I finally got the darn snake/minionring working. Still dislike the smell and the coal-flavour is mjeh, but I got something to work with. Basically I needed more coal to get things running smooth and a higher temp at the start. Rule of thumb: 2 rows of coal for the kettle, add more for the meat. And you need that water-pan. With some good amount of charcoal to start and 2 rows of coal the kettle sits at 125°C on the internal thermometer and around 100-105°C on grate level. 2,5 rows give 125-140°C at the lid and around 105-110°C at the grate WITH ribs in the kettle. I'll try 3 full rows with 2,5-3kg pork this weekend and will see, how it goes.
@Aerendur
In german bbq forums they say "a kettle can do everything" and to my experience it really is a good allrounder. With a pizza stone you can bake bread - I did it a lot and it works quite well most of the time. They even sell "pizza rings" (just google it) and people posted videos of burning wood sticks to get to and over 400°C. I am ok with a more casual setup, as having good pizza dough is equally important to me - not just the oven

Classic grilling is ok on a kettle, I just dislike the smaller distance from coal to meat compared to my other grill.
BBQ... well, I still experiment, but it works. Charcoal with continuous refill works, but I want a more unattended approach with a more stable temperature. I only got that working with briquette.
Happy grilling!


