insulating bullet smoker

[TonyT]

Trying to come up with an inexpensive way to insulate my 'cheap' bullet smoker. Currently spend a lot of time adding briquettes throughout the duration of the smoking. Thinking of placing a 44 gallon drum over the top (with some sisalation wrapped around the inside of the drum), and the appropriate holes/doors cut out.
Thoughts?

[lockyer]

Hi Tony

Firstly what type of bullet smoker do you have ? I have a Pro Q Frontier and I'm still learning it's "ways"

While doing a bit of research on mixing charcoal and heat beads I came across a USA forum topic - not a bad bit of reading and gave me plenty of ideas but also in all the posts is a way a bloke keeps his bullet warm/hot using a welding blanket, here have a look
http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/t/1893 ... -briquette

[TonyT]

I have a Gasmate Smoker.
https://www.barbequesgalore.com.au/barb ... l-gmbq2003
I might also need to look at how I set up the heat source. Usually I would pile about 15 Briquettes in the middle of the bottom tray (pre-burned for about half an hour, until white), plus a couple of small chunks of wood (apple or lemon) for smoke. I would then add more pre-burned briquettes (approx. 10) every hour and a half. This would be for a 4 - 5 hour cook (after which time I wrapped the meat in foil and a towel, and placed in an esky for a couple of hours. Usually I wouln't add any more wood, as I only want a light smoke.
I assumed I wouldn't want to load too many Briquettes initially to maintain a long burn, as this would create a temperature that is too high. So regular small loads seemed inevitable.

[lockyer]

Hi Tony

Your smoker is very close to my Pro Q which in turn is almost a copy of the Weber Smokey Mountain(WSM), from what I have read around the place (here & other forums) use the same setup/directions as the WSM. That is how I found that page I linked for you. The thing with briquette's is you do not have to have them lit/burning at the start so you can put plenty in the fire basket and make a small well in the middle and add 12-15 lit one's into the well and start cooking. Use your bottom vent/s to control the cooking temp. They will only light as the one next to them fully light, it is how you can have hours of cooking time.

The other thing that can send you in circles is people saying only use fuel that is fully lit..this confused me when I first started using my rotisserie, but after chatting with a guy who does catering ie full pigs on spit he pointed out he has used un lit fuel for years without complaint from customers.
My first few cooks so far on my Pro Q I have not used fully lit briquettes & charcoal in it and my last cook went for 6 hours.

Cheers L

[TonyT]

I use Heat Beads Briquettes,and they suggest burning the briquettes for about 30 minutes before placing them in the smoker (once they are covered in a light ash). So your suggested method would not be appropriate. Are there other briquettes that would be appropriate for the method you are suggesting?

[lockyer]

I use Heat Beads Briquettes,and they suggest burning the briquettes for about 30 minutes before placing them in the smoker (once they are covered in a light ash). So your suggested method would not be appropriate. Are there other briquettes that would be appropriate for the method you are suggesting?

Hi Tony

This is exactly what I am talking about..if you use heat beads and have them all lit the best you will get is 1.5 to 2 hours and there losing there heat.



I am doing a test run today using heat beads/hot shots(same thing) with a chicken and I using that trick from that yank forum, you will see 2/3 of the beads are not lit and the one's I have lit are not totally lit when placed. Remember for smoking you need a set temp over a long time. But don't worry what the packet says about being totally lit/covered.
Cheers L

[lockyer]

Tony I took a few pic's and just now I had to closed down my bottom vents as the cooking temp was getting to high.

This is the smoker setup and the chook is in, notice how the briquette's are only lit in the middle.


This is temp about 3 min's after it was all closed up with chook in place, I want the temp to be at 110deg/225F

I did a chook earlier this week and had the temp at 100 C but it took almost 6 hours - was super tender but having lunch at 2pm did not make the little lady happy. This is my test today - I'm upping the temp and bringing the cook time down.......I hope

Cheers

9.55am I have the bottom vents closed 80% and temp is steady at just over 110c.

[TonyT]

Thanks for the tips and pics. Why would the packet suggest heating the beads for 30 minutes before using them to cook? I assumed (I may have read something about it?) that it needs time to burn off chemicals before exposing the briquettes to food. Or is it just to get them hot enough?
Good luck with the chook - better keep the little lady happy this time!

[lockyer]

Thanks for the tips and pics. Why would the packet suggest heating the beads for 30 minutes before using them to cook? I assumed (I may have read something about it?) that it needs time to burn off chemicals before exposing the briquettes to food. Or is it just to get them hot enough?
Good luck with the chook - better keep the little lady happy this time!

Tony, I'm not 100% sure why they talk about having them totally lit But if you look up "snake method" or "minion method" you will see that it is not the case you only light few/some and the rest are left unlit.
http://virtualweberbullet.com/fireup2.html

The above link is again for the WSM or bullet and both of ours are knock offs of the WSM. So I would recommend you think about using there ways of heating/cooking or at least give it a try.

11-30am and chook temp 71.5°c and if you want to know how to get "°" at the end of the numbers for temp. hold down the "alt" key and on the number pad type 0176 and you get it.
Cheers

[lockyer]

Hi Tony
Here is how the briquette's look after a 4.5hr cook plus a shot of the temp gauge during the cook, was able to hold a stable temp all the way through



cheers L

[TonyT]

Thanks again!