TXAGFAN said:

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Who makes just one pork butt.

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Really? I'm feeding four adults and two 3-4 year olds. 10.8lbs of meat seems like plenty. Several times over. Plus left overs.

What am I missing?

It's a joke. I tend to fill my egg. Pork reheats beautifully and with a vac sealer it makes for a great meal a week or two later.

160? I pull mine at 195 and the lest rest for at least 90 mins. Can't imagine it would be tender/done at 160.

Pork butt on the smoker is the most monkey proof forgiving meat there! It is a great beginner meat. When the meat has shrunk up on the bone about 3/8 of a inch or so no matter what temp, I wrap an pour about 6 Oz of sunny D or apple juice in the foil with it at that time u can keep it on the smoker or transfer to the oven at a higher temp to speed things up

Can you talk more about this? I just happened upon a vertical smoker and have never personally used one, but would like to see what it can do.

Is there a preferred hook method on pork?

what's the best way to set up the fuel at the bottom?

Yeah let me get off the pooper so I can type something up without my legs falling asleep.

Alright. I've got a Brinkmann trail master vertical. It ain't fancy, but it does the job. Inside, it is 3 grills above the water pan, and 3 meat hooks hanging from the top.

It is a charcoal smoker, so I usually fill the bowl up with kingsford, and add a couple wood chunks of whatever...usually apple or hickory.

Anyways, I don't use the hooks for anything but links. For a pork butt, well, and brisket, I put it on the top grill to get it as far away from the heat source as I can. One probe in the meat, one on the grill to show air temp at the same location the meat sits.

When I load up the bowl with appx 5 lbs of charcoal, I can get it to hold temp for about 5 hours so long as I'm not opening the door too often. But, I smoke butts at 325, which means bottom vent wide open. I leave the water pan in to catch drippings (to prevent flare up) as well as a heat shield. I don't add liquid to it for pork butts...they have plenty of moisture on their own. Brisket is another story though.

So, at 325 and a medium size butt, I usually have to add fuel once.

Once internal temp gets north of 190ish, I check the bone. If it is ready to pull right out, it's done. If not, let it sit. Some butts are done at this temp, some have gone to IT of 200+ before they are ready.

Am I missing anything?

Thank you for this summary! Should be a big help.

You don't wrap and put any liquid in there? That's the only thing I can see you might be missing.

Well, after I determine it is done, I put it in a baking pan, cover with foil, put it in the oven, and let it rest at least an hour. Our oven has a "warm" setting which is about 140 degrees, so that is what I use.

But no, no additional liquid, no wrapping tightly, none of that.

Cool. Only responded because you asked if something was missing and that was only thing I can think of. Seems like everyone cooks these differently and it's hard to mess them up. I am on the team that injects the hell out of it the night before and puts dry rub on, then cooks until it gets enough smoke (post oak at 250), adds it to a foil pan with some additional injection (or apple juice), wraps and cooks until 195. I then pull and let rest for 1-2 hours. Then I pull and rehydrate with all the juices and it's pretty tasty. Don't pull too early however or the fats will start to congeal before everyone has eaten.

My "pork butt turned out great, and easy just like TexAgs OB says. I lit the egg at about midnight. Fetched my roast which turned out to be a picnic shoulder instead of a boston butt...... same difference.

Got up at 4:00 am and wrapped it in foil. Temp of pit was about 275.

Got back from church about 9:15 and pit had risen to just over 300, and meat was 204 !

I thought that might be overdone, but placed it in ice chest until party time at 1:30 and it was perfect, still juicy and very tender.