Rediscovered the WSM

[scottc_2223]

I received a WSM about 15+ years ago as a gift...I had no clue how to use it right let alone what good BBQ was. After a failed attempt or two at smoking I gave up on it and stashed it in the shed. Fast forward to the last couple of years...started smoking on my Dad's Traeger and caught the BBQ bug...bought a stick burner and haven't looked back... but was wanting to do some smaller cooks so I dug the WSM out and cleaned her up this past weekend.
Tried out the Minion method for the first time and threw a couple of racks of spares on..overall great results but I have a couple of questions...
The edges of the racks were done well before the middle..any tricks to get them to cook more evenly? Do you flip them over during the cook or leave meat side up or down?
And now the water pan...what do you guys do? water? sand? bricks? I have searched a few sites and found different opinions and apologize in advance if this has been covered here a million times before.

Thanks Scott

 

[bbquzz]

Loads of good WSM info here The Virtual Weber Bullet, as well as the folks on this board.

 

[bigwheel]

Well glad you found your old pal.

 

[Smokey Lew]

Welcome to the forum. You can try rolling your rack of ribs and holing them together with a metal skewer. The main thing is to keep the sides of the ribs away from the outer edge of the rack. That's where all the heat from the pit below comes up.

I put water in the pan unless I'm trying for a higher temperature cook. A lot of the guys use sand with foil on top to ease clean up. Myself, I don't mind cleaning out the pan. I just dump the gunk water into a 5 gal. tub and then pour it into a hole in my back yard. I live on one acre so it's not a big deal.

Looking forward to some WSM posts.

 

[Toby Keil]

Welcome and as bigwheel said, glad you found your old friend. I see a bright future ahead you of both

 

[scottc_2223]

Thanks for the advice guys..pics will be coming soon...

Loads of good WSM info here The Virtual Weber Bullet, as well as the folks on this board.

Wow..a ton of WSM info there..just registered and looks like I have some reading ahead of me..thanks again.