Problems with Brinkmann and the minion method

[PeteW]

Hiya,

I'm fairly new to this all so am helping you guys can give me some tips.

I've got a cheapo Brinkmann Smoke'n'Grill, which I've added the usual mods to - new thermometers, legs on outside and additional legs on fire pan, air holes and an ash-separating grill in the fire pan, and also I'm currently trying a terracotta dish in the waterpan.

As I've got young kids, we like to have our BBQ at lunch rather than in the evening, which means attempting to cook overnight. The minion method sounds great, with other people talking about getting 12+ hours from one load of fuel at steady temps of 225-250. Sadly, I've not managed that yet - I tend to find that once I dump the hot coals in, the heat spreads quickly and suddenly the whole pan is alight and my smoker is reaching over 350F! After a while it eventually settles down to 250ish but by morning (~5/6 hours later) it's on it's way out, down to 180ish and falling.

Anyone have any tips on how to prevent it getting so hot and keeping it burning longer? This weekend I tried adding cold water to the waterpan (with terracotta dish) once it fired up in order to cool things down and store that heat for later (if that makes sense!). The other though I had was to have add the hot coals to one side rather than in the middle so it takes longer for the heat to spread across.

One problem I've having is using a chimney to light just a few coals - does anyone have any tips for this? I find it just goes out unless I put a decent layer or two across the bottom, and this inevitably leads to me adding more hot coals than I probably should be adding.

Any advice gratefully received!

Cheers

Pete

[Mj2k]

I can't help on the smoker front, but using the chimney upside down works great for only lighting a few coals - can light as few as 10 this way.

Matt


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[tommo666]

There is this: Weber 7447 Compact Rapidfire Chimney Starter, a smaller version of the normal chimmeny starter..

[BBQFanatic]

Yep, been down this road before. You are basically fighting the design of the smoker. The risk with just lighting a few coals is that it can actually not get the smoker up to heat. A fine balance. Sounds like you have done all the hard work, the only recommendation I can give is to try use a different fuel. I prefer lumpwood, but found it wouldnt last very long in the brinkman. However there is a solution, get yourself some heatbeads, they are like the devils own spawn and burn longer and hotter than anything else I know. It should give you 8-10hrs of decent burn. Just make sure the lit ones you put in are well and truly burning as they are slow starters, but once they get going!!

[NomNomBBQ]

Im not familiar with the Brinkmann Smoke'n'Grill, does it have vents at the bottom to open/close to adjust airflow? The pictures on google arnt clear.

What I do with my WSM is put a 2lt drink bottle in the middle of the charcoal area, fill up all around it with charcoal and leave the bottle in. Then once ive got 1/2 a chimney of medium sized coal red hot I remove the bottle, tip the hot charcoal into the space the bottle occupied, then put the smoker back together with or without water. The vents at the bottom are fully open at this point.

Then once its gets around 180-200F, I pretty much close the bottom vents and then depending on how quickly the heat rises tweek the vents until it stays constant. This is with lumpwood. Depending on how much coal I can squeeze in it will burn at a reasonably constant temp for over 12hrs.

Would be interested to hear how other people light theirs?

[keith157]

I use a catering sized baked bean tin for the centre, surround that with unlit charcoal, fill the bean tin with however much lit charcoal I need to use, lift the tin out with tongs, put the ProQ Excel back together set the IQue to the desired temp and go for a coffee.

[NomNomBBQ]

I use a catering sized baked bean tin for the centre, surround that with unlit charcoal, fill the bean tin with however much lit charcoal I need to use, lift the tin out with tongs, put the ProQ Excel back together set the IQue to the desired temp and go for a coffee.

Sorry, maybe I misread that but you do you leave the lit charcoal in the bean tin?

[derekmiller]

I just pour the unlit coals in the basket, make a hole with my hands and pur the lit coals into that.

[NomNomBBQ]

I just pour the unlit coals in the basket, make a hole with my hands and pur the lit coals into that.

DM0_1189.JPG

Yep same principal, I did try that with lumpwood but I struggled to get a nice hole for the lit stuff, it ended up all over the place with more coal than I wanted alight and the thing got too hot.

Are those heat beads? How long would that amount burn for at 250F?

All this talk of heat beads makes me want to try them, the uniform-ness of them does appeal.

[derekmiller]

Hi Bryn.

No they are not Heatbeads, they are the Weber briquettes.
That was two chimneys of unlit and one 3/4 chimney lit.
That would keep me going for 8-9hrs at 200-250F. If I need longer or the wind is playing up (more often than not nowadays) I would put a couple of shovels of unlit in.
In this case I cooked a Pepper Stout Beef for about 8hrs, then smoked some home made bacon at 150F for a further 3 hrs.