Greeting from pinellas park fla

[Reddog]

Just found this sight it is awesome . Just have one question i have a brinkman offset smoker, and have a hard time keping the temps as i was smoking my turkey. I was using apple would. Wonted to try to go all wood this year and no coals but did not seam to work to well wound up putting coals in anyway.now my main question is ,is it best to put coals in first then wood or if im going to use wood only what is he best way or type to do it. Any advise would be greatly appericated. Thank you .

[bbquzz]

Welcome to The Forum Reddog. Can't be of much help, I've only used lump charcoal with added wood chunks, but I'm betting there are some others here who will chime in and answer your questions.

[Bosko]

Welcome to the site!

I start with charcoal to get the wood going for the long haul to the end of cooking.

The thing I find is that you need to build up a good base of WOOD coals after the charcoal has burnt off to maintain temp for low and slow cooking.

I start mine a good hour before I throw down meat for smoking

As with ANY offset smoker you will have to babysit it at least every 30 minutes.

I'm alway checking mine...normally every 20 minutes to maintain any set cooking time.....

Venting properly is key as well......good luck.....

[bigwheel]

Welcome Reddog. Dittos to what Bosko said. I cooked on my Brinkmann Offset quite a bit. Found it performed best by starting out with a base of about 3 lbs of charcoal and a small chunkor two..skinny split log etc. to make the smoke. When the heat drops add more charcoal and when it quits smoking add more wood. It also works well if you have room and motivation to use a burn barrel and shovel coals to the firebox. A straight raw wood fire can be done but its unruly and tedious. Keep the small space under the fire grate cleaned from dead ashes or the heat will go South due to lack of air to the bottom side of the fire. Also make sure it gets plenty of air to the entire fire. I always cooked with the firebox door standing open about an inch or so which seemed to mostly solve the issue. Best of fortunes and keep us updated. Thanks.

[Bob In Fla.]

I don't think that there's anything that Bosko or bigwheel missed, so I'll just say "Welcome to the camp"

[Reddog]

thanks for the advise ill try that next time