Just got my first smoker

[*Wyche'sWarrior*]

(12-22-2020, 08:45 PM)MileHighGrowler Wrote: One of these days I'm going to try that.  I just love the ones I make so much I never want to experiment!  

I will say, there is something so amazing about taking a piece of meat, some fire and ending up with awesome food.  It's so simple, yet it's an art to get it juuuust right.  I love it.  And I also love swapping ideas with other people.  I've got a couple of guys here locally I enjoy smoking with, staying up all night drinking whisky and talking and sharing some great food.  

I just picked up a crap ton of oak and and a half crap ton of cherry so now there's nothing to do but decided what I'm going to smoke next week! 

I've never tried a gravity smoker, but they've always intrigued me.  It's funny all those bells and whistles always make me second-guess.  I brew beer, and I use gravity.  It's all manual, a lot of checking and moving.  There are fully electric systems where you can dial in the temps and pump from one vessel to another.  I've thought about it, but then I wonder if it will take some of the magic out of it when I just push a button and it does all the work for me.  But then I've been brewing for over a decade and it just takes so much time and I want to enjoy the end product more than the process.  So I clearly am indecisive and can't figure out what I want   

I hear ya bro...lol. I am the same way, a firm believer in the K.I.S.S. principle. I've always been a purist when it comes to smoking. Never a gadget outside of temp probes, no propane, no electricity, no pellets. Just wood and coals, and damper control. I cut my teeth on a Brinkmann "R2-D2".....talk about no sleep! 

However, I'm approaching 50, and the kids really dig Q, so I'm looking to get more going through the week. I work a job that you seldom know when you'll get off work, and even start times are no guarantee day to day. Especially in the summer. So, I'm looking for something to be more time efficient, and less babysitting. I was thinking it was a pipe dream until these gravity smokers became affordable and readily available. I'm  not impressed with the flavor of pellets. I've  joined some BBQ pages on FB, and been following some guys who have bought them. They love em.  My only concern was durability, but with a simple mods here and there...so far, so good. Think I'mma pull that trigger.