Quick smoking question

All,
For those of us you enjoy the charcoal life, quck question. I have a Weber 22.5 Platinum and had a smoking/indiret grilling question.

Does anyone shut the dampers/vents some when they are smoking? I was thinkning this may keep the smoke inside longer while dropping the temp some. I am thinking maybe half-way shut?? And would you shut down both the bottom and top vents or try either or???

thanks to all
Joe

I have the same grill Joe. The best way to control the environment is to add a thermometer to the grill. Drill a hole 2-4 inches up from the bottom of the lid and install a nice gauge. Now for the rest of the question. Are you thinking that you are cooking at too high a temperature or that you just want more smoke flavor? For actual smoking, you want the temp in the range of 200-230 degrees (more or less) for a long period of time. Shutting the dampers will reduce the heat to your desired temp. Ironically, this temperature is achieved by having a good amount of charcoal on the grill and closing the dampers most of the way. This will give you several hours of burn at a good temp (and keep your smoke in). In addition I grabbed a permanent marker and made two marks on the ash can colar above the damper control handle- I made a mark where the bottom damper was completely open, and I made another mark where it was completely closed- in this way I know at a quick glance how much air I am letting in from below. Being that the top damper is more accessable, I do large temp changes with the bottom damper so that I am in the ballpark, and then control the rest from the top vent to fine tune. I don't know how you can maintain 200-225 with both vents wide open unless you didn't use that much charcoal. Hope this helps out!

Chris

Thanks chris,.. I think i will close the dampers some to in essence make the smoke last loner at a lower temp instead of burning out too fast due to excessive heat.

I found a really cool thermometer online called the Maverick Smoking Thermometer.

You can put the probe in the meat and it has an external probe the measures the temp inside the grill. The cool part is that it is remote/wireless. You can set the main unit to certain temp say 250,,and it will notify if the temp inside gets too hot or too cold..Thus to tell you,,close the vents or add more charcoal.

It will work up to 100ft away. So I may pick this up and it will take a few times to get it exactly right,,but with this you can be inside and know when your fire gets too cold or hot.

Also I may invest in a 10 dollar oven thermometer to sit inside the grill also. I don't know if I want to start drilling into the Weber

thanks
Joe

I have a remote unit too Joe, works well, Once I stabilize the grill temp, I put the probe in the meat and go watch a game on the tube. Once it gets to my desired temp it sounds an alarm for me to go tend to business. By the way, drilling shouldn't be a concern as long as you touch up the exposed edge of the hole with some high temp grill paint before you install the thermometer. I understand that it is a little nerve racking to drill a hole in a perfectly good lid however

Chris