Tried the pellet tube on my offset and it bit me in the ass

I threw a $25 smoke tube into my WSM last weekend, thinking it'd give me that clean blue smoke without babysitting. Instead I got this acrid, dirty gray smoke that coated the brisket in 3 hours and tasted like a campfire ash tray. Turns out the pellets were too damp from sitting in my garage in Orlando for 6 months, so they smoldered instead of burning. Anyone else had a pellet tube backfire on them, or am I just cursed with humid weather?

2 comments

2 Comments

joseph_torres23d ago

That "campfire ashtray" line hit home for me. My buddy Mike did the exact same thing with a tube on his Traeger, except his pellets were fine. He left the tube sitting too close to the water pan, and the smoke got so thick and dirty it looked like a chimney fire. He ended up pulling a pork shoulder off after 4 hours that tasted like he'd cooked it over a diesel engine. Took him a whole weekend of cleaning the grates and the lid to get the smell out, and his wife still won't let him forget it. Humidity's a real jerk down here, but sometimes the tube just does its own thing regardless.

the_tessa23d ago

My buddy Dave killed a whole brisket that way last spring, the tube was tucked against the drip tray and it just smoldered all night. Woke up to white smoke rolling out of his patio like a fog machine, and the meat tasted like burnt coffee and regret. He had to soak every grille grate in degreaser for two days, and now he stands guard by the smoker like it's a hostage situation.