Burnt 14 racks of ribs at a contest in Waco and had to figure out a fix on the fly
Back in 2016 I was cooking my first big KCBS contest on the edge of Waco and everything was running smooth until about hour 5. My old offset smoker started running hot on me, jumped from 250 to nearly 375, and I watched a full load of spares start to dry out fast. I grabbed two foil pans, filled them with apple juice and water, set them right under the meat as a heat shield, and dropped my intake damper almost shut. Ended up saving most of them, took 9th out of 42 in ribs, and that pan trick has bailed me out more times than I can count. Any of you old school stick burners got a go-to move when the fire gets away from you?