Pit Barrel Smoker Review [Unboxing & Testing]

We set out to see if the Pit Barrel Cooker (PBC) can rank atop our list as one of the best smokers under $500. Below is our complete review comparing what we’ve learned from creating our own Ugly Drum Smoker (UDS) and barbecuing with the Pit Barrel Cooker.

The Pit Barrel Cooker (PBC) is technically a convection cooker, fueled by wood with that delicious smoke, it is commonly referred to as a smoker. If you’ve heard of a UDS before, you’ll be familiar with this style of smoker. The UDS barrel style vertical smoker has been celebrated in the meat smoking and BBQ community over the years and has a cult like following. Does it get more manly than pulling out glorious BBQ from a barrel that could very well be a trash can?

Over the years the design of the Ugly Drum Smoker has remained the same. Relatively simple; it has a barrel with ventilation, a charcoal basket and a lid, that’s about it. However, Pit Barrell Cooker Co. has really moved the needle for barrel smoker evolution with the creation of the PBC. While one of the best parts of an Ugly Drum Smoker is actually constructing your own, this smoker ships ready to go out of the box. They also have a smaller version, the Pit Barrel Jr. (PBJ) which comes in much smaller and is priced correspondingly lower. You can see our side-by-side comparison review of the PBJ VS PBC for more info.  Click below to see the Pit Barrel Cooker on the Pit Barrel Cooker Co. website or Amazon.

While some would consider a mostly pre-assembled drum smoker a man-card infraction (as opposed to the DYI version), we won’t tell anyone. In part because we think it delivers great quality at an attractive price. Here’s why we chose the PBC as a contender for our Best Of Under $500 roundup.

Pit Barrel Smoker Review

It’s a classic Ugly Drum Smoker, but one that comes virtually pre-assembled, ready to go out of the box and shipped straight to your door for free. The design makes it easy to hold a consistent pit temperature for hours on end. Smoked meats come out juicy and perfectly done. In our opinion, much better than in an offset smoker and rivaling most other smoker styles. The PBC is more efficient, quicker, and delivers an even cook throughout.

The Pit Barrel Cooker, At A Glance:

When it comes to ease-of-use, convenience and sheer smoking power at a great price, the Pit Barrel Cooker can hold its own.

What You Get

When you’ve removed everything from the box and laid it all out in front of you, you’ll see:

• The Pit Barrel Cooker + Lid
• 8 Stainless Steel Hooks
• 2 Steel Hanging Rods
• A Charcoal Basket
• Standard Grill Grate
• A Wooden Hook Remover
• Barrel Stand
• A couple packs of Pit Barrell Cooker Co. Rubs (Beef, Game, All-Purpose)
• A couple of screws
• Instructions

Assembling

You shouldn’t need that user manual too much, because this smoker requires very little setup; you can have it ready to go in under 5 minutes. The only real work you’ll need to do is attach the handle to the top of the lid, which takes all of 30 seconds with the included screws and screwdriver.

Next, place the charcoal basket inside, put the barrel on the stand, and either slide the hanging rods in, or place the grill grate on top. It’s that easy – you’re ready to smoke.

The folks at Pit Barrel Cooker have done all the hard work for you. If you were making your own, you’d have to drill holes yourself, which requires a heavy-duty drill and a bit of elbow grease, then make sure you’re putting all the holes in the right places, start attaching things…you get the picture.

What About Build and Quality?

For the most recent model, the Pit Barrell Cooker has upgraded from a 20-gauge steel to an 18-gauge steel. So, it’s thicker, sturdier and traps heat in more efficiently. The new model also features an upgrade to the coating on the steel. They moved from the previous powder coating to a porcelain enamel coating.

This enamel coating is the same coating you’d find on that classic Weber grill in your backyard; it’s high-quality and durable, protecting the steel from rain, rust and corrosion for…pretty much forever.

You don’t need to season it, either; the steel and enamel are ready to cook right out of the box.

Air Flow, Heat, and The Science Behind Ugly Drum Smokers / PBC

Why 30 gallons instead of the traditional 55 Gallon Drum? Ugly Drum Smokers have traditionally been made from 55-gallon drums, but the Pit Barrel Cooker opts for a 30-gallon size.

It turns out that 30-gallon drums are the perfect size and shape for smoking. Downsizing from the larger 55-gallon drum to the smaller 30-gallon size means better and faster barbecue every time. You also benefit because it is much easier to handle, and ship.

The Pit Barrel Cooker Company didn’t stumble upon this revelation by accident.

These folks tested over 29 different barrel designs and sizes to find the perfect one. The 30-gallon drum won out, creating the most even consistent temperature and airflow. All the same reasons you use an ugly drum smoker in the first place.

The cylindrical shape of a drum creates the exceptional environment for even convection cooking; a heat vortex rises from the coals at the bottom until it bounces off the lid on top. In wide or irregularly shaped smokers, gas grills, or offset smokers, there’s a lot more room for heat and air to roll around erratically. This may cause things to cook more inconsistently as a result.

But the narrow, round shape of a drum means air flows evenly, and there’s less room for heat to rise or radiate inconsistently. The 30-gallon drums find the sweet spot of height and width to maximize that even-heating potential.

If you find some of those technical details confusing – don’t worry about it. Just remember that 30-gallon drum smokers are the most consistent and often easiest way to smoke meat.

Hanging Meat vs Smoking With The Grate

One of the best features of the PBC is, in addition to having a standard grill grate, it sets you up to hang your meat in the center of the barrel with the included stainless steel hooks.

Hanging barbecue takes full advantage of the consistent convection heat and airflow that the PBC offers. Suspended directly above the fire and right in the middle of the smoker, your meat, whether it’s a brisket or a turkey, is exposed to convection heat evenly and all the way around. No one side is cooked more than another so it’s juicy and tasty all the way through.

Hanging the meat also lets you take advantage of the juices dripping directly onto the hot coals which doesn’t happen with an offset or pellet smoker. The juices burn, creating what PBC calls a “smoke fog”, and giving your meat an even smokier, juicer, natural flavor that other smokers lack.

You can get this style of convection cooking on a grate, too – but hanging meat maximizes the drip potential.

This doesn’t have to be an either/or decision. If you plan on smoking a lot of food for a large group of people, you can use both hooks and the grate simultaneously by picking up their Hinged Cooking Grate, which lets you hang your meat while smoking your veggies at the same time.

Using The Pit Barrel Cooker (PBC)

The Pit Barrel Cooker is amazingly easy to cook with; the convection heat, airflow, and the way it burns smoothly through charcoal, are so consistent that this may be the closest thing to an automatic smoker outside of a pellet grill.

When you’re set up your PBC smoker, the first step is to adjust the intake vent at the bottom of the smoker so that it matches your elevation.

If you live between sea level and 2,000’ elevation, slide the cap to leave it ¼ open. Between 2,000’ and 5,000, it should be half open. At 5,000’-8,000’, ¾ of the way open. At 8,000’+, go ahead and open it all the way.

This seems like a minor step but it’s crucial. Too much air and the coals burn too hot. Too little and they run too cool. In fact, the ventilation is so precise that, if you don’t have the rebar rods in place or if the lid is offset, temps can climb to +300° quickly.

Next, fill up the charcoal basket with charcoal till it’s flush and level on top. Then, remove a few handfuls of the charcoal, put it into a charcoal chimney with some fire starter, and light it up. Once the charcoal is burning well, 12 minutes, dump them back on top of the charcoal in the basket. Make sure you get the lit coals spread evenly across the unlit coals in the basket.

Now, immediately hang your meat and get cooking. The burning charcoal will provide enough heat, igniting more charcoal as they burn through, and keeping a consistent temp the whole time.

PBC says that a full basket of charcoal can last up to 12 hours of continuous burning. We usually got about 9 hours on average per basket. This could be from not filling up the basket entirely, or from running the smoker at higher temperatures than the standard 225°F, which naturally burns through more fuel. If you stay at a very consistent 225°F, you would likely get those 12 hours.

Temperature and Control: Does the PBC Deliver?

This thing is known for its consistency. If you’ve piled the charcoal evenly and lit the right amount of charcoal, it should be able to hold things at 240°F to 265°F for hours on end.

We did have some problems with it running hot, sitting closer to 250°F to 265°F. But it easily held that temp for hours, so it’s very possible it was the result of human error or environmental factors, rather than a fault of the actual smoker design.

No smoker is 100% foolproof – no, not even a Traeger – and there will always be the need to adjust your smoker, and practice with it in order to find the exact temp you’re looking for. The number of coals you light in the chimney to get things started, how much moisture the meat contains, ambient temperature, elevation, humidity, and high winds; all will affect the smoker’s chamber temperature.

When you first light a fire in the Pit Barrel Cooker, you might notice it spikes of 350°F or even hotter before dropping and settling down to around 245°F. This spike is short-lived. Plus, many BBQ experts think it’s actually beneficial to creating the perfect bark. Many traditional cooking techniques call for a hot start to the cooking process. Running a bit hot is common with the PBC it seems, so we think it’s worth withholding judgement until the food is done. Which, by the way, is a lot sooner than in larger smokers or one sitting at 225°F.

How Does The Meat Come Out? Tastings and Results

If you’re monitoring your meat’s internal temp with a thermometer, you’ll immediately notice that it’s rising much faster than usual. You might be able to crank out an 8-10-pound pork butt or brisket in 3-4 hours; PBC says you can crank out a 16-pound brisket in about 6 hours. That’s 2-3x faster than any old smoker.

It will be pleasant surprise when the meat comes out just as juicy and tender as it would if it were smoking at 225F for a longer period. Pork butt and brisket have the crispy bark and delicious juicy flavor we’re looking for. Ribs are easy to pull off the bone, and there’s a perfect smoke ring.

That’s another place where the PBC excels – creating smooth, consistent smoke. There’s enough ventilation to keep smoke from building up and giving the meat too much of harsh, acrid flavor. Instead, the smooth-burning charcoal creates a steady light smoke delivering pleasant flavors the whole cook.

Surprisingly, hanging meats come out evenly – despite one end sitting just above the hot coals. We though that end might be drier and stringier than the other. It turns out that dripping juices keep that end cool, slowing cooking down and creating an evenly-cooked piece all the way across.

All in all, the results speak for themselves.

Additional Things to Know About The Pit Barrel Smoker

• The lid handle is made of steel which, while sturdy, gets very hot. Use a pair of BBQ gloves!
• If you want to smoke some turkey, PBCC sells a stainless steel turkey hanger you might find useful. If not, you’ll be fine without it:
• Want to go camping with it? No problem – this thing is portable and light, considering it’s made of solid steel. You can easily put it in the back of a truck or SUV and bring it to the beach or campsite.
  
• Ribs might be too long to hang without cutting in half; the ends can drag in the coals, which isn’t good. You may need to cut long sides of ribs in half.
• If you’re smoking a lot of meat at once – especially briskets or pork – the ambient temp might drop 10°F-20°F when you hit the Stall, due to all that evaporating moisture.
• We highly recommend using some type of multi-probe thermometer; you need to know exactly hot this thing is running, and how close your meat is to being done.
• The barrel could benefit from installing additional pins at the bottom of the cooker, about 4 inches above the coals. That way, you could rest the cooking grate directly over the coals for high heat sears and more efficient grilling.  If you’re handy, you could easily do it by drilling / welding in a bracket on your own.

Final Thoughts on the Pit Barrel Smoker

All things considered, the Pit Barrel Cooker is an awesome ugly drum smoker and we’ve ranked the Pit Barrel Cooker Co as one of our favorite brands of smokers. We’re not the only ones who feel this way; the PBC checks most of the boxes per Amazing Ribs list of things to look for when buying a smoker.

With a high quality modern barbecue smoker, and a little practice, you can make food better than the ribs, brisket, etc. holding in the warming ovens of restaurants. With a good modern smoker you no longer need to hover over your machine for five hours, constantly monitoring the temp, fiddling with the dampers, shoveling coal, adding wood, and spritzing your meat with a mist of secret moisturizer. With a good smoker you can get your food on the table on time and without fear that it is over-cooked (an expensive waste) or under-cooked (dangerous). —Amazing Ribs

It comes with almost-zero assembly required, is simple to use, and perfectly capable of holding a consistent temperature thanks to the ideal 30-gallon drum design. If that’s not enough, it’s American made by Veteran family-owned and operated team, who’s just as serious about great tasting BBQ as you are. To prove it, their website is filled with endless videos and tutorials, and they even have a phone support hotline – something Traeger Grills certainly doesn’t.

The PBC does run a bit hot and can take some practice to get exactly right. But that doesn’t stop barbecued meats from coming out perfectly soft, smoky and juicy – usually in much less time than other smokers. The $350 price tag is just icing on the cake. The Pit Barrel Cooker can’t be beat at its entry level price. This is our top pick as the best smoker under $500.