Here's how I got an EPIC smoke ring on the Lonestar Grillz IVS. 

Thanks Paulie. I'm getting this beast dialed in still, she's getting real close. I'm really happy with the way it all turned out. Those bricks are great. Keeps the coals all lined up and neat. I picked up a couple boxes on Amazon and use them for all sorts of stuff.

It was chopped up anyway, damn shame because it was kinda pretty. Good to see you Mike.

@@evilTexanBBQ I'd ate it!!

Definitely interesting in your experience! I've been watching IVS videos for a while now and sometimes it works out and sometimes it doesn't. I hope this gets us toward a definitive answer.

Honestly the offset is funner. You want to have some beers with the neighbors and get the smoker going the offset is way better for that. However, you want to do some work this beast is the machine for you. I watched a guy a couple days ago put in two batches of 24 pork shoulders in one, at 10lbs each that's 480lbs of meat cooked in a day. Pretty impressive. It's always produced good quality but I never was getting that good quality look so this is really a huge breakthrough for me. Now I need to replicate it! LOL

@@evilTexanBBQ I have the mini and I agree. When people compliment me I just say "Look, it's pretty simple. I put salt and pepper on good beef, stick it in that thing and wait." I do try to use a mix of small and large chunks of wood, which seems to help. I get decent smoke ring which isn't important, and the smoke flavor is as strong as I'd want to go.

@@zacharysmith7872 I've got some mesquite here so if I want heavy smoke, like on a pork shoulder, I'll use that. I've been using 1 post oak and 1 mesquite mostly but I'm finding two post oaks are putting me right where I want to be with beef.

Right on Tom, got you as well! Love me some keto!

I'm real close Craig, give me a month and I'll have it nailed down. I know you've got an IVS also so hopefully this makes us all a little bit better!`

Thank you, good sir! Man it's a good feeling when things come out great. They always come out good, but this was way better than expected.

Thank you ma'am. Really happy with the way this turned out. The real test is... can I do it again!

@@evilTexanBBQ 😂😂 YES YOU CAN! 👊🏼

This cabinet is known for not producing a ring because of the lack of convection. The BBQ is always great but people always focus on the ring... Myself included. When I travel and hit BBQ spots that's the first thing I look for and judge by, unintentionally. Being able to consistently show one on the cabinet here is a big deal to me.

@@evilTexanBBQ I agree…..most IVS users don’t use splits, they use chunks or just charcoal therefore no ring. Gotta have wood and moving air.

Welcome to the show! Trying to dial this beast in, getting closer all the time.

@@evilTexanBBQ looked great

Pretty good cook altogether, love it when that happens! I had about 20 people over so it was a good time to have a good cook. 😎

I'm a 250 guy, nice and slow.

Certainly you can help the process along by brining or chilling your meat, but you don't need to do that with an offset. Here we've got a pit with very low convection so the process is really stunted. When you look at people producing brisket out of these cabinets it's really obvious something's missing. The food's great, but that ring just isn't there. I've got a couple of things to work on to see what happened here, but I feel I'm on the right track. I just can't cook brisket every week, I can only eat so much LOL

Will......if You knew people had trouble with getting rings in this Pit, and the Ring is so important for you.....Why did you get it???. Maybe a Reverse Flow Vertical cabinet would have worked better for You? If You think there is a problem with the Convection in this cabinet, maybe start with eliminating the use of all those drip pans. Sure it makes for easy clean up.......but it's hindering the airflow. A few more tips that may help if you are interested. You gotta salt the meat a day or two before the cook. And Yes.......throw the meat on Cold. Put it in Cold as the pit is coming up to temp around 180 or 190 degrees. The chemical reaction that forms the ring happens early at these low temps. if the pit is hot and the meat is room temp......it's not gonna work. Oh........the smoke can't penetrate through a thick layer of fat.......so You take that as You may. If I'm Wrong about anything I've said......than All of My Rings have been Photoshopped for All these Years! 🤣 Much success to You My Friend.......You Can Do It! Metal On! \🔥/

​@@HeavyMetalBarBQue Well the most important thing was consistently producing a great product, and it does that very well. Having it look a little more traditional here is just a huge plus. It's pretty dang cool to be able to put out the same capacity as a 500 gallon in such a small footprint and have the flavor and look be nearly distinguishable. I've got some plans to keep iterating for the next few cooks and then it'll be time to do some side by side comparisons.