Pit Barrel with Pitmaster IQ 110 take 2

[phoccer]

Today was one whole chicken cut up like Noah does in the video on the pitbarrel.com website. Brined a couple hours early with 1 1/2 teaspoons of salt(5.5 lb chicken), then just before hanging the chicken mixed up 1 1/2 teaspoons pepper and 1 teaspoon paprika. Keeping the rubs simple.

Decided to try going with less fuel today as I knew it would be a short cook. Went with the between 1 & 4 hours amount in this post(Thanks Brewmaster !). Since I use Kingsford Pro I made a slight adjustment with 50 unlit in the basket and 30 lit in the basket. Basically I started with a half basket of coals and removed 30 lighting them for the standard 12 minutes. At 12 minutes, poured the lit coals over the unlit, put the rebar in and hung the chicken. Had my Maverick setup to record temps and hooked up the IQ 110 with the blower setting at 4. I figure I'm removing all other intake from the PBC so I should just let the IQ 110 run full out when it does push air. It was an interesting cook.

Temps started out at 250 and I thought, "Cool, it will spike up into the range I'm looking for and settle in". I was looking to cook at 325. My thought was wrong. Within a couple minutes I was running at 215. Went out and the IQ 110 would run for 10 seconds then shut off for 10 seconds, repeat. WTH? I think I need to reread the manual because I thought it would just start blowing full time with the temp already below the 325 of the setting. No problem, crack the lid! About 15 minutes later when PBC hit 300 I reseated the lid as I figured temps would keep climbing, as they had ramped up quickly, and settle in around 325. Wrong. Temps went to 315 then started coming back down to 290. Crack the lid! Within 5 minutes temps had ramped up to 320 so I reseated the lid. Temps ramped up to 340 then finally got into decent groove. I was recording obsessively today as I was trying to get my 325 range and wanted to keep track of how things were bouncing around. Here's the data and some comments:

16:15	248	Meat on. IQ set to 325 on 4.
16:20	246	At 14:15 cracked lid and removed IQ to allow full air flow. IQ was pushing small amounts of air every so often. At 16:25 went out and IQ hose was disconnected and running full steam. Crakced lid to 1/2 and reconnected hose.
16:30	271	Lid cracked 1/2"+, IQ running constantly
16:32	302	Reseated lid when temps went quickly past 300. Temps went to 316 then started to settle down to 310 within a few minutes.
16:36	298	Cracked lid 1/2", IQ was not running. Temps dropped to 290.
16:40	320	Reseated lid with temp ramping up to 320. Rolled up into the mid 340s.
16:45	309
16:47	300	Temps drop to 292. IQ starts running full time. Before that it was 10 seconds on, 10 seconds off
16:50	307	Temps seem to have leveled off and are slowly pushing back up settling at 309 for a while before pushing up to 322. IQ running off and on.
17:00	324
17:05	320
17:10	322
17:13	316
17:20	313	IQ running constantly
17:25	316	IQ green light(at temp) still running constantly
17:30	325	Quick peek to check temp of chicken, 145. Temp dropped to 289 and popped back up.
17:35	320
17:40	327	Took one half out to check temp, breast at 150.
17:45	333
17:50	311
18:00	315

Took me over 30 minutes to get the PBC into the range I wanted with the IQ 110 ramping up and turning off the amount of air and keeping temps in a good range for over an hour.

My thoughts:

1. Fun trying just a half basket to see if I could do it and how things would go. IMO it was a success on that point. I would try running with a half basket again for shorter cooks.
2. I need to let the PBC get up closer to the temp range I'm looking at before I connect the IQ and set it's control temp. Variety of ways to do that, start with more lit briquettes, keep the lid cracked when I first hang the food, let the PBC run with the lid off before hanging the food and/or try @fzdoc 's lighting instructions.

I pulled the chicken when the inner part of the breast was at 160. Where I measured the leg wasn't too much higher. I don't eat chicken skin but I could tell it wasn't all that crispy. The leg and breast were very juicy but lacked flavor. Next time I'll pick up the skin and apply the rub directly on the meat. Another issue was the breast meat had a chewy texture too it. The legs were fall apart delicious but the breasts were weird. We've had some chicken like this lately despite getting it to the 160-165 range. I did some googling and apparently there's a condition developing in chickens due to the way we are raising them called woody breast. I've had that same chewy chicken from multiple sources so something I'll have to pay more attention to and see if it's a specific brand or I'm just running into the 20-30% of chicken with that issue.

Here's the last of the coals after the chicken came out. The clip on the handle is how I hang my Maverick. The metal "hook" just slips under the clip handle and hangs there. Simple but effective.

[Sacred Smoke BBQ]

I'd say good effort and the best part about all of this is learning to make adjustments to get the best Que after being thrown a curve. The way you fire up the pbc is very different now. I haven't read the instructions for the pitmaster iq but any pit that I have cooked on that involves temp adjustment, I have never put my food on until I had a good fire with steady temps that I want to cook at. With my Gateway I let it run 15 minutes after I hit my desired temp to ensure it is locked in (used to do 30 minutes). The number of briquettes you're using and lighting (30) is fine. I would consider 20. And the 12-15 minutes is for pbc temp purposes due to the way it's setup. Now that you have the pitmaster I would go smaller/hotter. Light 20 and have them ashed over. Depending on what chimney, coal, elevation, etc, that could take 15-30 minutes. My guess with only 20 it will take 15-20 minutes. Dump it kind of centered. Like filling a volcano. Not spread out everywhere. Doesn't need to be perfect. Close lid and have pitmaster setup for desired temp. When you get there, let it settle in for 10 or 15 minutes to ensure your temp and to clean up your smoke. When you first hit your desired temp the fire will have been getting a lot more air and now it will suddenly start to choke it off...creating dirtier smoke. When you first put the cold food on the temp will probably drop a little but don't worry. You know you have an efficient fire and it showed steady temps for about 15 minutes before putting on the food... it will be right back there as the meat warms up a little bit. If you keep adjusting, you risk over shooting and then when you bring it back down you got dirty smoke again. Hope my rambling helps. Please someone chime in here if I missed anything or you feel I'm off in my info. Love discussing and learning about this stuff

[fzxdoc]

Great info, phoccer . I'm vicariously enjoying your learning curve.

Kathryn

[phoccer]

Glad you are enjoying my adventure. Greatly appreciate all you've contributed to the forums and your followup guidance.

[phoccer]

Sacred Smoke BBQ The 30 coals for 12 minutes was working great for me to hit temps in the 275-300 range on the PBC but I was also using the PBC in it's original setup and not covering the intake with the IQ immediately, looks like that was my issue on this cook. With the original setup my temps would spike to the upper 300s then settle in as expected or hoped . So, I'm guessing my 30 coals lit for 12 minutes would work to let me hit 325 IF I do as you mentioned and leave the IQ unconnected and the lid cracked or off for 15 minutes or so and let a good strong fire take hold. I may also try running fzxdoc 's lighting method from the forum sticky as that seems to work great for a lot of people. Once a good burn is going then connect the IQ to keep temps in the desired range. Definitely having fun learning.

[RobertC]

When using a less-than-full basket and intending for higher cooking temps, have you considered using bricks or some sort of ring to reduce the effective diameter of the basket? That would tend to concentrate the coals in a smaller area, which might enhance the spread of ignition.

I wondered about some of these questions here:

https://pitmaster.amazingribs.com/forum/grills-and-smokers/charcoal/pit-barrel-cooker/339092-less-than-full-load-of-coal?p=340084#post340084

[phoccer]

I pushed all the coals to one side then made sure all of the lit coals I added were on the pile. So I think I got a good pile going I just immediately choked off the air supply by placing the lid back on and attaching the IQ.

[RobertC]

Sounds like it chokes down better than it fans up.

[Polarbear777]

I’ve been wondering about controllers and PBC. When you had the IQ covering the intake, was there any outlet anywhere?

With other setups in a pk or kettle, all the input controllers require the exit vent be open at least a little or they cannot control the fire and it dies. To get intake there has to be some exhaust.

With the rebar in, was there no exit except when you cracked the lid?

Not sure why the controller would stop the fan if the temperature was too low unless the thermometer was in a place where uneven temps spiked.

added: I don’t have a PBC but is it true that in standard operating mode the only opening is at the bottom? If true and it breathes both ways through one hole to work it’s magic, then with the fan controller it will have to be set up differently (pulling out one rebar may be enough and could try this as a test).

[RobertC]

The top vents are 3/4" in diameter, and the rebar don't fully block them.

[Polarbear777]

Good to know. So it does exhale from the top a little. Maybe not enough for the fan controller to stabilize.

I’d be interested in knowing if the fan would stabilize the system minus one rebar.

[DWCowles]

Nice write up! I need to cook with my PBC more often.

[phoccer]

Me too. I've wandered away and haven't cooked anything in a couple months.

[phoccer]

Polarbear777 As RobertC mentioned the rebar holes are not completely covered so that's your exhaust. What I may experiment with is getting 1/4" bars as fzxdoc has done to get more exhaust. It's worked on my two attempts so far so I may just roll with it.

[Polarbear777]

If you try it again I’d love to know if you can get the controller to run without cracking the lid. Always been interested in the PBC but haven’t seen many use a controller.

[GadjetGriller]

On my IQ110 its thermometer is off by about 10 degrees with my other Thermometers. I sent a message to the company and they said their Thermometer is more precise than Mavericks and Fireboards. Being obstant like I am I trust my Fireboard so I adjust my 110 up to equal what the fireboard is telling me. Once I did that the low heat alarms pretty much stopped, Unless they were real lol.

[GadjetGriller]

Out of curiosity how did you connect the 110 to the pbc and where did you put the probe?

[phoccer]

On my first attempt I took a photo of the full setup, it's in this thread, https://pitmaster.amazingribs.com/fo...0-brisket-cook The kit I bought came with a PBC connector and I also bought a connector for my kettle.

[GadjetGriller]

Very nice. I live in Flat West Texas which means its always windy! On 1 of my cooks I couldn't figure out why the PBC was running so hot? Then I finally realized that the Rebar holes were in alignment with the wind that day (15 to 20 mph) soon as I turned the PBC the temp went down to normal!!

[phoccer]

Oh wow. Hadn't really considered the alignment of the rebar holes and the wind. I'll have to keep that in mind on windy days.

[Polarbear777]

Was working on running a PBC with fan and the coals kept dying. After some research and staring at the graphs I found the problem.

Many controllers hsve a "lid open detect" function that turns off the fan if there is a sharp drop in temperature and then resumes after 5 minutes or so. As it turns out I made my install so well that when the fan stops, the temperature drops so rapidly that it triggers the lid feature, shutting off the fan for 5 minutes, which is just enough time to kill the fire. Of course when I’d go to check on it, the fan was running full speed and I could feel air flowing, because the 5 minutes had elapsed. In fact I think the fireboard default is 7 minutes for this feature.

I turned that feature completely off and it controlls the PBC beautifully.
If you are having trouble be sure to check all the "features" of your system.

[phoccer]

Awesome. Excellent tip. Thank you!

[Spinaker]

Very good insight. Thanks for sharing.