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Preparation of the beers to celebrate the arrival of the KK has begun : Culturing the yeast. Eight conical flasks - I don't bother with sterilising or boiling the spray malt solution. Simply put about 80 g of spray malt into each conical - add 500 ml of boiling water from the kettle, swish around and seal with a foil square . Add a bit of yeast when it's cool, swish or shake from time to time. Back four are a Belgian Trippel yeast for the Bronze Trippel, and front four a well known Irish Ale yeast for the Big Bad Matt Black Stout.

@Basher is right. A 32 will make your life so much easier when you are entertaining for more people. If you are just cooking for your wife and you then I expect the basket splitter will allow you to save on charcoal use for small cooks. I agree that low and slow is great, particularly for big groups because you don't have to keep tending the food on the grill. With a 23 I found I could not fit a whole brisket on the grate and wished I had a bigger KK. Such problems are fixable though if you do go for a 23 - just split the flat and point on the brisket and away you go! P.S. I forgot to talk about cooking on charcoal. I used to have to wait for my husband to light the fire on our old barbecue so that I could use it. With the KK, lighting is so easy and efficient that I do it myself and it has really opened up my outdoor cooking options. I guess you can wait until your wife gets comfortable with the KK and then sell your gasser?

My ears are burning! 😄 Nice job on your refinish, Mike! It looks really good. You mentioned that you used a palm sander. If you are referring to a small hand-held orbital sander, I actually think that sanding by hand with a sanding block is easier for this task, as long as you sand along the grain lines. The sanding block conforms somewhat to the grooves made by the wood grain lines, so it can get in there. An electric sander, where the sandpaper moves in a circular motion, will have a harder time with that. Having said that, you can't argue with your results. And here's a picture of a recent cook, just to show that I still am putting Smaug to good use. Pulled pork from a picnic roast, which is the part of the shoulder that is below the Boston butt. My local grocery store doesn't carry Boston butt except on rare occasions, but they have picnic roast pretty regularly. And yes, KK grills are so good (How good are they?) that this pulled pork was so tender that I was able to pull it with those two small salad forks in the lower right hand corner.

The finished product. By the way this is a video not a photo and that static image is not the finished product!

Does that mean 42" would make your life even easier

I figured it out. Rather than clicking on that little chain link icon and then inserting the url, you just insert the url. You can either type it in or copy and paste it. That embeds the YouTube video!

I finally did it. I ordered my dream grill/ smoker. Like most, I have been lurking for years. I started saving my pennies via a round up app, and finally pulled the trigger. I pulled it a little early, but with corona more time with family on the patio has become even more important. The accessories I ordered are rotisserie motor ( big one) spit not the cradle ( anyone think I made a bad decision please tell me why so I can start saving my pennies again) cold smoker drip pan and cover (thanks Diego brew n q) A bunch of coffee char pizza Stone This is one of the biggest purchases I have ever made. I am scared crapless of un-crating and the burn in! Like Chris Lilly said choose a color your kids will want because it will be there’s someday. I am so excited! I have gained a ton of knowledge from reading your posts and any advice or favorite recipes are always welcome. ( even home brewing recipes, as I have found a lot of home brewers here). I ordered Big Blue at the beginning of August and am awaiting the call to find out when she will be delivered. I will make sure to post pictures, and hope I can become part of this super friendly board. Please feel free to give me any advice! I am an open book who wants to learn as much as possible!

Talk with Dennis, if you haven't already. He'll listen and make suggestions without any pressure to upsell you if the 32 isn't a good fit for you. It's all about cooking space - how many folks are you normally trying to feed? What do you like to cook mostly? Do you entertain large crowds frequently? What's your budget - not that we need to know that here, but just for you're own consideration - it's better (IMHO) to go with the 23" with all the accessories that I think that I'd need, than to overstretch with the 32" and not be able to get the accessories and be limited in your cooking. YMMV

How big are the briskets in the UK, tekobo? I have no problem fitting a full packer cut brisket (about 12 lbs) onto the main grate of my 23". @BOC - definitely have this discussion with Dennis - he won't steer you wrong. But, IMHO, sounds like you need a 32" BB if you're entertaining that many people, that often. As noted, no worries about cooking for just you and the Mrs, as the 32's basket splitter will take care of that problem.

Hi Wilbur! We've missed you! Please post more - especially those lovely ducks that you're so famous for!

Clever idea. The question with adapting it to the KK is how to secure the double pot arrangement to keep it from tipping, in particular as you're trying to slap a naan against the sides? Could we be so lucky that we could find a clay pot that just fits inside the sear grate handles that would hold it steady?? There are some other grills out there that have a grate with a removable, round, center section for Dutch ovens and Woks. I'm wondering if a lower grate for the KK could be modified similarly. Then, you could just drop the clay pot into that circular opening and be good to go! @DennisLinkletter, are you listening? Maybe even come up with a complete set, with a ceramic pot tailormade for using as a tandoor??

Go for it Bill.... if it fits. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

If the pizza steel fails, I'd thought something from Roemertopf might be my next port of call.

@tony b Makes sense as I was looking at this homemade Tandoor - if the KK supplies the coals and the insulation, you could use just the double pots with one inverted from this approach. https://thecurrykid.co.uk/how-to-build-a-tandoor-oven-at-home-for-under-50/

BOC if you entertain 10- 20 people once a month, run with the 32. I have the 23- couldn’t fit the 32 down the side of the house- and I can cater for 12 people pretty easily. With 20, I’d use sous vide for warming and would have to juggle the food. 2 pizza at a time on the 23 is easy with steel on the main grate and stone on the top grate. The stone cooks the top of the lower Pizza and the steel stays hot with direct heat under it. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Yes I used the supplied Norton sanding block along the grain initially. Then I switched to the orbital when I got tired! A belt sander handled with extreme care would do it, but I don’t have one. After I shot that video, I smoothed off the surface with the bronze wool. It is smooth(ish) to the touch and looks superb. Picnics work great for pulled pork, I use them often. Smoke on, brother!

As noted, there is a trick or two with using the Guru to keep air inflow sneaks from messing with your temperatures, especially on a windy day. Once your temps get above the target setting on the Guru, it's pretty well dead in the water at that point. That said, the best way to maintain control is let the Guru do all the work. The Pit Viper fan is more than adequate for the task. First, just barely bump the top vent off the seat - just until you see a bit of smoke emerge. If you start to see smoke escaping from the temperature probe hole (or anywhere else besides the top vent for that matter), bump the top vent a tad more until the side leak stops. The Guru has slightly pressurized the inside of the KK and the air needs to find somewhere to go - path of least resistance and all that. Second, there's a damper on the output side of the fan, choke that down to less than half open. This will minimize the air inflow during periods when the fan isn't running and prevent the temps from drifting up on you. This approach has worked well for me. YMMV

https://bbqguru.com/ I bought my DigiQ-II for the old POSK and I've been using it ever since. I have replaced a couple of temperature probes, but no worse than any other temperature monitor. They hold up pretty well. I've have nothing but good things to say about mine. Like I said, I use it on all my longer cooks (over 4 hours). The KK has a port built in for the fan unit - so it's a "plug & play" application. When you buy whatever controller unit model you like, the fan is a separate purchase and you just get the one for the KK. There are other manufacturers of controllers/fans, but the Guru was pretty much the original (as far as I know) and Dennis has always worked with them to make them it super easy to adapt one to the KK.

Too funny! As you can see in this pic of the chicken, the exposed end of the probe was pretty gunked up. Here's the MEATER graph. Initially low, as I put the probe in early inside the kitchen and it sat for a bit before I put it on the KK - that's the 1st spike. It sort of cruised up and then something happened and I saw the rapid increase to the 2nd spike. The drop right after was me opening the grill to check on what was going on, since it was behaving so squirrely. Temps rebounded after I closed it back up. That's when it really went wonky for the rest of the cook. Again, seeing how gunked up the tip of the probe was lead me to believe that's what caused the end of the cook to behave so crazy. Meanwhile, the dome thermometer was ready steady right where I set the vents!

Interesting, and coincidental. I used my MEATER+ on a rotisserie cook yesterday and got some very squirrely ambient temperature reading - very sawtooth - and not from opening the lid. I've seen a similar behavior before. I suspect it's caused by juices running down the probe and coating the end of the MEATER, where the ambient temperature probe is. Given that the meat juices are a couple hundred degrees (F) lower than dome temps, you can imagine the swings that I was seeing. It played hell with the "estimated cooking time" algorithm - LOL! But, back to your point more directly. It's not just the MEATER probe, there's always a delta in temperature readings between the dome and the grate. Typically in the 25F - 50F range. I see it with my Maverick and Guru probes, too. Proximity to the meat has a small influence. One thing that I learned a long time ago and practice consistently, is to not clamp the probe directly to the grate - you get a false reading of the air temperature. I use a wine cork with a small nail in the end that I attach the alligator clip on the probe too. I cut notches out on the opposite end of the cork for it to fit in between the grate rods.

If you are talking about warming up for grilling, you are only heat sinking the grates not necessarily the grills body. Heat sinking the body is important for low and slow and roasting. Grilling: Charcoal creates a ton of heat and I'm confident I can get any KK grill to 650ºf faster (with a hair dryer being used as a blower) than any gas grill. Tenderloin: The 23" grill is 21" front to rear.

Better to have it and not need it. Then to need it and not have it.

Well.... I have both and feel like I can add some input. The 23 is my daily driver. I love it quite honestly. My 32 however, this is my dedicated smoker and I use it when I am grilling lots of food. Heat up and fuel consumption is comapatable. I can get the 23 to 350 in about 10-15 min and the 32 15-20 min. Fuel consumption.. you add more to the 32 but it lasts. If you are looking st larger cuts of meat cooks and only one grill, my vote is for the 32.