Setting up for a long cook....how?

Patrick_CT

New member
Ok. I am new to trying to do long cooks on a non pellet grill (reaf: spoiled and learning real BBQ backwords)
How di set up the basket to do a long cook? Do i line the outside with unlit charcoal and then start a little bit ofmcharcoal in the chimney and add it to the middle?
Or do i fjust add some charcoal in the basket and fill the chimney all the way up and light that way?

Might be a stupid question, but i need to get some clear answers before i screw it up.

Thanks
 

southga

New member
I only use about 8-10 briquettes to start my fire. Just dump them on top of a basket of unlit charcoal with 1-2 wood chunks mixed in. I only want a very light, mild smoke flavor, so I go with less wood than most. If you want a stronger smoke flavor, add 1-2 more chunks. I generally use lump in the basket & light briquettes in the chimney.

After dumping in the lit coals, I put the racks in place & close the lid. I have 3 1" nipples, one with a ball valve. I start with all three open. As the temp rise, I begin closing off the intakes. I generally like to run long smokes for butts, etc in the 250-260 range. I'll cap off one intake around 210. Cap the second one around 225. If it's still climbing steadily at 240, I'll cut back the valve about 1/2. This will normally settle in between 250-260. At this point I only have to make small adjustments to the valve to get the temp to stabillize between 250-260. Once the temp is holding & the smoke is becoming thin & blue, I will add the meat. Expect a temp drop when you open the lid & possibly a spike after closing since you just let in a lot more oxygen. Just be patient & the temp should adjust back to between 250-260 within 20-25 mins or so.
 

scooter

Moderator
Staff member
Patrick, I haven't done a long cook yet in the drum but if I did, I'd do it similar to how I would do it in my WSM which is similar to how southga explained it. I bury 4-5 fist sized chunks for a planned 12-14 hour cook. Put a couple chunks in then pour some coal in, more chunks then more coal and continue until the basket is full. Make a divot in the top of the pile that will hold 20-25 briquettes. Light up 20-25 briquettes and pour them into the divot and add a chunk of wood along the edge where the unlit charcoal meets the lit charcoal. I set the two BPS EDS vents each to approx half of one hole open. This seems to hold approx 250 on the edge which is about 275+ in the middle using a diverter.
I use only K blue bag briquettes for long cooks. I think it's the best there is for long, reliable, predictable, steady heat.
I like lump or 100% hardwood briquettes for super hot and quick searing only.
 

jimsbarbecue

Moderator
Staff member
The one thing is if you start to many coals. The drum overshoots the temp and it a can be a bear to get it down. I start with only a few and work on getting the drum up to temp. easier then trying to get it down.
 

Big Poppa

Administrator
the number one issue with low and slow is getting to aggressive at the begininng of the cook....as that guy on kung fu said "patience grasshopper"
 

southga

New member
IMHO, 20-25 lit coals will quickly create too big a fire mass & jims said, it will be a bear to bring the temps back down. You will find with a drum the last thing you want to do is overshoot your target temp. Control the fire on the way up so you can make minor adjustments to dail in your desired temp. Also, most drums cookers have a temp zone it likes. Every drum is different. Mine likes to settle in the 260 zone (plus or minus 10* depending on wind, temp, etc). I have found it best on long cooks to let your drum determine its happy zone & you adjust your cook plan to that temp.
 

scooter

Moderator
Staff member
Remember guys, I use K blue bag which burns well under the temps of lump or 100% hardwood briqs. K blue bag doesn't burn as hot, just longer. :)

Ambient temps also factor into how many briqs I start with. If it's a hot day, I'll use less. Cold days I'll use more.

I will do an experiment this weekend to see how long it takes this many blue bag briqs (poured into more unlit blue bag briqs) to heat that drum up to 275*.
IMG_9469.jpg
 
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chingador

New member
I use the same technique that I use for setting up my Primo Kamado for long cooks. I carefully place the lump charcoal in the basket, with the larger chunks on the bottom. I am very careful to limit the amount of air gaps. I also bury about 4-6 wood chunks throughout the basket. Instead of lighting coals in a chimney, I use a primo kamado starter cube and bury under the top coals in the middle. Once they are caught well, I place the basket in the drum and let it come up to temp with the bottom vents 3/4 open and the top vents completely open. As the temp comes up, I shut down the vents more and more to allow the temp to come up slowly. By the time it hits my target temp, I just about have the vents shut down to where they will be to hold the temp throughout the cook. I got just over 13 hours on the BPS basket last weekend. I did not have any big chunks of lump in the basket. If I did, I might have gotten an extra hour or three out of it.
 

scooter

Moderator
Staff member
OK, so this explains some things. When I said 20-25 briqs is what I use I just found out I was under reporting how much I actually use to start up. For my cook tonight I wanted to count out 25 briqs to see what temps I got being as 25 briqs is what I use, or thought I used. You see, a year or so ago I put 25 briqs into the chimney and noted the level then I stopped counting out 25 briqs and just poured them into the chimney to that certain level. Somewhere in the last year my chimney grate fell out so I put it back in only I just now noticed I put it back in upside down! I recently purchased a new chimney to jump into service when I deem the old one has started it's last batch. I compared the old currently in use chimney next to my new chimney and well, I've been putting about 10+/- more briqs in than I thought. Looks like I've been using about 30-35 briqs!
Anyway, I'm cooking a chicken right now using 25 starter briqs (counted by hand) and will post the heat data later.

You can see with the new chimney the grate cone is oriented with the tip of the cone pointing up. Well, the one I'm still using I put the grate cone back in with the cone pointing down...this explains why I started getting more heat out of the same "perceived" amount of starter briqs!
IMG_9474.jpg
 
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scooter

Moderator
Staff member
It's actually only about 2 years old but I start my chimneys on a propane fired turkey deep fryer base so the chimney takes a serious beating!
 
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scooter

Moderator
Staff member
OK, so here's the data from last nights test cook. 25 K blue bag briquets lit (see image below) to start the cook poured into the center of unlit briqs. Checked the temps at 5 min intervals using a timer on my iphone. Temp readings taken from a Stoker digital pit probe clipped to the cooking grate 2" in from the side of drum.

6:10 25 lit briqs into basket, diverter in, both vents to 1/2 of one hole open, lid down, top vent 100% open
6:15 203*
6:20 230*
6:25 231*
6:30 232* opened both vents to 1 hole open for increased airflow
6:35 236*
6:40 245* Added chunk of applewood to basket and put chicken on center of grill
6:45 248*
6:50 255*
6:55 255*
7:00 258*
7:05 258*
7:10 256*
7:15 258*
7:20 256*
7:25 253* chicken at 120* IT in the breast so raised lid and flipped chicken over
7:30 277*
7:35 277* chicken at 132* IT
7:55 275* Didn't reset my 5 minute alarm after the 7:35 check and didn't notice for 20 mins. Chicken was at 157* IT so I basted with sauce and flipped. Reduced both vents back to 1/2 hole open
8:05 295* chicken at 158* IT. Had the lid open for awhile flipping and basting the chicken back at 7:55
8:10 273* chicken at 157* IT
8:15 259* chicken at 157* IT opened up both vents back to 1 hole open

The chicken finished at 9:10 at 165* IT. I can only speculate it took so long to finish because of the basting with sauce. I've never basted my chicken before and it usually continues on up to 165* IT smoothly. The coal temps settled back around 270* eventually with 1 hole open on both vents

I stopped keeping track of the coal temps after 8:15. I found what I wanted to know. 25 K blue bag briquets does a fine job as a starter batch with no overshoots as it came up to cooking temp in about 30 mins and settled in nicely after the chicken was added.
With 35 briqs I was getting a bit of an overshoot to about 310* briqs but it would settle down both vents at half of one hole open from the beginning so it never bothered me enough to attempt less coal. However, I do like using 25 better than 35 so I'll be using that number from now on unless my 10 briq test this weekend changes my mind. Maybe use more when winter cold temps hit. We'll see.
I'll be trying a batch this weekend using 10 briqs as a starter to see how it works. Will post data if anyone is interested. May like 10 briqs better than 25. You never know until you try. I learned something last night. Never assume anything and keep checking everything you do!

The results
IMG_9483-1.jpg


The coal
IMG_9473.jpg
 
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ajstrider

New member
I use Kingsford blue bag charcoal and I have a square basket I made. I normally just fill the basket almost to the top with charcoal. I then use my Weber Charcoal Chimney and fill it about 1/3 full, I guess that is 20 or 25 bricks. Once they are all ashy, I spread them evenly around the basket. I open all my airvents, 4 in total, 3 with just caps and one with a ball valve. Once I hit 200 degree I cap off two, and throttle the ball valve back to about half open. Normally my temperature cruises up to between 225 and 250, right where I like it. The airvents need very little adjusting after that. I reuse my charcoal, which is why I fill my basket up nearly full. Before the next cook, I will pull my basket out and shake off all the ash and use that charcoal that is left.

Things I have figured out the hard way that others have mentioned, once you overshoot your temperature, it is nearly impossible to get the temperature down. So start out on the light side on lit charcoal and let the airvents light more charcoal and bring it up to temperature. This takes a bit longer but next time you can light a few more bricks until you have figured out how your barrel responds.

For smoke, I add one 3x3 chunk of wood in the beginning on top of lit charcoal, then add another about 1 or 1.5 hours into the long cook. That puts a constant smoke until you hit 140 degrees where smoke doesn't really matter anymore.
 
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