Big Steel Keg 1st Cook

First cook on the Big Steel keg was a success!  First things first, light a fire and crack a brew.  In this case, it was Founder's Double Trouble.  A solid double IPA with a good amount of sediment in the bottom, so watch the heavy pour unless you like it cloudy.  The build in bottle openers in the BSK front handle are SO HANDY.  They are backwards of most bottle openers I am used to so you have to pry backwards, but the open bottles solidly with little effort.

 Once we got up to 450 for a little while (which took the BSK about no time to reach) I tossed some  80/20 chuck burgers on the iron grate.  Next time I think I will try to go a little hotter as I did not get as much sear as I would have expected.  Regardless of the sear, the burgers turned out great and the time it took to get the fire started and heated up to temp was about the same I would have had to spend on my gas grill.

Next up was the beer butt chicken.  I came up with a quick dry rub and slathered olive oil on the bird and rubbed it over/under the skin with my spice rub.  I used a ceramic "Tipsy Chicken Cooker" my wife got for a gift years ago.  It worked like a champ.  I had to find a suitable beer in the fridge for shoving up a chicken's rear end, but since I had no BUD, I decided to use a nice crisp blond ale that would give the bird a nice subtle beer signature.  I read somewhere that stouts and IPA's were not good choices, and that is what dominates my fridge these days.  The beer was Southern Star Bombshell Blonde.  Nice beer, I could easily drink it up on a hot summer day.  

The Temp was up at 375, so the bird went on the grill to get tipsy.  Judging by these pictures, it did just that.  An hour and a half later, she was hitting 165 so I left it on about 15 more min to get 170 in the thigh.  I let it rest while I heated the BSK back up to 450 to sear some shrimp skewers.  I was aiming for 600, but 450 was all i could get with the remaining lump charcoal I had used for the tipsy bird.  I could have added more fuel to the fire to heat it up to 600, but I decided to just save that lump for another cook.  The chixn was juicy as can be and great flavor was had in every bite.  My wife was a little skeptical when I mentioned cooking a whole chicken because I have never successfully pulled it off without being over or under done.  I explained to her that I had never tried it in a real cooker like the Big Steel Keg.  In the end, she agreed the 'Keg does not disappoint.