After spending Saturday morning making space for the Summit, I drove down to Workbench Ace Hardware on Roswell Rd.(Atlanta) and picked up my SCGC in the box(that was the only way to fit it into the back of the 4Runner and we had to put it in on its' side). It's a BIG box.
I let it sleep in the car Saturday night, got up Sunday to drag it out and put it together. The dragging out took some effort, the assembly went fine thanks to Weber's packaging and instructions although I wish they would have included a list of which box to look in for which piece. All-in-all, in a couple hours I had it put together and rolled into it's space on the new grilling patio. I threw in a full chimney of KBB and lit it with the built-in starter, spread it out and closed the lid with the vents full open. It got up to 500 degrees on the lid thermometer next time I checked but I wasn't keeping track of time.
I had a couple racks of Last Meal Ribs prepped that I was going to cook on the WSM but I decided to cook them on the Summit so after the initial load burned out and the grill had cooled down I followed the Weber instructions, piled up 2-1/4 of the supplied scoops and lit it with the internal gas starter at 12:55. I decided to try for a 250-275 cook since it was already afternoon and I wanted to eat before dark. Five minutes later I had part of the pile lit and I didn't want things to get too hot so I scattered the coals, closed the lid and left both vents full open. At 1:10 I added hot water to the drip pans and set the lower vent on the smoke setting and the top vent to 1/3, let it stabilize and put in the Tappecue probe. Ribs went on at 1:30, probe temp was 241. I struggled a little dealing with the rain but managed to get most of he cook at around 260.
I could go on and bore you to tears but to summarize: the first rack passed the crack test at 5:30, the second came off a 6:00. It rained lightly for an hour or so during the cook. Ribs were tender, good bite but not much chew. SHMBO said they were the best ribs I ever cooked and she's pretty particular.
I left the vents where they were to see how long the initial load could go, at 7:45 temp had dropped to 250, at 8:30 it had dropped to 200.
First impressions:
This is one helluva well-built grill. Doesn't shimmy and shake like the Performer when you brush the grate, weighs a lot more and feels like it does.
It holds heat well, recovers from opening and futzing with food quickly. And it doesn't overshoot when you have it open for a couple minutes moving food around and put the lid back on. The other side is that if you do cool it off or overheat it it won't recover as quickly as a kettle or WSM, there's a lot more thermal mass in this grill to heat or cool down.
All in all, I'm pleased with the grill and I think it's well worth the cost. About the only improvement I'd like to see is a one-piece cooking grate, I've never been a fan of the Gourmet system and it's a stone bitch to clean.
Have pics but this post is already too long, ask if you're interested.
Best,
Bill
I let it sleep in the car Saturday night, got up Sunday to drag it out and put it together. The dragging out took some effort, the assembly went fine thanks to Weber's packaging and instructions although I wish they would have included a list of which box to look in for which piece. All-in-all, in a couple hours I had it put together and rolled into it's space on the new grilling patio. I threw in a full chimney of KBB and lit it with the built-in starter, spread it out and closed the lid with the vents full open. It got up to 500 degrees on the lid thermometer next time I checked but I wasn't keeping track of time.
I had a couple racks of Last Meal Ribs prepped that I was going to cook on the WSM but I decided to cook them on the Summit so after the initial load burned out and the grill had cooled down I followed the Weber instructions, piled up 2-1/4 of the supplied scoops and lit it with the internal gas starter at 12:55. I decided to try for a 250-275 cook since it was already afternoon and I wanted to eat before dark. Five minutes later I had part of the pile lit and I didn't want things to get too hot so I scattered the coals, closed the lid and left both vents full open. At 1:10 I added hot water to the drip pans and set the lower vent on the smoke setting and the top vent to 1/3, let it stabilize and put in the Tappecue probe. Ribs went on at 1:30, probe temp was 241. I struggled a little dealing with the rain but managed to get most of he cook at around 260.
I could go on and bore you to tears but to summarize: the first rack passed the crack test at 5:30, the second came off a 6:00. It rained lightly for an hour or so during the cook. Ribs were tender, good bite but not much chew. SHMBO said they were the best ribs I ever cooked and she's pretty particular.
I left the vents where they were to see how long the initial load could go, at 7:45 temp had dropped to 250, at 8:30 it had dropped to 200.
First impressions:
This is one helluva well-built grill. Doesn't shimmy and shake like the Performer when you brush the grate, weighs a lot more and feels like it does.
It holds heat well, recovers from opening and futzing with food quickly. And it doesn't overshoot when you have it open for a couple minutes moving food around and put the lid back on. The other side is that if you do cool it off or overheat it it won't recover as quickly as a kettle or WSM, there's a lot more thermal mass in this grill to heat or cool down.
All in all, I'm pleased with the grill and I think it's well worth the cost. About the only improvement I'd like to see is a one-piece cooking grate, I've never been a fan of the Gourmet system and it's a stone bitch to clean.
Have pics but this post is already too long, ask if you're interested.
Best,
Bill
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