New Kat Vault Smoker

[briano52]

I posted this in another forum here but I think it should be in this Charcoal Cabinet area. Sorry about that.

I needed a smoker with a smaller footprint for my new patio. I decided to go with a vault although I have generally used and preferred offsets in the past. After a lot of research, I chose a Kat vault smoker from a small shop in Modesto, California. It took a long time to get but I had a lot of special requests, cart, green paint, delivery, valves, wheels, etc.

I could not be happier with this cooker. The welding and craftsmanship are first class. It is dual walled with insulation. You can touch the exterior of the cooker area without burning your hand. The latches fit tight and are adjustable as the gaskets wear. The powder coat paint job is slick, shiny and wonderfully bright. Easy to clean as smokers go.

I now have about 6 cooks under my belt. 12 pounds of charcoal will keep this cooker running for 10+ hours. You could add more charcoal, probably 20lbs, but I haven't tried that yet. The cooker holds temps very well, with little fluctuation. However, because of the very good insulation, if you overshoot your desired temp, it will be very slow in coming back down. I learned that lesson and now I am careful to not get things too hot at the beginning of a cook. I prefer to cook at 225 to 250.

I have added a Billows fan and Smoke X4 controller which work well to keep things steady with minimal fussing with fuel and air adjustments. For smoke, I find that only a few chunks of hardwood will give me all the smoke flavor I need. I like a medium smoke profile that does not bury the meat and rub flavors. To date, I have done brisket, pork shoulder, ribs and chicken wings. In my first cook, I made a mistake and put my meat in before my smoke cleared from a billowy white to a thin blue. Not good. That gave me an ugly creosote flavor. So, I went to school on that session and have not had that problem since then. My smoke flavors are now clean and bright. I was worried about the smoke profile from a vault smoker but I am very pleasantly relieved that the smoke from this cooker is very clean and sweet.

I love this cooker more every time I get to use it. I attach a couple of pictures taken before I put the fan and controller on. The smoker came with two ball valves. One big one for manual control and a small one that takes the fan connection.

This cooker is piece of cooking art that I expect to wear well and pass down to the kids.

[holehogg]

Great looking cooker and more importantly you seem very pleased with it. Sure does look like it's built to last. Continue enjoying.

[Greygoose]

Nice looking unit,,,,
enjoy and post lots of pics,,,

[ofelles]

Cabinet smokers are great aren't they. I love my LSG also. With controller and fan very steady with minimum fuss. You're correct about over shooting the temp, I make sure I turn it down way early to keep it in the 225-240 range.
I also got a side table and glad I did. Your fire box is higher than mine and that would be easier.

[Planner47]

briano52 what model is it?

[briano52]

It is the Kat small vault smoker. Small Vault Insulated Smoker – KAT BBQ Smokers

[Cubbiehawkbbqfan]

That's a pretty cooker for sure!

[Attjack]

That thing looks really nice. It reminds me of this one I often admire when I get Titan's promotional emails.

https://www.titangreatoutdoors.com/outdoor-cooking/grills-and-rotisseries/reverse-flow-vertical-smoker/899719.html?utm_source=sfmc&utm_term=Product+2+button+link&utm_content=194183&utm_id=fb0d2681-897f-4451-9e58-e403b1fae63e&sfmc_activityid=62cb1483-c55a-4775-9c21-7f267758227b&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=03.31.22-TGO-Adhoc-GrillsAndRotisseries&utm_campaign=03.31.22-TGO-Adhoc-GrillsAndRotisseries&utm_source=GreatOutdoors-MC&utm_medium=email&utm_content=Product+2+button+link&utm_term=20220331_538496

[Clawbear57]

nice looking cooker. this is the first time hearing of charcoal cooker. learn something new. thanks

[briano52]

Hi Clawbear
Actually, charcoal in cookers, especially in vault styles, is pretty common. When I cooked in my COS, I used both charcoal and sticks. Your comment got me to thinking that I should try sticks in the KAT. The fire box is fairly large. It might well work. I am happy with the smoke flavor I get from charcoal with wood chunks, but in the name of adventure and science, I should try sticks too.
Brian

[Clawbear57]

Brian thanks. I realized that after I posted the comment.

[Mosca]

"She’s a beaut, Clark!"

Nice smoker!

[texastweeter]

Lololololol

[big_mack]

that's a fine looking vault cooker. Love the customization.

[briano52]

Hey Big Mack
Thanks for the nice comment. So today I had a Memorial Day BBQ. Did 4 racks of beef ribs and two racks of St. Louis. All came out great. About 4 hours or so at 250 although the temp drifted up close to 275 for the last hour. Not sure why. Did have some wind and I loaded 12lbs of briquettes. I was using the Billows system and the blower was off. I checked. The insulation on the Kat Vault is so good that it is hard to get the temp down when you overshoot your desired temp. I am more careful now in watching my temp.
I usually make my own rubs. But today I used Harry Soo's beef rub. Very good, I liked it a lot. Yeah Harry!

[briano52]

KAT Vault Update: Hi All,

So, I have been doing a few more cooks on the KAT Vault. The weather has been warmer the last couple of months. I am in the South Bay Area of San Francisco (aka Silicon Valley, I can see the Apple HQ from my front window) so the temps are pretty mild compared to most places. I have discovered how efficient the KAT vault is. It is an insulated cooker but you really don't much insulation most of the year here.

Since the weather got warmer, I have had trouble keeping the temp in the cooker below 250. With each cook, I have been reducing the amount of charcoal. Today it was 87 ambient outdoor temp here in Cupertino. I filled the charcoal drawer less than halfway full. So, I guess about 10lbs of charcoal although I didn't weigh. Drawer will hold 20lbs. I let the charcoal go for 45 minutes to get to clean smoke. Put the meat on at grill level temp of 235.

The intake on the controller is closed down to about a 1/4". If you leave it much more open, even with the fan turned off, it will allow a good amount of air draw and send the temps to 280 or more on a warm day. (Remember, you have to leave the upper vent at least 3/8" open to keep the air flow sufficient that the burn stays clean and you don't get any creosote in your smoke or on your meat.)

The grill temp drifted up to the high 240's over the four hour+ cook. It is now at 245 after 6 hours. Used a SmokeX2 controller set for 235 and I don't think the fan went on much, if any, all day.

I learned that this little vault is super-efficient in holding heat. I need to be super cautious at the early stage of the cook to let the charcoal burn until smoke gets clean but not to give it so much air that the cooker overshoots 250 at the time I add cold meat and fill the water pan. Once the temps gets too high, it is really hard to bring it down in less than an hour.

I am getting great results from this cooker and I love it more every time I take it for a spin. So long as I am patient in not putting on meat until my smoke is burning clean, the flavors I am getting are sweet and clean. I usually don't need more than 2-3 half fist sized chunks of wood over the first 3 hours to get the moderate smoke profile that I favor. Using mostly oak and some fruit woods. I have been getting rave reviews from my non-cooking friends who are amazed that you can have tender and flavorful Q without it being overly smoked and dry. Balance in your life and Q are the best way to go.

Love my KAT!!!

P.S. I love getting questions. Fire away.

[STEbbq]

I don’t have any questions but love the updates . Keep ‘em coming.

I would be interested to see your results with different cuts of meat.

[briano52]

Hey Zero
Good point you made. I should report on cooks in addition to ribs. I like to do brisket and pork butt too. I live alone for the most part so when I do a big meat cook, I usually have more meat than guests can eat. So, I vacuum seal a lot of leftovers for myself and gifts. Been working through my saved meats for a few months now.

But I am about to run low on both brisket and pork butt so I will do a cook of big meats soon and report how it goes on the KAT vault. The KAT will probably do 6 briskets at once although I could not eat or give away that many. The vacuum seal is wonderful for keeping smoked meat, and most any food, fresh for an extended period of time.

You can just put the sealed bag in simmering water to reheat to serving temp and not loose moisture. I use my vac seal a lot. I have a nice Weston now. Long story on the Weston but let me know if you are interested in my take on that vac seal machine and I will post on that.

Brian

[briano52]

KAT UPDATE: I have learned a Minion Method that works great in the KAT. I purchased three fireproof bricks. Bought on Amazon. They are used in kilns. I used the bricks to make the channels that are connected. Two bricks touch one end of the firebox and one touches the other end. Kinda like a W shape.

In the channels, I put my smoking wood sticks or chunks. Not much wood required to get a nice smoke flavor. You can easily dial in the amount of smoke flavor you prefer by adjusting the amount of wood. Then I cover the wood with briquets. I like the KBB because I know their burn rate is fairly slow and about right. I am sure you could use lump or other brands of briquets and do just fine when you learn how much you need and how fast they burn.

I warm the cooker with my propane fired weed burner. Takes about 4-5 minutes. Keep moving the torch slowly around the inside of the cooker to avoid overheating any one spot. Using the torch to warm the cooker saves about 45-60 minutes of standing around waiting for the cooker to get up to desired temp.

Then I light one end on the charcoal with the weed burner. (The weed burner put out a mighty flame if you turn up the gas valve on it.) Once the fire gets going, I close the door and leave the air intake valves full open until I get close to my target temperature. When I am about 5-10 degrees below my target, which is usually about 240 degrees, I close down the air intake almost completely. I switch on my Billows fan and let the smoke color improve to where it is the desired "thin blue smoke". The smoke starts off as big clouds of white smoke. Don't put in your precious meat until the smoke quality improves. I learned the hard way that white smoke contains a lot of undesirable compounds that smell like creosote or your meat. Be patient, as the cooker will burn clean in about 15-30 minutes. The time to get clean smoke varies a little with each cook.

I use a water pan on the lowest rack for added moisture. The water helps a lot with longer cooks (brisket, port butt) and is not so much needed with shorter cooks, like ribs, although I usually do the water pan anyway. There is no downside to the water pan except that it may cause the cooker to take a little longer to get up to the target temperature that you want. Using hot water will shorten the time to get to temp.

My KAT vault is insulated. A feature I really didn't need here in California. It is hard to keep the KAT vault burning consistently at 225 degrees. It just like to burn hotter and doesn't require much air intake to get too hot for smoking. Even with the air vents closed almost to zero, the KAT will burn a little hotter than expected I have accepted this, and, to my great relief, I am getting great tasting meat, with perfect texture, when running 240 or even at 260. Using the Billows fan, I can hold a temp in that range for 12 hours while doing nothing to adjust the fire, not adding fuel and not touching or the vents. My last cook I kept the temp at 240 steady for 8 hours. The KAT still had plenty of fuel and kept going for another 5 hours as I let it burn itself out. If I use a charcoal that burns hotter than KBB, it is more difficult to maintain a long burn below 255.

The big thing that you want to avoid is getting the cooker hotter than your target temperature. If you do that, it is very difficult and slow to get the temp back down to where you want to be. The KAT vault is a really big hunk of insulated steel and holds it temp very well. (The perfect cooker for smoking meat in January in northern Minnesota!) It just doesn't like to let you lower the heat. This phenomenon is the main reason that I went to the Minion method described here. I tried just filling the basket with charcoal and my temps frequently soared to near 300 degrees or more, despite careful attempts at regulating the air intake.

Using this method, you can really set and forget the KAT after you master the art of determining the type and amount of charcoal required to maintain your desired target temp. I do use a Thermoworks controller with a remote to monitor the ambient temp and meat temp as the cook progresses. However, with each successive cook, I find myself looking at the remote less and less. The remote allows you to work in the kitchen or visit with your guests without being tied to watching the cooker. I consider the remote as mandatory equipment.

I hope this helps everyone working with a vault smoker. Let me know if you have any questions. And below is me with my 4th of July big beef ribs.

[briano52]

Thanks Donw for the nice comment. I bought that board from a guy who makes them in his house. The are beautiful and the wood is end grain so it is easy on your knives. I love the boards and have given several as gifts. The prices are less than what you would expect for such a beautiful handmade piece.

[Oak Smoke]

briano52 would you be willing to post where to get those beautiful boards. I would like to get them for my sons for Christmas.

[briano52]

Sure. the guy who makes those boards is on Etsy. https://www.etsy.com/shop/DarringtonWoodworkin