Traditional brick smoker pit in steel

[Grasstree]

G'day everyone from Australia,
I'm a commercial pit master in Australia running my own catering business with our texan style direct flow offset pit. I'm looking at building a new pit to expand capacity. I really like the look of the traditional brick offset pits with the top opening lid. I don't do whole hog at this stage so i'm not really interested in a burn barrel and then shovelling the coals under the meat. Too much of a fire hazard over here. I'm more interested in a traditional look brick offset pit but made out of steel. It would be built on a trailer for mobile catering. Is this doable or do you need the thermal mass of the bricks? Looking at around 3m long (10') and around 900mm wide (35-36").

[Dirtytires]

Welcome to the group.

You don’t need bricks to build a smoker. Just do an offset pit from steel pipe or a tank.

[Grasstree]

Thanks for the welcome Dirtytyres,
I'm not looking to build a brick pit. I already have a rolled plate style offset out of 10mm steel. I like the look of the traditional straight sided brick pit and wanted to build one from steel.

[Brisket Envy]

I have been thinking about the same thing.
The pipe offset smokers that are popular here were created out of necessity, or maybe ingenuity.
Some clever pipe fitter in the oil fields decided he wanted something that emulated the brick smoker they had back home, that used indirect heat via an outside heat source.
I want to build something that hearkens back to the brick smoker days, that is portable.
I decided I will insulate the walls, and put up some of the “faux brick” panels to add to the nostalgia.
Something about being able to lift up on the lid (sheet steel), and see all that meat laying on that expanse of a grate, is very appealing to me.

[Grasstree]

Hi Brisket Envy,
Yes i totally agree. Another thing i wanted to do was simplify the build. It appears from history, that the pipe style smokers came from the oil fields where these things were laying around in abundance so why not use them. Labour and steel prices are expensive in Australia so utilising flat plate with the ends bent on a brake press so the whole lot can be bolted together more or less with minimal welding and man hours is what i'm looking for. Simple straight cuts and bends. We don't have the history of smoking over here so their are no brick pits i can look at. And most YouTube videos don't show inside the pits.

[Brisket Envy]

There a few decent videos of cinder block smokers. Many of them have the fire in the pit, but a few have an external source of heat.
There are few if any hard and fast rules.

[Brisket Envy]

Here is an example of what I mean by no rules
I called Smitty’s BBQ just to verify, the fire is outside the cooking chamber. Of course, it is protected from the elements like wind and rain.
Just an interesting way to think outside the (fire)box

https://www.google.com/search?q=smitty% ... 9Fky35Y_YM

[Grasstree]

Great pics Brisket Envy. I imagine brick pits evolved from coals underneath to offset to make them more indirect. Is their any baffle plates between the fire and cook chamber or is it straight through. And seeing as these pits where all mastered by feel with no temp gauges, i wonder how much temp difference their is from the fire end to the chimney end?

[Brisket Envy]

Those are the exact questions I plan to ask when I make my trip to visit Smitty’s. They are a couple of hundred miles from me, but I’m going mostly out of curiosity.
I am also interested in how they handle the exhaust(s), since the have multiple pits in the same space.
Someone suggested they might have a couple of exhaust fans for the building, and that is how it is done.
We’ll see.