[RangerJurena]

I decided to try the ProQ out last weekend in Boulder City.

Loaded it with about 1/2 a bag of left over Kingsford and a full bag ( 16 lbs) of Stubbs Charcoal, a few chunks of Apple and  fired it up and opened all 4 vents roughly 8:30 PM.  It took until about 9:15 to get to 225 and loaded my pork butt.

Walked around and chatted with the crowd for awhile and kept coming back to check and after dropping down to roughly 190 when I loaded the meat it quickly settled back in around 225.

I will go on the record as saying, I pretty much badmouthed the thing all night.  I had done some trial runs at the house and it just seems like you need a huge amount of charcoal to get anything cooked on it and typically needed a reload.  Because I have never cooked a pork butt before moving here, I was fine with risking it to see if the ProQ was worth me sticking with.

Honestly, there is a difference in the construction of these and the WSM's that goes beyond the obvious stacker ability.  That is, they are not as well built overall, IMHO.

Wandered off to the local watering hole and returned to find it was holding steady at 225 and I was pleasantly surprised.  Loaded and started the UDS for Brisket and decided to check the fuel in the ProQ.  It was at a level where I was not comfortable with not reloading it, so I added another 16lb bag of Stubbs and a few more chunks of apple.  I then got about 4.5 hours of sleep.

At 0630 the ProQ was running at 250 again with all 4 vents wide open as I was slapping my ribs on.  Again, I was surprised that it was not running at a higher temp, but was happy that it had not gone out or anything.  When checking the fuel, it seem to have slowed down on consumption.

I did not need anymore fuel and had to get rid of about half a bag of coals into the ash can after we were done.

With regards to reload with fuel or meat. The functionality of the stackers is really a cool feature and if you take everything off down to the fire bowl and set it on the asphalt / concrete, the temperature gauge actually stays well over 175 while re loading the fuel.  And to switch meat levels, it barely drops below my desired temperature.

All in all, I was very pleased.  The pork butt was one of my best, which is not saying much and it did not score in the top 50%, but I was happy with it and that's all that counts to me.  The ribs were cooked, IMHO, just like I wanted them.

I still don't know how you could cook on it with the additional stacker, I think it would take forever to get to temp and burn through a bunch of fuel, but I'll probably try it at home again sometime.  Apparently the issues previously were more the operator than the cooker, go figure.

For now, I think the Pro Q and one UDS will be what I compete with.

Which means, I'm about to have at least one UDS for sale if anyone is interested.

[desertdog]

I can vouch for the "badmouthing all night" thing.  In all fairness to your pork butt, had it gone in the box and taken to the judges tent directly after pulling, you would have scored higher, you said that yourself.  Flavor was awesome and it had plenty of tasty bark.  It just lost moisture content, which, looking back we could have put back in, I think it was just because we did not want to alter the great flavor it had....

Your Brisket rocked, but ought to have, you're from Texas for cryin out loud!       The master at work....




I think you guys did a great job for your first KCBS event.  What's next?

[Mike (AZBarbeque)]

Great Review Wes, glad it did well for you out at Boulder.

As with any cooker, I think it takes a few cooks for you to become accustomed to how it works and how to operate it.  Sounds like the more you get the hang of it, the better the results.

Good luck with future cooks, I'm sure it won't be long before we see you hoisting up one of those "Big" trophies.. 

[Crashs Wife]

Good to hear the temp held fairly well for you Wes.  We first competed with our ProQ last Jan in Cali.  That thing held steady through wind and rain and just down right cold.  I only had to add approx. 3/4ths of a lite chimmney about 5 hours into the cook and that was the end of it.  We are still learning ourselves but are getting better each time.  Keep practicing and I am waiting for my Dinenr invite!!