Just got the okay from the wife to spend a little money pampering myself haha. After tons of research and a few youtube videos, I want to go get the 30 gallon gateway drum smoker. Before I do so, I was wondering if anyone on the forum has used it and how they like it!. Much appreciated!
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I know you will be happy with your choice.
I know my good friend Sacred Smoke BBQ runs those babies in the competition circuit. He will be able to help you out for sure. He is a regular and should see this soon. He is also on Instagram as well.
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I have a 55 which I won at the first Blues Hog BBQ Contest and purchased a 30 gallon earlier this year. I've had great success hanging ribs in the 55. Not so much in the 30, plus I don't like that I don't have wheels on the 30 gallon.
I'd encourage you to seriously look at the Pit Barrel Cooker. It's a 30 gallon and considerably less than the Gateway. I like their split rack where you can hang in one half and cook on the grate on the other.Comment
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Yeah I have been looking at the Pit Barrel Cooker as an option as well. I am really torn on either that or even spending a little extra to get the 55 gallon gateway. I want something that I can have for a real long time. I know many people have modified their PBC with intakes and the gateway seems to have more stable temperatures than the PBC or at least to dial to the temp you want. Such a hard decisionComment
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Coming from a Kettle + SNS setup where I could control temps well, it's taken me a little time to adjust to the PBC being a machine that you don't fuss a lot over temp control. Get the lighting at the start down and temps will be just fine. I've even had it run hot and cook a brisket at 350 and it turned out great.
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I have the PBC and feel that no other similarly sized barrel can compete. If you go Gateway, I'd suggest getting the 55 gallon.Comment
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Yeah I was thinking the same thing. I am probably over analyzing all of this haha -
I agree with Livermoron! But you may want to buy a PBC to see if barrel cooking is what you want.
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As my boy Spinaker said I run a Gateway. I also have 4 pit barrels. Had 6 at one point. If you're thinking 30 gallon, save your money and go with pbc. It's a wonderful cooker. The Gateway 55 is only $100 more than the 30 gallon gateway. Gateway themselves told me to stick with the 55 if I buy more. Also, gateway has a nice sale on 1 particular black 55 model. It is $50 off ($750) and free shipping ($95 I think). I'm considering scooping that up. I'm blown away by my results so far and the cook times are ridiculous. I have done 12lb brisket in 4.5 hours. 8lb butts in 4 hours. Ribs in 1:50 to 2.5 hours. Many of the best competition teams are now cooking on Gateway. The only downside that I can think of right now is that cooking hot n fast means less/minimal bark. And as much as I love a good bark, I don't miss it with the results I'm getting. Feel free to ask any questions you may have
Edit: looks like that free shipping on that one particular barrel is no longer availableComment
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CandySueQ thanks. I will try that. I tend to prefer sweet too
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MSU Spartans the pbc does most everything except I prefer to wrap ribs in foil. I like competition style ribs most of the time. Only way to do that on pbc is cutting ribs. The flavor obtained from using quality lump with chunks is so much better than using briquettes. I'm considering buying pitmaster iq to use with pbc so I can control temp with lump...but that means electricity now. If money is not a factor, it's not close....the gateway all the way. Better flavor, temp control, larger capacity, cooks much faster. Also I use less fuel from being able to choke off oxygen.
I will add that it is easier to hang ribs all the way in the pbc. The gateway cooks so fast that it is difficult to time when to check and pull. I lost 1 out of 3 racks all 3 times that I have attempted to hang beginning to end in gateway. The flavor in the pbc is a bit harsh for me now as I have become used to a cleaner smoke flavor. Ask all the questions you'd like. I'm hereComment
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MSU Spartans my favorite lump so far has been fogo premium lump. Excellent stuff. A close 2nd has been blues hog lump. The American made royal oak was good too. I avoid the other 3 royal oak lump sources. All from south America. According to reviews some quality control issues. The royal oak bag will have an obvious Made in the USA stamp on the front. The cost of fogo may be worth it though because it was full of large pieces. I got more cooks out of same size bag as any of the other quality lumps.
Now for flavor profile....I believe I have had the best quality smoke possible, assuming wood was excellent (I buy from same place as most competition teams in the area). I once owned the KBQ. The smoke doesn't get any more pure than that. Ask Spinaker or any other KBQ fan. I cannot duplicate that smoke flavor but I am so much closer to it with the gateway than using briquettes in the pbc. But like I said, I would like to try lump in a pbc with the pitmaster iq and I believe you'll get same great flavor as gateway. Lots of pros and cons. In an ideal world where money or space was not an issue, I would have 4 gateways and a custom 1000 gallon propane tank offset smoker lolComment
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Sacred Smoke BBQ
I agree FOGO is great stuff. I burns forever. As you mentioned, every bag is full of huge pieces, along with smaller ones too..
I want to try FOGO in the PBC, I may try that this weekend. I think some ribs with Cherry smoke added would be a good place to start. I love that combo in my kamados. I used FOGO with cherry, tonight, on some salmon and the results were spectacular.
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Please report back with great details on fogo in the pbc. I'm afraid of temp spikes with lump in pbc without temp control....however, I noticed that I have much smaller temp spikes when opening gateway while using fogo. I'm guessing due to so many large pieces??? Oh boy I'll be waiting for your report!
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Went searching for Fogo in my area. Bad news, closest place is 3 hours away. Good news, my son goes to school in the same town.
Wonder if the wife would notice if another bag of charcoal showed up in the garage. Hmm....
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I had to order mine online. My wife gave up asking about that stuff because I always respond with "I'm still getting ready for Y2K." -
Now you can use 2038 as a response, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Year_2038_problem
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