New 22” WK & SNS maiden voyage!

[patcrail]

Got the brand new 22” Weber Premium & SNS put together & burning in/calibrating as we speak, getting ready to smoke the Porter Road pig brisket & a hunk of pork shoulder.
it was a beautiful thing seeing the brand spanking new, shiny grill & SNS all together, but even more beautiful with the probe hole drilled, smoke rolling & ashes dropping, I’m on a mission to get this thing greasy today!

[rickgregory]

grats. One bit of advice. ok two.

First start with a small hot fire in one corner of the SNS. Let those coals ash over, then spread the rest of the coals in there. If you spread the coals and light one side, too many can catch and it's too hot.

Second, crank the vents down to start. It's easier to bring temps up by opening them a little at a time than to rein in too high a temp.

Also once things are going and stable leave it alone as much as possible. Not only will you let heat escape by checking it, but you let air in which can cause the fire to accelerate, heating things up.

And have fun!

[patcrail]

Thanks rickgregory! I think I even lit too many in the corner (pic above), lit 12 coals, & once they were hot, I filled in the rest with unlit coals, but man, the only way I can keep this thing below 275 is after dowsing quite a few of the coals on the middle that finally got going, literally closing bottom damper all the way & then just giving it a tiny “tap” to get a sliver of a vent ( a whole different setup than my Smokey Joe vents!) .... and then I have to close the top vent to about 1/3rd

[patcrail]

rickgregory I’m also thinking adding the full load of unlit charcoal is just too much for low n slow, because you end up with so many burning at once.... I’ll figure it out, this is first cook: doing 8 hour/200 deg cooks on Smokey Joe sure thought me a lot about fire management!

[rickgregory]

I start with the bottom vents at 1/8 to 1/4 and top at 1/2. Mine's an older model kettle though.

During nice or even just decent weather you'll find that it takes a lot fewer coals that you think to keep temps. I mostly run mine at 250F

[patcrail]

Thanks... I was thinking I’d need maybe 1/8 open on bottom, 1/2 on top, but that’s just way too hot with this charcoal load... the bottom is actually closed, just not “pushed” over, sliver of daylight, & if I close the top any more, smoke starts rolling under the lid edge... WAY TOO MUCH CHARCOAL, I think, for 95 deg.. followed instructions, now I’ll adapt

[klflowers]

Nice cooker. Congrats

[Dadof3Illinois]

You just need to play with the settings and get familiar with it. I have a 26” kettle and start with 10-12 lit and ashed over briquettes. Then add my wood, unlit charcoal and water. Close the lid, leave vents wide open until I get within 20degrees of what I’m wanting then start shutting them down until it levels out. But each cooker is a little different. Just play around and find what works for you. Those kettles are great cooking machines!!

[patcrail]

Amen... I really didn’t have a feel for it, coming from a 14” Smokey Joe, so followed the SNS instructions, and right away learned 12 briquettes is way too many to start with in 95 deg heat for me for low n slow, and adding the full chimney of unlit just made it worse, had to basically close the bottom vent but a sliver, close the top most of the way, squirt the coals to dowse some, then it cooperated for a couple hours

[patcrail]

(2/2): after that, it burned down, I shoved the coals to one end, put a lot less in the rest of the basket, and it started acting much better, 1/8 bottom, 1/2 top to maintain 225

[ofelles]

Congrats. Love the new. And learning, for the most part