Sunday barbecue with the offset smoker

Finally got some oak wood for the offset smoker. This was the second time to use it the way it is supposed to be used; wood fired! I have been smoking some years using a homemade UDS and a Weber WSM. Both more or less "set and forget". The offset smoker however, is a different story. You have to tend to it during the entire cook. And I am still getting used to it but if you have a day to spare, fire it up, pop a beer and take it easy. It is worth it because it makes some pretty awesome BBQ! This cook was some ordinary, thin cut spareribs. Used an off the shelf rub and sprayed with some apple juice underway. Did the Texas crutch; wrapped in aluminium foil a part of the cook. More or less the 3-2-1 method. 3 hours in smoke, 2 hours wrapped in foil and 1 hour in the smoke again with some sauce. However this time those 3-2-1 times were a bit off... But that's BBQ sometimes :-) Tried to maintain around 120 degC. But with these smokers, you need to accept some more temp fluctuations than the WSM. Will explain a bit more with the photos and captions below.

Oak wood. Need to control the heat with the amount of wood. Have to make sure to have a good flame burning to get that "thin blue smoke". If not, the meat might get over smoked and NFG! :-) The smoke stack damper needs to be full open and the air inlet also needs to be more or less full open to assure good airflow and clean combustion.

That smoke is almost good.

Two spareribs, approx 1 kg each. And a water pan to make a moist environment and to help keep the temp low.

In between tending the fire...

Some spraying after approx an hour.

After 3 hours and...

...wrapped in foil.

Stoking that fire.

After 1,5 hours in foil...

...put to rest in a lower temp for waiting on the visitors.

After one more hour waiting in lower temp, they were put back in the smoke. More tender than when they left the smoke.

Back in the smoke.

One with sauce and one without.

After 20 minutes.

The one without any sauce.

With sauce.

Quite OK but maybe a touch overcooked. But not too bad :-)