I generally use my pellet pooper to smoke da meats. Yesterday, I decided to use my Weber kettle in an offset configuration. I used cherry wood hunks. I smoked some St. Louis style ribs.
Each and everyone of my guests remarked how well they were smoked and asked me what I was doing differently. I guess I'll be switching to the Weber.
Anyone do a pork butt/shoulder or brisket in it?
For chicken and ribs, I'll be using the Weber here on out.
Pork butts turn out great in the Weber.
If you're going to smoke in the Weber, the best cheapest mod you can make is buying some gasket tape and run it along the lid where it meets the kettle. Is it totally necessary? Not really, but it gives you a really good seal that just makes it that much easier if you're trying to control temperatures. Especially if it's a little windy and so on.
If you do a snake of charcoal around the outside, and put the butt in the middle, the temperature will almost hold by itself, because the snake limits how much charcoal can burn at once. The downside of it is that if the butt is stalling too long, you can't just foil it and open it up to 350 to crank it out, because the snake by design can't get that high.
Honestly though, if you're doing a pork butt, I would set it up offset, and run it at 300-325 and knock it out in 6-8 hours ("turbo butt" method). Just use a rub that isn't sugar based, or it will burn and the bark won't be as good. But otherwise, it will be fantastic and everyone will love it. Wrestling a 14-hour overnight low and slow out out of a pork butt at 225 or something just is not at all worth it.
Brisket is a different story a little bit. It can definitely be done on a kettle, but its a little more complicated because the size doesn't lend itself to an offset setup. You likely have to get a diffuser involved to use the whole grill, or cut the brisket or something else. And while people do turbo briskets as well, they are not as foolproof, so you're probably in for the long hall. I would use a snake for a brisket, with some kind of deflector/diffuser between the charcoal and the brisket, and try to run it about 275 for as long as it takes.
Briskets are just generally harder to get right. If they come out awesome on your pellet grill, it may or may not come out as well on a kettle, but it can be done.
But pork butts are almost fool proof.