Need Advice

IndyEggMon · December 2018

So two days ago I attempted my first smoke of a 7 pound pork shoulder and used enough charcoal to fill a large egg up to just under the ring. It tuned out well and all was good. Yesterday, I set up to smoke another 7 pound pork shoulder. I filled the egg with enough charcoal to be at or just over the ring. This fire never burned as hot as the one two days ago and it burned through almost all of the fuel in 12 hours. I had to add more charcoal to it. Is this normal? I was told by another BGE user that with that much charcoal I should easily get through a 12-14 smoke and have some left over. What am I doing wrong?

TEXASBGE2018 · December 2018

Your settings were the exact same correct? You should absolutely not be burning through that much charcoal if your temp is low enough. If I fill mine that much I can usually almost get 2 14 hour low and slows at 250 degrees out of it.

JohnInCarolina · December 2018

IndyEggMon said:

So two days ago I attempted my first smoke of a 7 pound pork shoulder and used enough charcoal to fill a large egg up to just under the ring. It tuned out well and all was good. Yesterday, I set up to smoke another 7 pound pork shoulder. I filled the egg with enough charcoal to be at or just over the ring. This fire never burned as hot as the one two days ago and it burned through almost all of the fuel in 12 hours. I had to add more charcoal to it. Is this normal? I was told by another BGE user that with that much charcoal I should easily get through a 12-14 smoke and have some left over. What am I doing wrong?

The second time you added charcoal, how much charcoal was still left in the Egg from the previous cook? Was it still about halfway full?

IndyEggMon · December 2018

Tried to keep them the same yes, but had to open it a little more. My fire from 2 nights ago stayed around 225 and this only got above 215 once when it spiked to 240. I changed the setting and tried to get it back closer to 225 and it went to 215. When I woke up this morning it was at 204 and going down. That’s when I found out I was almost out of fuel.

SaintJohnsEgger · December 2018

I wish I had an answer for you. But sometimes the lump just does weird things.

Burned cooler and didn't last as long. Perhaps the lump wasn't the same size as the previous cook. Big vs. smaller pieces can have affects like that.

Someone will be along shortly with more advice.

And welcome to the forum @IndyEggMon

TEXASBGE2018 · December 2018

Rule 1 for large hunks of meat for me is set your settings get the food on and don’t look at it until at least 6-8 hours later. Rule 2 is make small changes on either the daisy wheel or the screen below. Not both. It could also be a factor of small pieces of lump getting caught in the holes of your grate. If even a third of them get clogged your airflow diminishes significantly thus not allowing you to maintain temp. Make sure you always stir the unused lump after each use and ensure that the majority of the grate holes aren’t clogged with little pieces of lump.

IndyEggMon · December 2018

@JohnInCarolina it was completely out except for 6 burning embers. Refilled it all the way.

IndyEggMon · December 2018

@SaintJohnsEgger thank you for the suggestion. Love your screen name btw,. My Wife and I love St. John. One of our favorite places.

JohnInCarolina · December 2018

IndyEggMon said:

@JohnInCarolina it was completely out except for 6 burning embers. Refilled it all the way.

OK. Next question then: you said that you went to sleep. How long were you asleep, and did you have anything monitoring the temperature during that window?

IndyEggMon · December 2018

Thank you @TEXASBGE2018! New to smoking so the advice is helpful.

SaintJohnsEgger · December 2018

IndyEggMon said:

@SaintJohnsEgger thank you for the suggestion. Love your screen name btw,. My Wife and I love St. John. One of our favorite places.

My screen name may be a little misleading. I live in Saint Johns county Florida (think St. Augustine our nation's oldest city). You are probably thinking of St. John Canada and I've never been there.

IndyEggMon · December 2018

@JohnInCarolina Yes I have a thermometer with remote base with a probe in the meat and 1 for the grill which is seperate from the one on the top of the egg. I went to bed around midnight after it had been on for 4.5 hours and kept waking up to check the temp. When I fell asleep at 4 AM it was at 214, when I woke up at 6:45 AM it was at 204 and going down.

IndyEggMon · December 2018

@SaintJohnsEgger gotcha. Good clarification. I was thinking you meant St. John in USVI. St. Augustine is nice too.

Mattman3969 · December 2018

You didn’t happen to use a liquid filled drip pan the second cook did you?

IndyEggMon · December 2018

@Mattman3969 Yes I did for both smokes. Aluminum pan filled about half way with water.

TN_Egger · December 2018

Size matters. As @Stjohnsegger said, small bits won't burn as long.

Dobie · December 2018

When you refilled the egg after the previous cook, did you clean out the old existing lump or at least stir it very well before topping it off again?

Mattman3969 · December 2018

Since you used the same on both that blows my theory of the needing more fuel to keep the heat sync (liquid) hot.

BTW - the water or liquid is necessary in the egg. Just use a drip pan elevated off the PS. You need about a 1/2” of space so your drippings don’t scorch.

IndyEggMon · December 2018

@Dobie yes, I completely cleaned up the inside and pulled out all the ash from the bottom before re-filling.

lousubcap · December 2018

@IndyEggMon First up, welcome aboard and enjoy the journey. Above all, have fun.

A question, I'm guessing "just over the ring" means you filled to just above the fire box and not well into the area above the box which is the fire ring??

If so, then by filling up to dang near the top of the fire ring you about double the lump load of the BGE and thus the longer cook times. Dome thermo calibrated?

As you are aware, the BGE runs on air-flow if you have sufficient fuel and fire. Sounds like an air-flow issue, well discussed above. And regarding temperatures, don't chase them. Most BGE's have a "sweet-spot" somewhere in the 240-270*F range. Go with where it settles in. FWIW-

BTW- what brand of lump?

Mattman3969 · December 2018

Did you partially refill with the used lump?

SaintJohnsEgger · December 2018

Same bag of lump? How was it stored between cooks? Maybe it got damp.

Suggestion: everyone has a smart phone so take lots of pictures of your cooks. Take pictures of the lump setup the grate height and the meat etc. Photo documentation of your cook works better than your memory will. It also means you will have lots of images to post here of your cooks and that will make you very popular.

Also something like a FlameBoss that records your pit and meat temps is good for knowing how things went.

I would be okay living in St John USVI. We are investigating a move to Europe when the wife retires. Thinking of Scottland or England.

GrillSgt · December 2018

Get a Kick Ash Basket and shake the smalls out every time. When adding fresh lump make sure to mix the two together. This can be done without a KAB but it sure makes it easier. Even the best lumps have peculiarities especially when small pieces and large pieces aren’t distributed well.

GeezerSteve · December 2018

I second @GrillSgt 's comment - the KAB is great both for improving air flow and for easily saving lump from one cook to the next. I've only done a couple since I got my KAB, but I am very happy with how it works and what it does. There's no way the air flow around the lump can be seriously impeded by the lump.

jtcBoynton · December 2018

What part of the world are you in? Was the overnight temp different for the two cooks? Depending on outside temp, you need different size fires to maintain the temp inside the egg.

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