buffalobrewer

Recipes 

The old indirect smoker has seen it's better days so it's time for a new smoker! Never was impressed with it nor the brinkmann that i used before that. Neither was good at heat control, and the fuel never seemed to last for a long smoke.

What should I be looking at for the new one?

fineexampl

Recipes 

the best smoker i've ever used was a cheap $150 charsomething that i picked up from Lowes with the sidemount smoker and cast iron grates. looks like a big metal drum. i'm sure most people have seen them. That sucker was great. It was cheap too.

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Primary: Highway 35 Scotch Ale (Highway 78 clone), second runnings small beer

Bottled: Pitch Black Sheep IPA, Juniper Fail/Ale

Kegged: Apollo Pale Ale, South River Brown

SOB

Recipes 

Chargriller is what you're talking about. I gots one too. Its nice, I love it in fact but it's very touchy. Especially for long smokes. You really have to keep an eye on it but it's big and pretty cheap. Had mine for a couple years now. I like it cuz you can smoke and grill on one unit but I've been thinking about getting something else (maybe an upright smoker or maybe even an electric smoker) for those LONG 12+ hour smokes.

As for the OP...I really dont know. It all depends on what you smoke. My Chargriller with side fire box is good for a 6 hour rib smoking but anything more that that is kinda tough due to how close you have to watch and tweat the temps.

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"So we were slammin' beers in the church parking lot..."

"I'm much too young to feel this damn old"

fineexampl

Recipes 

100% correct. 6hrs is about the max i ever played with it when i had it and correct about the monitoring constantly. for me, that was part of the ritual and those were a great six hours.

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Primary: Highway 35 Scotch Ale (Highway 78 clone), second runnings small beer

Bottled: Pitch Black Sheep IPA, Juniper Fail/Ale

Kegged: Apollo Pale Ale, South River Brown

buffalobrewer

Recipes 

That's the type of unit I'm retiring. The temp control on this particular one has been very difficult to maintain. Anything over 3-4 hours involved refueling. I have the cheapo brinkmann upright but it has trouble getting hot. The coal pan didn't have any vents to let air at the coals and my tinkering has not improved it.

A little poking around the interwebs today showed that maybe the weber smokey mountain or a big green egg might serve me better. Definitely a little more coin that the previous smokers but look like it might be money well spent.

buffalobrewer

Recipes 

Just noticed you are from edison, where i was born (well, actually the hospital was in the next town over I think).

shelly_belly

Recipes 

A friend of mine recently purchased the party model from here:

http://www.backwoods-smoker.com/

He's done a few comps over the last 2 years with a Big Green Egg with moderate success. Says he sees a lot of the Backwood smokers at competitions. He's single, so I guess he has lots of disposable income. These are pricy.

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friarjohn

Recipes 

i dont have one but i hear treggers are pretty good.

dataz722

Recipes 

Get a 55gal refurbished drum and build a UDS (upright/ugly drum smoker). I am in the process of doing one myself and plan on doing a build thread on here when I am done. Just google "building a UDS" and you will find tons of things though.

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jezter6

Recipes 

I have one of those conical "bullet" looking electric smokers you can buy at lowe's/HD for like $90. I use it for long smokes all the time and I like it because unless the power is out, you have a CONSISTENT heat source...same temp ALL DAY every day and not subject to the whims of charcoal heat getting hot, then dying out before needing to refill the charcoal.

It does eat through some chips, only because the chips sit pretty much directly on the element (they say not to, but it's hard when refilling to make sure not spill one on the big hot metal thingy). Of course, a cast iron smoke box that holds the wood chips is a simple $9 fix for that problem.

It has two heat settings. ON and OFF.

Personally, for my lazy arse - it's absolutely perfect. I've smoked 12-15 hours on it without any problems. As for the food -- we'll see if data chimes back in cuz he had some pulled pork from it that I made last brewday.

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MD Dec Brewday 12/11/10 - http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f20/md-pa-de-dc-winter-brew-day-195534/