New Barrel bbq pit

Found some plans for a barrel pit for smoking. Had my son pick me up a brand new barrel yesterday at his work and it took me about an hour to put this thing together.

It has (2) 3/4" intakes (valves) at the bottom that are adjustable. The stack you see in the picture.

I got some expanded metal and made a basket to hold the lump charcoal, size 17" in diameter with 7" sides, with 1" feet to keep off bottom.

I fired this thing up this morning to start seasoning it and to learn how to control the temp. I used 1/3 bag of lump charcoal, fired it up at 9:00 A.M. this morning and have not refilled the basket yet holding my temperature at 225 - 250 for the first try.

You can also set it up with a hot plate and a little firebox to do some jerky or cold smoked fish. I have this one set up to hold 2 grills.

In short... I'm going to like this smoker.

http://i106.photobucket.com/albums/m...s/P5160001.jpg

http://i106.photobucket.com/albums/m...s/P5160002.jpg

So where do you get a new barrel? What kind of business is your son in?

He works for Uline, Inc. He gets a pretty good discount on things from there. I can get used barrels for free, but I never now what's in them, so I get new ones when I need to do things like this.

Nice looking. So Tahyo - how many does that make lying around?

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Originally Posted by crashdive123

Nice looking. So Tahyo - how many does that make lying around?

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Actually it replaces the one I had before.
In answer to your question.... "Too many" as my wife would say.

Women are funny like that. I still say that there are some things that you can not have to many/much of.

There is officially no limit on man stuff. Man stuff is useful and has a purpose. Often well beyond the intended use. For example, nails can be used to pick up trash by embedding them in the end of a pole. They could also be used in conjunction with a hammer to test older ammunition. So man stuff has a purpose and, in case any ladies are reading this, a PLACE@! Everything a man owns has a specific place that it MUST be kept. Not returning it to its rightful place destroys man Karma.

Women stuff, on the other had, generally involve items purchased as sales. They bear no relationship to need or requirement. The word SALE is compelling to a woman. There is no rightful place for women stuff. It usually goes wherever they want to put it. Sadly, there is no woman Karma either so men have no way to retaliate.

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Originally Posted by crashdive123

Women are funny like that. I still say that there are some things that you can not have to many/much of.

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I remind her of that usually when I put some bbq on the table. Yesterday I marinated a bunch of chicken thighs and breasts in zest Italian for a few hours and then cooked on the older barrel pit with some mesquite tossed in for good measure. She's still talking about that.
Yes, I have a before picture and one with my faithful dog guarding the pit as usual, but figured I'd spare ya'll from my bbq pics for a while.

Tahyo - you can never post too many pictures of bbq. http://www.mysmiley.net/imgs/smile/party/party0021.gif

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Originally Posted by crashdive123

Tahyo - you can never post too many pictures of bbq. http://www.mysmiley.net/imgs/smile/party/party0021.gif

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I'll post some tomorrow. My oldest son is coming over and he wants me to do some chicken like I did yesterday. Good opportunity to cook on the new barrel pit for the first time. I seasoned it with a sacrificial 1/3 bag of lump charcoal and all kinds of hickory bark, oak bark and what ever other good smoking type barks I could get my hands on. It's got a nice smoky build up in it now and ready for the real thing.

If you don't mind saying, how much did that barrel setup cost you, and what would one (read: someone who cannot get a discount on a barrel) pay for the supplies?

Gracias

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Originally Posted by Aurelius95

If you don't mind saying, how much did that barrel setup cost you, and what would one (read: someone who cannot get a discount on a barrel) pay for the supplies?

Gracias

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I think brand new "Open top" barrels sell for 50 or 60 dollars. That's not shipped. Check around your area for them. Fortunately I have access to them. You could use a used barrel, but be damn sure you know what was in it before you start trying to cook in it.

Barrel (discounted price) 36.00
(2) 3/4" valves 14.00 (I think, give or take)
(2) 3/4" x 3" nipples 2.00 and some change
(4) conduit ring locks 3.00 to hold the pipe in the barrel
(8) 1/4" x 1.5" bolts with washers and nuts to hold grill in place I think 3.00
expanded steel to make charcoal basket 30.00
pipe for the stack 5 or 6 dollars I think.

All said and done I built this thing for about 100 bucks. If I keep it covered when I don't use it, it will last me a pretty long time. The last barrel pit I made lasted me 5 years and I simply replaced it with this on.

I'll take pictures later today of some of the details and post them. The expanded metal basket is a must have for ease of loading lump charcoal. I happened to know a guy at a welding company and he cut the expanded metal for me to size as I don't have a cutting torch or the right wheel for my grinder.
I did do the welding though as I have a welding machine. The basket is 17" in diameter with 7" high sides.

Now mind you, this particular pit I made is for smoking things. With both intakes open the maximum temp may get to 350 if you have the lid on. I won't be doing any grilling on it. That's what my gas grill is for.

If anyone is interested in building one of these, let me know and I'll try to put together a better plan. This is something that just took everyday tools for the most part.

Check out this site. I linked to the photos page, but there's a menu on the left. There are a ton of other pictures if you go to the "Forums" and the "Customer pics" are pretty good. This company is selling these things and they are fashioned slightly different but from what I've read, it does a good job.

Barrel pits have been around for a long time. I've been cooking on one since I was a kid in La. and the furtherest I can recall a barrel pit is my 3 x Great Uncle Nook back in the early 60s using one. Hard to believe that I had a 3xGreat Uncle alive while I was, but he lived a long time.

Tahyo - now that you've got me drooling all over again...link?

Sorry.... wife side tracked me. You'll really drool when you see these.

http://bigdrumsmokers.com/album/photos.htm

OMG!!!!! You really should have posted a warning ***Do not view this site on an empty stomach*** Of course that should also apply to most of the pics that you and Bragg post.

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Originally Posted by crashdive123

OMG!!!!! You really should have posted a warning ***Do not view this site on an empty stomach*** Of course that should also apply to most of the pics that you and Bragg post.

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Aye, it had that effect on me too. I've been cooking and looking at bbq my entire life...the good stuff and I still drool when I see things like that.

Funny thing... Last night I was looking at those pictures and it was sort of late. My wife comes in and asked what I was looking at. When she saw, she goes, "OH MY GOD! Most men would be looking at porn, but not you! You're always looking at bbq".

Here's some closeup shots of this barrel. Just click on the thumbnails for larger views.


http://i106.photobucket.com/albums/m...ntakeValve.jpghttp://i106.photobucket.com/albums/m...h_Inside01.jpghttp://i106.photobucket.com/albums/m...grillbolts.jpghttp://i106.photobucket.com/albums/m...coalbasket.jpghttp://i106.photobucket.com/albums/m...basketfeet.jpghttp://i106.photobucket.com/albums/m...BarrelPitt.jpg

So, essentially, what you paid $100 or so for (and a non discounted barrel might cost an additional $20), I could build for $120? And the guy on the website was selling them for $400? If I pull the trigger, I'll be building it myself!

THanks for the pics Tahyo.

The two biggest expenditures are the barrel and the expanded metal and if you don't weld yourself or know someone, that would probably be an expenditure as well. I have seen the charcoal baskets made from the expanded metal by simply bending it to make a square type container. May take more expanded metal so you'll have to do the math. Just make sure if you do it that way you make it so that from corner to corner it fits in your barrel clearing the shelf bolts for the grill.

Are you using the electric hot plate to fire your wood?

For starting charcoal, I've always used a propane torch. I don't use lighter fluid.
As for as using a hotplate in this, only if I decide to cold smoke some fish. I'd want to put the hotplate in and see what the temp gets up to first.
Tomorrow I'm going to do some chicken thighs and breasts on it. I'll have the intakes wide open for chicken as that has to be cooked preferably at 300+ degrees. Going to get up in the morning, peel the skin back on those pieces of chicken, get them to marinating in Zesty Italian dressing for about 6 hours, then sprinkle salt and pepper on the meat part, pull the skin back over the meat and set on the grill. I'll take some pictures tomorrow.

So something like fire the edges then drop the basket in place? Do you a bit of dry wood to start your fire?

I use lump charcoal. For tomorrow I'll probably put about 1/4 of that basket with some lump in it. Fire up a couple spots with the propane torch and let it get going. I'll set it down in the barrel and open up the intakes. As soon as I see it's taking to burn, then I'll set a couple sticks of mesquite on it and as soon as that starts to smoke, then I'll put the chicken on, the lid and won't touch it for about an hour hopefully. I'll check it about that time to see if maybe I need to turn it.

As much as I know how to bbq and/or smoke things on pits, there's always a learning curve on brand new pits. I'll post what I find out tomorrow or Monday so the info can be of use to others that are interested.

I use a regular little propane torch to start my coals. A lot of people use those big "weed burner" type torches. I would too, but don't have one and the little one works just fine.

The term lump charcoal for me is Kingsford. I know you are talking about wood but I don't know what your reference is to lump charcoal other than that. You are using soaked wood for the smoke I assume but how do you get it to fire with a torch? Or, does it start just fine?

Sorry took so long to respond. Had to go run an errand.
There are two kinds of charcoal. There's briquettes, which Kingsford and Royal oak make. Both are compressed charcoal dust which contain additives, i.e. cornstarch for one. I stopped using those a long time ago when lump charcoal came along. Lump charcoal is wood that is basically chucks of hard woods that have been made into charcoal. I think there is a thread somewhere here on how to make charcoal, if not there's plenty on the net. I use Royal Oak lump charcoal as well as another kind that comes in a brown bag that I get at Menard's or Home Depot. I watch for sales in the fall when they are trying to get rid of inventory and I stock up if I can.

I do add to my charcoal chunks of what ever wood I want smoke flavor, i.e. hickory, apple, cherry, white oak, pecan to name a few. I never soak them. There are occasions when you would want to soak for a little while, but not in any way that I would need to.
The "flavoring" woods I use for smoke will simply smolder on top of the charcoal. Depending on how you control your fire will dictate if you have flame ups. The more air it gets the more likely it will flare up, which is not good. What you looking for is a thin wispy blue in appearance type smoke. Real heavy yellow smoke is not good and your meat will take on a flavor you don't want. It does not take much smoke to flavor the meat.


***Cowboy brand is the other kind that I use***

I just went back and re-read the threads. Just to clear up why I say "Lump Charcoal" is because I don't want people to think I'm using briquettes. Those are a big no no for me.

Now, how do you clean the ashes out of the barrel? I didn't see a door in the side so do you have to turn it over and dump it?

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Originally Posted by Rick

Now, how do you clean the ashes out of the barrel? I didn't see a door in the side so do you have to turn it over and dump it?

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Yes, barrel has to be turned upside down to empty the ashes out and at some point the bottom has to be scraped to get the build up of drippings out. Unfortunately with a barrel pit of this kind there is no way around it. The plus side is that it comes out pretty easy being the ashes mix with what drippings do not burn up in the fire. If I were to put a door somewhere or cut the bottom like I traditionally have in the past, then I would have no way to control the air intake due to the cuts.

I have thought off and on of making some kind of insert to go in the bottom that I can take out, but all in all turning the barrel upside down is not that bad.

The plus factors of this type of barrel smoker is due to better intake control and the top being fairly sealed,
1.) I can cut my charcoal usage in half if not more to do the same thing it use to do.

2.) I get that great flavor from the combination of charcoal, wood and the drippings falling in the hot coals.

3.) The convenience of almost unattended operation once I find the right intake control to maintain temperatures I want.

Brag has this capability on his BGE. I just happen to like making my pits and the barrel pits are a tried and true way to do this.

I just got some chicken thighs and breasts to marinating in some generic zesty Italian dressing for a few hours. I'm probably going to fire up the pit in a few hours to get it going. Stay tuned for pictures later this afternoon or this evening.

What if you had your son get you a small diameter barrel, cut it off about seven inches high and placed it in the bottom of the barrel? Instead of using bolts for legs for the wood basket you could use small pieces of strap metal to tie the wood basket to the ash barrel a few inches above the ash barrel so you would still have air flow underneath. The ashes would drop into the smaller barrel and when you pull the wood basket out, the ash barrel would come out with it.

That would get around the door issues, let you still control the air flow, and make it a bit easier to clean out. My brain hurts, now.

I thought about it, but can't block the intakes on the inside. That air has to flow directly to the fire so I would have to cut holes in the sides and line them up with the intakes. It's a thought that I am harboring though.

Rick, Here's some more pics. I got the chicken going.
Clickable thumbnails

http://i106.photobucket.com/albums/m...h_P5180002.jpg
http://i106.photobucket.com/albums/m...h_P5180003.jpg
http://i106.photobucket.com/albums/m...h_P5180004.jpg
http://i106.photobucket.com/albums/m...h_P5180006.jpg
http://i106.photobucket.com/albums/m...h_P5180007.jpg
http://i106.photobucket.com/albums/m...h_P5180008.jpg
http://i106.photobucket.com/albums/m..._P51800012.jpg

Chicken is done. New pit works like a charm! Took approx 2 hours to do this chicken I fiddled with the intakes and a few other things but I'm happy.

http://i106.photobucket.com/albums/m..._P51800032.jpg

Tahyo, you're supposed to send some over to Q.C., remember?

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Originally Posted by Ken

Tahyo, you're supposed to send some over to Q.C., remember?

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Is there any chance that you would be willing to outsource this one?

Only the bones, Sam. Only the bones.:D

I don't know how much a lot of you bbq, but I am a freaking fanatic. As much as I know, there is just so much I don't know and continue to find the "ultimate".

Where as this barrel pit is concerned. I stumbled a little bit today only in trying to keep track of how fast/slow the chicken was cooking.
All in all though... where as homemade pits are concerned, this is the best one I've ever done. Nothing on this pit is original as I've pirated plans from where ever I could get them. Where as bbq pits are concerned, there is plenty of room for plagiarism but I will admit it.

I now pronounce this new barrel pit good and a keeper. I just ate some of the stuff off of it and I'm full as a tick.

I don't think you can get much better than the Italian dressing marinade for chicken. What a great flavor.

I would not want to sneak in there and try to borrow some of the chicken. It looks like guard duty is being well handled.

I use the generic Zesty Italian dressing for chicken. It's always a winner.