00;00;00;15 - 00;00;09;12
Speaker 1
Running an offset gets easier once you understand how the coal bed and airflow work together.

00;00;09;15 - 00;00;23;25
Speaker 1
This is the Barbecue Nerds podcast. We don't argue brands or chase opinions here. We talk through how smokers behave so things make sense. I have.

00;00;23;28 - 00;00;50;19
Speaker 1
Welcome back, barbecue nerds. I'm Frank Cox. I'm known as the barbecue pit engineer. And this episode's all about fire structure for offset smokers. So real quick, some clarification. We're talking about offset smokers only in this episode here. We're not talking about direct heat, and we're not talking about other kinds of cabinet smokers or other things you might be familiar with.

00;00;50;22 - 00;01;21;16
Speaker 1
We're specifically focusing on how offset smokers behave, not recipes or temperatures. So in episode six, however, we are going to talk about direct heat and it works differently for a very specific reason. So for this episode, we're going to start off talking about coal beds. That's where basically the engine exists for an offset smoker. Offset smokers are coal bed machines, not flame machines.

00;01;21;18 - 00;01;47;28
Speaker 1
So what the coalbed actually provides in an offset smoker is a consistent heat energy, like steady BTUs. Instead of spikes up and down a properly managed coal bed also provides predictable fire behavior. In other words, the pits going to respond the same way to the same inputs every single time. It's also going to allow us to have clean combustion.

00;01;48;00 - 00;02;13;07
Speaker 1
In other words, a stable oxygen supply allows fewer dirty cycles. Now, why do flames cause problems? Flames are temporary because they flare up. Whenever you add a log, especially a pre-heated log, you're going to get a bigger flame. Once that log is fully engulfed and we just added a bunch of fresh brand new wood to the fire or brand new fuel.

00;02;13;09 - 00;02;41;15
Speaker 1
So it's going to spike in intensity, but it's not going to sustain your cook, because as that wood starts to break down, we require less airflow through the pit in order to get complete combustion. So chasing flames leads to dirty smoke periodically, temperature swings and constant babysitting. I can specifically remember when it was early in my, barbecue, lifestyle here.

00;02;41;22 - 00;03;02;29
Speaker 1
Lisa and I had just gotten married, and I can remember running around with a bottle of charcoal lighter fluid, trying to keep my flames going, and that couldn't be farther from what I actually had to have. So because we look at it like that, that's what makes offsets feel hard to run. It's almost like campfire style fire building.

00;03;03;01 - 00;03;38;09
Speaker 1
We're trying to keep a flame going the whole time. And, so as long as there's no flames, we got to add wood. Right. That's how it feels like on an offset. Waiting too long between fuel additions. So, in other words, if you're managing managing your offset by flame and you don't get out there at the right time and add the right amount of fuel at the right time, consistently every time, and also the same amount of fuel, you're going to have temperature swings, which are going to inevitably lead to you reacting after the coal bed collapses.

00;03;38;12 - 00;04;03;10
Speaker 1
There. Again, if the coal bed is right, the pit stops fighting you. That's the life's blood of an offset smoker. So now let's talk about some coal bed locations. So when I say coal bed location, this would be like in the firebox where we have the coal bed situated. This could be directly on the bottom. It could be up on a charcoal tray or log rack.

00;04;03;13 - 00;04;28;18
Speaker 1
Or we could even be using some kind of a fancy schmancy coal bed fire management basket. Right? So let's talk about burning a coal bed on the bottom of the smoker, which coincidentally, this is my favorite way. And what I recommend most of the time these days, especially on and off set smoker. So when you're coal beds on the bottom of the firebox, we're typically talking about a traditional offset design.

00;04;28;21 - 00;04;50;08
Speaker 1
This isn't necessarily going to work really well in an and a reverse flow smoker, and we'll get into that here in a moment. But we're typically talking about a traditional offset design like what you see me building these days and stuff like that. In this situation, wood and charcoal like a combination work fantastic. Like that's a dream situation.

00;04;50;10 - 00;05;11;21
Speaker 1
Now, when I say charcoal, it doesn't necessarily mean starting with a bag of charcoal, like just filling the thing up and lighting it. And we're going to get into that later on in this episode. But it could be started with kindling as well. So another thing about it is you need to pay a little more attention on some of these offset smokers to ash management.

00;05;11;24 - 00;05;44;11
Speaker 1
Now, whenever I build a firebox on an offset smoker, I've had the best results with an oversize firebox. I've found that my coal bed is not as picky in that scenario. However, on some pits, whenever you have a smaller firebox or different situations that you might get into ash in, this can be a problem. Like if if you wind up with ash being like clogging in between the embers in your firebox, then you're going to wind up with some with, some lower temp situations and things like that.

00;05;44;13 - 00;06;07;21
Speaker 1
Maybe not drafting as well. Maybe you can't get up to temperature properly. Now coal depth affects stability and recovery. Now this could mean in some scenarios you've got a very deep coal bed. Well, in reality not all of that coal bed is getting exposed to oxygen. Therefore, it may be intense in that spot where it's piled up high.

00;06;07;24 - 00;06;31;18
Speaker 1
But you're not going to actually get enough surface area exposed to the amount of air required for that pit to run. So another thing about burning on bottom of a firebox is you're going to get a longer lasting coal bed. I've never seen a coal bed last longer in a charcoal basket or in a, log rack or a, a charcoal tray.

00;06;31;20 - 00;06;56;08
Speaker 1
It seems like in this situation, whenever the the coals stay together longer, like in, in one piece of coal, they tend to last a lot longer. Now, another location we can put your coal bed is up on what I said a minute ago. A charcoal tray or a log rack. Now, in reverse flow smokers, especially a lot of the designs that we've made over the years.

00;06;56;10 - 00;07;29;22
Speaker 1
If you ever want to know about that, go to smoker plans dot net. That's one of my websites. You'll see that we have a lot of old style plans on there for reverse flows that show a charcoal or a, charcoal tray or a log rack where it's up off the bottom. Now that works great in a reverse flow smoker, because since we got more twists and turns in that pit and essentially double the length that the air has to run in that pit, we wind up with needing a lot more air to be able to be heated at the same time.

00;07;29;29 - 00;07;57;08
Speaker 1
So that one pass through that, through that air inlet into the firebox, we're going to have to heat or carry a lot of heat with that airstream to go under that baffle plate all the way to the other end. So therefore, lifting the coal bed up off the bottom and allowing air and oxygen to get underneath of that coal bed and over the top of it seems to accomplish that task very nicely.

00;07;57;11 - 00;08;19;22
Speaker 1
So it's going to lift the coals up off the ash is another thing, but there's a trade off here. Some of your coal you're shorter. You'll have a shorter coal bed life compared to a bed on the floor, because the embers actually break apart and that ash renders out easier and faster depending on the size of the holes or slots in whatever your charcoal tray or log rack is.

00;08;19;25 - 00;08;40;25
Speaker 1
Now, just to be clear, when I say charcoal tray, I do not mean like a tray that's a solid bottom because that would that would basically be the same as burning on the bottom of the firebox. We're talking about some kind of a tray that's got like holes in it, like expanded metal or something. So it's going to require that most mostly charcoal to run in this scenario.

00;08;40;25 - 00;09;05;00
Speaker 1
Like we're going to have to have a pretty good sized coal bed for this, scenario to work. And it's going to, produce a lot more intense heat. So another location we can talk about where you would have a coal bed would be in a fire management charcoal basket. Now, when we say this, we have to put that, fire management basket in air quotes because I just actually don't like that term.

00;09;05;00 - 00;09;26;24
Speaker 1
But that's a popular term that's been picked up on the old interwebs there. And what it's usually talking about is some kind of a charcoal basket that's usually shaped like a V taper that sits up off the bottom of the pit, typically in a square firebox is where you're going to find this, and mostly on a competition style offset smoker.

00;09;26;26 - 00;09;51;00
Speaker 1
And the goal here is, is that the cook wants to have mostly radiant heat like they want to have a hot. They're usually going to be cooking hot and fast, and therefore they're going to have to have like a tall coal bed with a lot of sides of this coal bed exposed. And the ash rendering out of the coal basket in order to get enough airflow exposed to those coals.

00;09;51;02 - 00;10;12;18
Speaker 1
And usually it's going to have a very clean smoke flavor. It's not going to be like what you would see me running on an offset smoker. So it's going to require almost 100% charcoal or super kiln dried wood. As a matter of fact, one of my friends, Mark Lambert, you might know him, from Sweet Swan of Mine, if you don't look him up.

00;10;12;21 - 00;10;33;12
Speaker 1
He's world champion multiple time, like seven time Memphis in May, world champion, etc., etc. built some pits for him over the years, and one of his favorite things to use is he gets these cold ax handles. They've been kiln dried and they're handles that would have been used to make axes. They're like the blanks. But the issue with those things is, is that they had it.

00;10;33;12 - 00;10;53;23
Speaker 1
They were like they didn't pass for some reason at the factory. And so he he's able to buy these things and they store them almost like wooden staves for barrels where they're stacked in a tic tac toe pattern with lots of air around them. So whenever he adds a split to, to a, fire management basket, he's adding a small piece of wood on top of a large coal bed.

00;10;53;25 - 00;11;12;20
Speaker 1
And that's going to give him a super, super clean, very hot fire. And that's how he does his competition, cooking for like BBS, etc. you can look him up and see some of his content about that or even go to his store. But anyway, that's that's what we're talking about when we're talking about a fire management charcoal basket.

00;11;12;23 - 00;11;42;28
Speaker 1
It's going to be very intense heat due to increased charcoal exposure to air. It's going to require much more, much tighter air control. And it can create large temperature swings if it's not managed carefully. So, you know, different cold bed locations can change how aggressive the fire feels, not just how the pit runs. Now, something to point out here is how you build the fire determines how it behaves.

00;11;43;01 - 00;12;03;14
Speaker 1
In other words, fire structure matters more than fire size. So when we're building the fire in the fire structure in an offset smoker, the first thing we're going to start with, of course, is the coal bed. Like I always get my coal bed completely lit before I add any wood. And what that looks like is, you know, if you you can start it two ways.

00;12;03;14 - 00;12;25;05
Speaker 1
We can start it with charcoal or we can start it with kindling. Now, I usually started with charcoal because I'm in a hurry or whatever, but whenever you're starting with charcoal, the reason I do it is because it is faster and it's a little bit more predictable. You know, it's going to remove some variables like the size of the pieces in the kindling and stuff like that.

00;12;25;08 - 00;12;45;18
Speaker 1
And if you're new to this, if you use something like, briquettes, which there's nothing wrong with that, they just consume faster and get a little more brittle. Or if you use, lump, that's all kind of pretty evenly sized. It's going to it's going to, shorten the learning curve. It's going to make it a lot easier to learn how to establish a coal bed.

00;12;45;20 - 00;13;08;15
Speaker 1
On the other hand, if you're more of a traditionalist, starting with kindling, which I do quite a lot, I've got a few videos about it. Also, it just saves me a little bit of money on charcoal because I've got I split, I cut and split my own wood. I've always got a pile of like, scraps laying around from when I was splitting and cutting, and it's just easy to use kindling at some of those times, but it's got to be dry.

00;13;08;16 - 00;13;28;24
Speaker 1
That's the thing about it. So the when you're starting with kindling, it is a little bit more traditional. But it is going to require a little more attention. If you add a lot of kindling that's really small and find pieces, they can they can consume fast and you're going to have to have adding more chunks faster.

00;13;28;26 - 00;13;50;13
Speaker 1
I think where I got my method of starting with kindling was a buddy of mine that was a Boy Scout troop leader that always talked about the Boy Scout method. Start. Aim small, miss small, start small, build bigger as you go. And, you know, the one thing about it is it is a little bit easier to, overshoot or stall a fire out, starting with kindling.

00;13;50;15 - 00;14;12;29
Speaker 1
So the one thing about it, using charcoal isn't cheating. It's just reducing some variables, shortening the learning curve, and making it a little bit faster to pick up, you know, the process of starting a fire. So once we get our coal bed established, we're going to start talking about the fire wood structure. Like whenever we're adding wood to this fire.

00;14;12;29 - 00;14;36;15
Speaker 1
And if you watch any of my YouTube videos, you'll see where my you'll visually see my choice of a log cabin structure in most scenarios. Now there's two kinds log cabin style. And then there's this other one called a bundle size, style fire. Now, whenever I say log cabin, that means we're going to take these logs and stack them like the old Lincoln Logs.

00;14;36;15 - 00;15;03;15
Speaker 1
There's going to be two going one way. And then to put the other way on top of that. And what this is going to do is give us more airflow to the fire. It's going to give us the maximum amount of air so that we can get our fire established quickly and evenly, and easily, because what we want to do early in the cook, typically what I do is I run my pit up hotter than it needs to be and then let it coast back down.

00;15;03;18 - 00;15;43;04
Speaker 1
That's that's ideal for a log cabin structure. It's going to give you faster ignition of those splits because we're getting more oxygen around it. And also the one thing you got to keep in mind is, is a little bit easier to spike temps whenever you're running a pit like this with the log cabin structure. Now, if you're burning on a small offset like from Home Depot, Lowe's, a smaller offset, maybe a maybe an offset that requires a lot more air through the through the cook chamber, because the firebox is smaller, you could get in a scenario where you have to add more wood to a fire, but you need to remove.

00;15;43;05 - 00;16;12;25
Speaker 1
You don't want to expose as much of that wood directly to oxygen. In an effort to, get slower ignition and more controlled growth of your fire, that's called a bundle fire. And what it means is, is when we add those splits on top of the coal bed, we're going to actually position them closer or tighter together. And the distance between those splits, in other words, like we would put three splits facing the same direction on top of the coal bed.

00;16;12;27 - 00;16;38;19
Speaker 1
We can decrease the amount of room between those splits in an effort to not only prevent, as a lot of air from going between the splits so they don't light as fast. But also when we put splits directly on a coal bed, we're actually insulating the top of surface of that coal bed from getting oxygen. And that's going to help us to kind of dampen things down on a pit that naturally tries to run super hot.

00;16;38;21 - 00;17;03;26
Speaker 1
Now, if you have an insulated firebox, this is probably the only way you're going to be able to run that pit sustainably and comfortably without a lot of spikes and dips in the in the temperature on the pit. But the one thing about a bundle fire that is different than a log cabin fire is it's a it's better for building a steady coal bed and having more controlled growth.

00;17;03;26 - 00;17;32;02
Speaker 1
That's a huge asset for you to have. If you're new to running an offset smoker, especially one with an insulated firebox or a smaller pit. Now, one of the secrets that I discovered along the way for my own fire management is preheating my splits. I've got quite a few little videos. They're scattered amongst the internet, where I show visibly what it looks like to heat up a cold split.

00;17;32;02 - 00;17;56;25
Speaker 1
When you put it directly on the fire, you know, whenever you add a cold split, we got to understand that the the wood has to come up to temperature before it can combust. The other thing is, is that it's at equilibrium. Typically a cold split is with the humidity. Something we learned in the refrigeration trade is that vapor pressure moves independent of air pressure.

00;17;56;25 - 00;18;36;05
Speaker 1
It doesn't necessarily move at the same rate. Humidity and different things like that. The vapor pressure in the air can actually penetrate walls and things like that, which is why we have to put up vapor barriers and things. So the one thing is, is that everything wants to live at equilibrium and be happy and calm. So you can actually kiln dry a split and then store it outside at whatever the outside temperature is without it raining or anything, no matter what the environment is in that split, once you put it back out, there is going to absorb moisture back into it so that the vapor pressure can become equilibrium with its surroundings.

00;18;36;05 - 00;19;02;02
Speaker 1
That's really important to realize. So whenever we add a coal, a cold split to a fire, there's a few things going to happen. It could kill your coalbed. You'll probably have white smoke whenever you start. Whatever you first add it to the fire. And that white smoke is not just smoldering wood, it's also the moisture evaporating from inside the log, almost like steam.

00;19;02;04 - 00;19;21;23
Speaker 1
And it can also cause like recovery dips, like if you're trying to get back up to 300, let's say you were running, on the thermometer dial, whatever the cooking. Great temp was 275 whatever. But the thermometer dial read 300. You open your door, you put a bunch of room temperature or 70 degree, meat on the pit.

00;19;21;26 - 00;19;41;19
Speaker 1
It's going to naturally dip because you just had the door open and you added a bunch of cold food to the pit. And so that aftermath of that is what we call recovery time. And this can cause a recovery dip where it takes a long time to recover and get back up to the temperature you had intended on cooking at.

00;19;41;21 - 00;20;05;27
Speaker 1
So the way to get around this is to add preheated splits. What I do when I preheat my splits is I typically set them on top of my firebox for those that don't know, I'm a super fan of uninsulated fire boxes in all size pits, and one benefit to that is the ability to take a split, set it right on top of your firebox, and just let that thing preheat.

00;20;05;29 - 00;20;25;24
Speaker 1
Another way of doing this is sticking it in the like the cook chamber. You'll see some guys use it as a block or log on their pit, which we can get into in another scenario here, but just preheat it right in the cook chamber. Or if you've got a handy dandy pellet cooker sitting around, turn it on, run it about 200 degrees and just let that thing cook the splits before you add them in.

00;20;25;26 - 00;20;51;23
Speaker 1
What that's going to do for you is this going to cause that split to light faster? So in a scenario where your pit is a larger pit, uninsulated firebox, you know, or a pit that is is not temperamental with, heat with like spikes, temperature spikes and stuff like that. You can use this and it'll light faster. It'll burn a lot cleaner right away.

00;20;51;24 - 00;21;12;04
Speaker 1
You'll shorten the amount of time that you get that, white smoke and it's definitely going to reduce temperature swings because we get that BTU content, we just add it in right up at the beginning. So some other locations you could preheat your logs would be like sitting on top of the, the firebox. Like I said, you could put it on a warming rack sometimes.

00;21;12;04 - 00;21;31;18
Speaker 1
I'll put it off to this on a big enough pit, you can actually set a split off to the side for instance, in our, smoke slinger, directly enclosed pits, you can actually set them in the firebox on one side that's not lit on the full size. And then put them, directly into the one that's lit whenever you're adding it to the fire.

00;21;31;20 - 00;22;00;18
Speaker 1
So another key thing is the size of the splits. Whenever you're adding splits on a smaller pit, you should be adding small splits. And when I say a small split, like an average split for the 94 gallon or 100 gallon and smaller offset for me is going to be somewhere around a two inch diameter. When I say diameter, it's actually shaped like a triangle, but it fits inside of like a two inch circle or slightly bigger than that.

00;22;00;21 - 00;22;25;05
Speaker 1
And we're going to be somewhere around 10in to 12in long. That's like the most common split I use in all of my pits. When you get into bigger ones, though, like 250 gallon pits and bigger, you may want to increase that size to like a three inch diameter or even up into like a 14 inch long split. Now bigger the pit, the bigger the wood.

00;22;25;08 - 00;22;48;23
Speaker 1
But what that's going to do when you add small splits to a smaller pit, it's going to give you a faster response and easier control. Now, large splits, they're going to have longer burns when they're added to smaller pits on bigger pits, like if you put a 20 inch long log, that's like 4 to 6in in diameter, you know, split in there, it's going to do the same problem.

00;22;48;23 - 00;23;14;07
Speaker 1
It's going to have, a longer burn, but it's going to be a huge swing and it's going to require a stronger coal bed to keep that log lit. So smaller splits is the way that I would recommend that you go every single time. But another thing that I never thought about until a few years ago, probably eight years ago, is, you know, I would almost weigh the wood, like try to keep it all the same size.

00;23;14;07 - 00;23;44;24
Speaker 1
If you're new to this, if you've got size, different size splits mixed up, that can cause you just as much frustration as anything. So you want to match your split size to the firebox size that you have, the target temp range that you're running, and your experience level. Remember, fire structure controls behavior. Size only controls intensity. So one other thing we want to talk about here is managing the offset without fighting it.

00;23;44;26 - 00;24;14;27
Speaker 1
So offsets want a rhythm. I was taught that early on. They want a rhythm not a reaction. So whenever we're talking about fire rhythm, we're getting into what I talked about with the split size and stuff like that. We're going to be adding fuel before the coal bed collapses. We don't want to wait for temperature crashes to happen before we add that fuel, and we want small, timely additions to beat, like the need for big reactions or big corrections in our fire management rhythm.

00;24;14;29 - 00;24;44;03
Speaker 1
So what that means, what I usually do is I literally tell the my Phone app smart lady there, I don't want to say her name because she'll start talking Solaris because she would totally like interject in the conversation. But I always tell her to start a timer for 30 minutes. I always use 30 minutes as a baseline when I'm getting started and as the cook progresses, if I can stretch that out to 45 minutes on and off set, I'm super happy with that.

00;24;44;06 - 00;25;04;16
Speaker 1
And I go by the time is what I go by more than anything, and then I adjust that time based on my barbecue KPIs. I'm working with it at the time, at the moment, like, how's this pit run in? Is the when I feel the bottom of the cook chamber length wise, is it evenly heated? Stuff like that.

00;25;04;18 - 00;25;34;01
Speaker 1
So offset behavior across temperature ranges. And these are for context. These aren't like hard set rules. 225 to 250. You're going to require less fuel, right? It's going to take smaller splits, more frequent feeding. And it's going to be easier to smother the fire. You know, whenever you're adding these, whenever you're running hot, so to speak, if you overshoot temperature, you can just shut the dampers down and kind of choke it down a little bit.

00;25;34;04 - 00;25;57;09
Speaker 1
Now, you don't want to leave it that way. You want to get your thin blue smoke back and, you know, correct your smoke flavor, right? Your seasoning. But, anyway, then we get into this 250 to 275 range. And in my opinion, this is the easiest spot to run universally, like in that middle zone is always going to be something you can quickly react to.

00;25;57;09 - 00;26;14;16
Speaker 1
If you need to speed the cook up, you can get it back. You can raise that temperature up and, move on with the cook. Or if you if it's progressing too quick, you can like, choke it down just a little bit and get back down into that. 225 to 250 range. But if you're new to this, don't panic.

00;26;14;16 - 00;26;40;07
Speaker 1
It low and slow is not the only answer to barbecue is your learning. On this podcast, we just want to find a zone that's easy to control. And that's at 250 to 275. So I call that the sweet spot. It's going to be super easy to maintain a stable coal bed. Whenever you're running it. It's going to be really forgiving when you make mistakes, i.e. having to raise the temper, lower the temp now 275 and up like to 325.

00;26;40;15 - 00;27;04;26
Speaker 1
You'll see the needle on my thermometer typically reads around 300 degrees on an offset, but that doesn't mean that's what the pits running. Remember the barbecue KPIs episode? Typically, if my thermometer says 300, it's got something to do with placement, typically by the the collector box. And I'm actually going to be observing around a 275 or a 300 somewhere in that range temperature.

00;27;04;28 - 00;27;30;14
Speaker 1
I usually assume 275. And then I just move on with my cook. But whenever you're up in that upper range, you're going to have to have a strong coal bed. You're not going to be able to maintain this thing at that temperature for very long without establishing a really good, strong, clean coal bed first. However, whenever you're burning hotter like this because you've got a bigger coal bed, you're going to be burning cleaner fires.

00;27;30;22 - 00;27;49;17
Speaker 1
The pits are going to love running there, but you're going to have to maintain it a lot more. And then you've got less lingering smoke sitting in the cook chamber, which if you have people complaining about over smoked food, that might be an asset in the cook. So for your split storage, we're going to talk about where to put that stuff.

00;27;49;20 - 00;28;21;14
Speaker 1
I just so you know and the world's worst at this. I'm here to tell you that I am super guilty. All of my wood is 100% exposed to rain all the time. And, at first I thought it was an okay idea, but it's not necessarily the best idea if you don't use it fast. Because I usually have, like a quart of hickory, maybe a Rick, which is a half a quarter in Missouri here, of cherry and then remnants of a lot of other stuff laying around, like post oak and stuff.

00;28;21;17 - 00;28;45;27
Speaker 1
And, what you need to do in order to. It's not necessarily the rain on the wood. That's a that's the problem. This is prolonged exposure to that, to rain sitting on it or snow or whatever. So you want to keep your wood dry. Definitely keep it covered. If you know, if you live in a terribly winter or rainy and snowy climate, you know you want to keep it covered for sure.

00;28;45;29 - 00;29;04;23
Speaker 1
Worst case, just put a piece of tin over it or something, you know, keep it up off the ground. Now, an important thing about keeping it up off the ground is pest control. Whenever this wood sits on the ground, it's like a wick. And it's not only pulling moisture and all the garbage up through the wood and pulling it upward towards the top.

00;29;04;25 - 00;29;27;02
Speaker 1
It's also a path for like termites and all kinds of wood, boring critters and stuff like that. Just ants and things like that to live in that woodpile. Snakes, I hate that. So you want to keep it up off the ground for sure. Things you want to avoid is any kind of wood that's like punky. It's like. It's like got like a rotted, like spongy like exterior to it.

00;29;27;02 - 00;29;56;25
Speaker 1
You want definitely want to avoid that because that wood is absorbing a ton of moisture into those pores. Moldy wood is another thing you want to avoid. And, you know, recently cut splits. They. I love it whenever somebody says seasoned on their pile of wood post. Right. Or whenever you're buying firewood. What they are saying a lot of times is that it was standing timber that was dead, or it's timber that was cut down and sat for a year.

00;29;56;28 - 00;30;21;25
Speaker 1
But that doesn't mean that it's split and seasoned, right. It's not seasoned at all. It's recently cut whenever they go in and split that it's still especially on like the red oak side of wood. It is it is like a sponge. We can get into that in another episode, but you can literally take a small short piece of red oak, and if you blow on it just right, it'll blow right through it like a straw.

00;30;21;28 - 00;30;51;04
Speaker 1
And that would just absorbs a ton of moisture. So you definitely want to keep away from that. And the one thing about splits is that consistency matters more than species. I couldn't say it any better than that. You know, the the species of wood that you're using is going to give you some, some flavor and stuff like that, but consistency and size and type of wood is going to yield more benefits to your barbecue than anything.

00;30;51;06 - 00;31;15;08
Speaker 1
So real quick to wrap this up, let's talk about what a clean offset fire looks like. So you'll hear the term thrown around quite a lot. Thin blue smoke in the reverse flow. Crowds. Like I'm not going to name any brands, but in any of the the brands that are known for building reverse flow smokers, you'll see them brag a lot about nearly invisible or clear smoke.

00;31;15;10 - 00;31;41;05
Speaker 1
Now, the clearer the smoke, the cleaner the burn is. Now, you know, thin blue smoke is often revered as the best flavor of smoke. Like that seasoning we talk about. And so we want to stay down in there. You're you're not going to have a harsh smell with thin blue smoke. The dirtier your smoke is, like white and gray.

00;31;41;08 - 00;32;10;05
Speaker 1
I've even seen black smoke like on super, super dry wood. I've seen it smoke almost black whenever it's lighting. And that kind of does put off a harsh smell. You know, your fire is going to sound active, but it's not going to be like no flames with wood. When you're burning with wood on an offset smoker, you still want to have like a lazy flame, but you want to be able to hear that thing like moving some flames around, moving some air.

00;32;10;07 - 00;32;39;13
Speaker 1
And what's going to happen is that pit's going to respond predictably to small adjustments. That way. Visualize it like this. If you're constantly fighting your offset, it's not the pit, it's the fire structure. Of course, we're assuming that your smoker is not got a drastic design problem there, right? So here we go. We're going to give you a few key takeaways that you need to, write these down offsets run on coal beds.

00;32;39;15 - 00;33;06;06
Speaker 1
That's the most important thing. That's the engine. And the biggest contributor to a stable cook fire structure beats fire size. If you build your fire structure properly, it's going to perform better than it is with a large just pile of wood in there that you can supposedly set it and forget it and walk away. Charcoal for starting a coal bed is a tool.

00;33;06;06 - 00;33;31;26
Speaker 1
It's not cheating. It's totally okay to use it. But if you're like one of those hardcore traditionalists, just do a good job of consistency with your kindling and stuff. And you'll have just as good of an experience. Pre-heated splits matter. It's like the best tool in your arsenal as a stick burner. Always have your split splits preheated and that will shorten the learning curve on your pit.

00;33;31;26 - 00;34;01;15
Speaker 1
For sure. Rhythm completely beats reaction every single time. Like learn that fire rhythm. Get in the habit of setting a timer. You know, we're not following a recipe. We're following a reminder on when to observe and make observations. And the final thing is clean fire equals better barbecue. But we don't want to go to clean into the clear smoke phase where you can see through it.

00;34;01;15 - 00;34;23;18
Speaker 1
Well, and there's no blue because that just means that we're burning to hot to clean, and we're going to sacrifice flavor at the end of the day. So guys, I really appreciate you listening to this episode. And I invite you to give me a follow on this podcast, if you don't mind. What it does for me is it just shows me that people are listening and, really enjoy doing these episodes.

00;34;23;18 - 00;34;42;13
Speaker 1
And I love the encouragement. I appreciate it a lot. Does help me a lot. And if you don't mind, if you're enjoying this thing and getting some value from it, please share it with another barbecue nerd. I would love to help them too. And one more thing here. You know, we got a another episode following this.

00;34;42;13 - 00;35;08;25
Speaker 1
This is our fire structure segment of this podcast. Before we move on to other barbecue KPIs. And, the next episode, we're going to be talking about fire structure for direct heat cooking. I'm excited to talk about that. And, you know, next time you're cooking, watch your coal bed, see what happens. And, you know, change one thing on your fire and see how it reacts and take some notes that will help you a lot.

00;35;09;00 - 00;35;21;12
Speaker 1
Just taking notes and setting a timer. But but anyway, guys, I appreciate you listening. Until next time, keep your smoke thin and blue and we'll see you on the flip side. I'm gonna come back.