Alton Brown Smoker + Ebay temp controller

Hello,

Never smoked a thing in my life, but a recent development of being exhausted and starving after brew day, a friend suggested we start smoking our dinner when we start brewing! Sounds good enough to me!

Little bit of googling and I found the Alton brown special to build a smoker, seems easy enough to me, but I heard reports of it being a little hard to dial in the temperature.

On brew day, my ebay temperature controller for the fermentation chamber isn't doing anything, so I was curious if I could use it to control the smokers hot plate? The controller caps out at 10 amps, which leaves me at a limit of 1200 watt hot plate. Is this enough to get the 16" terra cotta planter up to 200f?

If it would work, where would be the best place to put the probe? Again, new to all this so does it go in the ambient air inside the smoker, or inside the meat?

Thanks for reading!

This guy has a 1000 watt hot plate in a 17" pot and says he got 220F with the dial near the half-way mark...

http://www.naffziger.net/blog/2008/07/05/the-alton-brown-flower-pot-smoker/

Hi

If the controller is an STC-1000 I would be worried about a couple of things:

1) The probe sure does not look like it's intended for high temperatures.

2) The probe may or may not be food safe.

3) The probe really isn't designed for clamping on anything .

Most ovens and smokers use stainless steel covered thermocouples rather than thermistors as probes.

Bob

I agree I would have to use a different probe

And you want your cooker when you are smoking at at least 225 better at 250. You want it hot enough to get the meat to food safe numbers quick enough to reduce the risk of infection while still being low and slow. I do yardbirds and turkeys at 275-300. Ribs at 275 brisket 250. Fish 225-250.

Interesting, I thought the magic number was 200, thanks for the clarification!

phoenixs4r said:

I agree I would have to use a different probe

Click to expand...

Hi

The probe on the STC is a 10K NTC thermistor with a specific beta. That's going to be tough to match / replace.

Bob

phoenixs4r said:

Interesting, I thought the magic number was 200, thanks for the clarification!

Click to expand...

It will take a week to get a brisket to 190's at 200 degrees and it will dry out along the way. It's all trial an error. Have a blast doing it and you will probably never make anything not edible. There are forums for BBQ and smoking just like this one for beer. Read and learn. It's a great hobby. Just may wanna up the cardio lol.

Hi

I think I would design for an upper temperature of at least 300F on a normal hot summer day. That way you should be able to hold 250 through the night. Also consider that when you toss the "stuff" in the smoker it will load down the heating. I'm a *lot* happier now with a charcoal powered beast than I ever was in 7 years with an electric smoker.

Bob

Interesting. Thanks for the input guys.

I'd much rather have a nice charcoal one as well, but as it stands I've already canceled all if my brewing projects due to funds so I'm trying to keep this one cheap, lol.

Just a suggestion but i built an Ugly Drum Smoker. It works great. I use a couple of cheap thermometers and probe to monitor meat and drum temps. To adjust my temp its just a slight movement on the ball valves. The Alton brown thing is cool is you decide to go that way. Post up your progress.

phoenixs4r said:

....
I'd much rather have a nice charcoal one as well, but as it stands I've already canceled all if my brewing projects due to funds so I'm trying to keep this one cheap, lol.

Click to expand...

Hi

I waited for my charcoal machine for nearly 20 years...

Bob

Revisiting this thread. I decided to try something new, actually attempt to do something BEFORE investing money in it. Got a couple of rib racks, rubbed them up and threw them on my propane grill.

Despite the many problems I faced (rack of ribs too large for my tiny gas grill, actually getting up to temp with a tiny portable propane grill) I actually enjoyed it. I have a spare half barrel keg I think I'll turn into a smoker. Thinking of a 1500w hot plate and maybe trying out the stc controller, with the probe invaded in a metal tube, or a dimmer switch. Just gotta figure out how to make a door at the bottom of a keg to remove and add chips, as I don't want to cut the bottom completely out and lift it up over the hot plate as I've seen in another build.

I'm not 100% sure the STC probe will stand up to smoker temperatures.

If memory serves the hotplate in my flowerpot smoker is only 1100W. (See the link in my signature.)

Lol, already have a new plan actually. Would like to make an offset smoker utilizing a 55gal drum for the meat (turned sideways) and the keg for the fire box. Haven't completely worked it all out. Main thing is trying to find a drum for the price I'm willing to pay