"Put Some South in Your Mouth!"

GSH · Post by **GSH** » January 22nd, 2014, 6:05 am

Hi from the Midlands of Ireland!

Woul'd think a New Yorker would be in the midlands of Ireland selling Bar BQ and Southern Food?

Well that's me, Roger Mac Arthur owner of Georgia Smokehouse Foods, located here in Birr, County Offaly, Ireland! And that's my slogan up above! Folks here have heard about proper low and slow American Bar BQ , corn bread and ham hocks and turnip greens and all, but few have actually tasted them. But when they do it's amazing to watch their faces! I am slowly but very steadily working to bring Southern Inspired Foods to Ireland, the U.K and The Netherlands.

I'm in the middle of designing a smoker for a new restaurant and may need some input from you all. I love to post some drawings and photos as this project commences. The restaurant is tentatively scheduled to open by St. Pat's Day.

I'm happy to be a part of your network!

Cheers,
Rog

SmokinFF · Post by **SmokinFF** » January 22nd, 2014, 7:04 am

from across the pond. Tell us what you have in mind, and we'll see if we can help.

The Czar · Post by **The Czar** » January 22nd, 2014, 7:23 am

Welcome aboard!!!

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

Gizmo · Post by **Gizmo** » January 22nd, 2014, 7:49 am

Welcome Rog! Looking forward to this build - don't get too many commercial builds through here - many similarities but the parameters change some …. this is gonna be great!

Clover Ridge Smokers · Post by **Clover Ridge Smokers** » January 22nd, 2014, 8:44 am

Welcome. We'd love to help out anyway we can AND we all are available for onsite consultations if necessary.

Post by **Rodcrafter** » January 22nd, 2014, 8:48 am

Glad to have you.

Gizmo · Post by **Gizmo** » January 22nd, 2014, 1:38 pm

CRS if you charter a jet please save me 2 seats…. 2 because I'd like to still be married when I get back…..

Rev.Mike · Post by **Rev.Mike** » January 22nd, 2014, 2:29 pm

GSH · Post by **GSH** » January 22nd, 2014, 4:35 pm

Well, that's the best welcome I've had since moving to Ireland! Thanks!
Here's the brief:
-I have a two door stainless steel refrigerator with glass wool insulation, very high quality stainless,compressor on top
-I plan to have a smoker on one side and a product holder on the other
-The firebox will be a separate unit on the side of the cabinet, feeding the smoker via insulated stainless piping
-I am toying with the idea of a sealed box outside the charcoal inner firebox to capture heated air only, no smoke to heat the holding cabinet (I will post a sketch to clarify ASAP) The alternative would be to use an electric heating element and humidify as needed (will do anyway) knda like this idea but I'd also love to work on this double box concept...mmmmm?
-The actual smoker volume is 24 x 24 x 52 high so my firebox will be 1/3 this or better, insulated with refractory insulation
-I plan to have an ash drawer as well as a charcoal drawer both behind a hinged faceplate with air dampers built in
The plan is to introduce the smoke at the top of the cabinet and the exhaust at the bottom-ish drawing the smoke all the way through the cabinet. I plan to have an adjustable butterfly on the exhaust (either servo or manual) and an in-line fan to extract before opening the smoker and to help with the long draw when lighting up
The goal is to create a smoker which will cook and smoke 20 shoulders in six hours and hold the same amount in the other side, so humidity control is very important and I will re-work the doors and latches to this end.

Anyway, I gave the client a ring today to say that I have a plan in mind, will design the firebox and source materials ASAP and give him the bad news as soon as I can and kick this thing in the pants!

Thanks guys for the support! Let's see where this goes!

Rog

Gizmo · Post by **Gizmo** » January 22nd, 2014, 6:43 pm

I'd love to see a sketch of this beast….

Puff · Post by **Puff** » January 22nd, 2014, 6:51 pm

One drawing is worth a thousand words...

Smokeone · Post by **Smokeone** » January 22nd, 2014, 7:40 pm

Gotta agree with the fellers this is gonna be an interesting build. We will definitely try to chip in where we can.
CRS- I'll have 2 seats also! The wife really wants to go to Ireland, and now there's Q, I'm in.

GSH · Post by **GSH** » January 23rd, 2014, 6:07 am

Well, you all know that these things start of with a rough sketch. The Smoker and Holder cabinets will have their own details. This is a sketch for the firebox. I will insert a heavy steel inner cabinet in the fire box just to capture hot air off the fire. This inner box will not be thermally bridged to the outer cabinet and will be also independent from the actual fire and smoke. A diagonal channel of fins will draw air across all surfaces of the fire box to an outlet in the rear, probably a 3" tube. The actual firebox will vent , through a reducer venturi ,to a larger insulated pipe, up the back of the smoker cabinet entering it at the top. So, the firebox design is a little different. i intend to use the Hot Air for the holding cabinet.

Now, I could scrap the whole hot air thing and the design would remain the same. I'm happy with the size of the firebox at this early stage and i can price either way. Cool idea though, i thought!

Rog

PS I have ticked the "Img " button at the top of this email but can't seem to load the image of the sketch scan from my docs?? Any help would be appreciated {:-D

Post by **Pete Mazz** » January 23rd, 2014, 6:36 am

Seems like a complicated way to get hot air into the warming cabinet. Being separate from the FB, the air won't have smoke OR humidity. I guess we can assume the FB cannot be under the CC/WC?

There is a Sticky about posting pics somewhere on the site.

Here it is:

http://www.smokerbuilder.com/forums/vie ... =50&t=1874

GSH · Post by **GSH** » January 23rd, 2014, 1:42 pm

Hi Pete,

The FB cannot be under the smoker or holder as they have drip pans and floor drains for cleaning the units below each. I have plans for humidity control for both cabinets. I may decide after pricing, to do away with the hot air jacket, but it has been an interest of mine to build this concept. Another matter is will there be enough draft to draw air in, around and over to the WC? Well, as i said, these are early days yet and the firebox design, with or without the hot air jacket will happen and soon!
Thanks for the post

Rog

El Gato · Post by **El Gato** » January 23rd, 2014, 1:50 pm

Thats funny,
Looks like a treasure map.

EG

GSH · Post by **GSH** » January 23rd, 2014, 1:53 pm

Ha ha yeah it IS a treasure map!

mnlong57 · Post by **mnlong57** » January 24th, 2014, 5:19 am

vizion · Post by **vizion** » January 25th, 2014, 2:18 pm

Welcome... This should get interesting...

GSH · Post by **GSH** » January 26th, 2014, 7:42 am

Hey Fellow Q-men!
I've been looking into thermostatic controls, specifically the BarBQ Guru. They recommend a 25cfm fan, or two, for a larger cabinet style smoker. But, by only regulating the air intake, i am concerned, The draw from the throat, up the back and into the CC at the top, then vent at bottom, up again to finally exit the back of the CC into extractor is a long route, but necessary and desirable. I had decided to fit a damper, possibly servo controlled, in the final vent stack 3-4" dia, stainless. Does anyone know if there is a processor which includes a vent damper control? This is a commercial smoker and I need to have a system that is as much set and forget as possible through my 6-8 hr cooking cycle. Regulating the vent damper has always worked for me as i can tune the draw, while the supply damper creates the burn. any thoughts would be appreciated.

Gizmo · Post by **Gizmo** » January 26th, 2014, 8:43 am

For the design you're proposing using natural convection (no fan) I think you will discover the stack damper will have a sweet spot it likes for a given load. As the amount of meat (load) in the cooker changes so does the airflow restriction and the stack opening will need to be changed to tailor the draft to that particular set of obstructions. If you're cooking commercially then you're also probably only cooking full loads so once you find that sweet spot you won't have to fiddle with it much.

In my experience with gurus on your design the real challenge will be where to put the temp probe. I'm guessing in the 2nd hallway up from the FB for the smoothest operation - i.e. less roller-coaster temps….. Good idea to use a design that allows moving this probe so you can "tune" the rig/computer as a team ….

The good news is when using a guru type product with an active draft (fan) the stack opening mostly effects your brakes (choking back the fire to reduce heat when the fan stops) not the accelerator (stoke to increase heat) because the power of the fan will force the air through. In other words you'll only open the stack a little to support the fan's airflow then stop - you're done changing the stack unless you go back to a natural draft. You're also going to want as short a stack as possible when using a guru or you won't have any brakes at all. The whole cabinet in a vertical design IS a stack.

I've never seen a servo control for a guru but it should be fairly straight-forward and simple. The higher-end gurus will run 2 - 25cfm fans because they offer a "Y" harness to do just that. If you were to put a fan on one and the servo on the other and have it open the stack full when the fan is running then close it to nearly closed when the fan shuts off then you would have the best of both worlds.

sorry I got long-winded but I want your design to work and there's more complexity to this design than meets the eye.

jm2cw

Post by **Rodcrafter** » January 26th, 2014, 10:01 am

Gizmo wrote:If you were to put a fan on one and the servo on the other and have it open the stack full when the fan is running then close it to nearly closed when the fan shuts off then you would have the best of both worlds.

I agree this is the most important thing, the stack must fall back to almost closed, even if the stack is long this would prevent over running the temp controller.

jm2cw

GSH · Post by **GSH** » January 26th, 2014, 2:37 pm

Hi Gizmo and Rodcrafter!

Thanks for the input and for reinforcing what I had supposed. All makes sense, especially the quote Rodcrafter took from you, Giz. The whole cabinet IS the stack and when the fans are running the stack is open, creating the quickest way to reach set temp; then damp down to that "sweet spot" which we can all agree will most likely be "all but closed". So, simply, the servo would open when the temp controlled fan circuit is "ON". Makes all the sense in the World! Done

Next issue humidity. I don't like to over-engineer things. A pan of water or whatever in the cook and hold cabinets would do the job I suppose. Can you have too much humidity? I suppose so, the opposite has always been my main concern. But, since I will be installing this baby in a modern commercial kitchen, I am thinking about a mains water feed (1/4" npt supply) to small stainless tanks with shut off floats.
My thought was a slotted plate on top of the tank with a servo actuated sliding, slotted panel on top, open or closed, governed by a humidistat. CC position would be near the top rack below the smoke outlet with a drip guard above. HC location would be at the bottom, over the heat source and again, covered by a drip plate. HC is not vented. Product will stay in the HC, which will remain closed, at about 75 C for a good while and consistent humidity will assure consistent quality. The product in the holding cabinet will be brought to the food expediting area and held there in another much smaller, humidified cabinet until plated per order (after a little sizzle on the 'ol grill of course!)Too much?? I don't know what the state-of -the-art re: humidity is with the Big Boys? Is humidity regulated somehow??

TALK ABOUT LONG WINDED...PHEW! By God I love this stuff!! {:-D

Gizmo · Post by **Gizmo** » January 26th, 2014, 4:46 pm

If you have anywhere to set a pan of water in the CC then drop the humidity subject entirely. You can try it later but you'll probably have TOO MUCH humidity with a full CC and all that meat giving off humidity. My weather cap used to drip on the outside of the cabinet the smoky air coming out was so full of water…. I don't think it will be a problem at all.

GSH · Post by **GSH** » January 27th, 2014, 6:02 am

Yep,ok. KISS fur sure. Thanks Gizmo
Rog

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