Before we left for Thailand last October, I began seriously looking into getting a smoker from Lone Star Grillz. I was particularly interested in their Insulated Vertical smokers because I thought I wanted a pure smoker. I already had a PBC, a RecTec pellet grill and a PK360. I talked to Chris Goodlander of Lone Star Grillz several times and had some email conversations with Rus Jones of Smoky Ribs BBQ YouTube channel. Rus has 3 different Lone Star Grillz cookers, and after that, I had pretty much decided I wanted the Mini model even though the capacity was way more than I would ever use.
Anyway, after we got to Thailand I started thinking about the ways I cook. I BBQ almost every night, but of all those cooks, I might do one brisket, and one pork butt, and maybe three or four racks of ribs a month. Everything else is direct or indirect cooking with a duration between 20 minutes and 1 hour. The Lone Star Mini only does one thing – it smokes, so I would be spending a lot of money on something I would cook on only 5 or 6 times a month. I decided that wasn’t the best idea.
A month or so later, I was browsing the Lone Star Grillz website again and saw this thing called the Adjustable Charcoal Grill and Smoker. I watched Chris’ video walk through and it looked like it was just what I needed. According to Chris, it could be used as an offset smoker using either charcoal or as a stick burner, it could be used as a vertical smoker, and because it has two independent fireboxes, it’s superb at 2-zone cooking, and, oh yeah, it’s also a bit like a Santa Maria grill because the fireboxes adjust up or down over about a 13†range from the bottom of the pit to within a couple of inches of the cooking grate.
Then I went searching for cook videos on YouTube. There weren’t any. I called Chris and told him that while this looked like the perfect smoker for me, I was very leery about spending that much money when I hadn’t ever seen it in action. He assured me that the Adjustable had been an obsession of his since its inception about 7 years ago, that it had gone through several iterations and that he had cooked extensively on the pit all through its development, and that it was the most versatile cooker that Lone Star made. With that ringing endorsement, I ordered one to be delivered to Arizona after our return in March of 2020.
Two days after our return, a delivery truck showed up outside our driveway and the driver was kind enough to dolly the massive crate into our garage. Should you decide to buy a pit from Lone Star Grillz, you will need a knife, a prybar, a sturdy hammer, a phillips-head screwdriver and some tin snips. The knife it to cut the the clear plastic sheeting that covers the top of the crate. The crate itself is made from 2 by 4’s and plywood sheets and is held together with nails, screws and a couple of steel bands that run horizontally around the crate. Figure on maybe 45 minutes to an hour to get it taken apart. I’m not very handy so YMMV.
Getting the 450 lb. pit through the house and onto the back porch is another story in itself which I won’t bore you with.
First thing to do is season the pit which is done by first spraying the entire interior with vegetable oil and then lighting small charcoal fires in each firebox and keeping the temp around 300° for 4 or 5 hours. That puts a layer of rust resistance on the interior and cures the heat resistant paint on the outside of the pit.
I’ve been cooking on the Adjustable Charcoal Grill and Smoker almost every night since about March 15th, and it has far exceeded my hopes and expectations. There’s just nothing it can’t do and do well. Everything Chris Goodlander claimed it could do is true. The only thing I haven’t done with it yet is to use it as a stick burner, but I’ve done both offset and direct smoking and a ton of 2-zone cooks. This pit has made the PK360 redundant.
This is big iron, and it will hold a steady temp for hours unattended. One caveat is that it is very easy to over-smoke on this cooker. The airflow through the pit at smoking temps is nowhere near that of a Lone Star Grillz offset smoker, so I’ve learned to use at most, three small chunks of smoke wood. I will post some pictures of a brisket and pork butt and some ribs that I’ve done in another post.
Chris has now made three YouTube videos of cooks on this pit, so if you’re at all interested, you can see what it’s like in action.
Anyway, after we got to Thailand I started thinking about the ways I cook. I BBQ almost every night, but of all those cooks, I might do one brisket, and one pork butt, and maybe three or four racks of ribs a month. Everything else is direct or indirect cooking with a duration between 20 minutes and 1 hour. The Lone Star Mini only does one thing – it smokes, so I would be spending a lot of money on something I would cook on only 5 or 6 times a month. I decided that wasn’t the best idea.
A month or so later, I was browsing the Lone Star Grillz website again and saw this thing called the Adjustable Charcoal Grill and Smoker. I watched Chris’ video walk through and it looked like it was just what I needed. According to Chris, it could be used as an offset smoker using either charcoal or as a stick burner, it could be used as a vertical smoker, and because it has two independent fireboxes, it’s superb at 2-zone cooking, and, oh yeah, it’s also a bit like a Santa Maria grill because the fireboxes adjust up or down over about a 13†range from the bottom of the pit to within a couple of inches of the cooking grate.
Then I went searching for cook videos on YouTube. There weren’t any. I called Chris and told him that while this looked like the perfect smoker for me, I was very leery about spending that much money when I hadn’t ever seen it in action. He assured me that the Adjustable had been an obsession of his since its inception about 7 years ago, that it had gone through several iterations and that he had cooked extensively on the pit all through its development, and that it was the most versatile cooker that Lone Star made. With that ringing endorsement, I ordered one to be delivered to Arizona after our return in March of 2020.
Two days after our return, a delivery truck showed up outside our driveway and the driver was kind enough to dolly the massive crate into our garage. Should you decide to buy a pit from Lone Star Grillz, you will need a knife, a prybar, a sturdy hammer, a phillips-head screwdriver and some tin snips. The knife it to cut the the clear plastic sheeting that covers the top of the crate. The crate itself is made from 2 by 4’s and plywood sheets and is held together with nails, screws and a couple of steel bands that run horizontally around the crate. Figure on maybe 45 minutes to an hour to get it taken apart. I’m not very handy so YMMV.
Getting the 450 lb. pit through the house and onto the back porch is another story in itself which I won’t bore you with.
First thing to do is season the pit which is done by first spraying the entire interior with vegetable oil and then lighting small charcoal fires in each firebox and keeping the temp around 300° for 4 or 5 hours. That puts a layer of rust resistance on the interior and cures the heat resistant paint on the outside of the pit.
I’ve been cooking on the Adjustable Charcoal Grill and Smoker almost every night since about March 15th, and it has far exceeded my hopes and expectations. There’s just nothing it can’t do and do well. Everything Chris Goodlander claimed it could do is true. The only thing I haven’t done with it yet is to use it as a stick burner, but I’ve done both offset and direct smoking and a ton of 2-zone cooks. This pit has made the PK360 redundant.
This is big iron, and it will hold a steady temp for hours unattended. One caveat is that it is very easy to over-smoke on this cooker. The airflow through the pit at smoking temps is nowhere near that of a Lone Star Grillz offset smoker, so I’ve learned to use at most, three small chunks of smoke wood. I will post some pictures of a brisket and pork butt and some ribs that I’ve done in another post.
Chris has now made three YouTube videos of cooks on this pit, so if you’re at all interested, you can see what it’s like in action.
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