WSM 18.5 for Higher Temp Cooks

[Hulagn1971]

Super easy to get the temp up on the WSM 22 for turkey, the smaller one should be even easier. Leave the water pan dry, line it with foil. Put a foil pan on the lower grate. I use Harry Soo's donut method to get the coals lit and open up all of the vents top and bottom. When within about 40 degrees of target smoker temp adjust vents very slightly to slow it down. I wouldn't use a blower controller to achieve higher temps as it isn't needed and might blow ashes all inside the chamber getting it on the bird. Meathead's recipe is incredible and spot on for turkey. Have fun!

[crazytown3]

2nd on getting the larger chimney. I have both large and small, and use them for different applications depending on what I'm doing.

[Panhead John]

I’d get the larger chimney anyway, there’ll be many times you can probably use the extra coals.

[jsaniga]

Great input, folks. I am doing my trial bird tomorrow. Will be using a dry water pan (or shallow plate if it gets delivered) very similar to what ecowper is doing. I have the small Weber chimney. Should I get the larger one for bird cooks?

[jlazar]

Thanks

[Mr. Bones]

Magnificent Bird Presentation, Brother! I also am an advocate of th water pan.

Does it help? I dunno, scientifically...

Does it hoight? Nope, lol!

[Henrik]

Yep, I use boiling water in the water pan also, good point.

[Razor]

I have an identical setup and could never hit those temps either when I first started cooking on it.

Knowing what I know now, try starting with a full lit chimney, and removing the Bellows, all vents wide-open. (I don’t think the Bellows can provide enough air.) Maybe even try letingt it run for a little bit with the lid off, just to get it up to temp, then put your bird on.

I don’t know how Henrik gets to 350 with only 10-12 briquettes. That would take me hours. 😂

[NotTheGolfer]

No water pan. Just the gravy pan underneath. And yes, I meant LIT charcoal. 😂

[Mr. Bones]

VWB+`

[jlazar]

Started with half chimney of lit coals and let it spread into unlit. Used a water pan with boiling water. Put a foil covered water pan in place of lower rack to catch drippings. Monitored WSM and bird temps with a Maverick. Top vent left 3/4 open. Controlled temp using lower vent. Had no trouble getting over 300. Used John Henry Pecan Rub. Crisped skin at end with a searzall.

[SierraBBQGuy]

No water pan, prop open the door for more airflow. I’m able to get mine to 350° Using Kingsford briquettes. Look on the Virtual Weber. Site for lots of good info.

[ecowper]

Assuming you mean lit charcoal, not wet charcoal and that is just a typo. Did you have the water pan in? Was there water in the pan?

[NotTheGolfer]

Thanks for all the input! As far as my set up goes, I used probably about 1/2 to 3/4 of a weber chimney of wet charcoals. I took these out of a fire ring of Kingsford blue charcoal. I’m using a thermal works Billows, and had the top that open, with the bottom vents shirt except for the one that the Bellows was hooked into. I couldn’t get the temperature above about 250°. The outside temperature was in the 50s and 60s yesterday when I did it. Hope that’s more helpful!

[ecowper]

as I expected, the WSM 18 can get hot much easier than the WSM 22. Air volume is a big deal.