Coal Burning Pattern

[MadMedik]

Hello,

I did my Brisket cook yesterday. After about 2 1/2 hours in to cook, I notice the temp gauge was at 300, not 350. I waited a bit, then knew something was wrong. I took out the meat, drip pain, deflector and viewed by coals. The right upper quarter of the coals were mostly all burned (from 12 to 3), with the rest of coals not hot or cooking at all. I got metal stick, moved coals around, put hot coals to middle, spread unused coals on top...and then in about 15 minutes I was up to 350 again.

I have not had this happen in a very long time. I am not sure why this occurred.

Anybody with ideas of why the fire burned to one quarter of the basket. My temps dropped. I almost feel like they would have "burned out" had I not stirred them up. I NEVER have to stir the coals in the KK.

When I lit it, I use big ass Weed Burner. I lit only in the middle of the pile, and they were glowing red when I was done. I figured lite in the middle, as I was putting the heat stone on and I wanted the heat to be in the middle and burn out. It burned out to right quarter of basket only.

Any thoughts?

MadMedik

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[tony b]

There are so many variables at work here, that it's practically impossible to pinpoint exactly - how the pieces are stacked, density of each piece, size of each piece. Combustion like this is a fairly random process, but if a burn pattern develops, it will follow that pattern. The heat stone will affect the airflow, too, especially if you put it right on top of the charcoal basket handles, which has a strong influence on the burn pattern. 

[ckreef]

I start mine in the middle but all the way to the front. That way the fire can take whatever path it chooses that day and there's still enough lump to complete the task. 

[tony b]

I might try your approach sometime, as I'm a center of the grill guy right now.

To be honest, my burn patterns seem to be kinda all over the place - sometimes left, sometimes right, sometimes just radially out from the middle in all directions. Hence, my pronouncement about it being fairly random, unless you introduce a driving force that alters the flow distribution, like the Guru or putting the heavy stone deflector right on top of the basket handles. 

[MadMedik]

I put the heat stone on top of handles of fire basket. Always have. The lump was mostly medium to small. Dumped randomly in...


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[DennisLinkletter]

The usual suspects are small pieces of lump cutting off airflow or smalls and ash from the previous cook. Stirring only relieves airflow problems something that is rarely an issue with the KK charcoal baskets which breath soo well..

[mguerra]

The random distribution of lump shapes and sizes causes this. If you like, do a test cook with a basket full of briquets. You will probably get a much more even burn pattern since they are uniform in size and shape. You can try to arrange the lump for a more even distribution, if you want to take the trouble. I don't.

[Poochie]

I've had several different burn patterns. The main thing is that no matter which way the pattern goes, the fire won't go out with lump still in the basket. It'll "come back" eventually and get to the fuel that hasn't been burnt yet.