Pork Brisket from the weekend. Hog was raised at Autumn Olive Farms in VA and I went to a whole hog butchery class at the local butcher and picked it up. It was really good!
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Oh man that looks great, and what a fun opportunity to go and learn !!
Very interesting and mouth watering. I use our sous vide regularly and we usually prepare the meat and flavourings all sealed, then frozen for when we plan to use. Also have a locally made cold smoker, Smokai, which use an aquarium air pump to blow the smoke into the chamber. Great for all cold smoking - cheese, fish, before drying meat etc. It can also be used topumpsmoke for hot smoking.
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I did a big bbq for a close family’s event.
2 briskets
8 shoulders was 110lbs of meat on my home made smoker. It turned out great the brisket evaporated and I fed a lot of ppl.
I marinated 3 shoulders in Dr Pepper and jalapeños
2 in A&W root beer
And the other 3 from my buddies local orchard apple juice it was pink ladies.
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OK, story time about a Weber customer support expérience …
Long story short: they’re top notch 
For the less impatients here’s the long version…
For the past 1 and.a half year, I’ve been owning a Weber Smokefire EX4
While it looks sleek and the app is great, I kept having trouble with it…
Two out of three cooking would end up with a blown out flame after an hour or so, and the barbecue not even noticing this…
I’ve been strugling with this for a long time but never got around contacting support because reasons…
Up until last week when I tried a 10 hours pulled pork, where it just shut down 5 times in a row in just the first 4 hours
I decided it was time to:
A. Finish the pulled pork in the oven
B. Contact Weber’s support… It was way overdue and the warranty would expire in 2 months anyway, so…
First few mails didn’t go too well, standard gibberish about what kind of pellets I used, where I stored them, and how I cleaned the barbecue…
Also, apparently, using another brand of pellets could totally destroy my barbecue
Please note that Weber pellets must always be used
Traeger pellets damage and interfere with the proper functioning of Weber barbecues due to their differences in weight and size.
Then some more requests with photos of various parts of the barbecue…
Looked like they didn’t take it too seriously
Up until the point I sent them this picture
This … is the picture of the spark plug, stuck in its holder by burnt/melted residues…
And once again the barbecue didn’t even trigger an alarm at any point…
The next mail they sent was on a totally different tone
Following the significant problems you are experiencing with your barbecue, our service has decided to replace your barbecue.
Firstly, you should destroy your defective barbecue and take it to the recycling center, first taking care to recover the parts that could be used as spare parts.
Please protect your hands, eyes and forearms during the procedure.
Please also remove the serial number, as there is no way anyone else will be able to use it again.
So… I guess this is farewell then… 
While I’m not too happy about throwing away a whole barbecue, or the way the exchange started with Weber support, I must say they really took action in the end…
It’s great to see a brand clearly saying “ok, this may be dangerous, stop using it we’ll just send a new one”
I don’t know many brands capable of such a move…
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They all get so many false claims by people just wanting something for free that I think it’s hard for them to take anything seriously in the beginning. But looks like it was good on you to stick with it and get a good resolve in the end! Congratulations on the new grill! Did they make you provide proof you destroyed the old one?
I’m yet to take it to the dump but yes they do require pictures of the destroyed/disposed of machine (although I really don’t see how I can really “destroy” it)
They’ll also require an official statement from me, and the serial number is being blacklisted, if it ever pop up at any point in the future, I’ll be held accountable for this
Part of why I’m taking the electronics apart tbh
Edit : still makes me feel kinda bad 
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Weber customer support in Germany is incredibly bad. I bought a Pizza Oven for my Weber (not just a stone, that oven thingy), which is great, but when the stone broke due to heat (don’t ask me why) and I went to Hornbach to replace it, they couldn’t reach Weber, they just hat the Customer Support number, not even an extra Store hotline. After like, 2 hours they just gave me a new stone. Hornbach swapped, because of many of those things, to Tenneker. Don’t know whether they are any better, but was fun to see.
I am glad for you that they can actually be helpful though.
The availability of parts and accessories, even consumables here in France is very bad too
I even mentioned this when they said Traeger pellets are “bad”: finding Weber pellets is impossible, almost no stock in any big store in summer, and don’t even think about finding some in winter…
Traeger ones on the other hand are in stock throughout the year…
Even “briquettes” (compressed charcoal ) is impossible to find in winter… (which is a bit more understandable though)
I’ve been strugling to find a spare grill too at some point… Had to buy it from a “Lost/out of business stock” reseller
I scored a very good deal on this one though
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I would have yanked out the auger and the control board as well as the LCD and any control knobs.
The LCD failed on my pitboss after a few years of being outside. The pit still worked, but you could no longer read the LCD to see what it was doing. Texas heat seems to kill LCD screens. The LCD on my chicken coop door timer failed also. It’s replacement is sitting on the counter waiting for me to go install it.
Auger motors are also a wear item it seems for some people.
shhhh, don’t ask! I absolutely totally and certainly destroyed the auger motor and fan, for sure!
The controller I couldn’t save, because it has the serial programmed in it 
And I’m not sure I’m willing to unsolder the LCD screen by itself, seems like a lot of trouble for an unguaranteed result
It isn’t flashable?
From the email, it sounds like they recommended you take any useful parts off of the existing smoker:
Well that was good of them to come through in the end.
I hate it when things don’t go as planned. Iirc I though Webber products have a lifetime warranty. At least that what they sold me on for my natural gas grill.
Today I had a special deliver…
Not the old red man, but it’s pretty much the same
Quick burn-in to check if everything’s fine (yes that’s 600°F)
And while it’s hot, why not clean and oil the cast iron grills ?
Again, top level customer service from Weber here.
They just replaced the faulty 1500$ barbecue, almost no qestion asked, delivered to my door in just a week
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Huh, rib rub for ribs you say? Who’da thought? 
Don’t let the name fool you… I put it on my pulled pork too.
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Did another pig in my home made smoker for the Portuguese Canadian club my wife and I volunteer at. Started at 4 am I should have done 3 am lol was a hour late. We fed about 200 ppl that day was a great time.
Have to attach the pics in a bit
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