North Carolina

One of our favorite podcasts The Flush (Stories from the field) occasionally does a live event podcast. They go to a bar or restaurant and record in front of an audience, inviting people up to join them if they have questions or comments. Well, imitation is the most sincere form of flattery so we are thinking of trying one out and seeing how it goes.

Our question is this, for those of us in Wichita, or the Wichita area, how many people would be interested in doing this and what type of place would you be interested in going? We are thinking of some sort of restaurant with a bar, close to Wichita and preferably a family-owned business. The entire event would be 2 hours or less, we would do 30 minutes setup, go for about an hour and then sometime after to just hang out.

Obviously, we’d love to have audience members come up and chat but coming wouldn’t require anyone to come up and be on camera/microphone. Anyway, let us know if this sounds interesting to anyone and what thoughts you have on what you think would make for a good time.

Hey guys, in the coming days, many of you will start seeing that we have made a major change in our shipping processes. In an effort to give more options and more control over what you pay for shipping, we made the decision to bring in FedEx as a shipping partner. There are a number of advantages for us to using FedEx as our main shipping partner. We had to stop using certain packaging types with UPS because of drastic cost increases, specifically with heavier packages, but with FedEx, we will be able to resume using some of our previous packaging which should improve deliverability and lower damage rates. UPS will remain an option and will be used occasionally when it remains cost effective. All online orders will be automatically selected for the most efficient delivery method between FedEx, USPS, and UPS by weighing the value of low-cost and quickest delivery. We know that some of you will love this change and others not so much. Which shipping carrier has a better reputation seems to be mainly based on the area of the country that people live and personal preference, so if you have a strong preference for a specific carrier, we can still ship any carrier, but our default will be the most efficient. If you want a different carrier than what we determine is the most efficient, you can still place orders over the phone with our customer service team and request a specific carrier and service type, and you just have to pay the difference between the most efficient carrier and service and what your preference for your shipment would be.

Now, we also reported early this week and late last week that a few people had received their 20 or 30-lb electric stuffers and 4 people so far are having an issue where the motor is not turning the gearbox in either direction. Obviously, we pulled units and tested them before they were sent and never saw this issue, but one customer sent us a video of it happening, and I have talked to him on the phone this week twice now and whether the motor is hooked up to the unit or not it does not turn the gear.

We had an emergency meeting with our vendor on Monday morning, and they believe the issue to be with the speed regulator. That knob is basically a voltage regulator, and if it is broken (they said they had a special hammer they hit it with), they found this problem. So, the knob isn’t telling the motor to pass any voltage to the motor to power it up or down. So, their theory is that they are being damaged in shipping and need to be replaced. We have a small stock of motors that we will be sending these customers as temporary replacements. I say temporary replacements because these are not the production motors; these are motors that QA testing on our end found a possible issue with their longevity of them, so when the next batch of production motors come in, we will be replacing those temporary motors with the version they should have gotten. The vendor assures us that they are doing everything in their power to get this fixed and have the motors shipped ASAP. We have also requested that the motors be packaged differently as the case they come in did not protect those motors through shipping.

Then, on the One-Shot stud issues, I have an update as well. First, I am still not sure how large of an issue this is, as I have done north of 500, maybe as much as 700 lb through mine, and not have any issues. However, I realize it is odd and people don’t like that it is doing it, and I can absolutely understand why. The good news is that there appears to be both a short-term and long-term fix. Short term fix is that we have replacement studs for the augers, and I tested removing one and replacing it, and it is fairly easy to do. Just a wrench and either a vice grip or a buddy and a pair of channel lock pliers should be enough to loosen it. Long term, we are having the auger stud designed, so it has a round surface right against the end of the auger, so there is nothing for the round hole of the kidney plate to wear through.

Other than that, it’s been a pretty easy week…yikes, I guess we know the busy season is here when there is hardly time to get everything done! Every year it is something, whether changing websites twice within the space of 12 months, changing shipping partners, not being able to get enough of a product to meet demand or just running around here with our hair on fire Sept-Jan always flies.

At least we have had the time this year to (re)shoot a few good videos recently like How to make snack sticks, How to Make Ring Bologna, How to Make Weisswurst and just today How to Make Bratwurst, provide the FAQ

Also, we are having our Livestream today as the 1st is a Saturday and we are doing it a little earlier at 2 pm CST. So join us at either waltons.com/live or just click the Live Icon at the top of Meatgistics. We’ve got Tumblers, Aprons, Jerky and other things to giveaway. Also, the Giveaway for October is already up at waltons.com/win, just scroll down on the page. See ya guys at 2

So, before anyone else posts about it I wanted to let everyone know that the 1st shipment of the 20 and 30-lb stuffers have arrived and are being shipped out! We are shipping them solely based on where people were in line for their orders, oldest orders get the 1st batch. So, if you have been waiting a long time your wait should be over and your 20 lb or 30 lb are being shipped. For anyone who does not get an email by the end of the day we are hoping to have the next shipment in soon to ship those out as well! Thank you for being patient for people who are getting one in this run and for your continued patience for people who are waiting a little longer!

HerbcoFood I was hunting with Brett’s daughter once and a Pheasant flew directly towards me, she was gonna take a shot and I said “nah, I got it” then missed twice as it flew directly over my head! She fell down laughing!

johnsbrewhouse So, the inside hole of the kidney plate does not have any extra wear on it that I can see. I took a pic of the one I used and a pic of one out of the box and aside from the wear on the plate the center holes look the same to me. If it was travelling in an elliptical orbit, wouldn’t it eat through that too? I am checking some plates that have been on the outside. It is also possible I am just not understanding what you are saying, I am far from a mechanic or mechanically inclined!

One other thing, just like the camp chef vertical the back wall tends to get hotter than any other wall. This seems pretty standard but I am surprised there is not a better fire-wall between the smoke box/heat source and the back wall since that is where the pellets are stored.

I put together and used the Black Series, Vertical smoker, from Louisiana Grills this week and I have some thoughts I thought I’d share with you guys.
1st Great build quality, seriously heavy-duty build
2nd Goes all the way up to 420° (but actually 450) fairly easily
3rd the control panel is well designed and easy to use
4th 65 lb hopper means we can do long smokes with it

However, if you are wanting a vertical smoker to do snack stick or hang hams or bacon in you are going to run into some problems. The top rack sits about 4 inches down from the top of the unit and there is nothing to hang from. So, you would lose about 8 inches of hanging space and you would need to get smoke sticks as this doesn’t come with anything to hang from.

Another issue is /was the app. When I downloaded it I had issues connecting through Bluetooth, it would drop out, not connect and the controls wouldn’t work. HOWEVER this morning I got the WIFI hooked up and that made a huge difference. I have the smoker going on our back patio and I am sitting at my desk it is monitoring it without any issue and I can change the temp no problem from up here. The app has a terrible rating on the Google Play store and I think that is based on the Blue Tooth connectivity, not WIFI because with WIFI it seems to erase all the issues I was having the other day.

So, if you want a vertical smoker to do things OTHER than hanging stuff from smoke sticks I think this can be a nice addition to an outdoor kitchen or a garage smoker. However, if you want to do snack sticks, or hang bacon or hams I don’t think this is going to be the best option for you.

Summer sausage should be alright since we have more control over how that hangs with the string.

processhead They have them in a few stores down here. If you get the chance they make a Caliornia Common called Super Nova that I only had a small taster of at the end of a night but MAN was it good!

Tex_77 You laugh but I know a decent amount of people who like chips on a bologna sandwich! Personally I am not a potato chip guy (huge surprise I know) but the saltiness of the chips on a sandwich has a certain appeal