I retired a year and a half ago, my former employer called me a up a couple of moths ago- they needed some help. So I went back to work for a couple of months part time.
What to do with my new found windfall? Blow it paying bills? An American Fender Strat? A Les Paul? A vintage tube amp? Trip to Iceland? Nah... A new Weber 26" kettle!
Now, I don"t need another kettle, but that 26 is just so...sexy. I would never be in another position to be able to get one, and I do occasionally cook for larger groups. So the 26" it is.
Unboxing it, the first thing that strikes me is that this thing is yuuuuuge.A behemoth. A monster.
That's an ancient 18" next to it.
Included with it is a shelf, charcoal rails, and the modular grate.
I got the XL SnS basket for it, and as much as I love my Drip N Roast pan for the 22, I just couldn't pull the trigger for the 26" Drip n Griddle. I found some disposable foil pans at WalMart that cover about 95% of the empty real estate next to the SnS for a couple of bucks.
I moved my Spider Grills Venom controller from the Weber 22 I had it on with the help of a conversion "kit" that Spider grills sells.
This thing is a meat smokin' machine! I ran a burn in at 325 for 4 hours, then smoked 2 Pastramied tri tips, along with a regular tri tip. This thing swallows three tri tips with ease, could probably fit a 4th on, and with the shelf/rack, could have added in a big hunk of pork loin for Canadian Bacon at the same time for good measure. I've got 11lbs of bacon curing in the fridge to go on next week. Where I would normally run this bacon in two slabs, one on the SnS and one on the Weber, I can easily put 1/2 as pastrami bacon and half regular on the 26'er at the same time, yay, 1/2 as much work!
The Venom controller locks in very well on this set up. I just did a pork butt, set it at 250, and once it locked on to temp, it never varied more than a couple of degrees.
I love this behemoth!
The only con I can come up with is that I'm not overly fond of the grate that comes with it. It has "modular" sections that lift out of the grate, A circular one in the middle that's about 10" across, and a larger, square section. I assume that these lift out so you can add accessories to the actual grate. I don't like it for two reasons:
You have to lift it out and place it on something horizontally to set it down. If you lift it out and lean it against something, the two modular sections will fall out (lookout, toes!) My other gripe is that the folding "wings" at each edge for adding charcoal are tiny. Like 4" across at the center. If you're doing a long cook and need to add charcoal, it's not an easy process.
Other than that, this kettle rocks!
What to do with my new found windfall? Blow it paying bills? An American Fender Strat? A Les Paul? A vintage tube amp? Trip to Iceland? Nah... A new Weber 26" kettle!
Now, I don"t need another kettle, but that 26 is just so...sexy. I would never be in another position to be able to get one, and I do occasionally cook for larger groups. So the 26" it is.
Unboxing it, the first thing that strikes me is that this thing is yuuuuuge.A behemoth. A monster.
That's an ancient 18" next to it.
Included with it is a shelf, charcoal rails, and the modular grate.
I got the XL SnS basket for it, and as much as I love my Drip N Roast pan for the 22, I just couldn't pull the trigger for the 26" Drip n Griddle. I found some disposable foil pans at WalMart that cover about 95% of the empty real estate next to the SnS for a couple of bucks.
I moved my Spider Grills Venom controller from the Weber 22 I had it on with the help of a conversion "kit" that Spider grills sells.
This thing is a meat smokin' machine! I ran a burn in at 325 for 4 hours, then smoked 2 Pastramied tri tips, along with a regular tri tip. This thing swallows three tri tips with ease, could probably fit a 4th on, and with the shelf/rack, could have added in a big hunk of pork loin for Canadian Bacon at the same time for good measure. I've got 11lbs of bacon curing in the fridge to go on next week. Where I would normally run this bacon in two slabs, one on the SnS and one on the Weber, I can easily put 1/2 as pastrami bacon and half regular on the 26'er at the same time, yay, 1/2 as much work!
The Venom controller locks in very well on this set up. I just did a pork butt, set it at 250, and once it locked on to temp, it never varied more than a couple of degrees.
I love this behemoth!
The only con I can come up with is that I'm not overly fond of the grate that comes with it. It has "modular" sections that lift out of the grate, A circular one in the middle that's about 10" across, and a larger, square section. I assume that these lift out so you can add accessories to the actual grate. I don't like it for two reasons:
You have to lift it out and place it on something horizontally to set it down. If you lift it out and lean it against something, the two modular sections will fall out (lookout, toes!) My other gripe is that the folding "wings" at each edge for adding charcoal are tiny. Like 4" across at the center. If you're doing a long cook and need to add charcoal, it's not an easy process.
Other than that, this kettle rocks!
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