Overnight Smoke

[jimiholmes]

Hello All,

Long time acorn smoker but i'm a new pellet grill user here, i've had it about a month and a half and absolutely love it. Thus far I've smoked a pork butt, a 2lb brisket, and a turkey breast. I've got a 13lb brisket i'm planning on smoking for thanksgiving. since this thing is so massive, i'm expecting an 18+ hour smoke, thus the overnight smoke. I've got the Pitboss insulating blanket on order and it should arrive in time and i'm figuring lowest temps somewhere in the 35-40 degree at its coldest. Looking for any recommendations on this. Is this a foolish idea or anyone have any experiences they can share? I'm sure i wont get much sleep but it'll be so worth it. Other random thoughts i have is to maybe put it in the oven at a low temp until the sun comes up and then finish it in the smoker. I'm not real confident on that plan but open to ideas and suggestions.

thanks
Jim

 

[GAnewbie]

maybe put it in the oven at a low temp until the sun comes up and then finish it in the smoker.

I would not put it in the oven first. Conventional wisdom is the meat stops absorbing smoke at a certain temp. Would make for an interesting experiment if meat weren't so expensive.

 

[jimiholmes]

I would not put it in the oven first. Conventional wisdom is the meat stops absorbing smoke at a certain temp. Would make for an interesting experiment if meat weren't so expensive.

exactly. and the oven will dry it out too. but i'm open to ideas that dont include putting the smoker inside my garage

and i fully recognize it might just be too cold for the unit to operate... might be a fools errand but i'm hopeful

 

[MikeInFla]

Overnight cooks can be tricky on a pellet grill. After a few hours the hopper forms a "vortex" where pellets no longer slide down into the auger. This can cause a flame out which in turns eventually feeds too many pellets that will ignite causing temps to rise or even a fire.

If doing an overnight cook I would either wake up every 2 hours to check on it or get a Bluetooth thermometer that you can manage from your phone with alarms so that it will alert you to any sudden temp drops or spikes and wake you up.

I have done one, super long cook (about 16 hours) and started at 3AM. I just stayed up with it but was planning on going to back to bed. But since I was already up I just stayed up.

 

[Elfcane]

THE VORTEX FROM HELL!!!

 

[Sparky]

Jim, I'm am old converted stick burner & I still check on my smoker every 2 hours.

 

[Jimsmokes]

Get you a bluetooth/wifi thermometer. I use a Inkbird IBBQ-4T. Set a high and low temp for up to 4 probes.
Then make sure any pitboss app is uninstalled on any phone or tablet. Thought I had on my phone only to have a old version show up on phone and tablet. Stupid app has caused me nuthin but problems. Shame cause all 4 probes I have for my 1150 match my inkbird within 5°.
Then use the manual controls to set a temp till morning. Fill the hopper to the max then hope you don't hear alarm and have to go out in the cold to fix.