2013 Gratuitous Grill Thread

[steveh_131]

Ok, do you have directions on how to make one of these?

There's about a million ways to do it. Here is my thread about mine:

https://www.indianagunowners.com/forums/break-room/300269-ugly-drum-smoker.html

The really essential things are:

55 Gallon Drum

Harder to find than you might imagine. The jury is out on the safety of drums that have held oil or chemicals. Many folks disagree. I lucked out and found a new one on craigslist. Also found a place in Illinois where you can purchase them new for $60.

Watch out for liners that are painted on! They can be a nightmare to get rid of. Most people have them sandblasted out, because otherwise it takes hours of burning and sanding and grinding.

Intakes

You need at least 3 intakes towards the bottom of the barrel. I drilled mine 3" up from the bottom lip. If you use a unibit to drill a 1" hole, a 3/4" pipe fitting will thread in there perfectly.

You need to be able to control the air flow on the intakes. I went with one ball valve (make sure it's a full-flow valve), then on the other two intakes I used short pipe nipples and caps.

Charcoal basket

It needs to hold a lot of charcoal. I made mine with a sheet of expanded steel. See the thread for more details.

The charcoal basket must be elevated, 3" seems to be a good height. If it's not elevated, you can choke out your fire with ash buildup. I elevated mine with some 3" bolts and a round pizza sheet at the base as an ash catcher.

Grates

If you use the flat lid that comes with the drum, then you just want one grate that is at least 24" from the bottom of your charcoal basket. Standard 22.5" weber round grates fit perfectly.

You can install a second grate above that if you find a dome shaped lid like mine, but you won't have enough room otherwise. Make sure you get at least 6" in between the two grates.

To hold the grates up, I drilled three evenly spaced holes around the circumference of the barrel and used 2" stainless steel bolts and nuts to hold them in place.

Exhaust

I've found that the exhaust holes on the weber lid are more than adequate. If you use the lid from the barrel, then you'll need to drill a hole/holes and design a way to control the flow (so you can shut the drum down when the smoke is finished). Some people just use a big 2" pipe and put a cap on it. There's lots of ways to do it.

To get her burning

I found the easiest way was to load up the charcoal basket with some wood chunks mixed throughout. I set it in the drum, then drop about 20-25 ashed over briquettes right in the middle (minion method). Leave all 3 intakes open, then slowly cap them as you approach the temperatures you're looking for. Then use the ball valve for finer adjustments of temperature.

Once it got going, it had no problem maintaining temps. It went between 240 and 260 for several hours without any adjustments.

 

[steveh_131]

Some photos of my cook from yesterday:

It worked flawlessly. We had a wicked thunderstorm right in the middle of my cook and the temps dropped to about 150 while the cold wind was blowing into it, but once the storm was over it heated right back up and finished the cook perfectly.

 

[ddavidson]

10lb picnic

 

[steveh_131]

I feel a little silly about this, since I now have 4 Weber kettles...but I hardly use them any more!

Last night I did a few turkey sausages, 3 chicken breasts and some chicken drumsticks. There wouldn't be room on my 22" kettle to do it all indirect, not very well anyways. So I fired up my drum with all the intakes open and got it to 350, and threw on some apple wood for smoke. I've only ever grilled chicken breasts, so I had no idea how they would turn out, but they were incredible. Cooking on this drum is ridiculously easy. Put the meat on, stick the thermometer in and walk away. I pulled the chicken when it hit 170 and it was perfect.

I will say that I think vegetables turn out better on the grill than on the smoker. And good steaks, of course.

The wife picked me up a turkey the other day. I'm going to try to spatchcock it so I'll let you all know how it turns out.

 

[saleen4971]

this thread is killing me. i dont have anything here - no smoker, no charcoal grill, not even a propane grill!

 

[mrjarrell]

I feel a little silly about this, since I now have 4 Weber kettles...but I hardly use them any more!

Last night I did a few turkey sausages, 3 chicken breasts and some chicken drumsticks. There wouldn't be room on my 22" kettle to do it all indirect, not very well anyways. So I fired up my drum with all the intakes open and got it to 350, and threw on some apple wood for smoke. I've only ever grilled chicken breasts, so I had no idea how they would turn out, but they were incredible. Cooking on this drum is ridiculously easy. Put the meat on, stick the thermometer in and walk away. I pulled the chicken when it hit 170 and it was perfect.

I will say that I think vegetables turn out better on the grill than on the smoker. And good steaks, of course.

The wife picked me up a turkey the other day. I'm going to try to spatchcock it so I'll let you all know how it turns out.

Congrats and good luck with the turkey. I spatchcocked mine last year and did it in the oven and it turned out great. All in a fraction of the time it would take if left whole. I don't even do birds whole anymore, the back bones come out before they go in. Perfect, even cooking every time.

 

[steveh_131]

this thread is killing me. i dont have anything here - no smoker, no charcoal grill, not even a propane grill!

Why not? Get on it, man!

 

[saleen4971]

unemployed! otherwise i'd be out shopping right now!

 

[steveh_131]

Watch craigslist. I got a 22" weber kettle for free on there! It was missing a daisy wheel on the bottom and pretty beat up, but it cooked up some fine foods.

 

[Caleb]

this thread is killing me. i dont have anything here - no smoker, no charcoal grill, not even a propane grill!

Same here, my apartment management won't allow me to have one on the property.

 

[sharkey]

unemployed! otherwise i'd be out shopping right now!

Anytime/Anywhere Steel Hibachi (30002) - Charcoal Grills - Ace Hardware

 

[steveh_131]

Whole Turkey on the Drum Smoker

I decided to try my hand smoking an entire turkey. Basic process:

• Get the drum smoker fired up to around 250 with some applewood chunks, wait for some thin blue smoke
• Cut out the backbone and spread the turkey out (spatchcock it)
• Rubbed it down with some garlic powder and kosher salt. On the breasts, I peeled back the skin a bit to get my rub on the meat, then put the skin back
• Put it on the top grate of the drum, put the pan on the next grate down (6" below it)
• Put my thermometer probe in the deepest part of the breast
• Cook until thermometer showed 260

It turned out quite delicious. I haven't sampled the legs or thighs yet, that will be dinner for tonight, but the breast meat was tender and delicious.

I didn't really get the smoke ring that I had hoped for, so I will try to figure that out for my next attempt.

The wife agreed that this will probably be our method of choice for holiday turkeys from now on.

 

[Caleb]

Guys, grill safe out there...

One killed in gas grill accident at Noblesville church | Fox 59 News ? fox59.com

 

[Clay]

well, I dont have to worry about that since you guys have corrupted me. My very nice gas grill hasn't been turned on in months

 

[mrjarrell]

Gas grill? What's that?

 

[Clay]

well I cooked my 2nd shoulder for 12 hours @ 225 -> 250 F yesterday. It pulled very easily unlike the first one. BUT...... there is always a but.......

The rub I put on the outside was a bit to spicy for most of my family. I cut off 95% of the crust, but my wife swears that all of the meat is hot. Is that normal for a spicy rub to make all of the meat spicy??

 

[mrjarrell]

Depends on how long you let the rub set up before you got to smoking, as well as your length of smoke. I've had some spicy rubs really penetrate. It can happen. I usually avoid most spicy ones these days as the family doesn't seem to care for it. A bit of cayenne in my sauce is a must, tho.

 

[Clay]

the rub sat on there for probably 15 minutes before it hit the grill. As for smoke, most of the smoking was for the first 4 hours or so. After that not so much, but there was a small chunk of wood still in the smoker at the end that ended up on the coals again for maybe the last 2 hours.

 

[sharkey]

 

[chezuki]

I'm picking up my 55 gallon drum in the morning to start my own UDS project. If any of you webber hoarders on here have any old parts I could have/buy cheap for the build, that would be awesome. I need a couple 22" grates, an 18" grate, and a 22" lid. I can get the grates new, but the lid will be harder to come by.