Help! Way Too Much Smoke

[Smoking50]

To start with, I built a reverse flow 250 gal smoker a 18 months ago, with a 24 x 30 fire box on the left side. I did all the presumed math and calculations myself before I found this web site. All the dimensions are very, very close to the pit calculator. The smoker heats great maybe a little to good. The problem I have, is, the meat most of the time will take on to much smoke. I use hickory and red oak exclusively to smoke with. This past Saturday we smoked a couple of butts and whole chickens. The chickens turned out almost perfect, while the butts were smoked for 90 minutes and then wrapped in foil. at 225 to 230 degrees. to much smoke by then Sunday they tasted like, well, smoke, strong smoke.
I have tried several different methods.
1. let the white smoke stop coming out the stack flames still going into smoker
2. Let the hickory burn down until there is just a hot bed of coals. this works best but takes about 3 1/2 hours for this and a tremendous amount of wood consumed.
3. Charcoal is out of the question due to cost. Will take about 40 pounds
So what am I doing wrong here? What is the answer?
There is one thing I didn't do on the build, it was to weld the baffle in solid, It may allow to much smoke to enter on the sides. The baffle doesn't seem to warp due to heat, but maybe it does. I thought possibly I would take it back to my shop and weld it. Any opinions on this? Or I could on the right end of the smoker add another stack with a damper inside to open to remove the smoke and let the radiant heat from the baffle heat the smoker chamber like an oven. Will this possibly work?
Any opinions out there as to what I should do? Or am I doing something wrong? I am a typical male driver, it hurts me to ask for directions, but in this case I am lost, and need to find my way home!!!!!


Thanks
Smoking50

[Miketheforester]

The only thing I can think of is that your wood is too green. It will make it smoke come out heavy and damp and can leave a bitter and overly smokey taste. Something else i have had issues with is bug tunnels in your wood seem to hold a lot of moisture in the form of bug crap and smoke nonstop.

[alleyrat58]

Agree with Mike on the moisture in the wood. I like mine fairly green, but usually age it 2 or 3 months after I cut and split it. There are a number of factors at work here. The first is how often you feed it. I would strongly encourage you to start your fire with charcoal as that produces the best base for your fire. Throw in a full chimney of fully lit charcoal and let it sit for 15 minutes. Then throw in a split or two of wood every 15 mins until you reach your cooking temp. Keep your stacks and your air inlets fully open during the warm up. The smoke should be darn near clear before you cook on it to produce the best results.

Once you're about 25 degrees short of your cook temp, close your stacks 1/4 or 1/3 (leave 3/4 to 2/3 open) and close your air inlets to about half. The smoker should level out in about 20 to 30 min. at your cook temp. Further adjust your air/stacks until the smoker holds where you want it.

During the warm up and throughout the cook, you need to feed the fire less fuel, more frequently. Start with 1 or 2 1/4 splits every 30 min. and see how it holds. Too hot? Try less fuel or try extending your feed time by 10 min. Too cool? do the opposite. What you want to avoid doing is overfeeding it, then it gets hot, then it cools down, then you overfeed it again. If you dump too much wood on too small of a fire it takes a while for it to get going. In the meantime it is going to produce acrid smoke which will give your meat a funny flavor and will also turn your lips and tongue numb when you eat it. You just want to drop a little fuel on a very regular basis on the fire to keep it burning right.

Also, don't sweat small (15 - 20 degree) temp fluctuations. If your set point is 225 and it is running at 215, so what? Make a very small adjustment and it will creep back up there. The oven in your kitchen has +-25 degree sway. Once you learn your pit, it will have much less than that, but you have to calm down and not react to every drop or rise in temp - plus that interrupts your beer drinking time...

Remember that it takes 20 - 30 min. for any air adjustments to fully take effect so stay away from your dampers and adjust them slowly. My butts cook for four hours unwrapped, then they go in the foil and cook for another 3. I generally go through about 40# of charcoal and I pay about $20 for it a Lowe's. My smoker is a 275 gallon upright and I burn through about 25 pounds of wood in addition to the charcoal. The biggest factor in fuel consumption is knowing how to run your cooker and doing it well. The second biggest are the ratios to ensure enough air for combustion. I generally recommend charcoal for beginners as it is much more stable and predictable than cooking on hardwood alone. You're already shelling out a lot of money in meat and time, you may as well make sure your fuel produces the food you want to eat. Once you can run it well on a mix of hardwood / charcoal you can start cutting back on the charcoal and using more wood. Always keep a bag of charcoal handy, if your smoke gets nasty, light a chimney and throw it in your firebox. The temp may rise, but the lit charcoal will clean up the smoke and save your cook.

[Gizmo]

What he said

[TuscaloosaQ]

I cook on and build 250 gallon smokers all the time, I know this for a fact if red oak is not seasoned for a long time that may very well be the culprit. I personally think thin blue smoke is way over rated. I live in the south and produce excellent Q Know I am not a competition cook and never will be because rules in my opinion for children not adults I am going to shut up!!!!!!! Alleyrat knows what he is talking about on fire management and I have starting adhering to what he says in that respect!!!!!

[Smokeone]

AlleyRat

[Smoking50]

TQ
I to am from the south right next door to you, about 70 or miles away, South of Atlanta Motor Speedway 20 Miles. The Oak and the Hickory are as well seasoned as you can get it. I think some of my foul smoke taste may be from some Very big red oak knots that were split on the log splitter I do remember putting a couple in at different times, and it smoking quite a bit.

Alley Rat had mentioned maybe wet. The trees had died due to the drought conditions we have experienced over the past decade. Anyway what are the thoughts on the additional stack with a damper? (Mentioned in the first post.) Is it a Good or bad Idea? Then I want have to worry about the smoke and will leave more time for consumption. Give me your thoughts and if ya'll think it will work I am all for it, and will do it in the next week or so.The material is on hand and I got the time. (I 'm Retired)
Alleyrat what you are saying I fully believe, and I think you are correct in the lack of my detailed attention to the fire. You know sometimes during a cook those Michelob Ultras will get in your eyes, preventing you from seeing clearly. Not saying that is the problem or anything, just trying to make the smoker more drinker friendly. Got to much free wood on my place and son-in-laws to cut it, to be buying charcoal. hope you understand. Already cut split and stacked about 2 cords, dry as a powder keg.
Thanks for all the replies and keep them coming, I want an idiot proof smoker, if its possible.
Smoking50

[SoloQue]

I usually fire up a single chimney to get my base logs going. Once I get my initial bed of coals I am pure wood for the duration. I'm on board with the idea of maintaining a steady fire size, I feed the fire two arm size chunks every 45 minutes to an hour depending on the temp outside to maintain my temps. I have noticed at times if I drop in a shorter bulkier chunk of wood that it will sputter a bit and put off some decent smoke for about 5 - 10 minutes before fully igniting so I shoot for nothing much bigger than my arm to help get a clean burn going. If your base fire is so hot that you are having to starve it oxygen then you will be generating quite a bit more smoke. I start with 2 logs laid flat in the basket, one full chimney of lit coals poured over them and 2 logs laid at an angle over the coals on a 250 gallon smoker. After the first hour the coal bed is formed and I'm pretty close to temp and ready to start feeding. On my rig the stacks are technically too much which is what I wanted so I would be able to really pull a draft if needed and I usually run with one of them choked about half once I get everything leveled off. From where I stand having the ability of extra draft that you can adjust would not be a bad thing. One side effect of over drafting is that my cook chamber developes more varied temp zones but once I throttle back they balance back into line. I'm guessing that if you get a good coal base and feed less more often and keep the diameters smaller you will see less heavy smoke. Hope you find something in there worth reading and maybe even helpful

[Frank_Cox]

Here is "The Frank Method".... For a 250 Gallon Smoker use the bigger weber chimneys like I have in the video and a couple more 1/8 splits to get going....

[alleyrat58]

Anyway what are the thoughts on the additional stack with a damper? (Mentioned in the first post.) Is it a Good or bad Idea? Then I want have to worry about the smoke and will leave more time for consumption.

I don't think it's a bad idea, but I don't think it will solve your problem either. My stack is twice the size recommended by the pit calculator and I love it, but it is not the reason that it cooks well...