After reading all of the rave reviews and wanting to cook more than one rack of ribs at a time, I purchased a PBC. I have done three cooks so far: ribs, chicken and brisket. The results were disappointing and I am asking for help.
For the ribs, I used Kingsford blue bag and lit the coals with a chimney exactly as shown on the website. Vent is 1/4 open as I live at sea level. The ribs had a chemical/petroleum flavor as though rubbed with ground up Kingsford. Did not use a thermometer to check pit temp.
For the chicken, I lit the same way but added a chunk of hickory. Same flavor, flabby skin and dry chicken.
For the brisket, I lit with lighter fluid as per instructions and hung the beef. Salt and pepper rub. Used two probes. The PBC was close to 400 degrees and the beef hit 160 after only two hours. I then wrapped it and finished the cook until I had it at 200 which took several more hours but nowhere near the 12 it would have taken had I used a low and slow with a stick burner. Beef was tender but very little of the fat had rendered and it had the same off taste.
I have been all over the LTBBQ website and have found some others with the same flavor issue.
When watching Steven Raichlen use the PBC on tv, on one cook (the jerk ribs) he used real wood charcoal, put wood chips on top of that and added a half chimney of cherry red real wood charcoal on top. On another cook, a view inside the drum showed the coals appearing lit all the way from top to bottom - no unlit dark areas.
I am no novice to BBQ and have been smoking successfully for many years. The PBC seemed to offer a way to cook larger amounts without having to tend a good offset overnight.
A few questions:
1. Is the petroleum flavor the normal flavor profile for the PBC or is there a way to get the good hickory smoked flavor I am used to here in the south?
2. Will using wood charcoal instead of briquettes provide wood flavor?
3. Should the coals be lit all the way as per Raichlen's show or will that make for too high a temp in the pit?
4. Has anyone tried using real wood instead of charcoal? I have plenty of oak, dry and ready to use.
Any advice will be welcome. Thanks.
gbwsmoker