Hi all,

First post to this group for a while, but I've got a question.

I've been using whisky cask staves to produce my "smoke" over recent months.
I have been soaking them in water for an hour or two and double wrapping
them in strong foil with small pin holes. The problem is that after about an
hour of smoking the stave ignites. I've not had any mishaps as yet as I can
pull the wrapped stave out the smoker and toss it.

I have been using 4" x 4" lengths of stave. Is this where the problem lies?
Are the pieces to big or is it the whisky igniting the wood?

Any advice is welcomed.

Graeme

On Wed, 21 Apr 2004 18:39:37 +0100, "Graeme... in London"
wrote:

Hi all,

First post to this group for a while, but I've got a question.

I've been using whisky cask staves to produce my "smoke" over recent months.
I have been soaking them in water for an hour or two and double wrapping
them in strong foil with small pin holes. The problem is that after about an
hour of smoking the stave ignites. I've not had any mishaps as yet as I can
pull the wrapped stave out the smoker and toss it.

I don't see the problem here.

--
Kevin S. Wilson
Tech Writer at a University Somewhere in Idaho
"Anything, when cooked in large enough batches, will be vile."
--Dag Right-square-bracket-gren, in alt.religion.kibology

Graeme... in London wrote:
Hi all,

First post to this group for a while, but I've got a question.

I've been using whisky cask staves to produce my "smoke" over recent
months. I have been soaking them in water for an hour or two and
double wrapping them in strong foil with small pin holes. The problem
is that after about an hour of smoking the stave ignites. I've not
had any mishaps as yet as I can pull the wrapped stave out the smoker
and toss it.

I have been using 4" x 4" lengths of stave. Is this where the problem
lies? Are the pieces to big or is it the whisky igniting the wood?

Any advice is welcomed.

Graeme

I suspect so, cut the diameter in half and they won't be able to dry out as
long to ignite. I think your right. Hell get a saw and try it, wont hurt
nothing. Most of the recommendations for foil wrapping is usually for wood
shavings, not chunks, usually. Soaking longer won't hurt any either IMO,
some differ on that, I liked the results of 24 hours(even more too, keep em
in the water for weeks), others might disagree. Don't use chunks anymore
though, like the plain oak lump I use.

Why is fire a problem BTW? ???

--

In article , "Graeme... in London"
wrote:

Hi all,

First post to this group for a while, but I've got a question.

I've been using whisky cask staves to produce my "smoke" over recent months.
I have been soaking them in water for an hour or two and double wrapping
them in strong foil with small pin holes. The problem is that after about an
hour of smoking the stave ignites. I've not had any mishaps as yet as I can
pull the wrapped stave out the smoker and toss it.

I have been using 4" x 4" lengths of stave. Is this where the problem lies?
Are the pieces to big or is it the whisky igniting the wood?


G-
Dont soak the wood and do a double wrap of foil on the pieces. The
foil needs to be tight and most of all needs to cover the top of the
wood. The top of the piece is where any flame will appear. Pinholes
won't really matter too much, you can't wrap a piece so snug that it
won't burn-at least I've never managed to do that.

monroe(more and better foil)

"Monroe, of course..." wrote in message
...
In article , "Graeme... in London"
wrote:

Hi all,

First post to this group for a while, but I've got a question.

I've been using whisky cask staves to produce my "smoke" over recent
months.
I have been soaking them in water for an hour or two and double wrapping
them in strong foil with small pin holes. The problem is that after
about an
hour of smoking the stave ignites. I've not had any mishaps as yet as I
can
pull the wrapped stave out the smoker and toss it.

I have been using 4" x 4" lengths of stave. Is this where the problem
lies?
Are the pieces to big or is it the whisky igniting the wood?


G-
Dont soak the wood and do a double wrap of foil on the pieces. The
foil needs to be tight and most of all needs to cover the top of the
wood. The top of the piece is where any flame will appear. Pinholes
won't really matter too much, you can't wrap a piece so snug that it
won't burn-at least I've never managed to do that.

monroe(more and better foil)

Yowsa, yowsa, what Monroe said. At least a double wrap of heavy-duty foil
and even that eventually burns through in my Kamado lump basket, but it's
given up its smoke by then, so it doesn't matter. No soaking. Soaking
doesn't do anything good, it just makes steam and leaches flavor out of the
wood. Chips are a waste of time and money. Chunks are what do the job.

Jack Curry
-Opinionated on this-

"Monroe, of course..." wrote in message g...
In article , "Graeme... in London"
wrote:

Hi all,

First post to this group for a while, but I've got a question.

I've been using whisky cask staves to produce my "smoke" over recent months.
I have been soaking them in water for an hour or two and double wrapping
them in strong foil with small pin holes. The problem is that after about an
hour of smoking the stave ignites. I've not had any mishaps as yet as I can
pull the wrapped stave out the smoker and toss it.

I have been using 4" x 4" lengths of stave. Is this where the problem lies?
Are the pieces to big or is it the whisky igniting the wood?


G-
Dont soak the wood and do a double wrap of foil on the pieces. The
foil needs to be tight and most of all needs to cover the top of the
wood. The top of the piece is where any flame will appear. Pinholes
won't really matter too much, you can't wrap a piece so snug that it
won't burn-at least I've never managed to do that.

monroe(more and better foil)

Another thing you might try is to close the vent for a couple minutes.
Closing the vent reduces the amount of oxygen getting to the fire, and
in effect reduces the heat a bit in your smoker. After an hour in the
fire those staves are going to be really dry anyway.

I like to use a combination of woods for smoking, and usually all I
can get is chips. What I do is dump a pound or so into a bucket, and
add water to cover. I found that I can just dump the wet chips onto
the charcoal...IF you aren't dragging water into the firebox. What
that gives me is about 40 minutes of smoking time per charge. I let it
go another 15 minutes or so to let the temp rebound a little, then
check the meat. If I get a bit of fire in the box, no matter, I douse
it with a spray of water or beer.

On 21-Apr-2004, "Graeme... in London"
wrote:

've been using whisky cask staves to produce my "smoke" over recent
months. I have been soaking them in water for an hour or two and double
wrapping
them in strong foil with small pin holes. The problem is that after about
an
hour of smoking the stave ignites. I've not had any mishaps as yet as I
can pull the wrapped stave out the smoker and toss it.

I have been using 4" x 4" lengths of stave. Is this where the problem
lies? Are the pieces to big or is it the whisky igniting the wood?

Graeme, as written, your experience with double wrapped wood is a
mystery. I've read the rest of this thread and I don't disagree with Monroe
or Jack, but I don't understand how a piece of wood can ignite in the
absense of oxygen. When I double wrap a few pieces of wood in
Reynolds aluminum foil and throw them on top of burning lump, I
usually end up with lump charcoal inside the foil. In one or two cases
the foil burned through because I let the fire get way to hot. In those
cases the wood burned to ash as expected. Some folk have put
chunks in a metal container in place of the water pan. In that case
the chunk container would not be in direct contact with the hot coals
and less likely to burn through.
--
M&M ("When You're Over The Hill You Pick Up Speed")

"M&M" wrote in message
...

On 21-Apr-2004, "Graeme... in London"
wrote:

've been using whisky cask staves to produce my "smoke" over recent
months. I have been soaking them in water for an hour or two and double
wrapping
them in strong foil with small pin holes. The problem is that after
about
an
hour of smoking the stave ignites. I've not had any mishaps as yet as I
can pull the wrapped stave out the smoker and toss it.

I have been using 4" x 4" lengths of stave. Is this where the problem
lies? Are the pieces to big or is it the whisky igniting the wood?

Graeme, as written, your experience with double wrapped wood is a
mystery. I've read the rest of this thread and I don't disagree with
Monroe
or Jack, but I don't understand how a piece of wood can ignite in the
absense of oxygen. When I double wrap a few pieces of wood in
Reynolds aluminum foil and throw them on top of burning lump, I
usually end up with lump charcoal inside the foil. In one or two cases
the foil burned through because I let the fire get way to hot. In those
cases the wood burned to ash as expected. Some folk have put
chunks in a metal container in place of the water pan. In that case
the chunk container would not be in direct contact with the hot coals
and less likely to burn through.
--
M&M ("When You're Over The Hill You Pick Up Speed")

Thanks for the replies,

Upon checking, I think my foil is probably of a sub-standard quality. I
think it is burning through too quickly. I still think that the presence of
the whisky has a part to play as I've wrapped lengths of oak and pear in the
same foil and never had a problem. I am really wary when it does flare as
the flames are sizeable, and the inside of my (bullet) smokers aren't as
clean as they could be!

I'll try a different, higher grade foil, dry stave and half size pieces and
report the findings.

Graeme

On 22-Apr-2004, "Graeme... in London"
wrote:
snip
I still think that the presence of
the whisky has a part to play as I've wrapped lengths of oak and pear in
the same foil and never had a problem.

You might have identified the problem on your own and just didn't
recognize it yet. IIRC alcohol is AL/CO. That last part under heat
will liberate and supply oxygen to the wood. Anybody else feel free
to weigh in here. It's been awhile since I was exposed to chemistry.
My last chemistry exercise was to substitute sugar for charcoal
in gunpowder. Charcoal is pretty much just C, but sugar is
C12/H22/O11. Makes great firecrackers if you remember what else
to put in it. (Ah, the good old days when a 10 year old could walk
into the corner drugstore and buy the components for black powder.)
--
M&M ("When You're Over The Hill You Pick Up Speed")

"Graeme... in London" wrote in message
...
I've been using whisky cask staves to produce my "smoke" over recent
months.
I have been soaking them in water for an hour or two and double wrapping
them in strong foil with small pin holes. The problem is that after about
an
hour of smoking the stave ignites.

No point to soaking. The soaking only marginally postpones the from smoking
and later igniting. Furthermore the soaking only barely penetrates the
surface. If you don't believe me soak some wood overnight then saw a couple
pieces in half to look.

Incedentally when I use foil wood chip logs on my gas grill they sometimes
ignite. The cause seems to be too many or too large of pin holes allowing
exchange of gasses.

On Thu, 22 Apr 2004 22:56:46 GMT, "M&M"
wrote:


On 22-Apr-2004, "Graeme... in London"
wrote:
snip
I still think that the presence of
the whisky has a part to play as I've wrapped lengths of oak and pear in
the same foil and never had a problem.

You might have identified the problem on your own and just didn't
recognize it yet. IIRC alcohol is AL/CO. That last part under heat
will liberate and supply oxygen to the wood. Anybody else feel free
to weigh in here. It's been awhile since I was exposed to chemistry.
My last chemistry exercise was to substitute sugar for charcoal
in gunpowder. Charcoal is pretty much just C, but sugar is
C12/H22/O11. Makes great firecrackers if you remember what else
to put in it. (Ah, the good old days when a 10 year old could walk
into the corner drugstore and buy the components for black powder.)

I would think that by the time anyone gets ahold of barrel staves for
use in a BBQ, the alcohol would be long gone.

--
Bill Funk
replace "g" with "a"