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Hello from Castle Rock CO

PostPosted: December 5th, 2014, 10:22 pm
by Wicked Chicken
Whoops, made a few posts here at the forum and then realized I didn't start off here in the Intro section.

I'd been making BBQ for several years starting with my Weber gas grill and then graduated to a Lang 60 (stick burner). I had competed in a number of BBQ competitions around Colorado and even took 1st in Pork once in 2007. Kids got a bit older and began to consume all my free time such that running a 16 hour cook seriously put a dent in my ability to run my smoker. About a year ago I ask a friend if I could borrow his Traeger (Texas) for a party for my kid's sports gathering since I was out of wood and wanted to try a pellet cooker. I did 4 pork butts (the max it could hold) three for the party and one for my friend for letting me use his smoker. The pork came out pretty good but what really stood out was the simplicity of running it,even through the fire died 2 hours into the cook, and how a pellet cooker could help me return to making BBQ in my low and slow fashion again and also return to experimenting with flavors.

Fast forward 9 more months and every time I want to make some Que, I can't because I can't dedicate 16 hours of fire maintenance into the cook due to kids or work and I keep thinking back to the simplicity of my friend's pellet cooker. Finally I realized I needed to stop wishing and get back to BBQ which came to a head when my daughter asked me when I was going to start doing BBQ competitions again.

Research, research, research. I wasn't impressed with the cooking area of the Traeger and really didn't like the cheap construction. I finally settled in on my must haves: a quality american made smoker that was big enough for comps and more but had the simplicity of a pellet. Finally all roads led me to Yoder and the nucornhusker's posts proved the YS1500 was worth paying up for to meet everything I needed and probably more. Sold the Lang, ordered the YS1500, even got 100b of pellets free (thanks ATBBQ).

It came a month later (the longest month of my life) and I promptly put the Yoder customer service to the test. Peppering Herb and others with my infinite quest to learn everything about my new smoker and pulled off a huge success with my first cook: the Thanksgiving Smoked Turkey. I have already cooked more on this Yoder over the thanksgiving weekend than I had in past 12 months and am completely impressed and excited to get back to making my favorite food. Thanks to everyone at Yoder for making supporting such a versatile and quality pellet smoker.

Re: Hello from Castle Rock CO

PostPosted: December 5th, 2014, 10:42 pm
by Yoder_Kirby
Welcome to the forum, and thanks for joining the group!

Re: Hello from Castle Rock CO

PostPosted: December 5th, 2014, 11:12 pm
by MikesYS
Hello and Welcome from Iowa!!

Re: Hello from Castle Rock CO

PostPosted: December 5th, 2014, 11:21 pm
by nucornhusker
Hello from Lincoln.

Re: Hello from Castle Rock CO

PostPosted: December 6th, 2014, 4:53 am
by Saguaromike
Welcome to the group!

Re: Hello from Castle Rock CO

PostPosted: December 6th, 2014, 10:01 am
by Yoder_Herb
Welcome aboard! I am happy to hear your turkey day was a success.

Re: Hello from Castle Rock CO

PostPosted: December 6th, 2014, 8:18 pm
by THUMPERRRR
welcome...