meat extinguishing coals?

[getguinness]

Hey everyone, long time no post.  It's been a reallllly long time since my last post, so I'll re-introduce myself.  My name is Danny, and I've had my PBC going on 2 years now.

First, let me say that I love this little cooker and usually love the food that comes off of it. 
But, I've had a couple incidents lately where the meat I was hanging has actually put out the coals to the point that they started putting out really dirty smoke that affected the flavor of the food.
The first time it happened I had 3 chickens hanging and thought maybe I just overloaded the cooker and the grease dripping off the birds was too much for the coals, but the last time it happened was with a single rack of St Louis spares. They cooked fine for about 3 hours then I looked out and saw thick black smoke pouring out.  The side of the coal basket that wasn't under the meat was burned down to ash, and the coals under the ribs were nearly out.   After I left the lid off for about 10 seconds they all burst into flames, but by that point the ribs were pretty much ruined by the bad smoke.

Has anybody else had this issue, and if so, do you have any suggestions? 

The 2 cooks were about a month apart, and used 2 different brands of charcoal, one Stubbs and the other Kingsford.  Both were lit with the chimney method from the PBC video.  Usually the PBC is super predictable, which makes a botched cook even more frutstrating.

Thanks everybody! 

[RG]

following

[Kona]

I'd give Noah a call, their customer service is excellent and he'll help you figure out exactly what's happening

[USCTrojan]

Hmmm

The only solution that I can think of is that the coals are not heating up evenly. Using a chimney with the PBC is a great way to get the coals going but you have to be careful and ensure that lit coals that you pour in the coal pan are not too concentrated in one area. I use a set of metal tongs to move the coals around for even distribution.

  You are relying on direct coal-to-coal heat transfer at this point, so it is important that lit coals from the chimney are being spread everywhere. That way the coals build heat at the same rate. Also be careful to not put the meat on too soon.  Juice from the meat adds a cooling effect so if there are some coals that were not lit, then they may will burn at a delayed rate. The margin for error with chicken (or in your case 3 chickens) is very small because chickens drip A LOT of juice….especially when they are cut in halves.

One more tip, I like to spread my chickens out across the rebar with as much space in between as  possible to prevent juices from dripping in a small radius and overloading the coal bed.

Hope this helps!

[TexasRob]

Solid info right there...saving this for future use!

[RG]

Hmmm

The only solution that I can think of is that the coals are not heating up evenly. Using a chimney with the PBC is a great way to get the coals going but you have to be careful and ensure that lit coals that you pour in the coal pan are not too concentrated in one area. I use a set of metal tongs to move the coals around for even distribution.

  You are relying on direct coal-to-coal heat transfer at this point, so it is important that lit coals from the chimney are being spread everywhere. That way the coals build heat at the same rate. Also be careful to not put the meat on too soon.  Juice from the meat adds a cooling effect so if there are some coals that were not lit, then they may will burn at a delayed rate. The margin for error with chicken (or in your case 3 chickens) is very small because chickens drip A LOT of juice….especially when they are cut in halves.

One more tip, I like to spread my chickens out across the rebar with as much space in between as  possible to prevent juices from dripping in a small radius and overloading the coal bed.

Hope this helps!

Good tips! That Avatar is cracking me up! That's the look my wife gives me when I start talking about buying another grill

[USCTrojan]

Good tips! That Avatar is cracking me up! That's the look my wife gives me when I start talking about buying another grill

That is literally the face I make every time someone posts pictures of freshly made BBQ in here.

[getguinness]

Thanks everybody for the input.  The suggestion about the coals being unevenly lit is certainly possible.  I try to spread the lit coals pretty evenly across the top of the basket, but sometimes it's hard to see with all the smoke coming off of the unlit coals.  I'm also thinking I may have had an airflow issue with the foil that I put under the basket to catch ash.  Now that I've thought about it I wonder if I had accidentally blocked the intake a little with the foil and choked the fire too much.  Something else to pay closer attention to in the future I guess. 

Whatever the cause, I'm sure it was operator error since nearly every time I use it the PBC cooks like a champ.  I was just curious if anybody else had similar issues.

[Kona]

Thanks everybody for the input.  The suggestion about the coals being unevenly lit is certainly possible.  I try to spread the lit coals pretty evenly across the top of the basket, but sometimes it's hard to see with all the smoke coming off of the unlit coals.  I'm also thinking I may have had an airflow issue with the foil that I put under the basket to catch ash.  Now that I've thought about it I wonder if I had accidentally blocked the intake a little with the foil and choked the fire too much.  Something else to pay closer attention to in the future I guess. 

Whatever the cause, I'm sure it was operator error since nearly every time I use it the PBC cooks like a champ.  I was just curious if anybody else had similar issues.

I was using foil but I switched to using a metal pizza pan under the basket and it works perfectly

[Aclarke44]

Sounds like you need this 

http://www.pitbarrelcooker.com/product/attachable-ash-pan/

[getguinness]

Sounds like you need this 

http://www.pitbarrelcooker.com/product/attachable-ash-pan/

I agree, it's on my father's day wish list!