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Johnny that is great looking chuck! I will post some pics on Sunday. Hear are some pics of my first few cooks.

The thing that I like least about barbecuing fatty meats is the nasty smoke that you get as the fat hits the hot coals. I complained about this to Dennis a while ago and he sent me a photo of a longways basket splitter that he had mocked up for someone in Singapore. Dennis’ logic was that the fat drips off rotisserie meats on the “down” side and, as the meat rotates away from the fire on the “up” side, you don’t get fat dripping into the fire and causing flare ups. I had to test that out so I tried it in my 23 and it seemed to work. It was easy in the 23 as the basket is round and so you either split it side to side or back to front. Not so in the 32 because the splitter that Dennis makes progressively splits the basket width ways, not long ways. So, I got a local guy to make something up for me which looks like this: It worked well in a chicken cook that I did in October. No/v little in the flare up department and great flavour. I was reminded of this when I saw @johnnymnemonic’s post where he had a heat shield between his chicken and the fire in his 42. This trick makes it possible to expose your food to the fire throughout the cook. I cannot comment on achieving greater crispiness as I tend to have wet marinades and sauces on my chicken. I also cannot yet comment on how well this works for something that is really fatty. I have a rolled porchetta to try sometime and will report back on how the fat dripping works and also whether I manage to get that elusive crispy skin. In the meantime I hope I have not pissed @DennisLinkletter off too much by posting this. I think he has a version of this divider in the making but I don’t know how soon/if he plans to offer it for sale.

I appreciate the detailed review. I have not placed an order for anything yet. Been still debating what I need and what I do not need. The only reason I would go with the Pro version to reach the higher temps is to leave the proves in the steak while searing a steak. I have through about this endlessly and I think I'm going with the basic Firebird 2 Drive. If I sear a steak over the coals I'll just wing it. I can figure it out over time without the need for a thermometer to finish it. I was considering the less powerful fan after reading the recommendation to close the port so much. I will take your recommendation and go with the smaller one.

I use a pit viper fan with a Fireboard 1 and it does the job. Fireboard is the best controller/temp reader I've ever used. And I've had a bunch of 'em.

You are a great salesman @Troble. We have just booked our flights.

Welcome Dabble! It should not matter where you light it, I frequently light it on one side for low n slow. 1-2 inches up top and one of the mid size holes on the bottom typically keeps me in the 225-240f range. Here is the last brisket cook (I should have wrapped earlier - slept right through that alarm!). The dome temp on this was 240f, the MEATER in the brisket was reading 225 most of the night. Hope this helps. Good luck!

The bottom vent only needs to be cracked about the width of a quarter for lo/slo cooks..and you’re correct, anything more than a quarter of a turn on the top will be too much. It’s ok to open it more for heat up, but it needs to be barely cracked for 225°. Give it plenty of time, it’s way more difficult if you overshoot significantly. Don’t sweat 10°+/-. Congrats on your grill, you’re gonna love it! Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

There will be a learning curve with the new KK. It's easy to want to keep fiddling with the vent settings (chasing temperature) but you have to do a little of that to find the sweet spot. I have a 21" KK now and soon to get a 32". I know I'll be relearning vent settings all over again. But that's half the fun.

You'll get a lot of different ideas on this subject. Many members use a pit controller to keep a steady temperature and some play it by ear and adjust the top and bottom vent. You'll get just as many replies in the beef category so don't worry about your post not being seen. We read them all. But this will be a great place to put pictures of your brisket and tell us how you mastered controlling the temperature!

I usually cook my briskets at 275. I did a couple of chuck roasts a few days ago at 275 with my billows. I had my KK top vent open between 1/4 and 1/2 turn. I had all bottom vents closed other than the billows being in the guru port. I had the little yellow billows damper open about halfway. I had the basket splitter set up so that charcoal was only on the right side and the food on the left. I have a 42 not a 32. But this cook was very consistent for me. I light my fire with a looftlighter. I light about a baseball sized amount of charcoal. At the point that I light the fire, I already have the smokeX2 and the billows running. after lighting the baseball sized amount of charcoal, I close the lid and let the grill warm up to temp prior to putting the food on. in this case I didn't wait all the way until the grate thermometer was reading 275 - it was close though and the thick white smoke had subsided letting me know we were getting nice blue smoke. (about 30 mins or so). The Billows kept it pegged within 5 degrees of 275 for the 3 or 4 hours these took to cook. One of my first cooks with my KK was brisket and if I were doing a brisket I might set up the grill the same as I did then. I might put foil across most of the lower grate and use the full firebox just to be sure that I had enough fuel so that no reloading was necessary. I think putting a few pieces of wood on the bottom of your firebox and then putting coal on top is a good approach. I have done this with the cook in the pictures in this post and with the pork cook above and I got plenty of smoke flavor and it was not acrid tasting in the food. About the fire meandering around in the firebox - don't overthink it. In a previous cook I noted that since the oxygen from the billows is going to be coming mostly on the right side of the grill, you still probably want to shade your brisket over to the left hand side of the KK when you're using the billows b/c the fire is going to tend to be closer to where the air is coming in. I'd light a baseball sized amount of charcoal on the right center of your firebox and go ahead and have your billows going. Put the food over to the left center of the KK 32 once the temp reaches close to your target. Just use foil on the lower grate and a drip pan underneath your food as your deflectors. Happy cooking.

Pork butts with mustard binder and DAS BBQ rub from a home town joint. Pork loin roasts with DAS BBQ high octane sauce with espresso infusion as binder with Jansal Valley coffee chili rub. Both came out good. I slightly overlooked the loins. Flavor was awesome. This batch of pork BBQ from the shoulder butts had great bark but I think I prefer wrapping and going a little lower temp to pull than 203F. A little too much fat rendered out of this batch and wasn’t quite as moist as I usually want. Flavor and bark were incredible though. Chewy. Bacon-y. Smelled like Heaven. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Just suspended Poochie's account for a month! LOL

That would most people's reactions to poochies jokes! 🤪

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