Scotch: Current favorite- The Arran (anything by them), Glenmorangie 12yr Lasanta, sherry cask finished. The Balvenie Double Wood, also like Oban 18yr, and The Glenlivet Nadurra (Oloroso sherry cask finished) among others. Neat please.
About meReal name: Aaron
Location: Farwell, Michigan - near Clare (dead center of lower peninsula).
Occupation:
Healthcare- Licensed & Registered Respiratory Therapist (RRT) at MyMichigan Health, a University of Michigan Health System.
If you haven't see their video it's worth a quick watch:
Pellet cookers are notorious for being delicate with the smoke flavor even though they all say otherwise, however the Mammoth allows you to add wood chunks to the burn pot. Fantastic!
STEbbq It's tough for me to do reviews in the winter, I currently don't have a covered area, and it's cold up here. Not fair to test out temps and burn times and such in harsh conditions. But who knows. Maybe this spring, maybe someone else will do it.
Huskee especially one this big. My OG warms up pretty fast, even in the winter in northern Iowa. My Grid Iron with over 50 more lbs of steel to warm up, takes forever, and when it's below freezing sometimes needs to be restarted because if it's not at 160 after 20 minutes it shuts down. Once it comes to temp it will hold it forever, but getting there requires dedication.
Abom it's outdoor rated and not just an UPS, it is pricey and you can do better with a marine battery and inverter but for some folks it's safer just to have something to plug in to run "cordless" on the go. This is the first I've seen a company have one geared for pellet drillers and I suspect competition will arrive driving the price down.
Abom I could also do all my cooking on a $29.99 charcoal grill like my grampa did, but I have 12 cookers to choose from, burning charcoal, pellet, and gas. I'm not going to buy one of these either, but only because if I am going to cook where I can't plug in, I won't use a cooker that has to plug in. To each his own.
Considering my “new” Backwoods only has so many years before the rust eats through the bottom, this may be a next step after it bites the dust. Though I guess that could be 5-10 years away knowing how much I love making stuff go until its completely falling apart!
Bronco Pro Barrel Smoker
PBC
Pit Boss 757GD Griddle (2)
Blaz'n Grill Works Grid Iron
Weber Genesis E-310
Original Original Grilla
Smokey Joe® Charcoal Grill 14"
Fireboard 1
Thermoworks ThermoPop
Thermoworks Thermapen Mk4
Thermoworks Smoke Thermometer with gateway
2 iGrillminis - from before they were Weber.
I showed this to my wife. She asked if this is the next cooker I need. "Well, not RIGHT away." I need to build a new patio first so I have someplace to put it. If I got one of these I might actually sell something else. Maybe.
I would LOVE to be able to put a chunk of actual wood in my Pit Boss vertical smoker, that would rock. There is no question that one doesn't get as strong a smoke note from a pellet rig, although if one has the low-temp "smoke" feature that REALLY improves the situation. This unit sounds like it could be the ideal thing for someone who can accommodate exactly one cooker and wants more cooking space than a kettle provides. If my PB ever bites the dust, I'll likely replace it with one of these, but such a thing ought to be years in the future, if ever...
purchased an outdoor kitchen from grilla about 3 years ago, my 8 year old gmg daniel boone would not fit the smoker cabinet so i gave it to my son in law and purchased the grilla pellet smoker. it goes out regularly, has caught fire twice and the wifi has never worked. cabinets need continuous steel wool to remove rust (my patio has a roof) and the doors no longer open and close correctly. the gmg smoker was less than half the price of the grilla and it is still rocking it, just not on my patio
My 8 year old original OG, made in Holland, MI, is doing great. No wifi, analogue controller, no rust, no flame outs, lots of smoke flavor. Mine is from when OGs were about $1600. But I got a demonstrator from a former dealer when they got rid of dealers and started making them in China. I paid about what you paid for your GM for my OG that had been used a dozen times.
Odd, I have the full kitchen and have for years now. Also have the Primate and Silverbac. Currently under cover but has not always been there. Zero rust.
Grilla's website is messed up right now. There orders panel is broken, and you can't see your order progress. I just got a call from Fedex Freight yesterday though saying they can deliver it on Thur. the 11th. It's on a pallet. Haven't even been told by Grilla that it's on the way! LOL
Always cool to see a small company (or at least a smaller part of a much larger company now) get a runaway success, but the infrastructure often isn't there to support said runaway success. Their backlog on orders must be huge.
So I have a general question for all cabinet-style smokers. It always seems to me that if you have multiple foods over the different racks, the fat and grease would drip onto the food below it. I know people say that the food above 'bastes' the food below, but it seems to me that there is a fine line between being 'basted' and being greasy (especially if you're dealing with fatty meats like ribs, pork butts, etc). At the very least, it seems like the 'basting' would inhibit bark formation. Am I off base here?
I have never heard of wanting to baste the meats on the lower shelf with the drippings from a different protein. I mean who wants chicken drippings on the brisket or ribs, so I always have a catch pan to keep whatever renders off one protein off of the other proteins.
You simply strategize when/if you're cooking multiple meats. For me personally I rarely cook multiple meats in the same cooker, but if I do I think which I would rather have drip on the other. Me, I'd rather have a peppery beef rub dipping on my pork or chicken, instead of a sweet pork rub dripping on my peppery beef ribs/brisket. Unless you're really loading her up full, you can position items to minimize dripping other others, or place a pan in the rack between like tstalafuse mentions.
I think generally speaking, one could stagger the meats so they aren't totally dripping all over themselves. Of course, in any case, chicken goes on the bottom.
So I have a general question for all cabinet-style smokers. It always seems to me that if you have multiple foods over the different racks, the fat and grease would drip onto the food below it. I know people say that the food above 'bastes' the food below, but it seems to me that there is a fine line between being 'basted' and being greasy (especially if you're dealing with fatty meats like ribs, pork butts, etc). At the very least, it seems like the 'basting' would inhibit bark formation. Am I off base here?
1. Ribs are affected the most.
2. The fat caps can handle it on butts and brisket. With a longer cook time than ribs things bark up plenty.
3. I still prefer to stagger as much as possible.
Bottom briskets more "inner" than the top ones. Nothing on the bottom getting dripped on too much, if so, on the fat cap.
I've also had this thing FILLED with butts on three levels and they all came out barked up like a champ.
Had some drama with my wife who had covid related blood clots. The first cook was awesome! They have a mode that produces more smoke at the expense of larger temperature swings, and I used that until the meat was past the point it could absorb smoke and then went to PID mode which was rock steady. The water pan holds a LOT of water, and it was doing so well that the next day I kind of forgot to check the water level. This caused the butts and brisket to be dryer than normal, but still great with a fantastic bark. I was concerned about the vent in the top of the smoker which is large enough to put my arm thru (and I'm a big guy), but it did fine! I completely forgot to take pics of the final result of the cook though! Here's what I have.
Grilla for many years resisted adding a PID controller and their motto was "trust the swing" until they finally gave in to the people who freaked out if they didn't have a rock steady temp. Then, like all the others with PID controllers people complained that pellet burners didn't make enough smoke. At least Grilla kept the non PID option.
I find myself using the PID mode in two primary use cases.....first, when I am smoking at 190-200 F (i.e. jerky), I feel that PID keeps me from getting into flameout territory and then at 400+ F. At high temps, there is little smoke and I think the higher consistent temp keeps the cook in line with typical oven recipes.
I need to build a new patio first so I have someplace to put it. If I got one of these I might actually sell something else. Maybe.
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