Crappy Smoke... what am I doing wrong?

[rickgregory]

The last couple of times I've smoked I battle clouds of white/grey smoke. If I do LONG smokes, things eventually settle down several hours in and I get the thin blue stuff.

HOWEVER... On shorter smokes, that doesn't help.

I've watched the Adrenaline BBQ video and read the Science of Smoke post here. I get that if I'm starving the coals I'll get smoke like this, but today I've got all 3 vents wide open, top one too and since I've not installed the gasket, air was leaking around the edges.

Setup is simple... Weber 22", SNS. Today I cleaned it all out so there's no ash etc.

Wood are chunks of apple from Home Depot, kept inside so they're not damp/moldy etc and placed directly on the coals.

So.. I'm at a loss. With plenty of air, no ash, dry wood... why do I still get crappy smoke an hour in?

[FireMan]

This may sound like a dumb question & I am not being facetious but, is it really crappy smoke? Could be the smoke is ok, just not lookin like you may perceive it to be. How’s the food tastin?
Personally, I don’t pay any mind to the appearance of my smoke. I light em, get em hot & cook.

[Razor]

I would second this but technically I’m the 6th.

[Jerod Broussard]

I had appeared to be what was really crappy smoke coming out of a drum smoker recently. Idiot me dropped the hot coals on top of a wood chunk that probably weighed almost 2 lbs. Everyone who ate the meat wanted to know the wood I used because the smoke flavor was awesome. Go figure.

[Spinaker]

Make sure your fire is good and hot. You don't want a large, hot fire, but a small, hot fire. Say, five briqqutes that are red hot. Then place your wood directly on these coals. This will ensure that the fire burns hot and clean. It should burn off the impurities and the smoke should go clean.

You don't really need to add wood after this, because most of the smoke you are putting on the meat occurs in the first couple of hours. Once the surface of the meat heats up past a couple of hours, smoke retention is minimal.

[mountainsmoker]

What charcoal are you using? You say you keep your wood in the garage is that the same with the coals. If the coals pick up moisture that could be part of your problem. Other than that I don't know.

[Huskee]

I agree with FireMan, sometimes it's a simple perception we may have, but there's really no problem. If the food is good, don't worry about the appearance of the smoke. After all that's why we do this, for good food.

[jfmorris]

I’ve been smoking with charcoal and wood chunks for a lot of years, and don’t pay too much attention to the smoke, as long as it doesn’t get sooty looking - then you are in trouble (creosote). Some white smoke early in the cook is not something to worry about in my opinion. It thins it over time.

[Red Man]

I’ve found when using a 22 with SnS...while the smoker is getting up to temp the smoke is white and billowy. Once I get close to temp and close down the vents, the smoke thins out within 15 minutes or so. My lighting method is a starter cube under one corner of the SnS, with the SnS fully loaded already. I tried the Adrenaline bbq way but found it much more convenient to do it my way.

[Skinsfan1311]

Interesting.
Can you clarify that?
I.e. provide "idiot-proof" direction for your lighting method.
Thanks!

[Red Man]

Skinsfan1311 I fill the SnS with charcoal and wood chunks. Then I remove charcoal from one corner of the SnS, leaving a single layer of charcoal to set the starter cube on. I set the starter cube in the far corner on a piece of charcoal and light the cube. I then stack the briquettes back on top of the lit starter cube. Once the smoker is almost up to temp I set a wood chunk on top of the lit coals.

[rickgregory]

Thanks everyone. The pork loin tasted great. It's the white, billowy smoke that Red Man talks about.

Charcoal is new KBB.

I might just not be letting the coals get hot enough to start, that's a thought spinaker.

I'd not worry about it except everyone says you want that thin blue smoke. Maybe more a thing for long smokes vs the 1-2 hour ones.

[Spinaker]

Let the coals heat up in the chimney, then give it a really good shake to get most of the excess ash off of them before you add them to the SNS. This will make sure that you have red hot coals and there is not ash impeding airflow. I do this trick when I am adding the coals to the PBC.

[Mudkat]

It may be just a preheat problem on your short cooks. Preheat until the smoke settles down then put the meat on. Short cooks still need long preheats? That's what I'm thinking.

Don't rush your short cooks or spit into the wind. Don't pull the mask off of old Long Ranger and don't mess around with preheating Slim. Doo doo dee doot doo dooty doot doo doo.....

[rickgregory]

OK so.. preheating. I get that it's good to have everything up to temp - grill, air, etc. But how does this affect smoke quality? Say I have red hot coals. Dry wood. I plop the dry wood on the red hot coals. It starts to smolder, perhaps burn a bit.

Why would the smoke be much different 1 hour in than 10 minutes in? Sure, I can see that the wood might have some residual moisture that gets driven off in the first 20mins or so... but after that?

[Murdy]

Have you tried a different wood, just to see if you get the same result?

[rickgregory]

Yes and no. That is, I've tried different woods (hickory and apple) but from the same source (Kingsford wood chunks from Home Depot)

[Henrik]

I’m with Spinaker 100%. You need a few coals burning hot, i.e. a small fire.

To answer your question on smoke quality: it is directly related to combustion temp. If the combustion temp (which is different from your grill temp) drops, which it does if:

- you use moist fuel
- you choke oxygen supply
- you add too large a wood chunk
- you use moist wood chunks

etc, you will get white, possibly thick smoke. So if you have red hot coals and add 2-3 small chunks they won’t impede the current combustion temp much, instead they will move through stage 1-3* very quickly and therefore produce clean smoke.

Even if conditions are sub-optimal at the beginning, eventually combustion temp will increase and therefore you will get clean smoke after a while.

What we’re telling you is to fast forward to this stage already at the outset of a cook.

Let us know if you have any more questions.

* stage 1 - evaporate water
* stage 2 - burn Volatile organic compounds (gases)
* stage 3 - combustion of cellulose/wood fibers

[rickgregory]

"- you add too large a wood chunk"

that might have been it this time. Chunk was fist-sized.

[JeffJ]

I use smaller chunks for low/slow and the ones I put directly on the hot coals I wait until they catch fire and I let them burn for 30-60 seconds before putting the lid down. This minimizes the amount of time they produce white smoke before thinning out.

[DWCowles]

I only worried about the smoke that comes out of my stickburner, don’t worry so much with the other smokers I have.

[JeffJ]

Being fairly new to stick-burning and having a cheap offset I have a tendency to run it hotter than is optimal for low/slow (the one rack of ribs I did in it turned out great though) because I'm so anal about producing clean smoke. I mostly use it as a cooker and am doing a pork tenderloin and some red skins in it this evening.