Finally cooked ribs on my 22.5 WSM this past weekend. I used my new Hunsaker Vortex plate on top of the charcoal ring along with my new Gateway hanging rack with no water pan. I've always been low and slow with ribs, but decided to try hot and fast with some baby backs. Temp ranged from 300-320 using Kingsford Comp briquettes as well as a mojobrick. I applied yellow mustard to ribs and a heavy coating of Blues Hog rub. When the fire settled (about 45 min), I hung the ribs for 2 hrs and spritzed with apple juice a couple of times. They were wrapped with some butter, honey and brown sugar and put on the smoker grate for another hour. I applied a quick glaze of Bullseye mixed with apple jelly and let it setup uncovered for 10-15 minutes and that was it. I loved the cooking method on the modified WSM/UDS and the ribs were really tender and tasted great.
The past weekend I decided to use my WSM with Vortex plate in a KCBS competition to cook ribs and got a call for 10th place. Some really good cooks in the competition including Bill Gillespie of Smoking Hoggz (Jack and American Royal GC Titles) so was very happy to be in the top 10.
Thanks, brother! I believe ya may be right...
I ran over to th WKC site, think that might be where I saw th answer before, come up with same info, an link: (Mods, pls feel free to add on AR to my link, or PM me how to do...) Link
Last edited by Mr. Bones; June 26, 2018, 08:59 PM.
I have the 22.5 in Gateway drum hanger as well. I cook ribs like that a lot. One of the advantages to doing this on the WSM versus the PBC is the ability to lock in a temperature. I can hang the ribs at 225 pretty easily using using this setup whereas most PBC owners report that their pit stays between 265 and 315 with not a lot of wiggle room. Here's the problem though, once you open up the lid to do a little spritzing of the ribs that thing gets over 300° really quickly. To get it to settle back down you'll need to fiddle with the vents again. So unlike the PBC where it will settle back down to the normal temperature range, on the WSM you may need to play with the vents a little bit more than normal. By using the water pan and cooking indirect, the WSM will settle down to your locked in temperature a little better than if you're using the hanging method. Which makes perfect sense because that's what it was designed for. I also find that my smoke ring is diminished using the hanging method versus the standard method of using the WSM with the water pan. I think there is a greater speed of air flow in the WSM using the hanging method versus the PBC so the the smoke might travel through the cooker a little quicker.
Here's another thing, all that above...it doesn't matter. You'll get great results no matter what. The magic of the PBC and hanging ribs in a WSM is that you get to have the fat drip on the coals and it creates a fog of smokey goodness around the ribs. Even in spite of the temperature differences. The advantage to you is that you have the option to do both methods where PBC owners can't. But gosh, there's something about that PBC though. I can drink beer a lot more freely with it going. It's so easy.
Anyways, I think I'm the only one. But I prefer the taste of my ribs using the water pan in the WSM versus the hanging method on the WSM or having ribs from my friends who have PBCs. Maybe it's just what I'm used to, maybe I don't like the earthy grilled flavor that comes with the hanging method as much as the smokehouse flavor that is characteristic of a well cooked WSM. But I won't complain about having more capacity on my WSM nor will I complain about things cooking faster. Way faster! Don't let a rack fall in the coals like I did the first time I tried it because I lost track of time. Try hanging a whole packer and have it be done in 5-8 hours and see how many overnight brisket cooks you do moving forward.
Heres the last time I tried the hanging method. It came out incredible.
The difference with my setup is that I have the Hunsaker Vortex plate which acts as a heat shield and supposedly circulates the smoke and heat in the WSM. I believe this also cuts down on the grease drip on flame flavor quite a bit. As for spiking temps, I agree you can't leave the lid off for a long time, but using my Fireboard controller this past weekend, temps did not run wild. You can see the cook from the pic below on temps. Fire started at 6:15, ribs hung at 7:30 and I slowly worked temp up to 250 over the next half hour. Then held rock steady at 250 until water spritz at 9:30 and you can see temp stayed right at 250. From 10-10:15 lid was opened a number of times to take ribs out for wrapping (I used butcher paper instead of foil). On the graph you can see a few minor spikes, but once ribs were back on it settled right back at 250 until each rack (4) probed easily. I'm not saying spikes on the WSM are not a potential issue, but managed correctly, you can keep things pretty tight.
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