Ok, I gotta get in on the action of the smoking. I currently have a nice gas grill, but I know it's not as good as charcoal. One of my musts for this summer is to smoke up a nice brisket.

Anyway, what would you recommend for a noob smoker-in terms of a grill, a rub, and maybe a lesson on maintaining your temps with some degree of accuracy over long cooking periods without constantly going up/down? Thanks!
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What's you price range? If price doesn't matter, then go with a good pellet smoker. They are very simple to use.

Rubs are a matter of taste. You can't really go wrong with any of the American Royal winners. Yardbird or Dizzie Dust is a nice one to start with.
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I like the Cowtown line of rubs and sauces. Check out kansascitybbqstore.com. They have just about anything you could want for BBQ.
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I did a quick search after posting on amazon and such and it seems like the Weber Smokey Mountain Cooker 18-1/2" model has great reviews. Found it for $246 shipped from another website. That would certainly be feasible and seems to have been discussed here.

Don't know anything about pellet smokers though....would the Weber be a much preferred option over like a Bradley?
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The one nice thing about the Bradleys, especially the digital version, is they can be a set/forget system. The digital smoke box will regulate the temp for you, plus feed the new puck every 20 mins. You just need to check on it every so often to see if water bowl at the bottom needs cleaning/refilling.

I built the digital equivalent for my Bradley. I have a small box that acts as the temp controller, turning power on/off to the heating element as needed.
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Sounds nice, but the $400+ price tag is probably more than I want to bear though. Then again, it doesn't take an awfully long time to eat up $100+ in charcoal either.
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Okay. I took a few shots of my now properly chilled product. From appearances, can you smoker guys tell if I did anything incorrectly? Uneven? Was the smoke too heavy or light? Too fast? Smoke time was roughly 2.5 hours, temp went from 110 or so to about 135-ish, I think. It was windy and 45-50-ish outside yesterday. There was a bit of aspic/gelatin on the slab after cooling, is this desirable?
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Looks good to me Pete. I'll have the gelatin on mine as well after spending a night in the fridge. Haven't noticed any issues with it.
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Yea, they can be pricey. Sometimes you can find them on sale. That's how I got mine for under $300. It was the 4 rack Stainless non digital model. Cabelas was running a special for them at the time.

If you do decide on a Bradley, get the wood pucks from Amazon. Last year they offered a 4 for 3 deal on 48 count boxes. Brought the per puck price down to about $.25.
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So, this wouldn't suck, eh?
http://tinyurl.com/67xrqt3
Yeah... I need another toy like I need a hole in my head, but I LOOOOVE spending money at Costco.
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Seems like a good deal, about what Amazon has it listed for. I love my Bradley. To some it's not true BBQ, but it works perfect for what i make. Just a note, you won't get the smoke ring as you would with a wood fired pit. Something about the way it smolders the wood pucks. I love that it puts out consistent results without having baby sit it all day long.
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http://tinyurl.com/3bo59vf
This one doesn't come with the extra 48 pellets or cover, but maybe the savings are worth it to some, especially if you are a Jim Beam Fan.
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I'd get the one with the pucks. It'll give you a nice variety to try. I keep mine in the garage (detached) so I have no need for the cover, but would be usefull if you did keep it outside in the elements.
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The appeal to me is a "set it and forget it" type of thing-I've never been great at regulating a particular temp with charcoal in the past and don't have the patience to babysit it too much, especially when cooking over this type of duration. May be worth it in the long run I guess...
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If you're handy with electronics, you can build your own PID device that'll work as a temp controller for the non-digital bradley. You can find directions on the Bradley forum for the parts you need and how to build one.
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It's like $130 more...not sure that by the time I spend the money for parts and figuring out how to do it that it's even worth it.
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You are talking apples to oranges really. Bradley's use electric coils for a heat source, and the pucks are for smoke. It's basically an oven with smoke box.

The WSM uses charcoal/wood (fire) for it's heat source as well as wood for smoke. It's a difference you would have to experience. The WSM is a great smoker but it's not quite set and forget. There are aftermarket items such as the Stoker or BBQGuru, that can make a WSM almost set and forget.

Traeger, Fast Eddie, etc pellet smokers use fire and wood pellets for heat and smoke. They are pretty much set and forget systems.

I don't know of any truly set and forget smokers as pellets and pucks can jam. A wind could blow things over, etc.
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WSM's are very easy to use. If you go to www.virtualweberbullet.com they have recipe sections where they cover stuff all the way down to the vent positions during the cook. Tons of support, both there and on the attached forum for them. Everyone I know who has bought one has been happy with them and has people viewing them as BBQ gods, and most of these guys were gas grillers before they bought WSMs.

If you want automation on the WSM, just add a BBQ Guru DigiQ draft controller:
http://www.thebbqguru.com/products/D...-package).html

Or a Stoker controller.
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Looks great from here Pete. Nicely done. :-)
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Understood about the differences between the Weber and the Bradley...just a matter of trying to figure out what I might be more comfortable doing. Pellet systems are going to be way out of my range. Just trying to figure out what I want to do I guess.

With the Weber, if I'm doing a brisket or something like that, how much "maintenance" would I expect to be doing during the process in terms of adding more charcoal? My frustration will be in getting a constant temp without continuously adding more charcoal and that type of thing.
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