Pork Butt on the Old Country Gravity Fed Smoker 

I’ve had a gravity fed smoker for about 7 years. Absolutely love it. I’m not a competition guy - just a backyard guy that really enjoys cooking and eating. Here’s my observations for anyone considering a gravity fed: 1. I only use lump charcoal. I’ve never had a problem with it feeding down the chute. 2. I put wood chunks below the fire grate vs mixing it in with the charcoal in the chute. My wife is highly allergic to hickory. She loves the taste, but it always messes with her breathing and digestion. As it was explained to me by the manufacturer, putting the wood below the fire grate draws the smoke up through the fire before putting it into the smoke chamber. This burns off the particulate matter in the smoke, which results in a “clean” smoke. The flavor is better, and more importantly, my wife has absolutely no problems with the bbq. 3. These are very efficient. I fill my chute all the way to the top for every cook. I use a propane torch to start the fire. My only complaint is it can take a long lime to get the chamber up to temp. A few years ago, we moved on top of a windy ridge in the country where the wind direction changes frequently. If I’m not careful, I can end up with a backdraft that’s actually lowers the cooking temp. So I recently invested in a temp control fan and it really helped dial in the exact temp I want. However, I will say, when we lived in the city, I didn’t need that at all - once I got the temp set, it stayed rock solid. 4. You can load this thing down, but my experience didn’t turn out that well, so I avoid using all the grates. I’ll usually only use 2 of the 5 racks, which is still a lot of meat. I’ve cooked 8 pork butts multiple times with no issue, done several (maybe 6) racks of ribs at once, and 2 full packer briskets at once. That’s just what I’m comfortable with, but it will definitely hold much more. Mine is a Rebel smoker. They’re not made anymore. I think the guy that built mine now runs “Assassin Smokers”. Ps. Using a temp control fan cut my fuel consumption by about half.

That's always the real test..."if they served this to me at a BBQ restaurant would I be happy?". If you can say yes you know everyone will love it no matter how critical you are of yourself. Another great video Jeremy.

Thanks for the clarification on foil vs butcher's paper.

What works well on long cooks with my Stumps gravity fed smoker is to add wood chunks along with the charcoal in the chute. For brisket I always use 50/50 Hickory and Cherry chunks. Thank you for another great video !!

Remember different wood will give it a darker color and taste... and meats only can obsorb so much smoke ....Love your shit man

When my dad was alive he became interested in BBQ due to my interest. He couldn't read so he was an EXCELLENT listener. One day he was cooking with me and I just jabbered on about how I did everything and how long this and that. A year or so later he was cooking some BBQ Butts to sell and I noticed they were wrapped. I asked him why he wrapped them because I had stopped do that. He said, "Son that foil that you showed me traps that smoke and juices inside and the last few hours I don't have to worry about anything burning and the butt gets cooked in those juices." Then after it was done he always let it "Air out" before his final wrap. I miss him and you should appreciate this time with your wife. I learned the miracle of resting because I often cooked things and took them off the smoker around 10pm. The next day they were still hot when it was time to serve.

I brought a Stump gravity feed it holds temp at the perfect even temp 10 hrs smoke pork butt. 👍

I’ve been real interested in getting one of these. Can’t wait to see the brisket cook so hopefully that will be sooner than later.

Another amazing banger! Keep up the great work and tutorials Jeremy.

Another great review! I'm a huge Old County Smoker Fan! I'd like to see how this operates and cleanup process if you could cover more of the smoker on the next one I'd appreciate it! Oh and I'm going to start scoring my fat cap, great tip!

If it's like a Stumps you should be able to easily restart it once full using a plumber's torch...Stumps don't design no junk ;)

Yes indeed thank you for that analysis!!

Thanks for being straight up👍 Looking very forward to the Brisket Cook!!! Tomorrow??? 😉

Awesome job, really like your style..........keep the videos coming.

Looks awesome. Great review of a great smoker. Wish I could get one and I’m glad they are selling them out. A guy over at trenkillbbq welded a basket on the bottom of the grate to put tumbleweeds to light the charcoal.

Great information. I’d like to see more cooks on the gravity feed.

Nice!! Here in Sudbury, Ontario Canada our season is just starting for smoking. Next week we get 25 c (77 f) temps so I think my first cook will be some ribs on the offset... Thanks for sharing your wisdom.... :-)

Took a year to find one. Now a year later it's been amazing. Fill chute of lump gets me 10 to 12 hours at 225, 8 hours at 275. Insulated double walks keep temp stable even on close windy days. Best grill I've owned. Skip the wax Firestarters, use a propane torch for 90 seconds and you're off to the races in 20 minutes. I only add wood to the bottom box, nothing in the chute.

Appreciate the honest review, managing the wood can be a challenge, maybe use a bigger piece of wood that will smoke longer? Looks DELICIOUS!

Good job Jeremy, thanks for sharing with us.Fred

Even though I don't have any intention of buying any more BBQ's right now it was entertaining and informational.

That looks good. My nephew just bought the old country gravity smoker and loves it. It was the last one in Missouri at Academy sports. Waiting for them to get some more in so i can get one. You have some great videos.

I love all the info on this cooker! Keep doing more. One question, since the whole thing is insulated, is it at all possible to use the firebox with wood only and skip the charcoal?

Excdllent video Jeremy and I love your honbesty on what you think on the final product. Keep up the great job!

Love that smoker dude!

Looks awesome!

Really nice job on the review 👌

Nice video man! I like this smoker. Maybe you could do a brisket cook on this smoker. That would be cool

7:42 😂 I like the comedy in your videos!

It looks delicious I want that cooker

Great video Jeremy

I would love to see a video on a barrel smoker.

Great video. I recently got a gravity fed cabinet smoker and I’m still getting used to the way it cooks. Crazy how well it holds heat and moisture. Very helpful video insight

Another killer video ! Would love to see a video about why to wrap a brisket in butcher paper would love to know why in a depth cheers

Great videos keep it up

Bro, watching your videos when I'm tipsy is always the worst decision. I'm so freaking hungry now.

I’m thinking about buying this smoker for days when I want set it and forget it

Great job Jeremy! SporklyBBQ

Hi , another great and incitefull cook, what thickness meterials are used in the smoke chamber , seems to be thicker the better with traditional smokers , is this the case with the gravity fed smoker

I am surprised and impressed with the smoke coming from the chimney. light and thin... not what I expected from smoldering charcoal and wood chunks. great video... how many shoulders can it fit in each rack?

With such a clean smoke you might consider keeping it unwrapped until you get the desired color, or not wrapping at all rather than adding more chunks. If the exterior isn't burning, and everything is moist without wrapping, unless you are in a rush to render the fat or finish the cook it may not be necessary. I know wrapping on an offset is very beneficial to prevent over smoking, but the gravity cooker seems to behave differently.

My daughters got me a gravity smoker for father day. I run the kingsford applewood in it and it does great. It’s not the same as my offset my old man & I built but it’s too easy not to use.

Always awesome videos!!! How can I get one of those smokers?? Academy is always out or if there is one that has, they don't ship. I'm in between that and the Masterbuilt 1050 and it is looking like the Masterbuilt is easier to acquirer. I'm really looking for a gravity fed to compliment my the rest of my soldiers!!!

Nice video Jeremy thanks for being honest as always now if I could just get that other smoker off you hahaha

Great video, it answered a lot of my questions! You talked about adding wood more often. I was wondering if instead of just 2 pieces at a time if were to add 4 pieces instead would that get the results you are looking for?

Im doing 2 racks of ribs tomoro one for me one for my parents and going to toss on asperagus near the end hope yall are staying safe man love smoked asperagus

Are you still going to do a brisket video on the production model of the OCGS? Looking forward to it.

have you looked at trend kill bbq site and seen where he is adding splits of wood to the charcoal chamber to get more smoke. love the video, and are torn between a brazos and gravity fed.

For some good smoke flavor and bark try adding a 4” length of a split into the ash pan. I cut lengths from my stack for my Lonestargrillz offset and they work perfect and last for hours.

Great video, I can’t find these online anywhere. Would love to get one..

Good cook man.I like the information. Did you run a water pan with this cook?

I've been looking at getting a gravity fed smoker. What's the capacity of this thing? How many pork butts or briskets do you think it would hold?

You should do a review on the masterbuilt gravity smokers. I have one and really like it but not sure how it stacks up to your other smokers.

Appreciate the not perfect cook video. Helps people learn.

Looks great, you said nine hours. I found that if you can finish around 208’ in 6 1/2 to 7 hours the meat is much juicier so yes you’re right use more wood. Great show and thanks for sharing this video. See you next time.

I don’t know about your barbecue but mine I have the master built and I put two or three chunks every 6 inches of charcoal right in the burner and it works really well

Really like your videos, and I have two questions, 1. Did you mop the Butt for additional moisture? 2. I assume when it comes to wrapping you can put the Butt in a aluminum pan with aluminum foil covering the top?

That's a very nice smoker

Witch one do you like better this gravity feed or the smokehouse?

I have the same smoker but cannot get it up past 225* fully open. Any ideas what would be the cause of this?

If most of the smoke gets into the meat when it's below 145, seems like making a small starter fire with your wood chunks before starting the cooker and placing the charred smoldering chunks in the bottom to start with would help smoke flavor.

do you know someone at academy? is this old country smoker no longer in production? im having allot of trouble finding one im out of state from the closest store

I'd like to see updates on this smoker. I'm about to pull the plug on it.

Chipotle? You just dropped a couple notches 🤣

What is the advantage of this over a good offset? If you are adding wood every 20 minutes that’s more frequent than I add a split - every hour or so.

Jeremy what gravity fed smoker do recommend???

So old country is not maken these so what one do you recommend since we cant get this one

Ok I have a noob question. If your fire is at the bottom of the chute how does the entire chute full of charcoal not ignite and burn?

My theory with this smoker is that you are a bit overly cautious with your use of wood in this smoker. Because of the placement of the firebox being under the charcoal chamber and the opening to the cook chamber being through charcoal chamber, wood smoke must go through the lit coals in order to get to the cook chamber. By going through those lit coals, many of the impurities in the smoke will be burned off thus creating very clean smoke. I could be wrong but that's my theory...

I was looking up this smoker. Can't find it anywhere. Did they discontinue it already?

Hi, seems like gravity smokers are designed to smoke with less air flow, I am wondering if having less air flow would be more limiting when trying to get clean blue smoke.

Nice cook, Jeremy! Love the honesty. I have a thought about obtaining better color/bark. Cooking at a lower temp would give you more exposure time before the stall and wrap. Or don’t wrap at all, as another commenter said. I usually do not wrap butts, have never had a problem with moisture levels, and always get fantastic bark. Given your results at 300, I think the OC would do a great job on an unwrapped butt.

Adding wood every 15 minutes? Thanks for the info! An offset doesn't need that much attention.

Its depends on the person but that looks perfect!

what state is this shot in that backround is beautiful

I still have no clue where to get one. I can't find an old country website and I don't see them on Academy's website either

If that's a 4 inch stem on your temp gauge, where did you get it?

what's the capacity on this bad boy? I've started catering weekends and after dealing with 2 18" wsms fluctuating temps all night I've had it.

I am new to smoking meats and I have cooked some food that has that bad smoke flavor. How do you keep the “good smoke” when your continuously adding wood through out the cook. I thought when you first add wood to your fire, that is when you get the bad smoke flavor until that wood burns for a while and then starts making good smoke.

LOL! "Just let me confirm." Did you use a water pan?

Your powers are growing

Can you make a video of the difference between hot smokes and the other

Have you cooked a brisket on that particular cooker yet?

Can you do a side by side cook of the same meat on the gravity fed smoker and stick burner for a flavor, tenderness, juiciness comparison?

Do you still have this smoker? I have not seen you use this in quite some time.

I tend to see everyone only use the middle shelf to cook. Does the temp not maintain a pretty even temp on all three levels?

sorry if I missed this somewhere...is this still a prototype you're testing? I like the size of this one over the size of the other gravity fed (from them) you reviewed...it would be too large for my needs, but this one looks more in my ball park...what's the price range on this size? 1000-1500? 500-1000? also, where do you get one like you're reviewing...google just keeps showing me everyone that sells all the 'other' old country smokers...not the gravity fed...and for whatever reason these folks don't seem to have their own website? what's up with that?

I'm looking forward to the Old Country darker bark pork butt redemption video.

Thank you for your videos. I am looking at this smoker because I have been cooking for my church and the homeless lately and need a larger capacity. Doe you think this would feed 150 - 200 people a mix of different meats? I usually cook my briskets overnight, so I don't want a stick smoker that I have to babysit all night.

I can’t find one of these smokers anywhere for sale

Can't find this model anywhere, any suggestions?

So, if you add more wood every 15 minutes you are back to standing around tending your fire.

Do they still make these? Can’t find one anywhere.

What if you use B&B lump charcoal? B&B is more similar size.

I would like to know if this Old Country gravity fed bbq is available for purchase. I can’t find it anywhere online. Please help if you can. I’m very interested in size, construction, and method of cooking. Thank you.

I have two questions for you. What type of smoker renders fat the best? And could you do a video on country style ribs maybe include cutting a pork butt into country style ribs also I've been told you're supposed to trim some gland off of a pork butt any clarification on that? Thanks for all the great videos!

@madscientistbbq Had an assassin gravity. Very nice quality cooker. I could not over-smoke even when I tried. Assuming the design is exactly the same, my thoughts are that the smoke comes back through the bed of coals before entering the cook chamber and that causes full combustion, imparting very little but clean smoke flavor. Is it possible that full combustion can be achieved by having the smoke pass through the bed of coals? In fact I would bet some of the flavor you're tasting is from briquettes igniting. When switching to lump I had almost no smoke flavor. My favorite ended up being royal oak chef select briquettes for fuel and adding small logs (about size of 2 to 3 fist size chunks) every 15 to 30 minutes until the meat was at 140°+ internal temp. Still couldn't over-smoke.

Where can I find this smoker to buy?

Hi Jeremy, really enjoy your videos. Quick question family reunion coming up; I would like to bring pork butt. Only it needs to be cooked 3 days early. Any suggestions would be appreciated.thx

Do you know if this smoker is available in California?