Let's Talk BBQ
Outdoor Cooking Equipment => Grills & Smokers => Stick Burners => Topic started by: sparky on January 24, 2013, 12:31:25 PM
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no, i'm not getting a new smoker. just researching them. i am a lazy bbq person. i love the mak. flip a switch and put the meat on. easy. i love my WSM's also. alot. i have never had a stick burner but i hear that the food coming off them is some of the best bbq food ever. not looking for anything like the blue october. and i'm not catering anymore either. i'm just using it for me, the wife and a bunch of no good kids and their spouses and maybe a 4th of july party or so. also do you need a insulated smokers box? are some stick burners easier to use than others? and where do ya'll get your wood from? just fireplace wood from the wood guy?
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I have a Char-Griller Smokin Pro, if I ever get another it will be this one - http://www.atbbq.com/store/show/yoder_cheyenne.html
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I've never had one but have had plenty of good eat off them. To me, you do get more smoke flavor than poopers or my Bradley. I have also had some eats that are too heavely smoked out of some.
Good luck one your quest.
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not looking for anything like the blue october
She is a beast!
(https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-o1R3tw9K2uU/UHDObevoFTI/AAAAAAABmHs/YbztCmyTYM4/s912/IMGP2476.JPG)
The Meat Monster is fully insulated (including the firebox), and it is amazing how little fuel it uses after it comes up to temp.
(https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-7MBP6GqTZZI/UKJFMvmFw8I/AAAAAAABmno/NveE0uNnkVA/s912/2012-11-11%2525252010.51.11.jpg)
We spent all morning cooking ribs and chicken in the howling wind, and used maybe a bag and a half of lump, and half a bag of charcoal for crisping up the chicken.
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I drove a stick burner for decades and don't miss them. Even the best ones are a pain. If you must have one I'd recommend one of the smaller (but still fairly expensive) Lang or Yoder models. They have good designs that draw well and stay in a temp range longer than cheaper units. The cheap ones sold at big box stores are just heavy junk.
When properly set up, a good stick burner produces thin blue smoke just like a pellet cooker does. For more smoke you can throttle back the air and induce more smolder ("whiten" the smoke). Also, burning a partial mix of green wood will produce heavier wood flavor but at the expense of some control and more uncertainty in the flavor output.
My last stick burner was a Lang. I got the most consistent results by building a charcoal bed, then throttling back and using flavor wood chunks (dry). As long as the wind wasn't blowing (all bets are off when a stick burner has to work in the wind) I could maintain smoking temps (235-300 degrees) for three to four hours without tending. Nowadays, you could add a "stoker" (blower hooked to a controller) and probably get double that.
I have some friends that say using anything other than a stick burner is "unnatural" and that cooking using more modern appliances isn't really cooking. Maybe so, but they all come to contests in trucks with automatic transmissions and air conditioning, not in a wagon pulled by oxen ???
Hub
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If you are lazy Sparky, a stick burner aint for you. I have cooked on a bunch and they are all work. Even if you get one with at least 1/4 steel and all welded like a Lang or a Klose or a JJ you still have fire to tend to and you will be constantly tweaking vents and lets put it this way, my last off set which had a 20 x 36 smoking chamber took 10 lbs of charcoal and darn near an hour just to get the smoker box temps up to 250!! Then you have the fun clean up of ashes all over the place and the greasy clean out of the smoking chamber. My Texas Pit Crafters had a water pan at the bottom that was the biggest pain to clean. Had the plumbers over -2- times to snake out my pipes from all the grease gunk up in em!!
I love getting out the shop-vac and relining my foil pan in my Yoder in 5 easy minutes and being ready to go!!
If you have to say "I have mastered and cooked on a stick burner before" borrow one from a bud that has one. Cook on it once and you will glad it aint a permanent addition to your patio!!
I am not hating on stick burners, I love them and have had great grub on them....and they sure look cool when guests come over!! But I am of the opinion that they are good for when I was younger and had the time to tend to them. Setting the alarm clock for midnight during the winter was no treat either!!!! Cold out there on the patio...even Sagebrush Smoochy got cold!!!
Just my 2 cents...I will get off my soapbox now and go sit by my Yoder Pellet Grill!! ;)
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Oh, and there is just no reason to get an inexpensive off-set!!! the metal is paper thin and they do not hold stable temps for any length of time. They should be outlawed!! They need a ton of mods to run half way decent and are way more hassle than the well made ones!!!!!
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I drove a stick burner for decades and don't miss them. Even the best ones are a pain. If you must have one I'd recommend one of the smaller (but still fairly expensive) Lang or Yoder models. They have good designs that draw well and stay in a temp range longer than cheaper units. The cheap ones sold at big box stores are just heavy junk.
When properly set up, a good stick burner produces thin blue smoke just like a pellet cooker does. For more smoke you can throttle back the air and induce more smolder ("whiten" the smoke). Also, burning a partial mix of green wood will produce heavier wood flavor but at the expense of some control and more uncertainty in the flavor output.
My last stick burner was a Lang. I got the most consistent results by building a charcoal bed, then throttling back and using flavor wood chunks (dry). As long as the wind wasn't blowing (all bets are off when a stick burner has to work in the wind) I could maintain smoking temps (235-300 degrees) for three to four hours without tending. Nowadays, you could add a "stoker" (blower hooked to a controller) and probably get double that.
I have some friends that say using anything other than a stick burner is "unnatural" and that cooking using more modern appliances isn't really cooking. Maybe so, but they all come to contests in trucks with automatic transmissions and air conditioning, not in a wagon pulled by oxen ???
Hub
Hub
Maybe so, but they all come to contests in trucks with automatic transmissions and air conditioning, not in a wagon pulled by oxen ???
;D ;D
Sent from my iPhone 5 using Tapatalk
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I will tell you this, the cheapie offsets ($150 Charbroil, Brinkman, etc.) are a horrible waste of money unless you know how and are willing to modify one. Even then the fireboxes are so thin and flimsy they rust out within a year or two.
I had to do serious mods to mine and the firebox has totally rusted out. Since I can't use the firebox anymore, mine has been relegated mainly for cold smoking with a pellet tube.
I have been looking at both the Tiernan & Meadow Creek cookers as possible replacements.
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If I was getting a stick burner for my house I'd get this klose with center firebox.
The center firebox has some advantages of both vertical & an offset Horizonal smoker, smaller footprint , more efficient fuel consumption.
http://www.bbqpits.com/ Go to backyard smokers & looks at heavy duty pipe smokers with center firebox.
The main advantages of stick burners is size , ability to use burning ( not smoldering ) wood as a fuel & the greasy drippings are not vaporized to change the meat flavor. ( some love that enhancement to the flavor some don't )
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I will tell you this, the cheapie offsets ($150 Charbroil, Brinkman, etc.) are a horrible waste of money unless you know how and are willing to modify one. Even then the fireboxes are so thin and flimsy they rust out within a year or two.
I had to do serious mods to mine and the firebox has totally rusted out. Since I can't use the firebox anymore, mine has been relegated mainly for cold smoking with a pellet tube.
I have been looking at both the Tiernan & Meadow Creek cookers as possible replacements.
The Tiernan Son of Brisket cooker is a smoker/grill without the side firebox!! There is a tray you slip in when you want to cook indirect!! I had one and it is basically an overpriced charcoal grill. It has a heavy lid but the rest of it is pretty thin metal. The Meadow Creeks are built like tanks!! I prefer the Char-Broil CB940X for indirect cooking and a grill in one and the price tag is 300 dollars less!! Just sayin.................
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I have been looking at both the Tiernan & Meadow Creek cookers as possible replacements.
The Tiernan Son of Brisket cooker is a smoker/grill without the side firebox!! There is a tray you slip in when you want to cook indirect!! I had one and it is basically an overpriced charcoal grill. It has a heavy lid but the rest of it is pretty thin metal. The Meadow Creeks are built like tanks!! I prefer the Char-Broil CB940X for indirect cooking and a grill in one and the price tag is 300 dollars less!! Just sayin.................
That is some good info about the Tiernan S.O.B. I'll check out the CB940X too.
Thanks Smoke!
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Having a love for old cars - I understand Sparky....
But, I would never want to use my old 1954 Chevy as a daily driver nowadays. No A/C...No power windows...No cruise control...No satellite radio...No pwer brakes or steering...No automatic tranny....
BUt - I still loved that old car. It was just a lot more work to drive it and be comfortable and relaxed. Same as a stick burner. Even the best require a much more "intimate interaction"....
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Having a love for old cars - I understand Sparky....
But, I would never want to use my old 1954 Chevy as a daily driver nowadays. No A/C...No power windows...No cruise control...No satellite radio...No pwer brakes or steering...No automatic tranny....
BUt - I still loved that old car. It was just a lot more work to drive it and be comfortable and relaxed. Same as a stick burner. Even the best require a much more "intimate interaction"....
this said it all. thanks t. looks like a stick burner is not or me. i do love my charcoal and pellets. ty to everyone for the input. guess i will just stick to my mak, WSM's, PBC and my kettle.
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You got a great lineup of cooking equipment Sparky....but if the hankerin for a off-set won't go away..get a good one!! I like the ones made in Texas. If you have an entire day to sit and tend a fire you will get a great feeling of satisfaction....of course you will be too tired to enjoy your meal and the clean up the next day will just make you wonder why you got one in the first place!!!!
I just think you get to a certain age and you use a bullet or a pellet pooper....well...just like what you got!!!!!!
The PBC will do a brisket in under 7 hours or the WSM or Mak will go all night while you sleep................Heck I have done briskets in a 22.5 kettle, starting at 6-7 in the morning and we were eating at 5 that evening!!!
I am done now...... ;D
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I just think you get to a certain age and you use a bullet or a pellet pooper....well...just like what you got!!!!!!
The PBC will do a brisket in under 7 hours or the WSM or Mak will go all night while you sleep.
oh, i am that age. thanks for being my friend smoke and setting me straight. spoken like a true poet. 8)
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I just don't want you to work to hard Sparky...you got a big game to be ready for next weekend!! ;)