BBQ temperature controller: charcoal grill: low and slow

[rotuts]

I just saw Alton Browns special "Q" if you can find it or get foodTV record and study.

Ive learned a lot from AB over the years and will miss his show.

i used to do low and slow "Q" on a gas grill with wood chunks etc: in the fall/winter so one burner on low would keep the grill at 220 F:

My dog at the tiime Ridge was excellent at guarding and keeping track of progess on the grill

AB used this:

http://pitmasteriq.com/

feedback device for charcoal. astonishing. anybody have it?

this might move me out of the SV for a while.

see the You Tube at the above site if you have not seen AB's "Q"

[Borgstrom]

AB used this:

http://pitmasteriq.com/

feedback device for charcoal. astonishing. anybody have it?

I looked around at these last summer and ended up getting a BBQ Guru. I used on some overnight cooks with my BGE and it worked very well:

http://www.thebbqguru.com/products/DigiQ-DX2--%28Build-your-package%29-.html.

Stoker is another option with remote monitoring over WiFi, but it seemed a bit complex for me:

https://www.rocksbarbque.com/Systems.html

I've found it difficult to keep the temperature consistently below 225F or so on a charcoal grill even with a controller; you need to have a very tight seal on your cooker so no extra air gets in beyond what the fan sends it. I've also found that the BGE/BBQ Guru can be a good compliment to sous vide. I've done several things smoked for a while on the BGE for flavor followed by a long soak in the circulator (e.g. MC pastrami).

[rotuts]

thats a good tip on pre-SV. your system looks very good

Ill probably get the one i first mentioned. it seems simpler

WiFi "Q" ?? Id put the $$ into very cold beer and and horizontal recliner.

but I appreciate the links!

BTW can you tell me about your Pre SV smoking experience?

Im very keen on that!

[Borgstrom]

While I don't have a huge amount of experience, what I've seen so far is that most of the smoke flavor is absorbed early in the smoking process. For fish, smoking 15-30 min is enough to get great flavor (no SV needed). For meat, a few hours at low temp is usually pretty good. For the MC pastrami, I smoked it for 4 hours and then SV for a couple of days and it turned out great. For pork shoulder, I tried smoke + 2 days SV vs. smoke + overnight low-and-slow BBQ. Both were very good, but different. The SV version was much juicier and didn't have as much of a bark. The traditional version was drier and had a thick bark. Perhaps the best approach is a bit of both for pulled pork -- SV version with a bit of bark mixed in would be perfect!