Took me 3 hours to dial in my offset smoker after a brisket stall at 2am last Saturday

I couldn't figure out why the temp kept dropping even with fresh splits, turned out my damper was stuck halfway shut from creosote buildup. Has anyone else spent way too long troubleshooting something that simple mid-cook?

3 comments

3 Comments

mary61424d ago

Honestly, that sounds exactly like something that would happen to me at 2am when I'm already tired. I had a similar issue once where my temp was all over the place and I was losing my mind checking everything, turns out I had a big chunk of ash blocking the airflow under the fire grate. Tbh, I started keeping a little wire brush near the smoker just to poke around the dampers and intake vents when I do longer cooks. Ngl, it's always the simple stuff that catches you out when you least expect it, but at least you figured it out before the brisket was ruined.

lilyfisher24d ago

Yo no way @mary614, you just described exactly what happened to my buddy Dave last summer! He was doing a brisket overnight and the temp kept dropping even though he added more coals. He was out there for an hour in the cold trying to figure it out, almost gave up and ordered pizza. Turns out the ash buildup was so bad under his fire grate that air couldn't even get through, like a solid inch of ash just blocking everything. He texted me at like 3am going crazy, and I told him to go poke around the vents with a skewer. Five minutes later his temp came right back up and the brisket turned out fine, but he still talks about that night like it was a war story.

jordanr8920d agoMost Upvoted

Hold on, a full inch of ash? That's wild. I've had some gnarly ash buildup before but never that thick, gotta be like a whole chimney's worth just sitting there. Never thought a skewer could solve a problem that big before reading this, @mary614. That wire brush idea is smart, gonna have to snag one for my setup now.