Saturday, March 2, 2013

The Very Cool Barrel Smoker


Original Barrel, before project
Every once in a while I get the notion to make something or build something.  As we were a year or so out from our PCS from Italy to the states, I started wondering what cool stuff I could make from wine barrels.   At the time, we were able to get them for around $50 each.  Once some of the wineries caught on to us crazy Americans buying the wine barrels, they quickly went up to $100 each.  For a comparison, I have found wine barrels and whiskey barrels going for $125 in the states.  So, I thought it a good opportunity to pick some up before I departed our beloved Italy.  I have five right now.  I am saving three of them to build a bar with some kind of timber slab for the bar top.  I will build that once we get our home built in Bulverde, Texas.  I have built one into a wine barrel table with a glass top and inlaid corks.  That leaves me with the one that I built into a meat/fish smoker.

The first screw through the band
I am including my photos and steps I used to make it.  My purpose is so that someone else that may have the same idea.  I am also including lessons learned, things I would different or my trial and error ideas that got me to my final product.  Anyone with average handyman skills can build a smoker from a wine barrel.

The picture to the right shows the first screw I used to hold the staves to the steel bands.  The staves are one inch thick, so I went with a #8 screw 5/8 inch long.
I used 1/4 nut driver

Jigsaw to cut the top off.
I went through a few drill bits.  I didn't have a local Home Depot or Ace Hardware to go buy harden drill bits.  I used self tapping screws, so I only drilled through the band and allowed the screws to tap themselves through.  It has been two and half years since I built the smoker.  If I were to do this part again, I may buy one inch screws.  I have had a few pop.  Since this is a smoker, the expanding and contracting of the wood and bands probably took its toll on the screws.  To help with this, I would probably be very careful not to drive them in too hard.  I have to say that this was the most tedious and time consuming part of this project.  I put one screw through the steel band for each stave.

Now the fun part.  The part when you get to see some results for the work I was doing.  I drew a line parallel with and just above the fourth band.  Next time I would probably have cut a little closer to the third band.  It would be a bit of a calculation because you want to make sure you have the diameter to get the grates in.  The reason I would cut it closer to the third band is two fold.  First, it would make the top not so heavy.  Second, there would be more support for the hinges.







As I sit here two years later, the  staves in the top are flexing a bit more and causing the lid not to seat properly.  I will add some support to it, but if I were to do it again, I would make the above adjustments.

The inside of the barrel was a beautiful red the wine and had a great aroma.  The next step is to cut a hole in the bottom that would serve as the chip/chunk door for restocking the pan.

The door took some work and rework.  I used gorilla glue to hold the staves together.  The curvature of the door didn't quite match the curvature of the barrel, but it is what it is.  I ended up added a few screws on the top and bottom of the door to keep the staves tight and together.  The gorilla glue just wasn't enough.


Next step would be to get the grates in.  I used webber grates, 22.5 inch.  Three to four inch lag-eyes were used to hold the grates.  The 'eye' part of the lag screw provided a nice flat surface to hold the grate.  I put enough in there to support three grates, four lags for each grate.  Initially my thought was to use a small pan for the water pan.  After the first use, I realized I also needed something to catch the drippings from the meat.

I found a Paella pan on Amazon.  Those things come in almost any size you would want.  I believe a 26" pan fit the bill for me.  Once I got it, I cut off the handles so it was a nice fit, a perfect fit.  Keeps the water and catches the drippings.  You can also see the burner at the bottom in the picture above.

Originally I purchased an American smoker element.  I found that running this 1500 watt element on the transformer Italy did not produce enough heat.  It worked great for salmon, but it didn't quite do it for meat.  My next try was I bought, at the Italian store, an indoor grill.  It had a 2300 watt element and was 220 volt, so it didn't require a transformer.  It worked better.

I also put some small castor wheels on the barrel.  The first ones I bought at the Italian hardware.  They were a little soft.  I would recommend hard plastic wheels.  Although hot climates may still cause them to get flat spots.

Some finishing touches.  I put a handle on the front of the lid and two handles on the barrel.  I also attached some chains to keep the lid from going back too far.

In these last two pictures you see the electric controller.  This was needed and worked great for smoking salmon.  I was able to set the temp and the controller would cycle on and off to maintain 160 degrees.  Even the 2300 watt element had to run at full power to get above 200 degrees, the controller was not necessary.  This controller was pretty cool for me in that it could be configured for either 110 volt or 220 volt.

The final and sexy touch was to add the tail pipes for the exhaust.  It made for some great conversations. The smoke just poured out of those pipes.  There were many people that were curious about this contraption.  Mostly Italians, they just don't smoke meat like we do.

The last update came as I moved to Florida.  I was back in the states now and switched back to the 1500 watt element.  This is the biggest element you can get.  Sometimes I think we are overly cautious when it comes to safety in America.  I had to come up with another idea.

My first idea was to use the offset firebox that you would use on an offset barrel smoker like the one made by Charbroil.  I used stovepipe to pipe the heat and smoke into the barrel.  It worked, but it was awkward looking.  I think I also lost a lot of heat around the stovepipe.  So I needed to come up with something else.  So I started looking for options in a propane burner.  I came across the V-Burner from a company in Alabama... that is it.  I have great control on the heat and I use a large soup can to put the wood chunks in it.




I am extremely happy with it.  Below are some of the recent items I have made with my wine barrel smoker.  What is next?  Check back to find out.

The ALWAYS popular Bacon Xplosion
Smoked Chicken, upgrade from BeFeds

Pork Shoulder


Here are some youtube videos of the barrel in action.

Maiden Voyage

Smoking Salmon

Double Brisket Smoke I

Double Brisket Smoke II

12 comments:

  1. Hi Chris, thanks for the write up and all the vids on wine barrel smokers. After all your attempts with heating elements would you suggest going with the v burner, electric, or just some lump or briquettes? I've never smoked a thing so it's all new to me. The idea of checking the temps every 25 minutes for hours sounds kind of tedious. Thanks again.

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    1. Thanks James. I have tried all three, the best in my opinion is the propane v-burner. Putting charcoal directly into a wine barrel is too dangerous. It would be harder to control the temperature and charcoal gets pretty hot. I am not saying it is not possible. I think if a fella wanted to do that he would have to get some kind of charcoal box custom made for the barrel leaving space for air to move underneath the charcoal box and to minimize contact with the wood of the barrel. The propane works great. Once you get it to temp, you can leave it except for checking if you need to add more smoking wood chunks. I usually on provide smoke for the first half of the smoke, then I just leave the temp until I get the internal temps I want. I definitely think the V-burner is it.

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  2. Awesome. Well since I wrote the last comment my significant other has laid down the law saying if there is a smoker she wants it to to be with proper charcoal. We'll see. I've seen a few setups online where people are throwing charcoal on there. I might use an old smokey joe bbq at the base and another precautionary bit in between the wood. If it doesn't work I'll give the v burner a try. Thanks again.

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  3. Hi - awesome looking smoker! My wife just bought me a wine barrel to build a smoker, and maybe this is a dumb question, but why did you need to screw the bands to the slats?

    Also I love your suggestion of the v-burner -- I was going to go electric, but it seems like a much better solution.

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  4. Hey there! Thanks. I just used it tonight to make my Bacon Explosion. The barrel looks much older now.

    I screwed the bands to hold the staves (slats) in place. They will move with the change in temperature. I was afraid they would move inward also with the removal of the top. The V-Burner was an awesome add. It provides much more control over temp with the outside temps changing throughout the year. Have fun building!

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  5. Hey Christopher! Great project, so much good info here! I acquired a wine barrel and have decided a smoker is what I am going to use it for... I found your site on same the most helpful of all. I am about to order some parts and had a few quick questions for you. First, I found a 26 inch cast iron wok for the water/dripping pan since the pan you use is also 26". Before I pulled the trigger on it I wanted to ask you if you have noticed any issues with that large of a diameter pan blocking the flow of heat above to the cooking level? Second... how high above your wood does the watter/dripping pan sit? Third, what size/type pan are you using to hold your wood? And lastly, I plan on adding a finely tuned adjustable air intake via the bunghole to give me another method to control temp... do you feel that you could use less propane to get the same temperature if you didn't lose so much heat out of your current stacks, possibly with an adjustable openning on the stack to go along with my intake? Thanks for your time Christopher!

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  6. Ciao Ryan! Good questions. No issues with blocking the heat. There is about 2"-ish around the pan. The paella pan is flat, about 2.5" deep. The only thing I would say about the wok is that it would be deeper. My pan is about 6-8" from the heat source, when I put it in its lowest position. As the water evaporates and the drippings increase, the pan does sizzle when the water runs out. I usually have to add water. I don't know how deep a 26" wok would be, but I think it would be much deeper. For the smoking chunks, I use a large soup can, I think it is a 48 oz can. That is the recommendation of the manufacturer of the propane burner. Here is a link to their site. I bought the V-burner model. https://gassmoker.com/v-burner.htm

    I thought about the using air control through smaller holes at the bottom and using wine corks to control the air. I ended up scratching that plan when I first used the smoker the first time and noticed that I didn't need them. There are small gaps around the door at the bottom and age and use has created natural tiny gaps between the staves. This, I believe has negated the need for further air control. I did use exhaust caps like tractors have. I tightened the bolts to make them hold their positions. In the end I noticed that it created more condensation in the inside of the barrel. I didn't like that. Dripped back on the meat. So I went back to my bent car exhausts. I am not sure if you would use less propane or not. If I have a rather cold day, I will pull of one stack and lay something on the port to block it so I have only one exhaust. There is always a fine line between proper temp and humidity. Humidity helps moderate and control the temp. If it is a windy day, I will position the smoker so the wind doesn't have an affect on the smoker.

    Over all I still love my wine barrel smoker. I just smoked ribs and bacon explosion last weekend. It is about time to make some salmon again…

    Please keep me informed on your project. I am always interested in the ideas and concepts of others. One day this barrel will become smoking chips for my next barrel. I have been using this one for 4 years now. Happy Smoking!!

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    1. Awesome, thanks so much for the tips Christopher... the Wok is about 6-7 inches deep. I am only going to have 1 cooking surface so the depth will not end up being an issue... I was curious how high you mounted the water though so I could measure the diameter of the part of the barrel the widest part of the wok would be at to see what my gaps would be for airflow purposes. I am definitely going the v-burner route for sure, brilliant recommendation! I am going to use the natural gas option though as I already have a natural gas line plumbed for my Weber gas grill so I can just unplug my grill and plug in my smoker whenever I want to use either... or I suppose I can put a T-line in place to have both plugged in at all times. Anyways, just rambling now. I will indeed keep you informed and continue to bounce ideas off you as my project continues if you don't mind :) Thanks Christopher and thanks again for the inspiration!

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  7. Christopher... hey man, finished it. I have a rough draft of my build blog up, have some formatting and editing that I need to do before it is final, but it is viewable. Here is the link... http://mywinebarrelsmoker.blogspot.com/
    I gave you a couple shout outs if you don't mind since I got ideas and information from you here. If you want me to remove the references I can.

    Let me know what you think if you have time!

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  8. I found that site very usefull and this survey is very cirious, I ' ve never seen a blog that demand a survey for this actions, very curious... SurgeonGate

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  9. Pretty good post. I just stumbled upon your blog and wanted to say that I have really enjoyed reading your blog posts. Any way I’ll be subscribing to your feed and I hope you post again soon. Stop smoking timeline

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  10. Great looking barrel! I made one, not as precise as yours, from an old bourbon barrel. I struggled with the heating element as well. Could not get the heat I wanted from an electric burner. Ended up going with a small portable camp burner with a heavy iron skillet for the wood chips. These burners are designed to run on butane but I bought a little adapter to run off 1 pound propane tanks. Nice job!

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