Okay, so yesterday I was doing my first long low and slow cook with my LSG Adjustable now settled into the recently completed outdoor kitchen. No pressure or anything, but 40 folks from the church were coming at 6:30 pm.
I was cooking six approximately five pound bone-in pork butts (yeah, too much but I like to send folks home with a go box). I got them onto the grill around 8 am and hooked up my new UltraQ controller from BBQ Guru.
I probably put the butts too close together and definitely had the grate probe too close to the meat, as it's totally obscured by the camera angle in this picture.
Meatheads pork rub, by the way.
Ready to roll:
About 45 minutes or so and more coffee into the cook, I snapped this pic of the controller and blue smoke that I smugly posted on the Feed the Flame thread:
All kinds of chaos ensued, but in true Douglas Adams fashion, I never panicked! (look it up if you don't know)
Here's the ShareMyCook plot from the first several hours:
Note the crazy, jagged lines for the meat probes in many parts of the plot. And then note that where they go smooth, around 8:45 the first time it happens, the grate temp stopped rising. After a half hour or more of being perplexed about this, I finally found that the BBQ Guru app, which I had been keeping open on my phone even while indoors, had somehow changed the set points for the pit and meats all to 0. That would explain the Hi Temp alarm I was getting. Further, almost everything looked more or less normal on the ShareMyCook page on my laptop, which I also had open indoors, except for a 0% on the fan duty cycle.
I had to add more lump charcoal around noon because I had no idea how much to put into the big basket when starting.
Many rounds of turning the UltraQ off and back on and checking every plug connection multiple times ensued. I was never quite sure of what the actual grate temperature was, because the probe was undoubtedly too close to the meat. The lid thermometer ran around 75 degrees or more above the reading of the grate probe.
The graph ends before the cook did, because even though ShareMyCook still showed "Good" on the WiFi connection, the graph just mysteriously stopped updating.
Finally, around 3, with at least one of the butts at around 180 and finally out of the stall, I pulled the plug, wrapped the butts in foil and put them into my oven at 325. This was the first time I've ever not finished a cook on the cooker it started on. When we got over 200 on the butts, they went into a cooler still wrapped and got held until close to 7 pm.
Not much bark, but everyone raved about them nonetheless. They were very tender and there was good smoke flavor.
This afternoon, I wrote a long, detailed email to BBQ Guru. Despite what I see as several errors on my part in starting the cook because I'm still settling in to what works for this cooker, from the response I got, the prime culprit appears to be the current version of the app software.
For anyone else here who has an UltraQ, here is the email:
Bottom line, then, is if you have already gotten your WiFi login info into the controller, until the new app update comes out, don't open the app at all. Turn the controller on and once it's connected, use ShareMyCook through a browser to control everything.
So, yes, I never panicked, and didn't quite know what the primary problem was until long after the cook ended.
But now it's time to nerd out. Look on the graph at that long period while I was confused and the fan was off. The LSG Adjustable is so well insulated that the temp held absolutely flat at the grate. But, even though cooker wasn't at a very high temperature, the meat continued to cook. Even more importantly, the slope of the meat temperature increase never changed as the controller went into and finally out of its temper tantrum once I restarted it. I was astounded by this result. My guess is that within certain parameters, meat is going to cook at an inherent rate and lots of things can change around the meat with little to no impact on the cooking rate.
As long as you have fire and smoke, the meat is going to cook and taste good. The only really important intervention I did was adding more lump at noon once the grate temp started to go down with the fan running constantly. Whenever the controller was working, the fan ran at 100% because the grate temp reading stayed so low. I started with a target of 250 and eventually raised it to 300 after the meat had time to get smoke, but we never got close the target temp for the grate.
I will let the fire get more advanced in the future before closing up the cooker for a low and slow and I will look into whether I need to move from the smaller to the larger BBQ Guru fan for this cooker. I also need to settle on vent adjustments, too, as I may not be right on those (I did do some chasing and experimenting during the chaos). But I look forward to producing more yummy things while I stumble to what works for me with this setup.
I was cooking six approximately five pound bone-in pork butts (yeah, too much but I like to send folks home with a go box). I got them onto the grill around 8 am and hooked up my new UltraQ controller from BBQ Guru.
I probably put the butts too close together and definitely had the grate probe too close to the meat, as it's totally obscured by the camera angle in this picture.
Meatheads pork rub, by the way.
Ready to roll:
About 45 minutes or so and more coffee into the cook, I snapped this pic of the controller and blue smoke that I smugly posted on the Feed the Flame thread:
All kinds of chaos ensued, but in true Douglas Adams fashion, I never panicked! (look it up if you don't know)
Here's the ShareMyCook plot from the first several hours:
Note the crazy, jagged lines for the meat probes in many parts of the plot. And then note that where they go smooth, around 8:45 the first time it happens, the grate temp stopped rising. After a half hour or more of being perplexed about this, I finally found that the BBQ Guru app, which I had been keeping open on my phone even while indoors, had somehow changed the set points for the pit and meats all to 0. That would explain the Hi Temp alarm I was getting. Further, almost everything looked more or less normal on the ShareMyCook page on my laptop, which I also had open indoors, except for a 0% on the fan duty cycle.
I had to add more lump charcoal around noon because I had no idea how much to put into the big basket when starting.
Many rounds of turning the UltraQ off and back on and checking every plug connection multiple times ensued. I was never quite sure of what the actual grate temperature was, because the probe was undoubtedly too close to the meat. The lid thermometer ran around 75 degrees or more above the reading of the grate probe.
The graph ends before the cook did, because even though ShareMyCook still showed "Good" on the WiFi connection, the graph just mysteriously stopped updating.
Finally, around 3, with at least one of the butts at around 180 and finally out of the stall, I pulled the plug, wrapped the butts in foil and put them into my oven at 325. This was the first time I've ever not finished a cook on the cooker it started on. When we got over 200 on the butts, they went into a cooler still wrapped and got held until close to 7 pm.
Not much bark, but everyone raved about them nonetheless. They were very tender and there was good smoke flavor.
This afternoon, I wrote a long, detailed email to BBQ Guru. Despite what I see as several errors on my part in starting the cook because I'm still settling in to what works for this cooker, from the response I got, the prime culprit appears to be the current version of the app software.
For anyone else here who has an UltraQ, here is the email:
Sorry to hear that you are experiencing an issue with your UltraQ connecting to WiFi. This is a reason the controller seems to freeze during your cook. Our developers are aware of the issue and are working to improve WiFi connectivity within the next three weeks. Until the update takes place you can still use your UltraQ while connected to WiFi using SMC on a Web Browser. Please follow the next steps:
Step A (Skip to Step B if WiFi credentials were previously saved)
Step A (Skip to Step B if WiFi credentials were previously saved)
- Power on your UltraQ
- Download and open your Guru App
- Pair with your UltrQ Bluetooth
- Create a ShareMyCook account
- Enter your Wifi Credentials
- Unplug your UltraQ
- Close your Guru App on your mobile device
- Power on your UltraQ
- When the LED WiFi indicator turns a solid RED
- Using your Smart Phone or WiFi-enabled device
- Open a web browser to ShareMyCook
- Login using the same credentials for your SMC in the mobile app
- Your device will show Online Status: Good
So, yes, I never panicked, and didn't quite know what the primary problem was until long after the cook ended.
But now it's time to nerd out. Look on the graph at that long period while I was confused and the fan was off. The LSG Adjustable is so well insulated that the temp held absolutely flat at the grate. But, even though cooker wasn't at a very high temperature, the meat continued to cook. Even more importantly, the slope of the meat temperature increase never changed as the controller went into and finally out of its temper tantrum once I restarted it. I was astounded by this result. My guess is that within certain parameters, meat is going to cook at an inherent rate and lots of things can change around the meat with little to no impact on the cooking rate.
As long as you have fire and smoke, the meat is going to cook and taste good. The only really important intervention I did was adding more lump at noon once the grate temp started to go down with the fan running constantly. Whenever the controller was working, the fan ran at 100% because the grate temp reading stayed so low. I started with a target of 250 and eventually raised it to 300 after the meat had time to get smoke, but we never got close the target temp for the grate.
I will let the fire get more advanced in the future before closing up the cooker for a low and slow and I will look into whether I need to move from the smaller to the larger BBQ Guru fan for this cooker. I also need to settle on vent adjustments, too, as I may not be right on those (I did do some chasing and experimenting during the chaos). But I look forward to producing more yummy things while I stumble to what works for me with this setup.
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