I am strongly considering making something similar to this: My parent's place (where I grew up) was built on an old brick factory that closed in the 20's, so I have access to all the brick I'm willing to go out and salvage. It would be nice to have a little piece of "home" in the backyard too. Believe it or not, some of the best clay in the world can be found right up the road from me. The towns mentioned here are my old stomping grounds: I want something I can cold smoke and hot smoke in. Seems to me that the extra thermal mass would make cold smoking easier to do, and once heated up it would be easy to get a good consistent temperature for hot smoking. Any thoughts?
My neighbors have one made of block that they use for bologna, sausage and such. It works well but can be a pain in the azz to get to the back of it the way they have it built. I would say build it slightly larger than you think you need as well. A little extra room should not hurt and it will give you more space to keep hanging foods from touching.
YES!!! This type of tall smoker is on my "someday" list. Tandoor ovens are built on the same concept. (Check those out too) I stumbled on mass/clay cooking while building little brick rocket stoves. I noticed how hot and even the temps of the riser's clay bricks stayed once heated up. I took the riser and built a short little brick box that was uninsulated. Yes, it worked. I smoked country style ribs in it. I usually only need to add additional hot coals in once during a 4-5 hr period. The best part is the way the brick holds temps steadily...it is sick! My first, kinda cheesy but it is an example of how clay holds heat: . Also check out the old school style Texas bbq's. Those are all brick too, though usually horizontal.
I would also think you could add slots and a slider in the bottom door to regulate your heat. IMHO i would stay away from using the baking pan to hold the charcoal and water. I know they are meant for heat but I hate non stick chemical stuff. You could probably find or make something from regular steel.
I built mine in my kitchen a few weeks ago Luke. I freaking love the thing! A good smoker is a necessity, so I say, build it man!
Instead of building a metal rack to hold the grates up I will probably turn some bricks sideways to "stick out" on the inside and make a little lip to hold them. I don't know if I should have a separate firebox or not. I thought about setting on off to the side with a piece of square tile leading into the rack chamber, then an exhaust port on the rear top. Something like this (not to scale)...then I could regulate temp/flow with the door on the firebox...hmm.
If you could find an old smoke dragon that would make a cool firebox. I tried to get an old fisher off my FIL to build a smoker with an oil tank and the fisher offset. He would not come off of it so it sits and rust some more.
I kind of like his idea of a metal rack. That way there is more flexibility in making adjustments. The rack can always be altered while the bricks can't. A perk to bricks is you can build a couple styles without mortar to test them out before you decide what you like best. P.S. I am so excited that you posted that video. I've bookmarked it.
I love this idea!! I would want better control over the air intake, so that design would differ greatLy from his. Gaskets on the doors would also help regulate the temp. Thanks Lukem!!
I think that is how my neighbors is set up. They can use racks or when smoking sausage they wire longer rebar to whats sticking out.
Sweet thread going here. I was just thinking of a spin wheel draft like on the Jotul 602's or Weber grills. That mass of brick should help keep the temps regulated. I like the offset firebox too. Lots of good ideas. No turning back now. You got some hooked watchers going here.Oh, and
Yea if he could get a smoke dragon door he'd be set with the spin wheels. Great now I gotta try to get that old fisher off the FIL again. Like I need another project in this head of mine.
A Jotul 602 could be a ready to go smoker box vented right into the brick structure. I do like the smoke dragon door too.
Luke, I did bricks offset for rack rails in my first build of mine, which was a test bed I built in my shop before moving forward with the house build. I liked the bricks as racks, but the elevations didn't work out for the inside build so I used masonry fasteners as rack shelf supports. Either way is fine, but I liked the aesthetic of the offset bricks. It made a nice detail reveal on the outside of the build as well. Here's a pic during the build, excuse the slop, I was rushing to get it on fire and knew it was going to be disassembled soon....
lukem- this is great, like several others I will be following along, learning too. & to beat all, NW Walker & Daryl are some brick and mortar(homemade refractory,too) maniacs! Great skill and experience coming our way. Love it!
I'm going to need all the help I can get. Going to have to walk the brickyard soon and see what kind of cool tile I can find.
