I feel your pain, LA!
Deb is not shy and will let me know right away if there is too much smoke - IH(her)HO. But she's GREAT, too, because she will REALLY let me know when the food it cooked right (more frequently now).
With the offset, I find that I can adjust the amount of smoke by wrapping the meat when I think it is smoked enough. I'll put the butt it a foil pan and cover it to keep it out of the smoke...ribs- I just wrap in foil like I'm supposed to. Since wood is the only fuel in that smoker, I don't know of another way to keep from smokin' as it cooks. Howsomever, I am open to suggestions.
In the MES, I seem to over-smoke everything, so I am going to start from almost no chips and build up from there until I find the right amount for us and our tastes.
The Cajun Injector Barrel Smoker we have is a dream to cook on - especially when it comes to chicken. It is called "the world's best chicken cooker", and after the chicken we cooked Friday, Deb has declared that to be the absolute truth. I can easily adjust the smoke flavor therein by the amount of chunks I put on the charcoal. We have found that cherry wood for chicken makes Deb cheery.