Anybody into BBQ ?

Not big enough??
You’re being a real badass BBQ Mr @StratMan

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So I'm a lot late to this thread, but hopeful that someone out there has some knowledge/ opinion that they can pass on to me.
Currently running a weber babyq for fast grilling, and a kettle for doing slower cooks, but thinking it might be upgrade time soon. I've been reading up on offsets v pellet smokers, and am (slightly) coming down on the side of a pellet smoker due to it requiring less hands on than the smoker. As much as I'd like to sit outside all day and half the night long, I'm not sure either my wife or 5 year old would be quite so keen.
Do any of you have both? Is it true that the smoke flavour from a pellet smoker is much less than from an offset, or does that even really matter? Are there pellet smokers that allow for searing of meat or is that something I would have to give up against the convenience factor of but babying the cook?
About $1k would be my limit, so I've so far looked at a GMG Daniel Boon without the wifi nonsense which seems to add $700 to the price. Anything what I should consider?
 
A bit to unpack here. Going back to first principles, "smoke" is the product of incomplete combustion, or pyrolysis in the absence of sufficient oxygen. When "smoke" condenses on a cold object (eg a piece of meat), a lot of toxic chemicals form, including creosote. You are actually trying to prevent that happening. In an offset smoker, the way to get a clean burn with little "smoke" is a hot fire, with plenty of oxygen and small pieces of wood. That's a lot of chopping and tending to the fire. The logical conclusion to this approach is a pellet pooper - extra small pieces, plenty of oxygen and nice and hot crucible. If you have a fire that produces a lot of smoke, your meat will taste of bushfire and will be really quite toxic.

By comparison, what you want instead is the flavour of the essential oil in the smoking wood, without the "smoke" / creosote. For example, you want your lamb have the taste of rosemary essential oil rather than bushfire. To do that, you need to place the rosemary somewhere where the essential oils will evaporate so they can condense on the meat - you don't necessarily want to burn / pyrolyse the rosemary itself. This is the essence of the "thin blue line" that smokers are always chasing - flavour without the bushfire.

You can do this by just placing the rosemary (or whatever smoke wood flavour you are chasing) on the grill above your charcoal in the kettle, so that it doesn't touch the fire. A pellet pooper will do the same for you because it burns cleanly, evaporating the right amount of essential oils from the pellets as they make their way into the crucible. Using an offset by comparison requires a commitment to constant tending of fire / temps when most competition BBQ types just find it easier and better to use pellets. GMG pellet poopers allow a couple of options for searing but keep in mind it might just be easier to use your Webers for that - there isn't much advantage a pellet pooper brings to the searing function. You can buy things like Grill Grates for searing bigger pieces if you like though.

GMGs have a pretty good rep. The only real disadvantages of pellets used to be the cost of the pellets (and the BBQ!) in Oz but I am a few years out of date on that. Personally, I prefer insulated metal kamados due to their fuel efficiency and versatility (from smoking to searing to pizza with ease) without burning the smoking wood - just place it somewhere where the essential oils will evaporate instead. If money is no object, for me the piece de resistance is a Komodo Kamado... they're a work of art and priced accordingly!
 
for me the piece de resistance is a Komodo Kamado... they're a work of art and priced accordingly!

Hmmm.... so I’m no expert on high end grills, but after YouTubing some reviews of this thing I definitely agree it’s a work of art! And a hefty bit of kit at 200+ kg!!
 
What to buy the weber Q1000 when on sale, or the weber Q1200 thats never on sale
Only real benefit of the Q1200 is the higher lid, I think the benefit of the thermostat is fairly slim.
I’ve got the q100 and can’t say I’ve missed any of the extras
 
@eggbert

Ok I have owned a GMG Daniel Boone and currently own two Kamado's. A Primo XL & a Akorn Jr. I recently sold the GMG as i simply had way too much grill space and it wasnt getting a lot of use. The Pizza attachment for the GMG is great did I say how good the Pizza attachment was? Yes pellets cost a bit but no different to other fuel sources IMO. Depends on your circumstances and whether you want to tend a fire. I never went the Offset route due to just wanting set and forget. I pretty much used the GMG for some long slow cooks and the "reverse" part of the Reverse sear. i.e. put smoke flavour into a steak and get it to correct internal temp before searing on a Gas or Charcoal grill.

Pellet Grills are limited in their top temp I thing GMG is 260c. So to sear you will need grill grates.

Have a look at the Camp Chef range, Z Grills, Pitboss they are a good grill as well as are Traeger. Some of those come with searing options which are better than the GMG IMO.

I miss the clean "thin blue" smoke generated by the GMG and have had mixed results of the Kamado's in terms of smoke. So much so i am now looking at a GMG Davy Crockett which is the smallest of their grills $849.00 and includes Wifi for what it is worth. If Wifi is not your thing thats Ok you can use the GMG grills without the Wifi i.e manually.

Grab a smoke tube and put it in the grill when cooking if you want additional smoke taste.

My advice is try something cooked on a pellet grill first and make sure you like the taste before buying.

Happy to answer any other questions you have.

Jump over to the BBQ Forum: "Smoke Fire and Food" and the guys there will help you out with any feedback.
 
...

My advice is try something cooked on a pellet grill first and make sure you like the taste before buying.

....

so you are offering to cook for all of us?
 
Ahhh No. Dont have a Pellet Grill currently.:p
Already jumped in head first and bought the GMG DB. Wanted to have a couple of cold under my belt before doing a birthday spread next weekend. So far have done a pulled lamb shoulder, and Simon & Garfunkel rubbed chicken.
Both very nice, but the smoke flavour wasn't as pronounced as I expected.

I couldn't justify the extra $800 for the wifi variant.
 
Already jumped in head first and bought the GMG DB. Wanted to have a couple of cold under my belt before doing a birthday spread next weekend. So far have done a pulled lamb shoulder, and Simon & Garfunkel rubbed chicken.
Both very nice, but the smoke flavour wasn't as pronounced as I expected.

I couldn't justify the extra $800 for the wifi variant.

what da hell does a smoker need wifi for? Does the bbq need to surf the net or something?
 
what da hell does a smoker need wifi for? Does the bbq need to surf the net or something?
Temperatures of the cooker and meat and for warnings if running low on pellets.
Yeah, I didn't see the benefit either.
 
Temperatures of the cooker and meat and for warnings if running low on pellets.
Yeah, I didn't see the benefit either.

so in the event you are too lazy to walk a couple of meters to check on the meat.
Sound like someone trying to answer a question nobody asked.
 
Before i go spending a small fortiune on a meat temp probe from Weber, is there any good cheap ones on the market that will do the job , i think i would like to have one you put in at beginning and just leave it there ,digital read out,
 
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