New To Smoking

[Andy M.]

The Weber is a good one. It's actually used a lot in competition BBQ events.

The difference is the location of the smoke box. The weber's is inline vertically. The smoke travels up to the food. Those with an offset box have it located next to the food and the smoke travels horizontally to the food.

The Weber is a really good choice and easy to use. That;s the one I'd buy.

 

[Mylegsbig]

Andy, that is definitely the one i'm going to get. It has crazy good reviews.

 

[AlexR]

Hi,

I'm quite partial to Romeo y Juilietta "Cedros" myself.

Best regards,
Alex R.

 

[Andy M.]

Andy, that is definitely the one i'm going to get. It has crazy good reviews.

Can't wait to hear the results.

 

[Bangbang]

I don't know, it seems that BBQ pit i was talking about gets AWESOME reviews.

I assumed it had a smoke box built in? Are you saying the pit i linked is not a good one?

I had a similar one and it was a pain in the butt to clean. I used it twice. The type I mentioned doubles as a grill. A very large grill and easy to clean. I use it alot.

 

[vagriller]

I had a similar one and it was a pain in the butt to clean. I used it twice. The type I mentioned doubles as a grill. A very large grill and easy to clean. I use it alot.

Mine is like that too. I think its called a Brinkmann smoke n grill. I've never used it for smoking, just grilling. It looks like you would have to disassemble it to load it with more charcoal. That would suck!

 

[Hopz]

Myleg... Look man... the WSM is good, shoot, its even famous, but DUDE!, you live in Houston.
There must be a couple of dozen companies that make smokers there... no kidding. You want and need, a smoker/grill combo. This lets you put charcoal under the grate for regular things like hamburgers and steaks, chicken etc- things that are grilled.
Then it has a fire box off on the end where you burn wood to make smoke. That is what you want.
Then if you cannot find what you want at one or more of the dozen Grills and More places, go out to FM 1960, west of Willowbrook mall and before Steubner Airline Road. You will see, on the north side of the road, a place called Universal Grills or something or other.. sells all sorts of grills and smokers, plus propane and propane products- not to mention exotic woods for smoke and various spices. They are good people. If nothing else go talk to them they will give you an education. On Saturdays they used to do live cookng and eating demos... good food.
Go for it, and do not wimp out and get a Weber...

 

[Mylegsbig]

Myleg... Look man... the WSM is good, shoot, its even famous, but DUDE!, you live in Houston.
There must be a couple of dozen companies that make smokers there... no kidding. You want and need, a smoker/grill combo. This lets you put charcoal under the grate for regular things like hamburgers and steaks, chicken etc- things that are grilled.
Then it has a fire box off on the end where you burn wood to make smoke. That is what you want.
Then if you cannot find what you want at one or more of the dozen Grills and More places, go out to FM 1960, west of Willowbrook mall and before Steubner Airline Road. You will see, on the north side of the road, a place called Universal Grills or something or other.. sells all sorts of grills and smokers, plus propane and propane products- not to mention exotic woods for smoke and various spices. They are good people. If nothing else go talk to them they will give you an education. On Saturdays they used to do live cookng and eating demos... good food.
Go for it, and do not wimp out and get a Weber...

Hmm, this brings up an interesting point. I also wanted to cook stuff on it like Hamburgers, steaks, etc.

So the product i linked is just for smoking, and is a pain in the *** to clean?

I will be smoking half the time and doing stuff like burgers and whatnot the other half of the time.

I most DEFINITELY going to head out to that place that you mentioned.

By any chance can you locate the name of the place? You mentioned, Universal Grills or something similar?

 

[Gretchen]

Mine is like that too. I think its called a Brinkmann smoke n grill. I've never used it for smoking, just grilling. It looks like you would have to disassemble it to load it with more charcoal. That would suck!

IF (and I emphasize IF) it is the "bullet" shaped Brinkman it is excellent for smoking. One load of charcoal (10#) is usually enough for the smoking process. But if you want to add more, you just lift the top 2/3 off, add more charcoal and put it back on.
The big drawback to this kind is not having much control over temp, but I had 2 or maybe 3 before I got my side firebox New Braunfels.
If it isn't the bullet shape you are talking about, I withdraw all of the above.

 

[Andy M.]

MLB:

By all means talk to someone knowledgeable about all the options before you make a decision.

You can also grill on the Weber. It's just not very big.

You can also buy a regular weber charcoal grill and smoke on that. You have lots of options.

 

[Mylegsbig]

Andy M, will only be grilling for my fiance and I and we have a baby on the way but he will not be eating off of the grill.

Andy have you used a weber? how difficult would you say it is to clean it, and how often do you need to?

 

[Hopz]

Myleg... correction please on the directions... it is on FM1960 West of 249/Willowbrook Mall... (not toward Steubner-Airline)...its actually:

Universal Propane Grill and Light Inc.
9106 FM 1960 West
Houston, TX 77070
281-894-8878

That ought to get you pretty close... if that won't do it-- try:
http://www.gasgrillwarehouse.com/

One word... they sell gas stuff here. they may not be large proponents of smoking with wood. But, and its a large but... they know their stuff. Listen to them.
I bought my gas grill there many years ago. I love it... and by the way, I smoke on my gas grill several times per month. I do not intend to get into the gas versus wood for smoke argument...

 

[Bangbang]

I can "smoke" several slabs of ribs on my smoker and two turkeys or several chickens. You can not do that on a Weber. I can even cook corn,steaks,and burgers in my firebox while "smokin" the other stuff. All you have to do to clean is to remove the grates to remove the ashes. I then burn a hot fire to clean the grates. Lazy way but it works. The Weber would bu8rn up.

 

[Andy M.]

MLB:

I don't have a WSM, just a Weber gas grill. I have investigated the WSM as I want to get a smoker. It is recommended over the Brinkman of the same size and shape as it is sturdier and easier to control the heat.

The side mount rig is bigger and will accommodate more food at one time than the WSM but consider what you really need for two adults and occasional guests. If you find you like smoking and the time commitment it takes, you can upgrade to a larger and more costly item.

Ask the expert about using the Weber Gold 22" kettle grill for smoking. Raine posted a detailed instruction of how to smoke on a kettle grill and it seems easy.

Think about what you will be doing most. If you will be doing a lot of grilling and occasional smoking you might make one choice. If you will be doing a lot of smoking and occasional grilling, your choice will be different.

You can buy one unit that does both or two separate specialized units.

 

[Gretchen]

Hmm, this brings up an interesting point. I also wanted to cook stuff on it like Hamburgers, steaks, etc.

So the product i linked is just for smoking, and is a pain in the *** to clean?

I will be smoking half the time and doing stuff like burgers and whatnot the other half of the time.

I most DEFINITELY going to head out to that place that you mentioned.

By any chance can you locate the name of the place? You mentioned, Universal Grills or something similar?

I can't find the description of the "WSM" but since I bought our son's New Braunfels sidebox smoker in Houston (at Lowe's or Costco I think) when passing through one time, I will post my experience with my own New Braunfels, purchased after that. If I have already posted to this thread, please forgive.
The sidebox smokers have an additional big plus--you can regulate the temperature of the smoking chamber (and they have a thermometer mounted on the unit) fairly precisely by using the dampers.
This is important when making things like pork butt for pulled pork, since you want the temperature to not go above 250*.
It is important for roasting/smoking chickens when you may want the temp to be a bit higher--350* for a short roast/smoke.
It is important when smoking fish--trout, salmon, mackerel--when you want the temp to be no more than 150*.

You can use the side firebox as a small charcoal grill for grilling directly over charcoal--OR you can use the main large chamber for a charcoal grill and more space.

If you buy at a place like Barbecues Galore , etc. you will definitely pay top dollar. Take a look at Home Depot and see what they may have. And as someone said, since you are in Houston, you should have a lot more places to shop. Good luck. It's fun.

 

[vagriller]

IF (and I emphasize IF) it is the "bullet" shaped Brinkman it is excellent for smoking. One load of charcoal (10#) is usually enough for the smoking process. But if you want to add more, you just lift the top 2/3 off, add more charcoal and put it back on.
The big drawback to this kind is not having much control over temp, but I had 2 or maybe 3 before I got my side firebox New Braunfels.
If it isn't the bullet shape you are talking about, I withdraw all of the above.

Gretchen, my Brinkmann has 2 grates (link to my smoker/grill). In order to smoke, it appears that I must put charcoal in the bootom, then the bottom grate on, then the water pan or meat for the lower portion. I guess if I didn't want to put the water pan or meat in the lower portion I could leave the bottom grate off. That would make adding fuel easier. When grilling with this unit I have found that a full chimney of charcoal lasts 4 hours, so I might not even have to add more! I'll have to get everything together and go over the instructions. I've only used it for grilling so far.

 

[Robo410]

I would go with weber for the bbq, and the gum works really well when you are ready to give up the reds.

 

[Andy M.]

I would go with weber for the bbq, and the gum works really well when you are ready to give up the reds.

HUH???

 

[GB]

LOL Andy I think he is talking about chewing gum to give up smoking Marlboro reds

 

[vagriller]

HUH???

Marlboro reds, cigarettes.