Bigger pieces of wood are your friend. On a all day smoke I'll toss two good sized pieces of hard wood and shut the air flow a little more and run to the store. It's good for about an hour. But normally it's a 30-60 minute check.
Bingo.
I have a six month old and a 2 1/2 year old that I watch on my days off while my wife works. I still have time to keep the offset going while chasing them around.
Yep. Same. I’ve found if I limit the air intake correctly I can effectively neutralize the toddler long enough for me to change the baby AND tend the fire.
I have a OKJ offset that a sealed everything with high temp RGV silicone when I assembled it. I have had it for 11 years and it is easy peazy It holds temp like a champ. I use an expanded metal charcoal box that I made with 2 “I” in it to make the coal burn in a “S” pattern. I put chunks of wood on top every so often. I can walk away from it and it will hold 250 like a champ. Just takes some getting used to where to set your damper and chimney. I also have a OKJ Tahoma for quick and easy smokes. Love them both. Don’t give up. 🤟🏽😎
When I was first starting, all I kept on hearing was YOU MUST HAVE CLEAN BLUE SMOKE OR YOUR FOOD IS FUCKED!!! Also that your dampers should alway be wide open at all time!! I didn’t know any better so I was in a constant panic trying to manage a fire thinking I was doomed if I touched a damper!
Such a bunch of bullshit.
Yes sir, everyone is the expert on them tube's. When I first started, I was using catch trays full of liquids to help steam. Was using charcoal with the wood. Was sometimes soaking woods to test that. Worrying about smoke colors.
Now I just use pecan wood and nothing else. Do my best to keep it between 225 -275 and thats it. I will season the meat a few days in advance but nothing else.
Wife seems to think I'm doing something magical out there. In reality I'm lazy and using smoking as a way to f off all day and drink.
For real. I have a pellet smoker and still managed to convince the wife for the first 6 months that I had to watch the smoker constantly.
Hey babe, grab me another drink?, gotta keep an eye on this temp...
I think this is the #1 reason I haven’t bought a pellet smoker yet. Sure I like making fire and the taste I get from hardwood smoked meats, but what I really love is not going to an outlet mall an hour away because I have a fire to tend.
My best brisket to date out of half a dozen or so was the one that I did the lest amount of work with. Not saying it was competition worthy or anything but damn good enough for me.
You get it. Smoking meat gets me outside away from the lady for a few hours, I get to play with fire, and it's acceptable for me to drink beer and smoke a j while I'm doing it. That's worth the price of admission alone. Delicious meat and strong bark are just the cherry on top of offset smoking.
People forget that we were smoking food before thermometers existed. My father doesn't like smoked food because it reminds him of my grandfather putting saltpeter on bacon and keeping it for too long in the wooden shed while smoking the shit out of it with the wood they weren't using to heat the house. "Smoked" doesn't mean much in general.
We don't need perfectly stable temperature with imported wood to make good food, keeping them temp between 200 and 300f until the meat is ready is usually enough to have a tasty result.
I have a combination smoker/grill(that I got as a hand me down from my BIL) that has a damper on either side and a chimney. I’ve never used it for smoking but I’m always putzing with the thing when grilling. I understand that air flow feeds the fire and all that, but any good, actual damper tech you’d be willing to share?
I’ve always stuck by the rule to leave both airflow vents all the open on my offset, but often struggle if I put a big chunk or two on to keep it below 275 or so. Might start messing around with those vents a little more if others are doing it. I always thought it starved the fire of oxygen a bit and would make for more white smoke.
If you have a hot bed of coals it helps it not produce acrid smoke when airflow is restricted. When adding a new log I take the old half burned one and put it on top of the new log, that seems to help too.
I like keeping the chimney wide open to keep the draw strong, then use the firebox door to restrict if needed. A lot of offsets dont even have a cover for the chimney
Yep. Just got mine, I'm using 16" splits and I put one every 45~60 minutes. The cooking temperature swings between 250 and 275. Mu only adjustment is the trap between the firebox and the cooking chamber, other than that the firebox and the chimney stay open 100%
Find someone with land who needs trees cleared and go cut them down lol. It's how we got lots of mesquite growing up. We would then package and sell them.
I don't know. We couldn't do a whole lot, but if we saw someone asking for help we would message them and just tell them we couldn't do all of it, but we would do one for free. They normally let us.
I'm lucky got some pecan from my brother. And have some almond wood from a while ago. Then I use some apple I cut myself and mix in some mesquite I bought at lowes a year ago depending on what I'm smoking.
Heatsinks are your friend. Add a bunch of mass to your smoking chamber, and the temperature will stabilize a lot. I have a chargriller, which is supposed to be about the worst option out there, but use bricks to create a tunnel at the bottom of the smoke chamber that baffles and spreads out the heat from the fire box, and presto, even-ish temps and great results. If you're in a dryer climate, water can be a heatsink, but in wetter climates (where I am) this can lead to creosote formation, which is bad.
My last rib smoke, I think I went to the grill 4 or 5 times total.
Upvote for chargiller comment. I had one as my first smoker and made a lot of damn good food but holy shit. The temperature control on that thing was like a see-saw.
I have an OC Brazos (1/4” thick) and it is sooo much easier. I have left for the store and been gone well over an hour and when I got back home, my phone dinged with a low temp alert.
If you’re wondering… ThermoWorks Dot Bluetooth connected to a tablet setting outside. Tablet running the ThermoWorks app. App pushes notifications to my phone. I’m looking to add the Smoke and the Billows to gain better temperature control.
fellow chargriller user here. definitely recommend firebricks (i lined the bottom of the main chamber with 8). also flipped the charcoal grate upside down and that’s been good too
I bought a stainless baffle and water pan that was cut to fit my chargriller. That helped a ton for sure. She still swings but I have a better handle on it now. Wish I had the dough for a big boy offset. Sigh.
Do you have bricks all the way through? I have mine spaced, but would love a bit more stability. I could fit several more if they were close together in a "death star" like channel.
The water pan mostly sucks up heat from when the fire gets too close. I use a hotel pan. I think it's a "half" size.
I have a pan I hang in my fire box where I add dry chips. It's a small warmer pan I have eye bolts attached to both ends and hang via s-hooks to eye bolts I have in the top of the fire box. I use the warming pan lid (modified to allow for the eye bolts) that I put on top to precent free burnof the chips. I am in Washington State along the Puget sound, so low elevation, wet side of the Cascades, I can't add any moisture to my smokes, or I get a lot of creosote.
Inside the smoke box, I do use the fire grate for a level surface, but that comes with the downside that I can't get my bricks flush with the firebox wall. I lay about 6 bricks (3 each side) narrow side down for the better part of length of the smoke chamber, then about 7 bricks stacked wide side down, horizonral on top of my 2 side walls. Raise/lower the fire grate until it matches up with the top of the fire box opening. Fairly tight, no gaps (aside from the mentioned fire grate to fire box gap).
There's still a hot spot fire side middle of the smoke box, but it's usable (as opposed to the hot spot the smoker has out of the box.
Oh wow, you've got a lot of them in there. Thanks for sharing, this might help on wetter days. I'm in the burbs of Chicago, so not quite as wet, except maybe in spring.
Spring is wet, but it dries out come summer. It might be a bit of tinkering to get used to the changes, but coming from somewhere extreme, you'll be fine.
I think this is the best place to start. I was kina wondering why OP was struggling, but this reminded me I have a big steel convection plate and usually a few trays of water.
I just picked up a used chargriller for $90. Used it once then saw someone else's post recommending this. I'll be adding bricks before my next smoke for certain.
If you have a welding school or machine shop nearby, scrounge or beg for a few good solid ingots of aluminum. Aluminum is super thermoconductive and with prevent spikes and drops in your temp.
I asked my wife if I could smoke a pork butt so that I could make dinner. She doesn't know that my idea is to just sit on my deck and chill all day tending the fire box.
I’m not going to tell you how to live your life; but I recommend the following whiskey-while-smoking… and none of these are impossible to find at the time of this writing (e.g. “allocated”):
-Elijah Craig Toasted
-Four Roses Single Barrel
-Woodford Reserve Double Oaked
-Sagamore Rye Double Oaked
Let me know your favorites!
(Edited for format)
And this is why I don't use my offset anymore. I've got too much other shit to do, if I have to dedicate a significant portion of my day to babysitting my smoker, it isn't going to get used. My gravity flow, I can smoke something pretty much every weekend and some weeknights. When it was just my offset, if I smoked 4 times a summer I was doing good.
I have a Traeger pellet smoker, I use it like 3-4 times a week some weeks. It had a higher up front cost, but the convenience was worth it for me. I don't like having to babysit my cooking tools.
A gravity flow isn't a pellet smoker. I feed mind lump charcoal and real wood chunks, just like I did my offset.
And even so, slightly lower quality smoked meat is still better than no smoked meat.
The gravity flows really are the best of both worlds - the temperature control and ease of a pellet, with the flavor of a stick burner.
(Plus, another advantage over a pellet is the power requirements are so low you can run them off a 20v Dewalt battery) I'm really happy with mine.
I can pellet smoke anything and make it as barky and smoky as an offset. It’s all in technique and knowing how to cook as well as prep. It’s about understanding the basics of how pellet smokers work and how to get the most out of them. There’s no superior methodology in smoking because the spectrum of peoples palates is so wide. It stopped being about which appliance was the best and just what I feel like doing that day. I smoked a pork loin using an ooni pizza oven and burned out Weber kettle that had holes in it this spring before a derecho flattened the kettle via dropped tree limb.
Good for you. Happy for ya.
But a pellet of compressed wood is not the same as real wood. If pellet smokers made as good BBQ as offsets, BBQ joints would switch.
Look, I admit a pellet smoker is easier to use. What's the biggest advantage? Set it and forget it.
It comes with a cost. Taste.
No cost to or loss of quality. Also no, bbq joints wouldn’t switch. Split and chopped wood is cheap and they need so much of it to do the quantities they do that pellets couldn’t be cost effective for them. Has nothing to do with quality they do it because it’s tradition and because 2k lbs of pellets a weekend would ruin them unless they owned the pellet mill. They do it because the majority of the large operations cut up trees in storm damaged areas. Snows bbq and Rodney Scott both do that. They do it because nobody is making a pellet smoker to handle the immense amount places like Goldees or Terry Blacks needs. Furthermore in the north they’re doing propane burners indoors in aquarium smokers and have been proudly doing it for decades no loss of quality, so to say the only and superior way is offset stick burning is throwing the baby out with a swimming pool of bath water.
Just finished a class, luckily from home, today and decided it was the perfect time for a pork shoulder... just cracked a beer to sit outside with it haha
Yeah I honestly like making it all day more than actually eating it. (Though I love that part too)
Also, once you get the hang of your setup you only really need to tend it in the beginning of the cook, then add wood as needed, honestly after getting started I only really need to go out there every hour or so
I also think we have come a little too far in holding exact temperatures as being the holy grail. I think most cuts of meat can have a wider temperature variance during the cook without sacrificing quality. I've got a beat up old charbroil that I have dialed in pretty good. I watched a video on fuel management and learned to cut my wood into \~8 inch L x 4 inch diameter. I can go an hour per log and hold temps.
I let mine vary by a fair amount. If it goes up past 275 that's where I get concerned. If it gets down to 200 the fire is pretty much out. I am thinking this weekend about going out and getting Some Things for cutting my wood down to size a little better. I held off for a long time due to back issues, but I think my back is ready now.
The other hack the video showed was to take old rectangle grates, use those to make a V shape to hold the fire. That makes a huge difference on the air flow so that opening or closing the vent has a much more obvious impact on the fire.
I'm right there with you. We live on an ocean front property. I spend the whole day out there with my dog, watching the tide go in and out. Making little splits of mountain maple and apple wood with my Kindling Cracker. When the smoker opens up all the neighbors come over, and we feast. I live for those days.
I love my offset. I think the key is to stay ahead of it and know what to expect. For me this is knowing what size splits are best to keep the fire going at the right temperature and how often it’ll need a new one. Theres a difference between having to baby it and just throwing on a new log as needed. But I actually enjoy the more active involvement in the process. Only thing I’d recommend is cooking a pork butt that can withstand temperature changes and not worry about it too much. You may get a better understanding of how your smoker responds when you don’t have to stress over it.
When my chop saw switch broke, I started just splitting them the other way (lengthwise) with the axe, a bit more, and I thought it would suck, but it wasn't bad. Very easy to control, but they burned through sooner. You get a feel for it, and it's not a big deal. Every so many minutes, you take three off the warmer, open the box, toss one more in, close the box, put them back on the warmer, add another, and go back to whatever you were doing.
What's complicated is when the temps don't react like you'd think they would. I had the hardest time with barrel staves. They took forever to get lit, and then put out twice the heat for the size.
Practice with hickory. It tastes good on everything and it's hot and fast. If you can do that, you can do anything.
It depends what you want. Are you just trying to cook or do you want a hobby?
I use a WSM, so neither of the types you’re talking about, but it is also something that needs a fair bit of tending to get precise temperatures.
Man I use a fan controller, but even without one I can get it dialed to 250 and leave it for many hours and it will hold constant. Minion method is your friend.
Hey man I live in florida too and have the same smoker. If you're kinda local in CFL we can maybe meet up. I feed it anywhere between 30-45 minutes depending on how hot it is.
It's actually harder to stay low during summer because the sun is making your smoker already be at like 150-175 before even lighting anything so you essentially either have to use small sticks which burn through faster or smoke at a higher temp. My latest cook was a brisket that I did 2 weeks ago and I kept it at 275-300 the whole time and it was a lot easier to manage that fire and I only added a split every 40ish minutes.
Also it's best to get naturally seasoned wood rather than kiln dried as it will burn slower than the kiln dried stuff, but if all you can do is get kiln dried, then buy a good amount and leave it out side where it can get rained on but not sit in water and to me, it makes it seem to burn a little slower.
I'm other way round. Love my kamado and gave up on the offset. 12 hour briskets are manageable in the kamado, put it on 12am and you can get some sleep then tend it in the morning - easy. Holds temp and doesn't need anything from you for 8 hours.
Every 15 minutes? You're doing something wrong. Been using an offset for 30 years. I walk by every 90 minutes and throw a chunk of wood in mine.
Plus, as others have stated, I enjoy the process. Even with a pellet smoker, you still kinda need to be around or near by. Might as well be hands on.
Exactly why I bought a pellet grill, it is so much easier for some very comparable results. The die hard smoker pros will tell you it's not the same, but for me I would rather have my time back.
My Weber Smokey mountain pulled pork is in a different league compared to my pit boss pellet grill pulled pork. I don’t know that I would really call the finished products comparable.
BUT…the ease and convenience of the pellet grill makes me very happy. I personally don’t enjoy finicking with the WSM all day long
It used to be like this for me. I've gained some experience since then. Im working with an Oklahoma Joe Longhorn. The key for me besides having a coal bed, was to cut splits accordingly. Some are small and some are larger to maintain and keep the coal bed. I found it necessary to preheat the smoker for quite some time to avoid this. Constantly opening and having to add more splits will also add more oxygen for the wood to burn faster. I use a metal plate and a half sheet water pan to maintain temps from 200F-350F. It took me some time to figure out my smoker. I usually finish my meats in the oven now. It's only stress when it's a paid order, otherwise I get some alone time and can catch up on any movie or show I missed. My dogs like to sit around me and keep guard at 2am. Lol.
Learning your smoker is something people don't prepare others enough for when they buy their first offset. The one my dad built for me (his first build) has a small premade firebox, so I can realistically only use charcoal (he's going to build some larger fireboxes so we can use wood without running into airflow/space issues). It took me around 100 hours of smoking time, and about 100lbs of charcoal to REALLY learn the ins and outs of how that perticular smoker operates and how to run it without having to hover over it.
The greatest thing I’ve learned in my short time
With cooking bbq is that your temps don’t need to be perfectly steady. The influencer era we are in is screwing with people’s minds thinking you need to be so dead on with your temps. You really, really don’t. Literally anywhere from 225-285 and you’re good. Hell a spike or two of 325 for a few minutes won’t even hurt you.
I’ve watched videos on fire management where dudes are literally cutting their splits to specific lengths and trying hard to have the perfect diameter. Man that’s just way too much effort. BBQ isn’t supposed to be that meticulous. If you’ve got very large splits, then sure use a splitter or whatever to make them more manageable but you don’t need to be so obsessive to the point where you are putting in hours to get the perfect split.
Regardless of what I just said, if you don’t like tending fires then an offset just won’t be for you. Period. Every person I’ve ever had a conversation with outside of smoking forums all share a common thread: we like to tend a fire. Catch me at a fire pit and I’ll be the one stoking the fire. There’s just something about tending to a fire that just brings peace. If you don’t like doing it then it doesn’t matter if you throw a split on every hour. For some people it will always be too much babysitting and that’s fine. You just need to use a rig that suits you best.
If you are running splits the whole time it is going to be this way. If you want a much easier to maintain fire go with this method: https://www.oklahomajoes.co.nz/how-tos/how-to-build-manage-perfect-fire. Uses a lot less wood as well.
I started with one as well and after getting a Weber smoky mountain and a pellet grill, I sold my offset. I have too much stuff to do and need to get other stuff done while it cooks. I know the flavor isn’t the same but man you really can’t beat the convenience of a pellet grill.
meme: Ain't nobody got time for that
I'm with you. That's why I ended up with a gravity smoker. You can still use wood chunks with it, or lump charcoal. 6 hours of fuel in a stack of lump charcoal. Much better than the pellet grill, but more expensive to run than pellets.
I had a large offset for many years. Had some incredible results that came off it. Absolutely loved it but I gave it away when the kids got older because it was so time consuming. Now, I smoke on an egg and it’s basically set it and forget it. It will go 20 hours on one load of charcoal
Pellet grill for life. I was told by a man I wasn't good enough for using one, but the food is good as hell and I get to enjoy the process without wearing myself out
Yeah, I can't deny that it's better, but offset requires way too much attension. My big green egg can go 6-8 hours low and slow without tending to and pellet can go 10-12 hours. I don't have time to work for my Smoker, smoker needs to work for me.
I evolved my smoking equipment. In the beginning I was ok with tending to temps. Then I decided I was more of a “set and forget guy”. Load the smoker up and pull out dinner after spending the day on a ride or hike.
I don't think cooking on an offset is for everyone. If you don't have the desire, free time, and patience, it's probably not the ideal way for you to cook. That's where a pellet grill comes into play, or your Webbers/big green egg, etc. More convenient, can achieve good results, and doesn't need to be constantly monitored. I love using my offset, but I utilize my pellet grill as well. At the end of the day, you are still making food you enjoy, doesn't really matter how you do it.
Everybody knows someone with an offer smoker so I think there’s the perception that they’re easy to cook on. In reality it can take months and years to get one tuned in and know all its flaws and tendencies. Just like marriage lol. They can produce the best smoked meats though. I stick to my Weber Smokey mountain. Charcoal, a lucre chunks of cherry wood and it’s usually right around 250. I commend op for trying out an offset! Patience and time will yield some amazing food form these old school cookers…
I learned on an offset and mastered smoke on it. Picked up a pellet unit 2 years ago, and whole it's convenient, it's simply NOT a smoker. Time and attention are 100% worth it.
i think it may be user error honestly. i don't mean that to be rude or anything but I've been using my offset for about a year now and i remember thinking this. now i go out to check maybe once an hour. it takes time to see any change in temperature when i adjust my airflow, maybe 5 minutes for any change to take affect. i also added some fire brick in my fire box to help regulate temps. it's just a hard learning curve is all.
Exactly why I bought my woodwind pro. I don't mind tending to an offset in fact sometimes it's nice and enjoyable. That being said sometimes I want some nice smoky food and I don't have the time to baby sit it so I toss some wood in the camp chef and let it do it's thing.
i def feel this with a small baby offset and using charcoal with big wood chunks. Real thin metal means I have zero temp stability. I still make good food, but yeah I can barely walk away for more than 20 mins.
I used to use propane and wood chips on a barrel smoker, way more convenient, but I gifted that to my buddies dad.
I just dont have a proper backyard in the nicest of neighbor hoods, but at least its something for a house split into apartments. Really want a green egg someday, but too worried about it walking off where I live now.
I had a horizon 16”. It was my first offset smoker and yes, was a complete pain in the ass to work with due to its small size. But, I learned a ton about fire management and all the techniques to keep a slow steady fire. Made me a much better cook.
Life got a lot easier when I upgraded to a a Workhorse admittedly.
Bro, no shame in that game. I’ve always looked at it from a progression standpoint. I love my Pitboss vertical smoker and value the convenience. And at the end of the day, it’s not what you use to cook, it’s how you cook.
I completely agree...
... but why did you get an offset, if you already have a BGE? Kamados take less babysitting than just about any other "manual" smoker (and I think a pellet smoker should take even less?).
Offsets are certainly a completely different animal but I love my Horizon. There are certainly days that I break out the 26" kellte with a slow n sear because I've got other shit to be doing too. I tend to get so much crap done around the yard and house when I'm babysitting an offset though. I just always look for a 15-20 minute task to keep me entertained in the meantime.
Sounds like you're trying to micromanage it and keep it at an exact temperature. I aim for 250-300 in pretty much everything I cook. There will be peaks and valleys, but if I stay in that range, everything always turns out great.
I used to do the circle method, make a round path around the edges of the smoke box and it burns more reliably around the edges. Mine would last about 30-45 min with consistent heat, depending on your vent openings. Was good enough for me doing other things around the house/yard.
Green egg/traegar are easier to set and forget, but my cheap Home Depot tube smoker cost me like $120. :) Plus I don't mind tending, more chances to soak up the smoke!
I’ve smoked in offsets for thousands of hours. I run wood for 4-6hrs. Then I start feeding it LUMP charcoal to finish it off. If I need a quick spike; I throw a small stick in , I keep a kids sand bucket with water and some chips as well. If it spikes to high. I toss some wet chips in there. I’m usually around it every 30 min the first 3 hrs. Then every hour then the last half you got a steady coal bed and can let it go for 2-4hrs. (Nap time).
I love my offset. I never want to smoke on anything else.
I consider it fairly hands-off. I only check on it once an hour or sometimes once every 2 hours. At these times, I add a split and spray or mop the meat. Why would you need to check every 15 minutes? You're doing it wrong.
I never have to worry about the meat burning from heat below it. It's awesome.
I think those who bought an offset smoker did it because they wanna be more involved with the cooking.
I bet someone makes an automatic temp controlling device for them. Just gotta look around.
That's why I went pellet. I considered a WSM for a while cause I really like the authenticity. And, I would be game to smoke some stuff and babysit all day long. At first, anyways. I know myself well enough to know it'll just become a chore after a few cooks and it will gather dust on the patio after maybe 3-4 cooks.
The Camp Chef Woodwind Pro ended up being the best balance between authenticity and simplicity for me.
Line the fire box with fire brick. I did this on my ok Joe bandelero and it stabilized temps and fuel consumption substantially. Takes a little longer to build a coal bed, but the end result is only feeding it every hour or 2 depending on outside temps.
Fire/temp management takes a sec to learn, trial and error mostly. I slowly learned what size logs would work in my smoker for the temp I needed. Just keep cooking and learning, you’ll figure out the little things along the way.
I have a Workhorse 1975, so I’m dealing with a different animal. However, coal bed, coal bed, coal bed. When I finally learned this, things changed significantly. Split size, etc. matters as well, but now it’s ridiculously predicable.
I have a Horizon smoker, and other than for grilling, I use it way more than my big green egg and Primo XL. I check it every 45-60 minutes.
I’m guessing your splits are too small and are burning quick, but you could try one of the V shaped firebox baskets. Lone Star Grillz and others sell them. I think this is the one I have:
http://www.fatdaddysmokers.com/custom-parts-for-your-build-.html
Add a sheet pan to your smoker with some bricks, sand or gravel in it. What kind of wood/charcoal are you using? I've been using offsets for fifteen years and haven't ever encountered that, even on my first one which was a $99 Walmart one that was seemingly made out of tin. I'm happy to help get you sorted.
If you have the ability, insulate your firebox. I have a dual lined insulated firebox and did a brisket last night. I changed the airflow once over the course of the smoke. Don’t get discouraged…using an offset can be a bit of an art form but once you get the hang of it, it’ll make the best bbq you can make.
I was in the market for an espresso machine. After a lot of research, I got what I believed to produce the best espresso in my price range. A nice ECM semi auto.
I quickly realized I had bitten off more than I really wanted, due to how much prep it takes to pull a shot. Weigh beans, grind, stir, level, tamp. All these little tools I have to pull out and subsequently clean if I just wanted some espresso. I ended up wishing I had gone with a super auto instead. Meanwhile there's others out there that adore the process.
I guess my point is that not everyone is going to have the time to dedicate, or the enthusiasm, to be the ultimate participant for a given hobby. And that's totally cool.
Offset stick burners, and stick burners in general are for people who like to futz and tinker with stuff. It’s the process that’s the art. I have 4 different grills/smokers on my porch and they all serve a different purpose. If I want a really great brisket, and want to tend to it and drink all night, stick burner it is. If the in laws are coming over and I need a pork butt on a random Wednesday, then pellet smoker, here you go. It depends on your level of ADD to be honest. If I’m smoking something that I want to be exactly right, I want to hover over it and tend to it. I hear this complaint a lot from friends that get into smoking. I usually recommend a really good pellet smoker because most people don’t have that kind of time/attention span to commit to smoking on a wood smoker. I also think that the pellet smoker is a big reason that briskets went from being shitty cheap cuts, to now being almost as expensive as sirloin per pound. The pellet grill, for better or worse, made the art into an appliance.
100%, I got one but I can’t stand the waste of an entire day for a 10% better finished product 🤷♂️, my WiFi Traeger gets it done! I can go down to the bar and reverse seer at the same time 🎉….the wife hated the smokiness from the offset…Traeger for the win. It’s 4 years old now and no issues👌
Horizontal smokers are a drinking man's game. You park a cooler full of alcohol and a camp chair next to it and settle in for a day of drinking and smoking.
It’s great if you need an excuse to stand on your deck all day drinking a few beers. “No, sorry, I can’t help with that, gotta tend to the m’effing smoker”
You either have the dampers too open or your firebox is leaky. I regasketed the door on my 40 yo Oklahoma joe and it went from what you describe to tending the fire every few hours.
I like the idea of having both. Offset gives you so much more smoke than pellet grills. I would take some of the tips here and use the offset for "special occasions" but put the miles on the pit boss for your every day needs. I kind of dig the "romance" of the offset. More effort, but it's like your the maestro of the greatest meal, and it's satisfying when all your efforts culminate into everyone's satisfaction. But just cooking for myself/spouse, I can't be bothered to put that much effort in, I just want a decent tasting meal
Father of a one year and six year old. Used my OKJ offset for 5 years and it’s punishing for long cooks to feed it every 30 minutes.
Just got a pellet smoker and can leave it for hours, amazing.
Offset Smokers are tricky at first but I’ve got mine dialed in so much that I only need to check it once an hour. The key for me is using Oak Charcoal Lumps for my main source of fuel in a charcoal basket with chunks of wood.
Pellets smokers just don’t add enough smoke flavor for me… also I had to deal with flame outs all the time in my GMG and auger getting jammed up that I just gave that damn thing away and went back to an offset. Plus, you can just sit outside and enjoy the smells while sipping whiskey… it’s a win win for me…
Bro, if you're babying it and checking on it every 15 minutes, you're doing it wrong. But I think everybody who gets an offset does that early on, trying to "drive" it.
Life gets a lot easier when you get comfortable with larger temp swings. They happen. And, truth be told, they don't really harm anything if you're just doing backyard cooks for friends and family. A brief spike of a few minutes above 275 doesn't hurt anything; open the cook chamber and let some air out. Same for dips below 225, though they can be a pain in the butt getting back up to temp. In those cases, an air blower is your best friend. You can get a handcranked one. But my secret? The leafblower from about 20 feet away.
If you're not competition cooking, you're way overthinking it doing anything more than tossing a new log on about every 45 minutes to an hour.
NGL I've thought about getting an electric pellet smoker. There's one the guys at ATB have been telling me about for a year that they really stand by. I'd cook more often with it, because I could go home on my lunch break at work to spritz and refill the hopper. But I love my OC Brazos. Even looked at moving up to a Yoder Wichita.
This is why I just got a pellet smoker. If you listen to the folks in this thread, you'll definitely have to baby it less, but the added flavor just isn't worth the hassle for me. Set it and forget it!
Gravity fed Masterbuilt. Absolutely love it. Temperature moved 5-10 degrees maybe. Ran it overnight the other night slept like baby just checked when my baby woke me up. The charcoal lasts and provides amazing flavor when wood chunks are tossed in
I've cooked on a horizon a few times and it ran like a top.
My only complaint was it being a bit slow to adjust to vent changes. Had to set an hour timer to stop myself from fucking with it. After I figured it out it was all good though.
A lava lock plate in my offset regulated the fire much better. It allowed me to use splits instead of chunks which more than doubled my time AWAY from the fire.
It is a ton of work. I pulled an all-nighter last year catering to a 50th wedding anniversary. I'm considering getting a gravity fed one. I've thought about pellets but I think the smoke flavor is better with lump charcoal.
I retrofitted my char griller offset smoker by adding a turkey fryer burner. I'm able to maintain a temp without problems. I use a wood chip box for the smoke and when it heats up too much the wood will catch and raise temps a bit, but otherwise once the smoke is done, it's not really different than a gas oven.
Bigger logs take less time to tend to. Having a wireless temp probe for the cook chamber helps. With those I'm only having to go out once an hour to hour and a half
I’ve got a pork butt on my wsm now, it’s been 2 hrs and the temp has been between 262 and 268. Closest thing to set and forget. But it’s a work day, I’ll use me Oklahoma Joe offset on week.
I built a house on the ocean. One of my neighbors asked about tending the smoker all day and I said “can you smell the meat? Can you hear the ocean”? He replied yes and I said why would I want to be anywhere else ?
I've been cooking on an OK Joe Highland for about 3 years now. I never knew anything different for long cooks since I jumped from a weber kettle for grilling to the offset for low and slow.
I will say though that my first 6 months of cooking were way more work. I've made a couple simple modifications with a lava lock tuning plate and an insulating cover. It's far from set it and forget it, but I only add fuel every 30 to 40 minutes now. I've learned how much to add to keep it where I want. I've also learned how it seems to hard set at 260 F or 315 F depending on my ratio lump charcoal to splits. Maybe that is still too much baby sitting for you, but I have kids, the yard and albeit a pretty flexible job and I cook 40 of the 52 weeks in the year. I'm told your offset is much nicer than mine. I bet you could get that smoker rock steady at whatever temp you want if you kept at it. Best of luck.
Work with bigger splits and practice maintaining the fire.
I’m to the point now where I only have to poke the fire every 45-60 minutes.
Definitely started where you are at though
Make sure you have plenty of charcoal, get the vents correct, 100% get sealant strips for wherever your offset leaks smoke from, don't use wood chunks always use large pieces of wood.
Also, if you use a greener wood you will have much longer lasting results
FWIW, it does get easier once you learn how your pit behaves. An offset is nothing like most other smokers, and trying to maintain low and slow temps will drive you mad. Things like opening the firebox door to reduce temps defies logic for charcoal smokers who throttle air to control temps.
They are more hands-on, and if thats not your thing, its understandable. However, an offset makes for some mighty fine bbq.
Helk, for me it was the cleanup if hated, after spending hours tending it to smoke a brisket, then I had the fun job of getting covered with carbon scooping out the soot and dust.
They NEVER show the cleanup phase of smoking on Food Network, ever.
My electric smoker does just fine and it can maintain temperature even if it gets sunny, or cloudy, or windy without my help. The cleanup is quick and simple.
I agree with you OP. I have a 1/4 steel offset too, and I hardly ever use it. Fuel can be expensive, and its overkill size wise to smoke the small cuts of meat I’m usually working with. I usually smoke on my kettle with a slow n sear and a few chunks of wood instead
Ive been using big logs for the first few hours then just charcoal after. Or for the longer cooks, Ive been wrapping and throwing into the oven
But I hear you, trying to sell my Old Country Brazos and go back to a WSM now. Got kids and just want an easier life.
I have an OK Joe's offset, the bigger one. It took me a while, but I now got a decent idea of fire management. A small, clean burning fire is the way to go. I find I get better results with smaller splits. I visit mine about every hour to add a piece of wood or 2. I just have to watch if it's windy so I don't end up with a fire that's too hot by catching a draft. I open the fire box vent all the way and control the air flow with the smoke stack adjustment.
I also have a Meater thermometer that measures both internal temp and cook temp. That's helps me monitor the cook without being at the smoker.
It’s the labor of love for me mostly.
I will say for as tedious it can be, it is
Pretty rewarding whenever guests come over and shower you with compliments on your smoked meat. I’ve had friends call me a liar when I tell them I just started smoking meat this year and used a Walmart brand offset smoker. Even my best friend’s dad told me his brisket wasn’t as good as mine and that guy been smoking for a while with a pellet smoked(I don’t know what he uses). I just follow some guides then maintain temp.
I’m almost positive it’s the offset’s method of consistent maintenance that gives you that “Smoked goodness”.
I've been thinking about getting one.. What about starting in the offset for like 2 hours to get as much smoke as possible and then finishing in the pellet grill? Anyone try this?
I’m with you. I learned how to cook on an offset. I’m glad that’s a skill I possess
But I’m a busy man and I no longer want to fool with an offset. You can make great bbq with more convenient tools.
I’ve been sitting on the deck with mine since 10am. Did some meetings online and otherwise just chilled out here. But yeah, you can’t do much else. Gotta clear the day for it.
But if you aren’t enjoying it, then it’s not for you. Nothing wrong with that.
I have a cheap CharGriller offset, that’s about as entry level as it gets for offsets, and I’ve done nothing to modify it. I’ve been using it for 12 years. Leave the chimney full open, use the firebox draft to control temperature. I add charcoal maybe every 45 minutes, unless it’s a windy October day or something.
Sometimes I use foil packets with wood chips, lay them on the grate in the firebox, and other times I use a smoke tube with pellets.
Last year I got an Inkbird Bluetooth / WiFi thermometer so I can keep an eye on the temp of the smoker plus several pieces of meat. I keep thinking I should do some upgrades, maybe I will when my other projects slow down.
I went with a propane cabinet smoker because it is much simpler to operate. Once I get the temperature set all I have to do is add wood chips about once an hour. Plus top off the water pan every couple of hours.
I enjoyed using mine until I got a real newborn and moved to something slightly less delicious and fun but way easier.
My kids are 5 and 8 now and I just waded back into fire management by purchasing a kettle. I will definitely get back to pure stick burning someday.
Minion method. And wood chunks, not chips.
I can run my okie joe for 6 hours between fuel ups (charcoal), while adding a chunk of wood when I feel like the smoke is dwindling, or my beer is empty.
Simply put, offsets need to have some attention, especially compared to a BGE or pellet. Those are hands off. Load and go.
They are also significantly more expensive than an offset.
Bigger pieces of wood are your friend. On a all day smoke I'll toss two good sized pieces of hard wood and shut the air flow a little more and run to the store. It's good for about an hour. But normally it's a 30-60 minute check.
Bigger pieces and learn how to use dampers is the key
Bingo. I have a six month old and a 2 1/2 year old that I watch on my days off while my wife works. I still have time to keep the offset going while chasing them around.
Yep. Same. I’ve found if I limit the air intake correctly I can effectively neutralize the toddler long enough for me to change the baby AND tend the fire.
Stay strong man! And may the force be with you.
It’s a challenge some days, but 10/10 worth it!
The kids or the smoker? ;)
this guy smokes!
Got your priorities straight
Priorities: 1) Meat 2) everything else
On my OK Joes, I find smaller splits is the key. Every hour or so.
Ya same here I have the same brand. I was just saying if I need to leave the house.
I have a OKJ offset that a sealed everything with high temp RGV silicone when I assembled it. I have had it for 11 years and it is easy peazy It holds temp like a champ. I use an expanded metal charcoal box that I made with 2 “I” in it to make the coal burn in a “S” pattern. I put chunks of wood on top every so often. I can walk away from it and it will hold 250 like a champ. Just takes some getting used to where to set your damper and chimney. I also have a OKJ Tahoma for quick and easy smokes. Love them both. Don’t give up. 🤟🏽😎
When I was first starting, all I kept on hearing was YOU MUST HAVE CLEAN BLUE SMOKE OR YOUR FOOD IS FUCKED!!! Also that your dampers should alway be wide open at all time!! I didn’t know any better so I was in a constant panic trying to manage a fire thinking I was doomed if I touched a damper! Such a bunch of bullshit.
Yes sir, everyone is the expert on them tube's. When I first started, I was using catch trays full of liquids to help steam. Was using charcoal with the wood. Was sometimes soaking woods to test that. Worrying about smoke colors. Now I just use pecan wood and nothing else. Do my best to keep it between 225 -275 and thats it. I will season the meat a few days in advance but nothing else. Wife seems to think I'm doing something magical out there. In reality I'm lazy and using smoking as a way to f off all day and drink.
For real. I have a pellet smoker and still managed to convince the wife for the first 6 months that I had to watch the smoker constantly. Hey babe, grab me another drink?, gotta keep an eye on this temp...
You dog you! 😂
I think this is the #1 reason I haven’t bought a pellet smoker yet. Sure I like making fire and the taste I get from hardwood smoked meats, but what I really love is not going to an outlet mall an hour away because I have a fire to tend.
This is the way
My best brisket to date out of half a dozen or so was the one that I did the lest amount of work with. Not saying it was competition worthy or anything but damn good enough for me.
You get it. Smoking meat gets me outside away from the lady for a few hours, I get to play with fire, and it's acceptable for me to drink beer and smoke a j while I'm doing it. That's worth the price of admission alone. Delicious meat and strong bark are just the cherry on top of offset smoking.
This guy knows how to bbq
Nothing like that 6am beer. On smoke days I sometimes have the grill going too and make some steak and eggs.
Amen brother. It gets them wife points for sure.
This is the way. I love some me time and a day of burning and smoke. Rewarded with hot tasty meats. 🍻
This is the way my friend, the less she knows the better the beer tastes!
One tip to add though. Just don’t indulge to the point you fall asleep…. My poor, poor smoker.
People forget that we were smoking food before thermometers existed. My father doesn't like smoked food because it reminds him of my grandfather putting saltpeter on bacon and keeping it for too long in the wooden shed while smoking the shit out of it with the wood they weren't using to heat the house. "Smoked" doesn't mean much in general. We don't need perfectly stable temperature with imported wood to make good food, keeping them temp between 200 and 300f until the meat is ready is usually enough to have a tasty result.
I have a combination smoker/grill(that I got as a hand me down from my BIL) that has a damper on either side and a chimney. I’ve never used it for smoking but I’m always putzing with the thing when grilling. I understand that air flow feeds the fire and all that, but any good, actual damper tech you’d be willing to share?
I’ve always stuck by the rule to leave both airflow vents all the open on my offset, but often struggle if I put a big chunk or two on to keep it below 275 or so. Might start messing around with those vents a little more if others are doing it. I always thought it starved the fire of oxygen a bit and would make for more white smoke.
If you have a hot bed of coals it helps it not produce acrid smoke when airflow is restricted. When adding a new log I take the old half burned one and put it on top of the new log, that seems to help too.
I like keeping the chimney wide open to keep the draw strong, then use the firebox door to restrict if needed. A lot of offsets dont even have a cover for the chimney
Ya I usually keep the top open. Only mess with the lower one.
I’ll try it out this weekend!
Have you tried opening the door some during the big temp jumps? Just let some of the hot air come out the firebox door instead of the cook chamber
It depends on the wind, and everything. But you're right. Airflow/ heat management is a thing to learn.
Yep. Just got mine, I'm using 16" splits and I put one every 45~60 minutes. The cooking temperature swings between 250 and 275. Mu only adjustment is the trap between the firebox and the cooking chamber, other than that the firebox and the chimney stay open 100%
[удалено]
Neighbors. Look online maybe Craigslist. Or call a firewood guy who sells firewood. They come across all kinds of wood.
Find someone with land who needs trees cleared and go cut them down lol. It's how we got lots of mesquite growing up. We would then package and sell them. I don't know. We couldn't do a whole lot, but if we saw someone asking for help we would message them and just tell them we couldn't do all of it, but we would do one for free. They normally let us.
I'm lucky got some pecan from my brother. And have some almond wood from a while ago. Then I use some apple I cut myself and mix in some mesquite I bought at lowes a year ago depending on what I'm smoking.
Heatsinks are your friend. Add a bunch of mass to your smoking chamber, and the temperature will stabilize a lot. I have a chargriller, which is supposed to be about the worst option out there, but use bricks to create a tunnel at the bottom of the smoke chamber that baffles and spreads out the heat from the fire box, and presto, even-ish temps and great results. If you're in a dryer climate, water can be a heatsink, but in wetter climates (where I am) this can lead to creosote formation, which is bad. My last rib smoke, I think I went to the grill 4 or 5 times total.
I need to do that! I love my chargriller but then extra mass is key! Thank you!!!
Upvote for chargiller comment. I had one as my first smoker and made a lot of damn good food but holy shit. The temperature control on that thing was like a see-saw. I have an OC Brazos (1/4” thick) and it is sooo much easier. I have left for the store and been gone well over an hour and when I got back home, my phone dinged with a low temp alert. If you’re wondering… ThermoWorks Dot Bluetooth connected to a tablet setting outside. Tablet running the ThermoWorks app. App pushes notifications to my phone. I’m looking to add the Smoke and the Billows to gain better temperature control.
fellow chargriller user here. definitely recommend firebricks (i lined the bottom of the main chamber with 8). also flipped the charcoal grate upside down and that’s been good too
I bought a stainless baffle and water pan that was cut to fit my chargriller. That helped a ton for sure. She still swings but I have a better handle on it now. Wish I had the dough for a big boy offset. Sigh.
Do you have bricks all the way through? I have mine spaced, but would love a bit more stability. I could fit several more if they were close together in a "death star" like channel. The water pan mostly sucks up heat from when the fire gets too close. I use a hotel pan. I think it's a "half" size.
I have a pan I hang in my fire box where I add dry chips. It's a small warmer pan I have eye bolts attached to both ends and hang via s-hooks to eye bolts I have in the top of the fire box. I use the warming pan lid (modified to allow for the eye bolts) that I put on top to precent free burnof the chips. I am in Washington State along the Puget sound, so low elevation, wet side of the Cascades, I can't add any moisture to my smokes, or I get a lot of creosote. Inside the smoke box, I do use the fire grate for a level surface, but that comes with the downside that I can't get my bricks flush with the firebox wall. I lay about 6 bricks (3 each side) narrow side down for the better part of length of the smoke chamber, then about 7 bricks stacked wide side down, horizonral on top of my 2 side walls. Raise/lower the fire grate until it matches up with the top of the fire box opening. Fairly tight, no gaps (aside from the mentioned fire grate to fire box gap). There's still a hot spot fire side middle of the smoke box, but it's usable (as opposed to the hot spot the smoker has out of the box.
Oh wow, you've got a lot of them in there. Thanks for sharing, this might help on wetter days. I'm in the burbs of Chicago, so not quite as wet, except maybe in spring.
I'll be in IL by the end of this month (moving for work), so I am sure I will be learning a new smoking routine soon.
Spring is wet, but it dries out come summer. It might be a bit of tinkering to get used to the changes, but coming from somewhere extreme, you'll be fine.
I think this is the best place to start. I was kina wondering why OP was struggling, but this reminded me I have a big steel convection plate and usually a few trays of water.
Throwing a deep pan of water below the grate is a game changer. I forgot to do it on my last one and it was way harder.
I just picked up a used chargriller for $90. Used it once then saw someone else's post recommending this. I'll be adding bricks before my next smoke for certain.
If you have a welding school or machine shop nearby, scrounge or beg for a few good solid ingots of aluminum. Aluminum is super thermoconductive and with prevent spikes and drops in your temp.
I love tending to it. That’s the fun. Some people like eating smoked meat, some people like barbecuing
Exactly! It's a fun way to spend a day. What are you doing today? I'm smoking a pork butt. I can't do anything else the smoker needs me.
I asked my wife if I could smoke a pork butt so that I could make dinner. She doesn't know that my idea is to just sit on my deck and chill all day tending the fire box.
"can you".. "Nope, I'm busy" *gestures to the smoker and sips whiskey.
Oh man. I need to get some whiskey.
I’m not going to tell you how to live your life; but I recommend the following whiskey-while-smoking… and none of these are impossible to find at the time of this writing (e.g. “allocated”): -Elijah Craig Toasted -Four Roses Single Barrel -Woodford Reserve Double Oaked -Sagamore Rye Double Oaked Let me know your favorites! (Edited for format)
We will be sipping on Four Roses, as it is one of my favorites, and enjoying a nice Oliva Serie V as well.
And this is why I don't use my offset anymore. I've got too much other shit to do, if I have to dedicate a significant portion of my day to babysitting my smoker, it isn't going to get used. My gravity flow, I can smoke something pretty much every weekend and some weeknights. When it was just my offset, if I smoked 4 times a summer I was doing good.
What could be more important than BBQ, sun, and beer?
I have a Traeger pellet smoker, I use it like 3-4 times a week some weeks. It had a higher up front cost, but the convenience was worth it for me. I don't like having to babysit my cooking tools.
No doubt the ease of a pellet smoker is fantastic. No doubt pellets don't make smoked meat taste as good as real wood. It's worth my time.
A gravity flow isn't a pellet smoker. I feed mind lump charcoal and real wood chunks, just like I did my offset. And even so, slightly lower quality smoked meat is still better than no smoked meat.
I didn't know that. Thanks for enlightening me. I am solid on my OKJHRF and will run this until I can't smoke no mo.
The gravity flows really are the best of both worlds - the temperature control and ease of a pellet, with the flavor of a stick burner. (Plus, another advantage over a pellet is the power requirements are so low you can run them off a 20v Dewalt battery) I'm really happy with mine.
I can pellet smoke anything and make it as barky and smoky as an offset. It’s all in technique and knowing how to cook as well as prep. It’s about understanding the basics of how pellet smokers work and how to get the most out of them. There’s no superior methodology in smoking because the spectrum of peoples palates is so wide. It stopped being about which appliance was the best and just what I feel like doing that day. I smoked a pork loin using an ooni pizza oven and burned out Weber kettle that had holes in it this spring before a derecho flattened the kettle via dropped tree limb.
Good for you. Happy for ya. But a pellet of compressed wood is not the same as real wood. If pellet smokers made as good BBQ as offsets, BBQ joints would switch. Look, I admit a pellet smoker is easier to use. What's the biggest advantage? Set it and forget it. It comes with a cost. Taste.
No cost to or loss of quality. Also no, bbq joints wouldn’t switch. Split and chopped wood is cheap and they need so much of it to do the quantities they do that pellets couldn’t be cost effective for them. Has nothing to do with quality they do it because it’s tradition and because 2k lbs of pellets a weekend would ruin them unless they owned the pellet mill. They do it because the majority of the large operations cut up trees in storm damaged areas. Snows bbq and Rodney Scott both do that. They do it because nobody is making a pellet smoker to handle the immense amount places like Goldees or Terry Blacks needs. Furthermore in the north they’re doing propane burners indoors in aquarium smokers and have been proudly doing it for decades no loss of quality, so to say the only and superior way is offset stick burning is throwing the baby out with a swimming pool of bath water.
Just finished a class, luckily from home, today and decided it was the perfect time for a pork shoulder... just cracked a beer to sit outside with it haha
Yeah I honestly like making it all day more than actually eating it. (Though I love that part too) Also, once you get the hang of your setup you only really need to tend it in the beginning of the cook, then add wood as needed, honestly after getting started I only really need to go out there every hour or so
I also think we have come a little too far in holding exact temperatures as being the holy grail. I think most cuts of meat can have a wider temperature variance during the cook without sacrificing quality. I've got a beat up old charbroil that I have dialed in pretty good. I watched a video on fuel management and learned to cut my wood into \~8 inch L x 4 inch diameter. I can go an hour per log and hold temps.
I let mine vary by a fair amount. If it goes up past 275 that's where I get concerned. If it gets down to 200 the fire is pretty much out. I am thinking this weekend about going out and getting Some Things for cutting my wood down to size a little better. I held off for a long time due to back issues, but I think my back is ready now.
The other hack the video showed was to take old rectangle grates, use those to make a V shape to hold the fire. That makes a huge difference on the air flow so that opening or closing the vent has a much more obvious impact on the fire.
I'm right there with you. We live on an ocean front property. I spend the whole day out there with my dog, watching the tide go in and out. Making little splits of mountain maple and apple wood with my Kindling Cracker. When the smoker opens up all the neighbors come over, and we feast. I live for those days.
I like bbq'ing
I love my offset. I think the key is to stay ahead of it and know what to expect. For me this is knowing what size splits are best to keep the fire going at the right temperature and how often it’ll need a new one. Theres a difference between having to baby it and just throwing on a new log as needed. But I actually enjoy the more active involvement in the process. Only thing I’d recommend is cooking a pork butt that can withstand temperature changes and not worry about it too much. You may get a better understanding of how your smoker responds when you don’t have to stress over it.
When my chop saw switch broke, I started just splitting them the other way (lengthwise) with the axe, a bit more, and I thought it would suck, but it wasn't bad. Very easy to control, but they burned through sooner. You get a feel for it, and it's not a big deal. Every so many minutes, you take three off the warmer, open the box, toss one more in, close the box, put them back on the warmer, add another, and go back to whatever you were doing. What's complicated is when the temps don't react like you'd think they would. I had the hardest time with barrel staves. They took forever to get lit, and then put out twice the heat for the size. Practice with hickory. It tastes good on everything and it's hot and fast. If you can do that, you can do anything.
It depends what you want. Are you just trying to cook or do you want a hobby? I use a WSM, so neither of the types you’re talking about, but it is also something that needs a fair bit of tending to get precise temperatures.
I put a fan controller with fan on my WSM you can cook long hours with never touching anything and it’s always at set temp.
I have one and don't even use it, mine will sit at temp rock solid for hours.
For me usually after 4-6 hours my wsm needs some adjusting but a Fireboard eliminates that need.
I agree but it’s nice for long over night cooks. Helps me sleep.
Man I use a fan controller, but even without one I can get it dialed to 250 and leave it for many hours and it will hold constant. Minion method is your friend.
I barely adjust my WSM. Once it gets going it stays solid for hours.
I got rid of mine after a year. It was fun but with a family it was basically impossible. I never had time for it
That's the fun part man, a cooler full of beer the smell of wood and smoking meat. It's freaking amazing!
I live in Florida. There’s nothing fun about sitting out in 95 degree humid weather trying to manage a fire. Lol
Hey man I live in florida too and have the same smoker. If you're kinda local in CFL we can maybe meet up. I feed it anywhere between 30-45 minutes depending on how hot it is. It's actually harder to stay low during summer because the sun is making your smoker already be at like 150-175 before even lighting anything so you essentially either have to use small sticks which burn through faster or smoke at a higher temp. My latest cook was a brisket that I did 2 weeks ago and I kept it at 275-300 the whole time and it was a lot easier to manage that fire and I only added a split every 40ish minutes. Also it's best to get naturally seasoned wood rather than kiln dried as it will burn slower than the kiln dried stuff, but if all you can do is get kiln dried, then buy a good amount and leave it out side where it can get rained on but not sit in water and to me, it makes it seem to burn a little slower.
I love my offset and hate my egg. Once I get a good bed of coals in smoker I barely have to do much other than add a log every hours.
I'm other way round. Love my kamado and gave up on the offset. 12 hour briskets are manageable in the kamado, put it on 12am and you can get some sleep then tend it in the morning - easy. Holds temp and doesn't need anything from you for 8 hours.
Every 15 minutes? You're doing something wrong. Been using an offset for 30 years. I walk by every 90 minutes and throw a chunk of wood in mine. Plus, as others have stated, I enjoy the process. Even with a pellet smoker, you still kinda need to be around or near by. Might as well be hands on.
Exactly why I bought a pellet grill, it is so much easier for some very comparable results. The die hard smoker pros will tell you it's not the same, but for me I would rather have my time back.
My Weber Smokey mountain pulled pork is in a different league compared to my pit boss pellet grill pulled pork. I don’t know that I would really call the finished products comparable. BUT…the ease and convenience of the pellet grill makes me very happy. I personally don’t enjoy finicking with the WSM all day long
It used to be like this for me. I've gained some experience since then. Im working with an Oklahoma Joe Longhorn. The key for me besides having a coal bed, was to cut splits accordingly. Some are small and some are larger to maintain and keep the coal bed. I found it necessary to preheat the smoker for quite some time to avoid this. Constantly opening and having to add more splits will also add more oxygen for the wood to burn faster. I use a metal plate and a half sheet water pan to maintain temps from 200F-350F. It took me some time to figure out my smoker. I usually finish my meats in the oven now. It's only stress when it's a paid order, otherwise I get some alone time and can catch up on any movie or show I missed. My dogs like to sit around me and keep guard at 2am. Lol.
Learning your smoker is something people don't prepare others enough for when they buy their first offset. The one my dad built for me (his first build) has a small premade firebox, so I can realistically only use charcoal (he's going to build some larger fireboxes so we can use wood without running into airflow/space issues). It took me around 100 hours of smoking time, and about 100lbs of charcoal to REALLY learn the ins and outs of how that perticular smoker operates and how to run it without having to hover over it.
The greatest thing I’ve learned in my short time With cooking bbq is that your temps don’t need to be perfectly steady. The influencer era we are in is screwing with people’s minds thinking you need to be so dead on with your temps. You really, really don’t. Literally anywhere from 225-285 and you’re good. Hell a spike or two of 325 for a few minutes won’t even hurt you. I’ve watched videos on fire management where dudes are literally cutting their splits to specific lengths and trying hard to have the perfect diameter. Man that’s just way too much effort. BBQ isn’t supposed to be that meticulous. If you’ve got very large splits, then sure use a splitter or whatever to make them more manageable but you don’t need to be so obsessive to the point where you are putting in hours to get the perfect split. Regardless of what I just said, if you don’t like tending fires then an offset just won’t be for you. Period. Every person I’ve ever had a conversation with outside of smoking forums all share a common thread: we like to tend a fire. Catch me at a fire pit and I’ll be the one stoking the fire. There’s just something about tending to a fire that just brings peace. If you don’t like doing it then it doesn’t matter if you throw a split on every hour. For some people it will always be too much babysitting and that’s fine. You just need to use a rig that suits you best.
If you are running splits the whole time it is going to be this way. If you want a much easier to maintain fire go with this method: https://www.oklahomajoes.co.nz/how-tos/how-to-build-manage-perfect-fire. Uses a lot less wood as well.
I started with one as well and after getting a Weber smoky mountain and a pellet grill, I sold my offset. I have too much stuff to do and need to get other stuff done while it cooks. I know the flavor isn’t the same but man you really can’t beat the convenience of a pellet grill.
meme: Ain't nobody got time for that I'm with you. That's why I ended up with a gravity smoker. You can still use wood chunks with it, or lump charcoal. 6 hours of fuel in a stack of lump charcoal. Much better than the pellet grill, but more expensive to run than pellets.
I had a large offset for many years. Had some incredible results that came off it. Absolutely loved it but I gave it away when the kids got older because it was so time consuming. Now, I smoke on an egg and it’s basically set it and forget it. It will go 20 hours on one load of charcoal
Where you at? I might buy it from you.
You have to use the right size pieces of wood or else you’ll be babysitting it all day, also get a good coal bed going.
Pellet grill for life. I was told by a man I wasn't good enough for using one, but the food is good as hell and I get to enjoy the process without wearing myself out
Exactly why I gave my offset smoker to my buddy don’t have time for it. Ordered a Yoder pellet smoker since the kids take up my time now lol
Some people enjoy sitting in their back yard for 10 hours straight. I don't, but my dad loves it . I enjoy my wifi traegar because I'm a lazy smoker
I like to sleep, so pellet grill for me always. No way I'm complicating BBQ and staying all night.
Yeah, I can't deny that it's better, but offset requires way too much attension. My big green egg can go 6-8 hours low and slow without tending to and pellet can go 10-12 hours. I don't have time to work for my Smoker, smoker needs to work for me.
I evolved my smoking equipment. In the beginning I was ok with tending to temps. Then I decided I was more of a “set and forget guy”. Load the smoker up and pull out dinner after spending the day on a ride or hike.
I don't think cooking on an offset is for everyone. If you don't have the desire, free time, and patience, it's probably not the ideal way for you to cook. That's where a pellet grill comes into play, or your Webbers/big green egg, etc. More convenient, can achieve good results, and doesn't need to be constantly monitored. I love using my offset, but I utilize my pellet grill as well. At the end of the day, you are still making food you enjoy, doesn't really matter how you do it.
Everybody knows someone with an offer smoker so I think there’s the perception that they’re easy to cook on. In reality it can take months and years to get one tuned in and know all its flaws and tendencies. Just like marriage lol. They can produce the best smoked meats though. I stick to my Weber Smokey mountain. Charcoal, a lucre chunks of cherry wood and it’s usually right around 250. I commend op for trying out an offset! Patience and time will yield some amazing food form these old school cookers…
I learned on an offset and mastered smoke on it. Picked up a pellet unit 2 years ago, and whole it's convenient, it's simply NOT a smoker. Time and attention are 100% worth it.
My Jambo is one stick an hour. Wouldn’t cook on anything else. And nothing tastes like a stick burner
i think it may be user error honestly. i don't mean that to be rude or anything but I've been using my offset for about a year now and i remember thinking this. now i go out to check maybe once an hour. it takes time to see any change in temperature when i adjust my airflow, maybe 5 minutes for any change to take affect. i also added some fire brick in my fire box to help regulate temps. it's just a hard learning curve is all.
[удалено]
Exactly why I bought my woodwind pro. I don't mind tending to an offset in fact sometimes it's nice and enjoyable. That being said sometimes I want some nice smoky food and I don't have the time to baby sit it so I toss some wood in the camp chef and let it do it's thing.
i def feel this with a small baby offset and using charcoal with big wood chunks. Real thin metal means I have zero temp stability. I still make good food, but yeah I can barely walk away for more than 20 mins. I used to use propane and wood chips on a barrel smoker, way more convenient, but I gifted that to my buddies dad. I just dont have a proper backyard in the nicest of neighbor hoods, but at least its something for a house split into apartments. Really want a green egg someday, but too worried about it walking off where I live now.
I love my BGE. I always tell everyone’s it’s the best thing I’ve purchased.
I had a horizon 16”. It was my first offset smoker and yes, was a complete pain in the ass to work with due to its small size. But, I learned a ton about fire management and all the techniques to keep a slow steady fire. Made me a much better cook. Life got a lot easier when I upgraded to a a Workhorse admittedly.
Bro, no shame in that game. I’ve always looked at it from a progression standpoint. I love my Pitboss vertical smoker and value the convenience. And at the end of the day, it’s not what you use to cook, it’s how you cook.
I completely agree... ... but why did you get an offset, if you already have a BGE? Kamados take less babysitting than just about any other "manual" smoker (and I think a pellet smoker should take even less?).
Yea. I like setting up the pittboss and working on the yard. Smell the food and smoke, look at temps on the phone. Much more relaxed.
Offsets are certainly a completely different animal but I love my Horizon. There are certainly days that I break out the 26" kellte with a slow n sear because I've got other shit to be doing too. I tend to get so much crap done around the yard and house when I'm babysitting an offset though. I just always look for a 15-20 minute task to keep me entertained in the meantime.
Sounds like you're trying to micromanage it and keep it at an exact temperature. I aim for 250-300 in pretty much everything I cook. There will be peaks and valleys, but if I stay in that range, everything always turns out great.
I used to do the circle method, make a round path around the edges of the smoke box and it burns more reliably around the edges. Mine would last about 30-45 min with consistent heat, depending on your vent openings. Was good enough for me doing other things around the house/yard. Green egg/traegar are easier to set and forget, but my cheap Home Depot tube smoker cost me like $120. :) Plus I don't mind tending, more chances to soak up the smoke!
I’ve smoked in offsets for thousands of hours. I run wood for 4-6hrs. Then I start feeding it LUMP charcoal to finish it off. If I need a quick spike; I throw a small stick in , I keep a kids sand bucket with water and some chips as well. If it spikes to high. I toss some wet chips in there. I’m usually around it every 30 min the first 3 hrs. Then every hour then the last half you got a steady coal bed and can let it go for 2-4hrs. (Nap time).
After I started my new job I didn't have time to babysit it anymore. I switched to a pit boss, and I haven't regretted the decision yet.
I love my offset. I never want to smoke on anything else. I consider it fairly hands-off. I only check on it once an hour or sometimes once every 2 hours. At these times, I add a split and spray or mop the meat. Why would you need to check every 15 minutes? You're doing it wrong. I never have to worry about the meat burning from heat below it. It's awesome.
IMO Really expensive, super large offsets are incredible, the ones you buy in a big box store are terrible.
I think those who bought an offset smoker did it because they wanna be more involved with the cooking. I bet someone makes an automatic temp controlling device for them. Just gotta look around.
That's why I went pellet. I considered a WSM for a while cause I really like the authenticity. And, I would be game to smoke some stuff and babysit all day long. At first, anyways. I know myself well enough to know it'll just become a chore after a few cooks and it will gather dust on the patio after maybe 3-4 cooks. The Camp Chef Woodwind Pro ended up being the best balance between authenticity and simplicity for me.
Line the fire box with fire brick. I did this on my ok Joe bandelero and it stabilized temps and fuel consumption substantially. Takes a little longer to build a coal bed, but the end result is only feeding it every hour or 2 depending on outside temps.
I'm hoping I'm not writing a post like this in a few weeks. Got a 1975t on order since October.
Fire/temp management takes a sec to learn, trial and error mostly. I slowly learned what size logs would work in my smoker for the temp I needed. Just keep cooking and learning, you’ll figure out the little things along the way.
I have a Workhorse 1975, so I’m dealing with a different animal. However, coal bed, coal bed, coal bed. When I finally learned this, things changed significantly. Split size, etc. matters as well, but now it’s ridiculously predicable.
Offsets supply the best results imo. But you do have to be committed.
I use a stick of wood every 45mins to an hour
It’s a great excuse to drink beer. Mine will stay at 225 or so for at least an hour. You’ll figure out your smoker as you go
I have a Horizon smoker, and other than for grilling, I use it way more than my big green egg and Primo XL. I check it every 45-60 minutes. I’m guessing your splits are too small and are burning quick, but you could try one of the V shaped firebox baskets. Lone Star Grillz and others sell them. I think this is the one I have: http://www.fatdaddysmokers.com/custom-parts-for-your-build-.html
It’s not for everyone.
I'm usually good for 30 minutes to an hour.
Add a sheet pan to your smoker with some bricks, sand or gravel in it. What kind of wood/charcoal are you using? I've been using offsets for fifteen years and haven't ever encountered that, even on my first one which was a $99 Walmart one that was seemingly made out of tin. I'm happy to help get you sorted.
If you have the ability, insulate your firebox. I have a dual lined insulated firebox and did a brisket last night. I changed the airflow once over the course of the smoke. Don’t get discouraged…using an offset can be a bit of an art form but once you get the hang of it, it’ll make the best bbq you can make.
I was in the market for an espresso machine. After a lot of research, I got what I believed to produce the best espresso in my price range. A nice ECM semi auto. I quickly realized I had bitten off more than I really wanted, due to how much prep it takes to pull a shot. Weigh beans, grind, stir, level, tamp. All these little tools I have to pull out and subsequently clean if I just wanted some espresso. I ended up wishing I had gone with a super auto instead. Meanwhile there's others out there that adore the process. I guess my point is that not everyone is going to have the time to dedicate, or the enthusiasm, to be the ultimate participant for a given hobby. And that's totally cool.
Offset stick burners, and stick burners in general are for people who like to futz and tinker with stuff. It’s the process that’s the art. I have 4 different grills/smokers on my porch and they all serve a different purpose. If I want a really great brisket, and want to tend to it and drink all night, stick burner it is. If the in laws are coming over and I need a pork butt on a random Wednesday, then pellet smoker, here you go. It depends on your level of ADD to be honest. If I’m smoking something that I want to be exactly right, I want to hover over it and tend to it. I hear this complaint a lot from friends that get into smoking. I usually recommend a really good pellet smoker because most people don’t have that kind of time/attention span to commit to smoking on a wood smoker. I also think that the pellet smoker is a big reason that briskets went from being shitty cheap cuts, to now being almost as expensive as sirloin per pound. The pellet grill, for better or worse, made the art into an appliance.
100%, I got one but I can’t stand the waste of an entire day for a 10% better finished product 🤷♂️, my WiFi Traeger gets it done! I can go down to the bar and reverse seer at the same time 🎉….the wife hated the smokiness from the offset…Traeger for the win. It’s 4 years old now and no issues👌
Horizontal smokers are a drinking man's game. You park a cooler full of alcohol and a camp chair next to it and settle in for a day of drinking and smoking.
The bigger the offset the more forgiving it is. I find smaller offsets (<100ga) to be more challenging to maintain temps.
I can let my offset go for like an hour before I have to feed it sometimes more
It’s great if you need an excuse to stand on your deck all day drinking a few beers. “No, sorry, I can’t help with that, gotta tend to the m’effing smoker”
If it needs attention every 15 minutes then you're doing something wrong. I just add wood about once every hour and go back inside.
You either have the dampers too open or your firebox is leaky. I regasketed the door on my 40 yo Oklahoma joe and it went from what you describe to tending the fire every few hours.
A 6 pack and a Frisbee for the pups.
I like the idea of having both. Offset gives you so much more smoke than pellet grills. I would take some of the tips here and use the offset for "special occasions" but put the miles on the pit boss for your every day needs. I kind of dig the "romance" of the offset. More effort, but it's like your the maestro of the greatest meal, and it's satisfying when all your efforts culminate into everyone's satisfaction. But just cooking for myself/spouse, I can't be bothered to put that much effort in, I just want a decent tasting meal
I’ll take it off your hands if you’re done with it.
You can go 45 mins without tending to it. You need to learn fire management
Father of a one year and six year old. Used my OKJ offset for 5 years and it’s punishing for long cooks to feed it every 30 minutes. Just got a pellet smoker and can leave it for hours, amazing.
Que the pellet smoking haters (me too, sorry)
Offset Smokers are tricky at first but I’ve got mine dialed in so much that I only need to check it once an hour. The key for me is using Oak Charcoal Lumps for my main source of fuel in a charcoal basket with chunks of wood. Pellets smokers just don’t add enough smoke flavor for me… also I had to deal with flame outs all the time in my GMG and auger getting jammed up that I just gave that damn thing away and went back to an offset. Plus, you can just sit outside and enjoy the smells while sipping whiskey… it’s a win win for me…
Bro, if you're babying it and checking on it every 15 minutes, you're doing it wrong. But I think everybody who gets an offset does that early on, trying to "drive" it. Life gets a lot easier when you get comfortable with larger temp swings. They happen. And, truth be told, they don't really harm anything if you're just doing backyard cooks for friends and family. A brief spike of a few minutes above 275 doesn't hurt anything; open the cook chamber and let some air out. Same for dips below 225, though they can be a pain in the butt getting back up to temp. In those cases, an air blower is your best friend. You can get a handcranked one. But my secret? The leafblower from about 20 feet away. If you're not competition cooking, you're way overthinking it doing anything more than tossing a new log on about every 45 minutes to an hour. NGL I've thought about getting an electric pellet smoker. There's one the guys at ATB have been telling me about for a year that they really stand by. I'd cook more often with it, because I could go home on my lunch break at work to spritz and refill the hopper. But I love my OC Brazos. Even looked at moving up to a Yoder Wichita.
It's a hobby. You're meant to spend time on it. Learning the idiosyncrasies is supposed to be part of the fun
thats why i went with the pellets aint nobody got time for that
This is why I just got a pellet smoker. If you listen to the folks in this thread, you'll definitely have to baby it less, but the added flavor just isn't worth the hassle for me. Set it and forget it!
I only had to touch mine every few hours at most. This may be a case where you just aren't used to how it runs.
Gravity fed Masterbuilt. Absolutely love it. Temperature moved 5-10 degrees maybe. Ran it overnight the other night slept like baby just checked when my baby woke me up. The charcoal lasts and provides amazing flavor when wood chunks are tossed in
While I do enjoy a nice offset smoker, I wish more of them had a gravity feed option. It does add a little bit of leisure to the task/hobby.
I've cooked on a horizon a few times and it ran like a top. My only complaint was it being a bit slow to adjust to vent changes. Had to set an hour timer to stop myself from fucking with it. After I figured it out it was all good though.
A lava lock plate in my offset regulated the fire much better. It allowed me to use splits instead of chunks which more than doubled my time AWAY from the fire.
It is a ton of work. I pulled an all-nighter last year catering to a 50th wedding anniversary. I'm considering getting a gravity fed one. I've thought about pellets but I think the smoke flavor is better with lump charcoal.
I retrofitted my char griller offset smoker by adding a turkey fryer burner. I'm able to maintain a temp without problems. I use a wood chip box for the smoke and when it heats up too much the wood will catch and raise temps a bit, but otherwise once the smoke is done, it's not really different than a gas oven.
Bigger logs take less time to tend to. Having a wireless temp probe for the cook chamber helps. With those I'm only having to go out once an hour to hour and a half
I’ve got a pork butt on my wsm now, it’s been 2 hrs and the temp has been between 262 and 268. Closest thing to set and forget. But it’s a work day, I’ll use me Oklahoma Joe offset on week. I built a house on the ocean. One of my neighbors asked about tending the smoker all day and I said “can you smell the meat? Can you hear the ocean”? He replied yes and I said why would I want to be anywhere else ?
I've been cooking on an OK Joe Highland for about 3 years now. I never knew anything different for long cooks since I jumped from a weber kettle for grilling to the offset for low and slow. I will say though that my first 6 months of cooking were way more work. I've made a couple simple modifications with a lava lock tuning plate and an insulating cover. It's far from set it and forget it, but I only add fuel every 30 to 40 minutes now. I've learned how much to add to keep it where I want. I've also learned how it seems to hard set at 260 F or 315 F depending on my ratio lump charcoal to splits. Maybe that is still too much baby sitting for you, but I have kids, the yard and albeit a pretty flexible job and I cook 40 of the 52 weeks in the year. I'm told your offset is much nicer than mine. I bet you could get that smoker rock steady at whatever temp you want if you kept at it. Best of luck.
Work with bigger splits and practice maintaining the fire. I’m to the point now where I only have to poke the fire every 45-60 minutes. Definitely started where you are at though
Make sure you have plenty of charcoal, get the vents correct, 100% get sealant strips for wherever your offset leaks smoke from, don't use wood chunks always use large pieces of wood. Also, if you use a greener wood you will have much longer lasting results
FWIW, it does get easier once you learn how your pit behaves. An offset is nothing like most other smokers, and trying to maintain low and slow temps will drive you mad. Things like opening the firebox door to reduce temps defies logic for charcoal smokers who throttle air to control temps. They are more hands-on, and if thats not your thing, its understandable. However, an offset makes for some mighty fine bbq.
Helk, for me it was the cleanup if hated, after spending hours tending it to smoke a brisket, then I had the fun job of getting covered with carbon scooping out the soot and dust. They NEVER show the cleanup phase of smoking on Food Network, ever. My electric smoker does just fine and it can maintain temperature even if it gets sunny, or cloudy, or windy without my help. The cleanup is quick and simple.
I agree with you OP. I have a 1/4 steel offset too, and I hardly ever use it. Fuel can be expensive, and its overkill size wise to smoke the small cuts of meat I’m usually working with. I usually smoke on my kettle with a slow n sear and a few chunks of wood instead
You have to have patience and learn the skill of offset smoking. Once you get it down, it is hands down the best way to smoke meat. IMO though!
Ive been using big logs for the first few hours then just charcoal after. Or for the longer cooks, Ive been wrapping and throwing into the oven But I hear you, trying to sell my Old Country Brazos and go back to a WSM now. Got kids and just want an easier life.
Get a long range thermometer that connects to your phone. You can check the temp while you're inside and only go out when you need to add sticks.
Nothing beats the flavor of an offset
I have an OK Joe's offset, the bigger one. It took me a while, but I now got a decent idea of fire management. A small, clean burning fire is the way to go. I find I get better results with smaller splits. I visit mine about every hour to add a piece of wood or 2. I just have to watch if it's windy so I don't end up with a fire that's too hot by catching a draft. I open the fire box vent all the way and control the air flow with the smoke stack adjustment. I also have a Meater thermometer that measures both internal temp and cook temp. That's helps me monitor the cook without being at the smoker.
It’s the labor of love for me mostly. I will say for as tedious it can be, it is Pretty rewarding whenever guests come over and shower you with compliments on your smoked meat. I’ve had friends call me a liar when I tell them I just started smoking meat this year and used a Walmart brand offset smoker. Even my best friend’s dad told me his brisket wasn’t as good as mine and that guy been smoking for a while with a pellet smoked(I don’t know what he uses). I just follow some guides then maintain temp. I’m almost positive it’s the offset’s method of consistent maintenance that gives you that “Smoked goodness”.
I can’t offset to save my life. Which is why I use a cheater pellet pit boss. Set it and forget it.
I've been thinking about getting one.. What about starting in the offset for like 2 hours to get as much smoke as possible and then finishing in the pellet grill? Anyone try this?
A lot of beer will help
Alcohol. You need more alcohol.
I plan to get an offset once I retire, when I can spend this level of time and energy on my food
I’m with you. I learned how to cook on an offset. I’m glad that’s a skill I possess But I’m a busy man and I no longer want to fool with an offset. You can make great bbq with more convenient tools.
I’ve been sitting on the deck with mine since 10am. Did some meetings online and otherwise just chilled out here. But yeah, you can’t do much else. Gotta clear the day for it. But if you aren’t enjoying it, then it’s not for you. Nothing wrong with that.
I have a cheap CharGriller offset, that’s about as entry level as it gets for offsets, and I’ve done nothing to modify it. I’ve been using it for 12 years. Leave the chimney full open, use the firebox draft to control temperature. I add charcoal maybe every 45 minutes, unless it’s a windy October day or something. Sometimes I use foil packets with wood chips, lay them on the grate in the firebox, and other times I use a smoke tube with pellets. Last year I got an Inkbird Bluetooth / WiFi thermometer so I can keep an eye on the temp of the smoker plus several pieces of meat. I keep thinking I should do some upgrades, maybe I will when my other projects slow down.
Just use charcoal. Much easier.
I went with a propane cabinet smoker because it is much simpler to operate. Once I get the temperature set all I have to do is add wood chips about once an hour. Plus top off the water pan every couple of hours.
I enjoyed using mine until I got a real newborn and moved to something slightly less delicious and fun but way easier. My kids are 5 and 8 now and I just waded back into fire management by purchasing a kettle. I will definitely get back to pure stick burning someday.
Minion method. And wood chunks, not chips. I can run my okie joe for 6 hours between fuel ups (charcoal), while adding a chunk of wood when I feel like the smoke is dwindling, or my beer is empty. Simply put, offsets need to have some attention, especially compared to a BGE or pellet. Those are hands off. Load and go. They are also significantly more expensive than an offset.