Showerthought: my $30 kettle beat my $400 offset on ribs and I'm still mad about it
Fired up both cookers in the backyard in Amarillo on Saturday, ran the same spares side by side for 5 hours, and the cheap kettle turned out better bark and a cleaner smoke ring. The offset fought me all day, temp swings from 225 to 300, while the kettle just sat there humming along at 250 like it had a job to do. Has anyone else gotten shown up by their cheap backup cooker, or is my fire management just that bad on the stick burner?
Sounds more like operator error than the offset being bad, honestly. Stick burners need small hot fires and constant attention, not the set it and forget it thing a kettle gives you. Give that offset six months of practice and the kettle won't even be close on ribs.