to pull due to a time constraint. If you don't need to get it done now, I'd just let it go. Some butts are done faster than others on different days. No biggie. Sounds like your moving along nicely. If you want you can get your GURU up to 250 and speed things up.

I'd just keep an eye on the 2 butts. They will likely both be done pretty close time wise. Enjoy.

Unknown

you're fine, my butt's typically go 20 hours at 225 dome temp

civil eggineer

You should always cook at 250 dome which equates to around 215 grill temp. Bump up your temperature. If your in a hurry, wrap in foil and bump up your temps to 300 dome.

PhilsGrill

Like everyone has said, you are cooking too low a temp. 230 dome means about 200 at the grate. It will take forever to cook to 190. Always cook your butts at 250 dome minimum.