Last week I bbq'ed two boneless pork butts and had great smoke penetration
and flavor 1/2"+ smoke ring. This week I did two more butts and had almost
no smoke ring and very little smoky flavor 1/8"- smoke ring.

They were treated the same with the same rub and handleing. The only
difference was that within the first hour of q'ing the second set of butts
the q'er temperature spiked well into the "to hot " range for a while.
After this temperature spike I kept it at lower temps for the rest of the
cooking time.


I use a modified ECB with the original thermometer and usualy try to keep
the temperature between "low" and "Ideal" and use only apricot wood as fuel.
The mods to the ecb are attatching the legs to the fire pan so the smoker
body lifts off the fire pan so you don't have to unload the entire unit if
you have to have top access to your fire.

I think this early temperature spike sealed the outer surface of the meat
preventing fuller smoke penetration. What do you think?

Dan