Offset smoker woes

[The Big Kahuna]

Greetings all....my first post!

I'm a newbie to the world of BBQ smoking and would appreciate some advice.

I've recently purchased an offset smoker (Landmann Tennessee), with hindsight it probably wasn't the best idea to go for an offset but it was going cheap so I thought I'd give it a try.

I've had a few practice runs, playing around with different charcoal and added a few mods to the smoker. I seem to be following all the best advice: My charcoal comes from a local supplier, it's all hardwood. I've created a basket for the charcoal in the fire pit, with the theory being it gives me more control of the charcoal and lets more air get to it. I've also employed the "minion" method to burning the charocoal.

The problem is it's almost impossible for me to control the temperature. Within 10-15 minutes all of my charcoal seems to be burning and the temp sky rockets. Same thing happens if I don't use the basket mod.

Any advice on how I could control the temp and/or speed at which my charcoal is burning? If I do manage to control the temp I cant image I'm going to get a 10-12 hour burn from the relatively small fire pit, so how would I replenish the charcoal if using the "minion" method...? Just wait for it to burn out and start again with lit coals on the top?

Thanks guys.

TBK

[clairbare]

Welcome to the forum, I am sure someone will come on soon to help. We used the minion method on our pro-q and when the coal started to run low we just chucked unlit onto the hot coals as the cook progressed, not sure if this is what other do though

[All Weather Griller]

Welcome to the forum. There are many offset users on here so I'm sure advice will be forthcoming.

In the meantime, make sure you have sealed all the possible leaks I.e around the food chamber door, the firebox doors etc.

Cheers Adie

[Zippy]

Ah, the Landmann Tennessee. Was also my first smoker of choice, and I have to say in hindsight it was a hasty and poorly thought out purchase, but I was keen to enter the world of barbecue quickly. I totally agree with what the doc says above in that:

1) the minion method is entirely useless in the thing. The amount of space you have to play with in your makeshift charcoal box - which is one of the first mods I made - is just so limited. As you say, all your charcoal is burning within 40 mins.

2) As such, you just have to constantly tend to thing. It takes a lot of the enjoyment (kicking back and having a beer while enjoying the smell of slow cooking pork) out of the process.

Hate to be so negative sounding. I certainly had some half-decent ribs out of my Landmann Tennessee now and again, but if i'm honest those occasions were outnumbered by the disappointing efforts. With a lot of patience and a few modifications you can get there, so I wish you all the luck and hope you fair much better than I.

If you haven't already, get a probe thermometer as the thermometer on the lid is just next to useless on these things. Will typically read 80-100F above the temp on the grill itself.

Try and insulate the thing in whatever way you can. I tried a few different ways. Avoid the foil/bubble wrap type stuff you can get from Homebase, B&Q etc as it's no good and just can't take the temps. I ended up cutting out sections from large terracotta flower pots of roughly the same circumference and laying them over the firebox and the cooking drum. It worked okay, but I was constantly lifting them on and off as I was tending to the coals so often and they get much hotter than you might think.

As others have said, plug all those leaks, especially on the lid of your firebox. There are many! A high temp silicone sealant should do the job.

[Mike_P_in_Tucson]

I have managed to keep a fairly constant / low temp on my offsets, using charcoal, for up to 5 hours. Then I would just open the end door and shovel in more unlit charcoal. You didn't say, but could you tell us what you did to try to control the temp? Did you have the chimney vent wide open? What did you do with the vent on the firebox?

Good advice to try to seal leaks as est you can. I found that using a rubber mallet on the firebox door and the cooking chamber door helped quite a bit.