BalconySmoken

Morning update: I feel like I have a one year old in the house! The brisket finished up at 3, then the butts at about 4;30. I am knackered. I have had to swap refreshments again to coffee until morning tea. Snags are now on, since the big cuts finished sooner than I planned I swapped wood over to cherry. Life was easier when I always bought meat from the same butcher that came from the same farm; it’s bloody Guess work now on timing! The meat is all wrapped up and in bed though: it will be well rested and still warm for lunch (brisket is in a prewarmed cast iron tray, butts I will just reheat worst case but they should be ok: it’s supposed to get to 34 so it isn’t exactly freezing here!)

briskets

butts

All wrapped up in nearly every towel I own

meat gloves were handy last night: that brisket was gorgeous taking out off the grill

snags:leftt is chorizo and right is pork (it is Paddy’s day after all)

4 hours ago, tony b said:

OK, you got me with that one - had to look that one up! 

Nice brews. I just got back from No Cal and spent 2 days up in Napa. One of my "must stops" was Heretic. Crazy good beers! 

And this one was on tap - a Matcha Green Tea IPA. Crazy color on it. Wish I could have brought some back for St. Pat's tomorrow. Would have blown my beer buddies away!

You would have loved this one. Twigs & Berries - a Belgian dark strong, barrel-aged and soured (Brettanomyces), with Elderberries. 

Nice! I have a can of make America juicy again for morning tea. They do a great porter as well (not the one I had last night); it sells out here almost instantly. I’ll keep an eye out for Twigs & Berries: sounds awesome

This is turning into a marathon of sorts: I am literally smoking on the balcony of a condo and I can’t escape the Smokey goodness; normally ok but my eyes are dried out and I am pretty sure I now look stoned. doors are closed and everybody else is inside including the dog.

I have had to change fluid options. I am going to get some vizene next big smoke. 

if only I could post smells: it’s intense out here 

Everybody needs one of these if you use lump. It is juicer than you, don’t fight it

Depends but as usual our good stuff disappear over seas lol. I have a good butcher that treats me right.

Outback Kamado Bar and Grill

Yeah - it comes here but it costs a bomb! I haven’t had a lamb shoulder in ages; they are like 150 here!


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Another half hour and pulled lamb ready to rest yum

Outback Kamado Bar and Grill

I heard on the news the prices have gone through the roof at home on lamb? I hope that’s not true?


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10 minutes ago, Aussie Ora said:

Looking good mate

Outback Kamado Bar and Grill
 

Thanks mate.

General update:

Whilst my critical job of sitting outside tending to the bbq continues. With the smoke attachment, I have worked out that every now and then it is worth putting a metal skewer through the side hole and making sure there is a gap between the bottom of the pipe and chips and ash(smoke flow picks up again when I do it - awesome accessory BTW). It is why I must suffer through this tedious task alone outside in the freezing cold (only 31 today). If only the boss would appreciate my sacrifices! Listening to paul Kelly and just cracked open this awesome sour ale

 

Now my favourite part of the Low and slow: monitor wood with refreshments. More to follow: have a great lineup but this is my favourite porter right now

 

The butts are now on. I probably could have snuck another one down there. I don’t think could I have pulled this off without the grill grippers: awesome little things. I wouldn’t say the grill is tessellated but I wouldn’t want much more on there! Glad I have the TOP shelf thing for the snags tomorrow morning, I just hope the briskets have shrunk enough by then to fit it in there!

 

 

My Wife is from Dublin and every year we have some sort of party. This year things have gotten a little out of hand: we don’t know exactly how many people are coming but it is between 65 and 85. So an epic party needs and epic smoke!

hope I have enough meat! It’s about 15kg (33 pounds).

The briskets are on. Using mesquite today/tonight with coffee tree lump

More to come

Awesome work as per usual

Unoriginal title: dinner from last night. I tried a dry brine; meat ended up a little saltier that I like so won’t do that again, otherwise it was pretty good. Cherry wood chips used.

dry rub after the dry brine - salt content was really Low in the rub, but I guess any salt messes with the dry brine

my sneaky smoker kitchen setup ~ no complaints yet! Next weekend will be the real test: paddy’s day mega bbq

My little chocolates off the grill

Aussie beef needs Aussie wine: the Wife made the spuds and slaw this time: great stuff

Damn that looks good - that’s exactly what I had for dinner too! I love beef ribs - reminds me of Austin 

Nice work - that looks awesome. I am cooking a butt on paddy’s day: I may try your injection; haven’t done that on pork before 

I decided to give the rotisserie a go last night. Now that I have worked out the smoker I used that too: worked a treat, just put wood chips in and lit it with a soldering torch through the side holes. It was great, and leftovers for dinner tonight (intentionally cooked too much to do that)

this is how chickens come in asia

new toys to try out

birds are done

before I cut them up

dinner is served

Final say on this: I am cooking some birds and am using the accessory. Now that I fixed the t-piece I can confirm that wood chips work just fine in this.
It’s bloody brilliant - so happy I got it!


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Nothing like an Aussie adventure. Wish we still made good shows

That looks awesome - never had a Salisbury steak; now I need to try it!

The product isn't made by Dennis and yields cannot be expected to be 100% from his suppliers (although I am sure he wish they were!); if this pump is faulty it is not a reflection on the high quality stuff coming out of Indonesia: I am just unlucky!
 

I just wanted to reinforce this point I made for people thinking of buying the accessory. The faulty part is probably a second or third tier supplier: even if you are a large multinational it is very hard to control quality that far down the chain. Remember when Apple phones were burning? They outsource assembly to Foxcon in Shenzhen China, the battery is outsourced to Panasonic in Japan who make the cells but most likely outsource the assembly of the battery to some other company and country, probably China because of the tax of importing parts for assembly (that’s how we do it). These guys are big players yet they didn’t have tight enough control of the battery circuitry: net result is because a high power density was wanted which has a higher risk of thermal runaway, the controlling circuit at times malfunctioned and you got a burny phone. This has been resolved as Panasonic no longer allow such high power densities so the control doesn’t need to be as precise (they also enforce tighter physical runaway protection in battery design so that not all cells will go up if they go up).
So the short of it is: this can happen to any supplier but for KK it is only going to happen to parts that Dennis doesn’t make or assemble himself - which is hardly any from what I can tell, and I am sure that if this happened to you it would be as easy a fix as what I did (or call Dennis like a normal person!)
Rant = over

I am hoping to use the accessory this weekend - will use wood chips again and report back on my experience.


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We have air! So I have taken apart the pump and had a look on the inside; I was wrong about the compressor, it is a basic AC bellows style pump. It’s pretty crude but it works (see video); interesting design from an engineering point of view but it does actuate and there are not holes in the bellows. My next concern was the kinking in the outlet tubes. I had already removed the bellows assembly by now so I knew they were capable of pushing air. Next I removed the t-piece and manually used the bellows and found the were working. Next - virtual CFD as I call it at work: I blew into the tubes and found there was no possible flow through the Long line. I took the t piece completely off and found that there was a manufacturing defect in the t piece: flash where the two pins meet in the mold (tool maintained not well would be my Guess: getting pins to blank off like this). So I drilled out the flash and presto: it pumps air now!

so you don’t get curious and open one up: I have included photos and a video (note it runs off mains so don’t open it and risk 240/120 v shock!)

 

Now that everything is cold again I have had a closer look at things. The pump isn't pumping! The motor is running but no air - so not matter what technique or wood I would have used it never would have worked with no air going in.

 Fortunately I have designed portable oxygen concentrators before so know a thing or two about compressors: I will open it up and see what is going on (hopefully the compressor isn't connected to the tubes properly). Worst case I suspect it is a diaphragm pump which can fail early (the diaphragms can get holes if molded incorrectly or with cheap materials). If the compressor is buggered: I luckily have one or two compressors sitting in a cupboard I can use instead but will have to back it off considerably as it is overkill for pumping a bit of air! 

If there is something weird on the inside I will post some pictures up on how to fix things.

The product isn't made by Dennis and yields cannot be expected to be 100% from his suppliers (although I am sure he wish they were!); if this pump is faulty it is not a reflection on the high quality stuff coming out of Indonesia: I am just unlucky! Hopefully I can fix it, if not I can use a compressor I have or go buy a fish pump. 

 

So what were you up to last evening?? Confession time!!

I posted what I was up to just now, and see you enjoy “accidentally” opening that one extra bottle also (why they are always TOP shelf is beyond me - such a waste!). I am surprised how functional I am today to be honest - I must have eaten just enough and drunk a heap of water at some point. Or I may just still be drunk!


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This is a little photo heavy - it was a heavy day! Possibly over catered with food and alcohol!

the shoulder ready to go on

the beer selection

finally found an excuse to open the double magnum I bought my Wife for her birthday last year: that’s only way I could chill it!

beans ready to go

shoulder all done

and pulled

happy with my spread!

lunch is served

we probably didn’t need to crack this: it was a Long day!

I am feeling pretty dusty this morning, those ribs would sort me out: they look supberb 

16 minutes ago, tony b said:

Yeah, this thing is kinda tricky. I have often struggled keeping it lit, too. I finally bailed out of using wood chips and went to pellets like those used in pellet smokers. I seem to have better success with those. 

I'll try and answer a few of your other questions as best as I can. 

1) The small tube that the air flows  through, the opening (you have a later version with the grate) should be facing down, so it doesn't get clogged with ashes, as the chips/pellets burn. 

2) I tried the lit piece of charcoal, but found that it does works so well, at least for me. I just fill the tube with the pellets and blast the side air holes with my MAPP torch until I get good smoke production going. 

3) & 4) I fill it up from the get go. see #2 above and put the lid on.

5) I was an early buyer, before Dennis started supplying the air pumps, so I bought one at the local pet store. So mine only has one speed/setting, there's no adjustment. I tried putting a flow valve in the outlet tube, but it didn't work very well. 

I don't change how I set this up based upon the smoking temperatures. I normally am doing cold smoking, with no fire inside the KK. 

Search the Forum, as both Dennis and some members have posted videos of the smoker. 

I tried the welding torch through the side holes as well. Sounds like I had it setup right. Something weird also with whatever is going on is condensation inside the canister and the wood chips are now damp! The condensation was probably caused when the steel cooled down - but still weird! Sounds like I got the setup right ; maybe I’ll try the pellets next time. I will also check the pump is pumping when it cools down and I can unplug it all.

thanks for your response @tony b