My Smoker from Klose Pits

I think my first post should definitely be about my smoker from Klose Pits. I've named him Bear Grills (get it?!?!) and am pretty comfortable in knowing I'll never have to buy another grill as long as I live.



It may be big for some folks but it is just right for me. Smoking 6 or 8 pork butts is just another weekend for me. Or maybe I'll do 3 or 4 spatchcocked chickens and a few racks or ribs.


At any rate, I've had Bear since about March of 2009 and he was definitely worth the wait. The craftsmanship is second-to-none and the way it cooks...well, let's just say it speaks for itself but you'll have to come here to find out.



The first time I used Bear was for 3 racks of baby back ribs and 2 chickens. Of course that isn't a huge undertaking but I just wanted to get things started right. Even though it was my first attempt; those ribs still might be the best I've ever cooked. They fell off the bone. I smoked them for about 4 hours or so. Then I put my mom's famous sauce on them and let that cook for a little while longer. Since I had plenty of room and plenty of heat, the sauce cooked perfectly. On my old small grill I ran into problems with the garlic not getting cooked enough during the basting. Or the sugar would burn a little because I had to transfer the ribs over to the fire box since that's where all the heat was. Well, with Bear, I don't have that problem anymore. The smoke chamber retains heat for pretty much ever.


I should probably mention that to even get Bear; I went through more than you'd think. Basically, if you're getting serious smokers you need to have them specially made. There are quite a few vendors out there and even manufacturers who'll be happy to make one for you...at a price. The problem with that is you never know how it is going to cook if they've never made one themselves. That is pretty much why I ended up going through Dave and Dana at Klose. They have a method to their madness that can't be beat. You may have seen them on the Travel Channel or the Food Network. There are plenty of places that can make you those HUGE catering rigs but there aren't many places that can make good backyard versions for the regular guy who doesn't do the competition circuit (maybe some day). And you can't honestly do any real serious cooking on those little versions from Home Depot. Those ones that are like 1/32" thick of steel may as well be a tailgating habachi. So when you're looking around and they are all either waaaaay too big or way too small; you know where to go.