Designed and built DIY BBQ smoker for JCI grilling contest.

When it was 2015 I was the local president of JCI Kitee chamber and we were organising next years area conference #koliday . As a local president it was my priviledge to participate many events during that year and promote our upcoming event. One of those event were a yearly #aluedBBQ event organised by Kajaani chamber. Me I had not done any BBQ before, just grilling. I started to search what BBQ is from google and youtube and it become quite fast clear it ment slow cooking meat which usually is smoked one way or another. I did not have any team of cooker, but I knew I had to participate. Sensible guy would have bougth some small charcoal or gas grill and go that route, but that person didint seem to fit my plan to try to win the contest that year. For that I would have needed to go all in and give my all.

BBQ smoker grill setup

There are many type of smokers out there Gas smoker, Charcoal smoker, Offset smoker, Pellet smoker, Electric smoker, Kamado grills, Kettle Grills.

Biggest of those is usually the Offset type smoker grill so that was the type what I planned to go towards. In those there is again two main types. Reverse flow and Offset. I chose reverse flow setup as its more forgiving to user as the burn chamber is longer and it stores heat little bit better than the normal Offset smoker. I read that good quality offset grill can be known how thick the middle plate is. I selected 10mm thick plate just to be on the safe side.

On the US websites you could find many good calculators for the dimensions for the burn box and smoke pipe and channels inside the grils. Size target for me was that I could grill a whole small pig on one go. Trailer then again was needed to get the grill to the contest site. Burn box is 60x60x60cm in size and the smoke box 1250mm long as that comes standard sheet size. Basic material thickness was chosen to be 3mm as I was building grill for my own personal use. On top of the burn box is 10mm thick plate if you need to heat anything on like water in a pot etc. Final adjusting methods like adjusting the flows were left later in the design process. Bending and weldings of the sheets were done in few evening shifts and it was pretty hot summer then so I was wearing some summer clothes. Got some burned skin on my legs and hands so always wear proper safety gear.

Now I had never done smoking BBQ before, and there was difficulties to get the temperatures up and staying constant. You need to adjust the intake and exit air to get nice steady smoke and burn process. Thats where the skills experience plays vital role as you know when to add more wood and how much. On the contest the grilling time was limited to 2-3 hours or so the menu could not be slow and low BBQ cooking. So I needed something the was relatively easy and fast cooking wise. Beercan chicken recipe seemed like a perfect choice as from that you can make BBQ pulled chicken. Even on the first try the taste was great now just needed to pratice few times to limit the air flows to good levels and find good rhytm to add more wood. Rest of the menu came from JCI Joensuu members who joined me in the team or let me join their team whichever way it was.

Our menu

Starters: smoked reindeer soup with salvia bacon

Main: Smoked BBQ beercanchicken and veggies on top of a bread

Dessert: Chocolade mousse with flamed strawberries and self burned marshmellows

We were able to keep up to the tigth timelines for cooking even it was a challenging task for a team which had never cooked together and specially this demanding menu and all the food came out as planned so huge thanks to our great team. Everybody liked our food and we had great time at the event cooking and eating each others foods. In the end participants gave points to each dish they tried. We did good effort in the contest and came out second. Winner team had a real restaurant chef and they did fire grilled salmon for main course which many people seemed to like a lot. But in the end the whole event was about coming together and having a great summer day with your friends and that sure it was from start to finish.

After that event I have smoked few times some bigger portions of meat to my friends and the grill is always a nice add on to any event. What I learned that you should always try to design even the smaller pieces ready as it seems hard to find the time later to build the airvents, tables etc for better function.