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HELP!! Bitter smoke taste!!

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bbqman151

New member
Ok guys (and gals). Any advice will help. I am getting a really nasty bitter taste on my meats. My drum has three 3/4" nipples for intakes. One of which has a 90 turned up with a 24" pipe going to a brass valve. I use my bbq guru on the valve. I am able to hold temp well (usually 240 - 250). My lid is an old lid off of an old uniflame kettle grill. I am using the existing pinwheel as my exhaust. I burn regular Kingsford briquettes, start with half a chimney of coals and dump onto my unlit in my basket. (Mixed with wood chunks). So... I'm getting a lot of white smoke for the first hour or so. Do I need more intakes? Bigger exhaust? Different charcoal? Any advice?
 
MrAdam

MrAdam

New member
Less wood or wait until the thick white smoke turns to thin blue smoke.

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wneill20

New member
To much wood as BP says. I use four chunks mix in with the coals at the top let the drum run at temp for 20 minutes before you put the meat on and you should be good to go.
 
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Big Poppa

Administrator
the other key is to understand that the top vent should just about always stay 100% open. The reasons for closing it is to try to bring the temp down if it gets away from you or later in the cook when the wood has burned down
 
cragcrawler

cragcrawler

New member
Less wood! It should only take about 10-15 minutes for the smoke to die down and for you to start cooking. My wife doesn't like a strong smoke flavor so I only use 3 chunks of wood sometimes only 2.
 
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bbqman151

New member
Ok thanks guys. I have been using 5 - 7 small chunks, so I will cut it back to 2 or 3. I was kinda wondering if the pinwheel exhaust was just not big enough and was holding too much smoke in. But I will try cutting back on the wood and see what happens.
 
MrAdam

MrAdam

New member
Another thing occurred to me. If you're soaking your wood before you use it, that can cause the same effect. Wet wood causes incomplete combustion and all that water has to be steamed off before you get to the good smoke. Just some food for thought.

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