The Smokehouse is coming to life as I type!  We got our hands on it Sunday, and we were able to do a few things.  First, we figured out that it takes a bit of effort to get up to temp, but that was easily fixed.  We just put a lit chimney in the main chamber and let it bring everything up, then the firebox had no problem keeping the temp where we wanted it.

It’s still a bit crude in that it’s a prototype, but our using it will give us the tweaks we want to get it just about perfect. 

We did a biscuit test on the smoker after it came up to temp.  What we found was very encouraging; there’s a bit of a difference (maybe 10 degrees) front to back, and the top rack is hotter than the lower racks, but it’s very workable; brisket and pulled pork will likely go on the lower racks near the front, with ribs and chicken up above.

We made a makeshift fire grate out of Chargriller parts until we finalize that.  We also need to add another smoke stack out of the main chamber, and we need to seal the main door better, along with the firebox.

Even with the tweaks needed, we used about 1/3 of a bag of Royal Oak lump and got over 4 hours out of a burn.  Once we got it to 225, it just stayed there forever, very, very steady!

So it’s making it debut in Grand Rapids this weekend!  If you’re there, come by and check it out… Just don’t open it up if it’s already cooking!

Picture descriptions:
Above:
The first pic above is the smoker with a chimney getting prepped to start ‘er up.  Next is an open shot showing the volume of the Smokerhouse; it’s got one more rack being put into it this week. 

Below:
The firebox getting some lump to start burning is the first one, then a shot of the air inlets into the cooking chamber.  Third is the Maverick ET-73 after putting chicken on the racks, climbing up to 225.  And the last shot is sweet, blue smoker coming out of the Smokehouse… What a great sight!