Weber Smokey Mountain 22"

About This Product

I need to tell you something about the Weber Smokey Mountain that might save you a lot of money: competition BBQ teams have won the biggest prizes in the country cooking on this $499 smoker. Not $5,000 custom-built stick burners. Not $3,000 ceramic kamados. A $499 steel bullet smoker that you can buy on Amazon. That fact alone tells you everything you need to know about the WSM. It's a great smoker because of the design, not because of price. The bullet shape creates a convection current that moves heat and smoke continuously around and over the food. The water pan below the cooking grates moderates the temperature so precisely that a well-managed WSM will hold 225°F for 12+ hours on a single load of charcoal using the Minion Method. Here's the honest part: there IS a learning curve. Brisket number one will probably take 2 hours longer than planned. You'll overshoot 275°F at least once. You'll leave a vent too open and burn through your charcoal in 6 hours instead of 12. These are all lessons you'll learn, remember, and never repeat. By cook five or six, you'll be holding steady temps like a pro. The biggest frustration for beginners: refueling requires disassembling the middle section. It's not hard, but it's annoying at 3am. The Minion Method largely eliminates this by loading unlit charcoal under lit coals at the start — it's worth learning before your first long cook.